Tools missing from menu bar

[dpbishop]

Trying to restore the classic menu to AutoCad Architecture 2021.  My hard drive died, so I did a new installation, but have copies of previous CUIx files.  I am displaying the Menu Bar, But it only shows  Files  Windows  Help.  No tool menu, so no way to load toolbars.

[pendean]

Did you load the correct workspace? Or do you need to select another workspace then back you yours with the CUIx loaded and set to display?
Or did you simply just load the CUIx file and nothing else?

[David_W_Koch]

Did you transfer the "classic" pull-down menus (which have not been part of the ACA.cuix file since the 2009 release) to the ACA.cuix, or did you set them up in a partial customization file?  Does the copy of the previous CUIX file you are using have the pull-down menus defined within it?  If so, add them to your current workspace.

1. At the command line, type CUI and press the ENTER key.
2. In the Customize User Interface dialog, with the Customize tab current, verify that you are seeing the full dialog.  In the lower right corner is a round button.  If the symbol on the button is a greater than sign ">", select it to expand the dialog.  If it is a less than sign "<", it is already expanded and you need do nothing in this step.
3. In the upper left panel, expand the ACA node (main customization file), if it is not expanded.  Then expand the Workspaces node, if it is not expanded.
4. Under the Workspaces node, find the Workspace that has (current) at the end of the Workspace name.  If this is your usual Workspace, select it.  If it is not your usual Workspace, and you want the toolbars to display in your usual Workspace, right click on your usual Workspace and choose Set Current from the context menu.
5. In the upper right panel, you should see the contents of the selected Workspace.  Select the Customize Workspace button.  The text in that panel will turn blue.
6. In the upper left panel, you will need to find the menus you want in your Workspace.  Start by expanding the Menus node under the main (ACA) customization file.  Select the toggle in front of each pull-down menu you want, putting a check mark in the toggle.  (Any with checkmarks already will be there, but from your post it sounded like there were none, other than the standard Windows menus.)
7. If there are no pull-down menus listed under the Menus node of the main customization file, then either your previous copy is not the one you were using that had pull-down menus -OR- the pull-down menus were being pulled from a partial customization file.  Expand the Partial Customization Files node, then expand each partial customization file, looking for one that has the pull-down menus you want under the Menus node.  If you find them, select the toggle to put a check mark in it and have it included in your Workspace.
8. If you do not find any (or all) of the desired pull-down menus, then you may need to find the customization file(s) you were using and load it/them.
9. If you have added any to your Workspace, when you are done adding, select the Done button in the upper right panel.  The text in the upper left panel will go back to black.  Then select OK to dismiss the Customize User Interface dialog and return to the drawing editor.  The newly added menus should appear on the Menu Bar.

Are you trying to add the old AutoCAD Architecture pull-down menus, or just vanilla AutoCAD menus?

[dpbishop]

That worked, thanks. I I got the classic buttons back.   ( I had to go back to Acad 2019 to find it.)  Which file contains the menubar?

[David_W_Koch]

Menus for the Menu Bar can be defined in any of the available customization files (main, enterprise or partial).  Then, for a given Workspace, the Menus you want to see when that Workspace is current are selected.  Those Workspaces are defined in the Main Customization file.

[Anonymous]

I have the same issue- menu bar is missing Tools, Draw, Dimension, Modify, Parametric and Express menus. 

I have never customized anything, those menus have always been there in all previous versions.

I am working in ACAD Architecture 2021 in Windows 10.

I still have all those menus automatically in the menu bar in ACAD lt. for Mac 2021, which I also never customized.

David Koch- I followed your instructions but nothing was there under the Menus nodes under Partial Customization Files.

I really need the Tools menu (and would like the Dimension menu too), is there anything else I can do?

[David_W_Koch]

@Anonymous 

AutoCAD Architecture uses a different main customization file, ACA.cuix, than that used by AutoCAD LT (Windows or Mac).  AutoCAD Architecture dropped the pull-down menus from its interface when it went fully to the ribbon, in the 2010 release.  We were told they did not want to have to maintain two separate interfaces, and, moving forward, there would be commands/tools that were ribbon-based, that would not be able to be included in the pull-down menus.

That said, AutoCAD Architecture ships with the ACAD.cuix main customization file used by vanilla AutoCAD, and that still has the vanilla AutoCAD pull-down menus.  You can use the Transfer tab of the Customize User Interface dialog to open the ACAD.cuix file and then drag-and-drop the pull-down menus into the ACA.cuix file (or, better still, create your own CUIX file, loaded as a partial CUIX file, and put the pull-down menus there, and you can bring that forward to later releases and not have to do the transfer all over again - unless they modify the pull-downs in vanilla AutoCAD).