The ABC's of the AutoCAD CUI

Transcription

1 R. Robert Bell Sparling AU104-4 The Customize User Interface (CUI) is used to control your menus, toolbars, the ribbon, keyboard shortcuts, and double-click actions. There is plenty to do but you might be unsure how to do it. This course will teach you how to create new macros which are called commands in the CUI. You will then see how to use those new commands in a menu and a ribbon panel. You will see how to create a toolbar. Keyboard shortcuts and temporary overrides will be explained. Double-click actions further expand your customizations. Finally, workspaces will be explained. This will provide you with the needed skills in the fundamentals of the CUI. About the Speaker: Robert is the Design Technology Manager for Sparling, the largest specialty electrical engineering and technology consulting firm in the United States, headquartered in Seattle, Washington. He provides strategic direction, technical oversight, and high-level support for Sparling s enterprise design and production technology systems. He is instrumental in positioning Sparling as an industry and client leader in leveraging technology in virtual building and design. Robert has been writing code for customizing AutoCAD since the release of AutoCAD v2.5. rbell@sparling.com

2 Introduction The Customize User Interface (CUI) is the current approach to customizing AutoCAD s interface. You may be tempted to ignore the CUI and continue to maintain your legacy menu files, allowing the files to be converted to CUIx files, and simply ignoring the CUI interface. This approach, although compelling in its simplicity, ignores the newer interface features, most importantly the Ribbon. This course will show you how to use the CUI editor to modify your user interface. Terminology CUI (Customize User Interface) 1: The commands and elements, including workspaces, that makes up the user s interface. 2: The extension for the XML-based file, in versions prior to 2010, that contains the information used to present the user interface. CUIx The extension for the compressed file format introduced in AutoCAD Main The user customizable CUIx file as defined in the Options dialog box. Enterprise The CUIx file as defined in the Options dialog box that is not user customizable. Partial CUIx A CUIx file that is loaded into the main or enterprise CUIx file. Core CUIx The CUIx file that supports the application out of the box, e.g. Acad.cuix. Office CUIx A term used in this course to describe the CUIx file that holds office standard customizations. Nodes Major sections of a CUIx file, such as Toolbars or Ribbon Panels. Workspace Defines visible elements of the user interface and their location. Commands Macros that define an action and may be used throughout the nodes. OOTB Out of the box. Vertical A version of AutoCAD customized by Autodesk to support a specific industry, such as AutoCAD Architectural or AutoCAD MEP. The Editor The editor contains two tabs, the Customize tab and the Transfer tab. You will spend the majority of your time in the Customize tab, but the Transfer tab is useful. Take a few moments to identify the panes in the Customize tab. The pane in the upper left is the Customization In Pane. This pane displays the nodes of the CUIx selected in the pane s combo box. Selecting a specific partial CUIx file in this combo box allows you to make changes to only the selected file. The pane in the upper right is called the Dynamic Display Pane. This pane changes depending on the element selected in the Customization In Pane. You may select items on the preview to select the corresponding element. 2

3 The Command List Pane displays all the loaded commands. This list is filtered by the selection in the Customization In Pane s combo box, and furthered filtered by its own combo box. All the commands you create will be lumped into the Custom commands category, so it can become necessary to filter the list with the Customization In Pane s combo box as your list of commands grows (as long as the commands are in separate CUIx files, obviously). Finally we come to the Properties Pane. This pane will display the properties of the selected element or command. (Technically the properties pane is part of the dynamic display pane but, given its importance, it will be referred to separately.) Command Filter, Find and Replace AutoCAD 2009 introduced a Command Filter function. The command filter field is located at the top of the Command List Pane. A text string may be entered and any command name that matches any part of the text string will be displayed in the command list box. There is a find and replace feature available in the CUI editor s shortcut menu. Alas, the feature was obviously written by a programmer. There is far too much tech-talk in the results. The following information might make the obscure language easier to interpret. For example, do the following: 1. Open the Acad.cuix file in the CUI editor 2. Right-click on either of the left panes in the Customize tab 3. Select the Find item. The Find and Replace dialog box displays. 4. Select the Find what combo box and type etransmit. 5. Make sure the Ignore case check box is checked and clear the Restrict Search to check box. 6. Select the Find Next button. The panes will change to the location in the tree of the item found and/or the command and its properties. Where the item found is an element located in the structure of the CUIx, as opposed to the command only, the Find and Replace dialog box displays text similar to this: Search string found in tree node etransmit property Command Name at position 0 (1/9) 3

4 Tree node means that the element found belongs in the Customization In Pane and is part of the CUIx structure. Also, the command used by the item is highlighted in the Command List Pane. Where a command only is found the result reads command instead of tree node. Property refers to the Properties Pane and provides the name of the property. At position is describing the location of the string in the property s data. Unhappily for mere mortals, the number given is the character count, but where the first character is 0, the second character is 1, and so on. So position 36 means the string starts at character 37 in the property. (This is called a zero-based index, popular with programmers, and nobody else.) Finally, the numbers in the parenthesis indicate the current match and the total number of matches, e.g. (1/9) is the first match of 9 different matches. AutoCAD 2010 s new CUIx Format AutoCAD 2010 introduced a new file format for the CUI. The new format is a compressed file with an extension of CUIx. The compressed file contains multiple XML-based files used to store the information needed to present the user interface. The images used by the interface are stored within the compressed file. This will make it easier to provide a functioning CUI to other users since the images are part of the file. However, this does not address the issue of external files such as the MNL or attached LSP files. Starting with a blank CUIx file It is a good idea to start with a new, blank CUIx file while learning how to use the CUI editor. The easiest way to create this file is to use the Transfer tab in the CUI editor. Transfer the Shortcut Menus node into the new CUIx file. You need all the items from the Shortcut Menus in order to support right-click menus. Save the file where you desire. Next, create a new profile in AutoCAD s Options dialog box. You will use this profile to make your new CUIx file the main CUIx file. This will help protect your other CUIx files from accidental changes while you test the new file. Make the new profile the current one. After the new profile is current, change the Main Customization File to the new CUIx file. You might see most of the interface disappear. Do not worry when this happens; the next steps will restore them. Open the CUI editor. Select the Partial Customization Files node. Browse to your Support folder and select the Acad.cuix file. The editor will display the Acad.cuix file in the Customizations pane. Select the Main CUIx File in the drop down list. Expand the Partial Customization Files node to verify that Acad.cuix is partial to the main CUIx file. 4

5 Close the CUI editor. Use the Workspace Switching button in the application status bar to save the current unsaved workspace. Give it some recognizable name. Open the CUI editor once again, expand the Workspaces node, and select the workspace you just saved. Select the Customize Workspace button in the right pane, and then add the desired AutoCAD interface elements from the left pane. Save your changes and exit the editor. When this workspace is made active the selected interface elements will redisplay. Note that you do not want to just transfer an Acad workspace to the new CUIx file. This would also copy all the supporting elements and commands into the new CUIx file. Creating the workspace from scratch does not have this effect. It all starts with Commands One of the key differences of the CUI approach is how commands are obviously used in multiple places. A single command might be used by a toolbar, a ribbon panel, and even a shortcut key. When you modify a command, all items using the command are also updated. It is possible to have different commands with the same name, even in the same CUIx file. In these cases, the element ID uniquely identifies the command. One command, multiple locations A sticking point for some migrated legacy menus arises because the one customizing the new CUI file believes that they can edit the same command used in multiple locations without affecting the other instances. One single command (element ID) may be used in multiple locations and editing the command in one location will affect all the other locations. You can filter the list of commands to a specific CUIx file in addition to the Command Filter field. Select desired CUIx file in the Customizations pane. Optionally, select Custom Commands in the Categories drop-down list in the Command List pane. New commands will be created in the CUIx file selected in the Customization In Pane combo box. It is possible to create your commands in any of the partial CUIx files attached to the main CUIx file. You may also right-click on a command and duplicate it to quickly create new commands similar to existing commands. A command s Name property is what is shown in the CUI s command list and AutoCAD s interface (unless modified). The Command Display Name and Description properties are combined and shown in AutoCAD s status bar. The Command Display Name should match the actual command needed to execute the task at the command prompt, where applicable. Newer versions of AutoCAD add a property called the Extended Help File. The topic assigned by this property causes AutoCAD to display additional information at the tooltip, including graphics, when hovering over the interface item. The extended help file is a file you can create in any text editor. This text-based file is an XAML file. The help files contain all the information needed to create your own XAML files. The Macro property contains the instructions executed when the command runs. Many macros have control characters such as ^C to cancel any running commands. For more information on control characters, see the Customization Guide. 5

6 Newer versions of AutoCAD also add the Tag property. Tags are used to provide keywords to aid in searching for commands in the Search field of the application menu. Tags assigned are also evident in tooltips. They do not help locate commands in the CUI editor itself. The Element ID property for commands may be changed in CUIx files you create. Assign element IDs as you see fit. Images are attached to the command itself. This makes them available in ribbon tools, pulldown menu items, and toolbar buttons. The source files for the images may be individual BMP files or stored collectively in a resource DLL file. (AutoCAD 2009/2010 stores its images in a file named AcadBtn.xmx and not a resource DLL.) AutoCAD 2010 s new file format stores the CUIx s images within that compressed file. The image files for older versions of AutoCAD must be placed on AutoCAD s search path or the folder specified in Options, Files, Customization Files, Custom Icon Location. The size of the bitmap for a small image is pixels. A large image needs to be pixels. The bitmap should be set to 96 DPI where the image editing software allows different DPI settings. You may make any part of the image transparent by using color 192,192,192. If you drag a command from a partial or enterprise CUIx file on to any element in the main CUIx structure, a copy of the command is created in the target CUIx file. In order to see the copied command you need to exit the editor and reenter the editor. This issue will be resolved in the future. Once you have the command that you desire it is time to use it in the rest of the interface. The Ribbon The Ribbon is an interface that replaces the Dashboard. This interface will be familiar to those using the latest version of Microsoft Office or certain other current applications. Unlike the ribbon interfaces in most applications, AutoCAD s Ribbon is customizable. Autodesk s programmers ought to be congratulated on the effort expended to provide a customizable Ribbon to AutoCAD users. That having been stated, the full power of the Ribbon only becomes evident after it has been customized. Note: You MUST have at least AutoCAD 2009 Update 1 installed if you intend to customize the Ribbon. The Ribbon consists of tabs, which organize panels, which contain commands and controls. Ribbon Panels Panels are the containers for commands and controls. They are organized by a panel dialog box launcher, rows, sub-panels, flyouts, and slideouts. The slideout controls which rows are shown by default. A slideout is automatically added to each panel. Items below the slideout only display when the panel is expanded. 6

7 Where all the commands and controls in a row cannot be display a gray down arrow is displayed in the user s interface for expanding the panel. Add rows, sub-panels, and flyouts by rightclicking on a row or row element and selecting the appropriate item. New panels are added in a similar manner but are only available when right-clicking on panelrelated elements other than commands. Add commands or controls to a panel s elements by selecting and dragging the item in the Command pane to the desired location on the panel. Modify the command s panel appearance properties as desired. Observe the effects of the changes in the Panel Preview pane in the CUI editor. Ribbon Tabs Tabs can only display panels; they cannot contain commands or controls. A tab can reference a panel located in any loaded CUIx file. Tabs located in different CUIx files may be merged when they share the same alias. Panels may be reorganized within the tab. The initial order of the panels in the tab is set within the Customizations In Pane. This order may be changed by dragging the panels up or down within the tab node. However, workspaces ultimately control the order of the panels, where they may be reorganized in the same manner. Creating a new tab automatically adds it to all workspaces in the main CUIx file. You must edit the individual workspaces to remove undesired tabs in the workspace. Note that a panel usually displays in any tab to which it is added. You may turn off a panel for a tab from a workspace without removing it from the tab. The workspace also controls how a panel collapses and its orientation (docked or floating). Quick Access Toolbar The Quick Access Toolbar is located in the application title bar. The QAT is defined by a node in the CUIx and is displayed by a setting in each workspace. Therefore, the QAT may be different or even missing from one workspace to the next. Create new QAT using the context menu on the Quick Access Toolbar node. You will drag and drop commands directly on to a Quick Access Toolbar. 7

8 Quick Properties The Quick Properties node permits modification of the properties displayed in the Quick Properties palette. Note that the last loaded definition is the definition used. A red X is displayed next to an element that is inactivated due to another definition. The list of objects and their properties is fixed. You may only select objects and properties presented by the CUI editor. Rollover Tooltips Rollover Tooltips display when you hover over an object without selecting it. The properties displayed may be synchronized with Quick Properties or vice versa. They may also display a distinctly different set of properties compared to Quick Properties. Similar to Quick Properties, Rollover Tooltips are defined by the last loaded definition. Standard Toolbars Creating a new toolbar is as simple as right-clicking on the Toolbars node and selecting New Toolbar from the menu. Once the toolbar has been created, it is simply a matter of drag-and-drop to place commands on the toolbar. Select a command from the Command List pane. Drag the selected command up to the desired toolbar. If the toolbar is currently empty, drop the command on to the toolbar name. Dropping a command on the toolbar s name will place it at the bottom of the toolbar. Otherwise, drop the command in the desired location amongst the current commands on the toolbar. Reorganize the order of the icons on a toolbar by dragging-and-dropping the commands into the desired order. Tip Drag the command in a wide arc to the right and come in from the side to the desired location in the structure. This helps avoid the structure scrolling on you. Flyout Toolbars A flyout toolbar is similar to an XRef, except the source is a toolbar. Edits made to the nested toolbar are actually changing the source toolbar. A flyout toolbar is nested in another toolbar and appears as a button in that hosting toolbar. There are two ways to create a flyout toolbar. To create a flyout toolbar based on an existing toolbar you drag the source toolbar into the desired location on an expanded toolbar. You may also create a flyout and new source toolbar in one action. Select an existing toolbar. Right-click and select New Flyout from the menu. This will place a new toolbar in the root of the node. A referenced toolbar is placed within the selected toolbar. Toolbar aliases Never change the initial alias given the new source toolbar for the flyout. If you do, the button on the toolbar where the flyout appears will not be able to find that source toolbar. 8

9 A flyout toolbar has a unique property: Use Own Icon. This is how you instruct the flyout either to use the icon of the last selected tool or always use the same icon. If you choose to use its own icon, note that the button preview of the icon does not update until you select image files. If you do not select image files, the icon will become the missing question mark icon, regardless of what you see in the button image area. If you change the icon for a flyout toolbar and only hit the Apply button, you can see the correct icon displayed on the actual toolbar, if it is visible. Pull-down Menus Create a new pull-down menu by right clicking on the Menus node and selecting New Menu. The MenuBar command restores the legacy menu bar. Commands are added to the menu in the same fashion that they are added to other nodes, with a drag-and-drop operation. This is, of course, only a reference back to the actual command. Any changes you make to the apparent menu item are being made to the command. Therefore, if that command is referenced anywhere else, the changes affect all instances. However, you can still control the display of the items within the menu. You can disable items and/or checkmark them. Commands that have been placed on a menu node will have a Display, Name property. This property is the name of the item on the menu. The command name itself is a separate property. To disable a command on the pull-down menus, place a tilde (~) at the beginning of the display name. DIESEL expressions still affect the display of the pull-down items. For example, the following display name on the pull-down menu is grayed out when a command is active: $(if,$(getvar,cmdactive),~)c&opy to Layer Menu items can also be marked with a check mark or a border. A check mark will be displayed where an item does not have an image. Items that do have an image will receive a border around the icon. Mark items by placing an exclamation point and a period (!.) at the beginning of the display name. Visual LISP can affect the menu item label thru the use of the menucmd function. The menu access key is defined by placing an ampersand (&) in front of the character desired. This will give the user the ability to execute the menu item by using Alt+<character>. You may also move part of the label to the right side of the menu by using \t in the command name. Note the Ctrl+Shift+C in the accompanying figure. Shortcut Menus Shortcut menus are a commonly edited feature. However, they can also be one of the trickiest parts of the CUI during setup and editing. When you plan to provide new or modified shortcut menus, you need to transfer all the shortcut menus to the main (or enterprise) CUIx file. Use the 9

10 Menu command to load the main CUIx file, which will wake AutoCAD to the new additions. Once you have the shortcut menus in the main CUIx file you may make further edits. If they are still not recognized, detach Acad.cuix and use the Menu command again, before reattaching the Acad.cuix file. Create a new shortcut menu in the Shortcut menu node. A specific alias needs to be added to the menu to enable it to display when specific objects are selected. Add the alias OBJECT_<object type> to the new menu. This will cause the menu to be added to the Edit menu when an object of that type is gripped. If you want the menu to appear when multiple objects of that type are selected use the alias OBJECTS_<object type>. If you customize an OSnap menu, and you find that it is available only intermittently, you can use the following code in that CUIx s MNL file to make it more reliable. (Replace AU with the MenuGroup name of your CUIx file, and MyOSnaps with the alias of your shortcut menu.) (menucmd P0=AU.MyOSnaps ) Keyboard Shortcuts There are two types of keyboard shortcuts. The definitions in the Accelerator section from a legacy menu are now called Shortcut Keys. This is where you would make keystroke-based commands such as F4 using the EndP OSnap. Temporary Override Keys are a new feature since AutoCAD For example, you would use the Shift key during a command to temporarily toggle Ortho, or Shift+A to disable running OSnaps. Shortcut Keys You must use drag-and-drop to add a new shortcut key. If you rightclick on the Keyboard Shortcuts or Shortcut Keys node and select New, shortcut keys are not an option. Create a new shortcut key by drag-anddrop of a command on to the Shortcut Keys node. You then edit the Key(s) property to assign a keystroke combination to the command. Take note of whether the keystroke combination already exists. At times, you want to overwrite the current definition of a shortcut key. Remember that the last assignment of the keystroke combination is the one that takes precedence. Therefore, the CUIx file that holds your overrides will need to load after the CUIx files that contain the original definitions. This is an improvement over legacy menus, as the initial definition was the one that took precedence. Depending on the CUIx file structure you have, you may decide to have a separate CUIx file just for shortcut keys. This allows you to create a new definition for F1! There are a few keystroke combinations that you are unable to enter in the CUI editor, e.g. Ctrl+F1, Ctrl+F4, Ctrl+F6, and Ctrl+F10. However, a migrated MNS file with those accelerator keys defined will import correctly. Import a temporary MNS file and transfer the definitions if you want to make those definitions in the CUI editor. Temporary Override Keys Temporary overrides provide a toggle while commands are active. While the keystroke combination is being pressed, Tip Turn Caps Lock off before assigning a keystroke combination, otherwise a Shift is added automatically. 10

11 the override is in effect. It is possible to make the override perform another macro when the keystroke combination is released. Temporary override keys follow the same precedence rules as shortcut keys. Most of the typical overrides do not need the Key Up macro to reset the original condition overridden. For those cases where the override is not reset, the Key Up macro is useful. Double Click Actions Double-Click Actions allow you to add or modify actions for specific types of objects. Even better, if you are familiar with Visual LISP you can write code that will examine the object and perform actions based on the object s properties. (defun C:DetermineDuctEdit (/ ss myobj) (setq ss (ssget)) (cond ((> (sslength ss) 0) (setq myobj (ssname ss 0)) (cond ((= (strcase (cdr (assoc 8 (entget myobj)))) REF-DUCT-CL ) (duct:edit myobj)) ((command._pedit myobj))))) (princ)) Mouse Buttons Many of today s mice sport more than two buttons (not including the wheel). However, although the CUI editor would seem to support more than two buttons, you will find that those extra button assignments are ignored by the mouse driver itself. You are better off making assignments to buttons with the mouse driver rather than the CUI editor. LISP Files The MNL file loads automatically with the CUIx file of the same name. However, you may also load any LISP-based files along with the CUIx file. This can reduce the number of autoload statements you may have in the MNL file. Legacy Elements Some features of the user interface are being depreciated. These items are still supported by the CUI editor, but it is obvious that these elements may not be around forever. You may still need to maintain these elements so the editor provides for this. However, the discussion of these legacy elements is beyond the scope of this class. WinTab Drivers Note that your tablet driver must be WinTab compliant. One source for a WinTab driver is Working with Workspaces Although you can modify the CUIx without using workspaces, you must not ignore them. At the very least, you should create a workspace of your CUIx as a default. As you edit the CUIx, it is far too easy to alter the interface unintentionally. A workspace that stores your interface setup is invaluable. The Ribbon is quickly switched using workspaces and the desired QAT can only be displayed thru a workspace. 11

12 Workspaces may be stored in any CUIx file, however, only the main and enterprise CUIx file s workspaces are available. Right click on the Workspaces node and select New Workspace to create a workspace in the main CUIx file. Workspaces also control Palettes, such as the Properties palette. Many of properties can be set to Do not change. When you set the properties to that option the workspace will not change that property from what you have manually set. You change the elements in the workspace using the Customize Workspace button in the Workspace Contents Pane. The elements in the pane turn blue. The elements in the Customizations In Pane display with check boxes. Use those check boxes to add elements to the workspace. Change the display order of the chosen elements in the Workspace Contents Pane using drag-and-drop. The Workspace toolbar or Workspace Switching button on the application status bar provides access to all your workspaces and the general settings for workspaces. These provide an excellent mechanism to switch the interface. Unhappily, the Transfer tab is not useful for copying workspaces. The issue is that the items that the workspace uses are also transferred. This means that, even if the source CUIx is partial to the target CUIx, all the items are duplicated in the target CUIx file. This will lead to odd behavior in some of the vertical applications. When a vertical application swaps pull-down menus for discipline-specific menus, you will wind up with duplicated menus on the menu bar. So the best approach is to take a screen shot of the source CUIx s interface with that workspace active, and create a new workspace in your main CUIx that duplicates the desired interface. The differences between Main, Enterprise, and Partial A partial CUIx file is one that is loaded into either the main or enterprise CUIx files. These may be loaded from the CUI editor or with the CUILoad command. A partial CUIx file can actually be a main or enterprise CUIx under a different profile. A partial CUIx file may have many nodes populated, or only a few. The main CUIx file, and any partial CUIx files loaded into it, is the only CUIx that you can modify and add new commands. The enterprise CUIx file, and any partial CUIx files loaded into it, is read-only in the current profile. When the same CUIx file is loaded as a partial to both the main and enterprise CUIx files it will be read-only. An enterprise CUIx file can be edited by modifying the Main Customization File property in the Files tab of the Options dialog box. 12

13 Load Order and Precedence Enterprise Enterprise Partials Main Main Partials Enterprise loads first. Any partial files in the enterprise CUIx file will load next. Main then loads and any partial CUIx files contained by it will load last. The order displayed in the Partial Customization Files node is the order of loading. The last loaded definition of keyboard shortcuts, whether shortcut keys or temporary overrides, will be the one that takes effect. Double-click actions, quick properties, and rollover tooltips also work in the same manner. However, for all other CUIx elements such as menus and mouse buttons the instance loaded first will be the used definition. Backup On occasion, you may find that you need to reset the original CUIx files that were installed with AutoCAD. The CUI editor has a shortcut menu to make it easier to restore a backup of an edited file or reset a core file. The first option restores the automatic backup of the CUIx file saved in the same location as the CUIx file, and the second option resets (or replaces) the CUIx file with the originally installed CUIx file, if applicable. If the file selected cannot be reset, that option will be disabled. Similarly, if a BAK file does not exist, the Restore option will be disabled. It is a good idea to have your own backup of your CUIx files before you edit them. One way to do this is to simply keep a zip file in the same folder as the CUIx files and drop the CUIx files into that zip file before editing. You should endeavor to keep a historical series of backups, in case a problem doesn t manifest itself immediately. Create a workspace to store the interface so that you can retrieve it if needed. Conclusion The CUI will make the actual customization process a matter of drag-and-drop, as long as you understand how it works. The best advice to remember is: Do not over-think the CUI. Now you can use the CUI with confidence. 13