I am more of a programmer and relatively new to AutoCAD(Less than a year). I work for an MEP firm that has about 800 custom buttons on about 6 different toolbars. We are migrating to AutoCAD 2009 from 2007.

Here is what I have run into. I started by putting all 800 buttons into a microsoft access database. I then wrote a C# .dll that can load the toolbars on startup from the database. This all works great. It is amazingly flexible because it is loading all button properties(panel, tab, size, location, parameters, ect)

I see two different options.

1. I can change the C# code to create CUI files from the database and recreate new cui files each time the database changes(which shouldn't be too often)

If I do this I think I will lose some of the power and flexibility such as changing a button in a panel to "last clicked". I currently have a larger button in each panel that is last clicked and the other buttons are smaller.

2. Leave the custom tabs loading from C# and store a users "settings" somewhere.

I see this as being more stable in some aspects and less stable in others.

Any thoughts by anyone? Has anyone else created a cui through .NET?

I am hoping that the database keeps us flexible for years to come without having to remake all buttons if the ribbon is replaced.

I will be more than happy to supply some source code if anyone is interested.