Correct way to add a Tab / Panel / Buttons to the Ribbon

[derek.96018]

I created a tab along with panels and buttons (back in AutoCAD 2012) and with the upgrade of [vanilla] AutoCAD 2015 I want to check and make sure that the way I went about this customization was... is.... 'the correct way'. To tell you the truth, I do not remember exactly what procedure I used to do it. It works, has worked, and up until upgrading there were little to no problems. Obviously, I was customizing the CUI (or 'a' CUI).

The problems have been corrected (the tab would not stay visible), I believe, in part to the processes and help of others through this thread (thank you): http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...losing-AutoCAD

I have read, and reread the "Notes on the philosophy of CUI" http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...losophy-of-CUI and feel like there is a benefit to starting this thread for people looking for this kind of info in the future.

I think what my intent was to create and get this feature up and running, then work on making it right later.... 3 Years later...

That being said. I have a CUI partially loaded to the Main CUI (the Main is called acad.cui). I also have a profile and a workspace set up.

I am not certain that the CUI was started as a blank CUI like my other custom CUIs... because... then there would not be any other ribbon panels.... If I recall correctly.... Thoughts ? Comments ?

Thanks in advance, Derek

[Tom Beauford]

Add Panels to Tabs, add Tab to your Workspace in the CUI. You have a partial CUI from 2012 loaded in 2015. Is there an issue with the CUI or how it's loaded? Does it work the same as it did in 2012?

[jasonp]

Out of the box installations of most autodesk products have a profile mapped to the shortcut on launch.

For example, here's a MEP startup "Target" properties icon out of the box

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2015\acad.exe" /ld "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2015\AecBase.dbx" /p "AutoCAD MEP (US Imperial)" /product "MEP" /language "en-US"

The line that says /p "AutoCAD MEP (US Imperial)" is an argument to start a specific profile upon launch of AutoCAD MEP.

This essentially wipes out any customizations you make in the CUI editor the next time you launch, mainly because your profile will switched to an "Unnamed Profile" if you make any changes in the CUI editor and close without resaving the profile with the changes made. This forces AutoCAD/MEP to revert to the saved registry setting named in the /P switch in the target icon, dumping any changes you've made. Simply delete the /p "AutoCADXXXXX" out of the Target in the shortcut, relaunch ACAD, make changes (Save a profile, this should be auto habit any time you make changes.) I always make a habit of closing down ACAD completely after making changes, since changes to tool palettes and such are not written until the program is closed out completely. Any fatal error will not be recorded unless you close out ACAD and let it finalize your changes.

[RobertB]

Jason, taking the profile switch out of the shortcut is not recommended. The reason for that is that when you take the profile assignment out of the shortcut, the last current profile will be the one loaded when the shortcut is run. This may not be correct. CAD Managers will often create profiles for different purposes and support different clients. Also, taking out the profile switch doesn't really address the issue raised by this thread.

A CUIx is saved whenever the CUI dialog is successfully closed using OK. The profile has no effect on the CUI other than what CUIx files are loaded (main and enterprise) and what workspace is current. If you are getting an unnamed profile regularly then you have some other issue causing the problem.

[RobertB]

There are a variety of approaches so there is not a single "correct" way to add customization to the Ribbon. The choice of approach really depends on a variety of factors.

If you are supporting only yourself and you are only making a few additions, directly editing the main CUIx is probably okay because when you get a new release installed you can migrate your changes.

If you need to support more than a few users, then you probably need to change the approach to something similar to what is described in my Philosophy thread.

Just remember that Autodesk's programmers envisioned folks directly editing main and/or adding partials which left workspace control in a "bad" location (the out of the box CUIx). If you need to provide/maintain corporate-level workspaces then you have to take my approach.

[derek.96018]

Hi, sorry been overloaded with billable work and unable to follow up.... Good, right ?

Add Panels to Tabs, add Tab to your Workspace in the CUI. You have a partial CUI from 2012 loaded in 2015. Is there an issue with the CUI or how it's loaded? Does it work the same as it did in 2012?

I had to think about what I had done, as my work on the ribbon was a while ago. What I did, I believe, is made changes to the acad.cui adding my tab, panel and buttons to it. At the time (AutoCAD 2012), I was in a learning stage of doing this as I was having a hard time finding the right information to get me where I wanted to go.

Once I got it all worked out, I saved the cui as [another name] to be a 'partial' cui to control that ribbon panel... but the problem is that this cui IS a cui with ALL of the additional standard ribbon info too, not just the add-on customization. I was never able to nail down HOW to add this the right way so it was not embedded in the main AutoCAD files (acad.cui). I was not able to add to the ribbon, only 'alter' the ribbon. When I tried deleting out the commands in the ribbon.cui, it started deleting out commands on the ribbon/panels and tabs.

So what I am worried about is this ribbon.cui that I am loading is effecting the default ribbon (?) or negatively effecting the health of my AutoCAD 2015 environment.

Does the customization work the same as it did in 2012 ? YES, thankfully.

Add Panels to Tabs, add Tab to your Workspace in the CUI.

Are you saying that I can/should add this panel customization to the workspace of the acad.cui ?

Thanks in advance for your direction.

[derek.96018]

If you are supporting only yourself and you are only making a few additions, directly editing the main CUIx is probably okay because when you get a new release installed you can migrate your changes.

So, I am managing 15-20 users in 2 offices with a dedicated drive that syncs to the other office once a week. The cui files are located there so that when I make a change everyone else will see get those changes without me (or IT) having to broadcast info to other places for customization to be available.

Additionally, and I feel people disagreeing already, I personally do not like to 'migrate'. I have not had success doing it a couple times in the past so I feel better about it by reloading cui files and such.

If you need to support more than a few users, then you probably need to change the approach to something similar to what is described in my Philosophy thread.

Is there a particular part that you have in mind ? Your thread is very long at this point. I like to have direct access to what I am customizing and currently the rubbon.cui has many default commands in it that make it difficult to navigate to the actual customized content.

[derek.96018]

Here is a screen shot of the CUI:
I have marked in red the 'extra' content within the ribbon.cui. I believe this would be content that came with my original 'save-as' once I dialed in the needs of the customization.
In blue I have marked the customization content that I want to remain.