CUI's and command functionality?

[mcoffman]

Being that I love customizing, LISP, VBA and the like, when I recieved 2006 I dove right in with both feet. It took me a while but I think I've finally got the grasp of the CUI interface. However, one tendency of the cui really bugged me. When I did a MENULOAD to convert our old .mns files into CUIs all of the file menus appeared on the screen. As our company has a lot of them and my unit only uses a few that got real messy real quick. To rememdy that, I created my own main cui (replacing the acad.cui) and used the transfer function to drag what I wanted from the various "partial cui's" into it. This has served me well with one exception. The make object layer current command "AI_MOLC" no longer functions. Could this be because I'm not using the ACAD.cui? Does anyone have any suggestions on a remedy?

I'm still learning this new interface so if anyone has any suggestions as to how they've tackled similar issues feel free to speak up!

Michael Coffman

[Glenn Pope]

Have you looked into using workspaces? The workspace determines what menus and toolbars are shown. Also where to place them.

[mcoffman]

I've messed with them a little bit but not real in depth. I'm still learning a lot about the new cui interface and haven't gotten as far as workspaces yet. It would seem that Autodesk made some significant changes without much transition time/support for people to adapt. I'll look into them some more. Thanks for the input.

MC

[bjlottis]

Before you spend to much more time customizing, do take a look at the workspaces feature as recommended earlier.


The idea is that you don't from all your old menus and then use the workspaces to display only the elements that you want. And you can have multiple workspaces, say, for different disciplines within your company, or different phases of a project.

[mcoffman]

OK, if I understand correctly, don't use the menus to determine placement, use the workspace features. I'll read up on them in the help section. Anywhere else I should look for more information?

Thanks.

[Glenn Pope]

OK, if I understand correctly, don't use the menus to determine placement, use the workspace features. I'll read up on them in the help section. Anywhere else I should look for more information?

Thanks.

Of course, check out this very forum There is tons of very good info here.

A couple of threads in particular

CUI and workspace videos from Autodesk

Notes on the philosophy of CUI

[mcoffman]

Thanks for the links! I have a couple of questions based on what I've learned. If I set the Main CUI to Custom so it can be changed, do I set the ACAD CUI as a partial? I would probably set my company cui to the Enterprise CUI so ACAD can't go there unless you can have multiple enterprise cui's. Is that possible? Now, if I set the Custom CUI to the main, will it override that ACAD CUI for custom shortcut keys and the like?

Thanks,
MC

[Glenn Pope]

You can add the ACAD.CUI as a partial to the Enterprise CUI. This will make it read-only so your users can't change it.

For the most part the custom CUI set as Main can overwrite the Acad CUI. Allowing a user to have their own shortcuts for commands.

[mcoffman]

Ok, I used my enterprise.cui to load all the partial menus that we use so they would be read-only and set the custom.cui as the main. Now when I go into the CUI interface and try to work with toolbars and menus in workspaces, they almost all say unresolved. I also can't get the workspaces toolbar to show up. Everything seems to work but it is bothersome to see that unresolved comment. I would post a screen capture but I'm not sure how...

MC

[Glenn Pope]

Ok, I used my enterprise.cui to load all the partial menus that we use so they would be read-only and set the custom.cui as the main. Now when I go into the CUI interface and try to work with toolbars and menus in workspaces, they almost all say unresolved. I also can't get the workspaces toolbar to show up. Everything seems to work but it is bothersome to see that unresolved comment. I would post a screen capture but I'm not sure how...

MC

There are some limitations with CUI. They are definitely not perfect. The unresolved comment is one of them. As far as I know you can't do anything about it.

Not sure why the workspace toolbar won't show. Maybe posting your CUI files so we can look at them might help. I'll try to look at them tonight when I get home. Hopefully someone with some free time can look at them sooner then I can.

[QUOTE=mcoffman]I would post a screen capture but I'm not sure how...QUOTE]
I'm assuming you are taking about attaching them to your post. If you scroll down when your are typing your post you should see additional options. Click on the button called Manage Attachments.