MENU NOT LOADING

[PiscesBob]

My menu's show up when I customize my cuix, but they don't show up on the screen.  Here is my cuix view

 Only about half of the menu's show up on the screen.  When I go back to the command line and enter menuload and browse to the custom menu I want to load, I get "That customization group name already exists".  When I go to edit my cuix  and try to transfer those menu's to a new cuix, I get "that node cannot be transferred".  How can I get all of the menu's shown in the CUIX layout to show up on the screen and be active?  I think my search paths are correct.

[Ed.Jobe]

The panel on the left just shows what's loaded in memory, not what's on the screen. That is controlled by the workspace. Click on the active workspace (BobW) and it will show up in the panel on the right. Then go to the menu section there and make sure they show up in the workspace.

[PiscesBob]

Ed-

Well that worked.  The menu items showed up in the BobW workspace with (GMO-CUST0M) next to them. I checked which menu's were loaded with the menuload command and gmo-custom was listed.  My new thought is that gmo-custom.mnr is not correct.  I tried deleting gmo-custom from the menuload dialog box and re-laoding a gmo-custom.mnr that I thought was good.  What happened is that I lost my customized cuix file and the one I finally got loaded does not have the BobW workspace laoded.  I can deal with the menu problem later, but now I need to get the BobW workspace loaded.  It is probably in some cuix file, but I can't find it.  How can I get my BobW workspace back?

This is going from bad to worse.  Is there a default cuix file that I can use if all else fails and I have to go back to AutoCad right out of the box?  I guess I can start re-building my custom cuix file again.  If I want to get any work done I will have to do this.  I get paid to make AutoCad drawings and this is driving me up the wall.  I have used AutoCad for over 30 years and have written many custom lisp routines and have done extensive customization, but I am stumped now.  Maybe I will just install AutoCad 2025 and start over.

PiscesBob

[Ed.Jobe · Accepted solution]

There are several options you can take. The most straight forward way to clean things up is to use the Reset To Defaults tool that is in the StartMenu>Autodesk folder. Not only will it reset your menu, but everything else. If you just want to get the default acad.cuix, you can find it it in "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2023\UserDataCache\en-us\Support".

However, it still seems that you don't understand the menu system and how it integrates into the CUI system. Each cuix can store a workspace, but the one that you see in the app is stored in your main cuix, which is usually acad.cuix. You never load an mnr. That is the resource file that the mnu\cuix uses to store button images in. It is automatically loaded when you load it's parent file. If you load an mnu file, a cuix is automatically created from it, and that's what gets loaded from then on. You can also have an mnl file to store lisp used by the cuix, and that also is automatically loaded when the cuix\mnu is loaded. The MENULOAD command is just an old interface for loading mnu files, which are not used anymore. You manage partial menus in the CUI command interface by navigating to the Partial Customization Files node of the tree. You right click on the node to show the Load command. You can right click on a cui to Unload it. Once a partial cuix is loaded, you can add it's commands\palette tabs to a workspace stored in the main cuix.

[PiscesBob]

Ed-

Thanks for your most informative post, I am going to print it and tape it to the wall.  Especially thanks about loading menu's.  I was going on very old AutoCad options.  Well, believe it or not, I finally got my custom acad.cuix the way I like it with my extensive quick access tool bar and custom menu.  I immediately went out and copied acad.cuix to acad saved.cuix and also copied the newest menu's to saved.  Thank you for all your help and now I can get back to work creating drawings for work.  I am a mechanical engineer and I design rail freight cars, lately tank cars.

Bob W.

[Ed.Jobe · Accepted solution]

Great! Just a reminder...If you are going to customize acad.cuix, then use the Export Settings tool to back up your customizations before you upgrade so you don't loose your work. Then after upgrade, use the Import Settings tool.