Creating a Custom CUI & Tool Palette advice

[tim.101799]

Over the past several months I have been give allot of advice from a office employee about AutoCAD 2006, specifically on how to set it up. He touts himself as an expert on the subject, and even has a nice certificate from Autodesk University to back up his claims. However, so far almost every piece of advice or direction he has given me has turned out to be a bust. With all that said I would like to thank all the users of this forum. With out your expertise I don't know what I would do.

So I would like to hear some advice on the best way to create an office custom CUI. I want to have a standard company CUI on the network (enterprise CUI) that contain all the standard company menu's, tool bars, and tool pallets. They will all be read only so users cannot fuss with them. The main CUI file will be located on each users local machine so users can create there own work spaces and tool pallets.

Based on some advice, I took my company standard mnu file and used that as the base of the office CUI. In that CUI I then have the ACAD.CUI and the Express Tools CUI loading as partial CUI files. For some reason that just seems back wards. Wouldn't it make more sense to use the ACAD.cui an load my company standard CUI and the express tools CUI as partials?


I would also like users to be able to create there own local custom tool palettes & work spaces while also having company standard tool pallets and work spaces. I want the company standard tool pallets to be read only. Any advice?


Tim Mailloux

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Have you reviewed / seen the following...

* CUI - Notes on the philosophy of CUI

* Tool Palettes - Palette Path - Toolbar Code to change path

Have a good one, Mike

[rkmcswain]

Over the past several months I have been give allot of advice from a office employee about AutoCAD 2006, specifically on how to set it up. He touts himself as an expert on the subject, and even has a nice certificate from Autodesk University to back up his claims. However, so far almost every piece of advice or direction he has given me has turned out to be a bust.

Wow. I had to do a double take and make you were not from my office...

So I would like to hear some advice on the best way to create an office custom CUI. I want to have a standard company CUI on the network (enterprise CUI) that contain all the standard company menu's, tool bars, and tool pallets. They will all be read only so users cannot fuss with them. The main CUI file will be located on each users local machine so users can create there own work spaces and tool pallets.

Based on some advice, I took my company standard mnu file and used that as the base of the office CUI. In that CUI I then have the ACAD.CUI and the Express Tools CUI loading as partial CUI files. For some reason that just seems back wards. Wouldn't it make more sense to use the ACAD.cui an load my company standard CUI and the express tools CUI as partials?

We have "acmap.cui" loaded as the main (for Land Enabled Map) and "land.cui" as the main (for LDT). This is how it is OOTB. The downside (and a huge flaw in the CUI system) is that if a user creates a toolbar or menu - it gets dumped in "acmap" or "land" - which of course is subject to being overwritten with a SP, repair, etc.

R. Robert Bell's thread (to which Mike pointed you) - says to make CUSTOM the main - this works so that if the user creates something - this is where it get dumped. However, this is difficult at best to implement in a vertical like LDT, with other menus like Raster Design, ToolPac, etc.. I think I even remember Mr. Bell saying something to the same effect.

I would also like users to be able to create there own local custom tool palettes & work spaces while also having company standard tool pallets and work spaces. I want the company standard tool pallets to be read only. Any advice?
Tim Mailloux

Set your Tool Palette path (in Options) to a network location that only you have WRITE access to. Everyone else should be set to read-only. Create your tool palettes and modify as needed. Point everyone else to this same network location. There is a way to point to this network location AND a local location so that users can still use/modify/create their own tool palettes. If you are interested, I can tell you how I do it or if you are interested in Mike's link - Try this and save about 5 clicks: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...863#post108863