dcochran wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We are looking at ways to improve and enhance the CUI Editor in AutoCAD. As a customer, what improvements would you like to see with CUI?
>
> Thanks in advance for your input!
>
> Doug Cochran
> Autodesk, Inc.
The biggest problems are in the architecture and undocumented
functionality of the CUI system itself. For example, in a situation with
main and enterprise customization files, and a few partial CUI files, I
have 4 different places where I can define mouse button bindings or
whatever. I have yet to find any Autodesk documentation on which of
these definitions will be obeyed, or in what way do they get combined.
- In this discussion group there have been some messages which have
helped, but they have all a major problem: they are from outsiders,
trying to deduce the functionality from observed behaviour. This is
something that Autodesk itself should tell us.
Apart from the many architectural problems in the CUI system as such,
the CUI editor could use some work. The slow startup speed is annoying,
especially as due to the lousy documentation it needs to be used in a
trial-and-error way.
- Is there a good reason why it has to be a modal dialog? If it were
non-modal like VLIDE, so that I could do something, press Apply, go to
the AutoCAD window and try out the new definition, and return to the CUI
window just by mousing back, it would be far easier to use. The startup
times wouldn't be such a problem, either, if I would only need to wait
for that on the first time.
The biggest problem is that it has practically nonexistent error
reporting. I only get either a blanket complaint about corrupt CUI file,
but no detail on which part creates the problem, or no error reports
whatsoever, AutoCAD just fails to do what I was trying to define.
Other problems in no specific order:
- The system records the position of the CUI window in the profile, and
on next start opens it in the same place. This creates a problem when I
use it on a machine with two screens, and save the profile, and later
try to start CUI using that profile when on a machine with only one
screen. The program doesn't bother to check whether the saved
coordinates are in a displayable location. So, I have a modal dialog
sitting off-screen, with no other way to recover than killing AutoCAD
with Task Manager. (tabbing to cancel blindly might work, if I happened
to remember where the default is in this situation.)
- The workspaces functionality needs clarification. Some operations only
work for the current workspace, but by default no workspace is shown as
current when starting CUI. So what is happening in that situation?
- What is going on with Unresolved menu items? What should be done with
them? Why?
- The program always re-reads the .cui file(s), overriding the menu
situation currently on-screen. There is API functionality to modify
menus etc programmatically, but I have found no way to save that
configuration. It would be rather more usable, if the CUI editor could
also accept the current screen situation, and dump it to file if needed.
- You ever try what happens if you name a .cui file with a period in the
name? I tried acadr16.2.cui, and the system became almost totally
nonfunctional (with no error reports, of course). It only recovered when
I went to the XML file with an editor and changed all 16.2 :s to 16_2.
Seems that the system generates names in the style of
..- , and elsewhere re-splits them by searching
for the periods. Would it be too much bother for the programmers to run
a little sanity check on user-given names before accepting them? Not to
speak of documenting any non-allowed characters?
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