Notes on the philosophy of CUI

[RobertB]

I am wondering how to customise my quick properties in my main (customised) CUI, currently it has no objects in its list.
even when I add objects and modify properties, the quick properties list under the enterprise Cui seems to take preference.
I want to leave the enterprise unaltered with any changes to the main to take preference.

I haven't tried to override quick properties in main before so I don't know if it is possible or not. However, you could try, after adding the quick properties to main, using the Menu command to "wake" AutoCAD up to the changes in Main. That approach sometimes works for context menu overrides.

[matthew.221135]

I repathed the enterprise cui to a different location, then back to the location I actually wanted and all seems to work fine now. next time I modify another object I will try the menu command and see if that works also.

[Randall Temple]

Great thread, Robert! It's answered most of my questions as I transition from ACA2008 (set up like <2004) to ACA2013.

There are a couple that I haven't found answers to. First, what is the behavior of AutoLISP routines defined in a CUI? Are they loaded fully in memory, or do they load on demand? Does the CUI load only at AutoCAD start up or at drawing start up? I guess what I'm asking is, is there still a place for ACAD.lsp and ACADDOC.lsp, or can I handle all of that within the CUI?

Also, can you give an example of relative pathing? I can picture it, but I can't seem to locate examples of the proper code for the various locations.


Thanks,

R

[Randall Temple]

Also, can you give an example of relative pathing? I can picture it, but I can't seem to locate examples of the proper code for the various locations.

I may have answered my own question on this last part. When I substitute "%userprofile%" in place of "c:\Documents and Settings\randall" in the Support File Search Path, it resolves properly when I relaunch ACAD. I THINK it's resolving when the profile is loaded, and not just reverting when it's closed. I'll set up another user on my workstation to test this.

If this works, it will simplify deployment. Instead of running a configuration routine in LISP, I'll be able to merely load the Default User profile and SaveAs to each user's network drive


R

[Randall Temple]

I'll set up another user on my workstation to test this.

Success!

In regard to the search paths, anyway. When I try it on the partial loads in the Enterprise CUI, it resolves immediately, and there's no way to retroactively edit the path that I can see. Any insight?


Thanks,

R

[Randall Temple]

When I try it on the partial loads in the Enterprise CUI, it resolves immediately, and there's no way to retroactively edit the path that I can see.

I think I found an answer for this one, too.


In another thread, RobertB said:

The core CUIx files can remain on the local workstations since the enterprise CUIx won't store the paths to the partial files when they are on AutoCAD's support path.

I'll see if I can verify this, as well.


R

[Randall Temple]

You can do this two different ways: 1) Create workspaces in the enterprise CUIx that the entire company uses. 2) Create workspaces in the main CUIx that display what you want.

I want one or the other, correct? Or can I, say, set up my ribbon in the Enterprise CUI and leave the pallets, toolbars, etc. to be customizable in the User CUI?

If I set up the workspace in our Enterprise CUI, it would revert to standard at every launch? My users are accustomed to setting up their screens how they like, so I assume I want to build the workspace in the default User CUI, and they can customize their copies of it.

I can see this becoming an issue at upgrade time, though. My goal is to streamline this enough that I can upgrade with each new release, and have the users barely notice (and without spending a week making it happen.)


Thanks,

R

[RobertB]

First, what is the behavior of AutoLISP routines defined in a CUI? Are they loaded fully in memory, or do they load on demand? Does the CUI load only at AutoCAD start up or at drawing start up? I guess what I'm asking is, is there still a place for ACAD.lsp and ACADDOC.lsp, or can I handle all of that within the CUI?

Continue to use Acad.lsp and AcadDoc.lsp. This gives you the ability to load and execute, via S::Startup stuff either at startup or with each drawing. Attaching LISP files to the CUIx will only load them in each drawing. Since I've had autoloaders for decades in AcadDoc.lsp I rarely add a LISP file to a CUIx, unless that LISP file directly supports only a tool in the CUIx.

[RobertB]

I think I found an answer for this one, too.

In another thread, RobertB said:

I'll see if I can verify this, as well.

This is correct. I've done it this way since CUI arrived.

[RobertB]

I want one or the other, correct? Or can I, say, set up my ribbon in the Enterprise CUI and leave the pallets, toolbars, etc. to be customizable in the User CUI?

If I set up the workspace in our Enterprise CUI, it would revert to standard at every launch? My users are accustomed to setting up their screens how they like, so I assume I want to build the workspace in the default User CUI, and they can customize their copies of it.

I can see this becoming an issue at upgrade time, though. My goal is to streamline this enough that I can upgrade with each new release, and have the users barely notice (and without spending a week making it happen.)

I do it both ways. I roll out company standard workspaces in the enterprise CUIx and let the users (in fact, recommend the users) create their own workspaces based off the company workspaces.

For updates I roll a new User.cuix out to the users and tell them the same thing, create new ones based on the company ones. If they have a few unique items in their older CUIx they can simply transfer the elements into the new User.cuix file.