Menugroups

[mikedsjr]

I'm an amateur lisp writer, though definitely not a beginner. I've completely customized our menu at work and it works great. But now, we are growing to a point that maybe we need some custom menus.

Now I may created my menu in all the wrong ways but the right way and that is partially my question. My menu has been setup completely within the confines of the acad2002.mns file. Every pulldown and the screen menu.

And now i am trying to disassociate them with the main mns file and want to make them where i can add them like another menugroup and also be able to take those off and add other menugroups when needed. We work almost basically off the screen menu. And so i have tried to just take them out of the acad2002.mns file and just create a new mns file . But when i load it it doesn't show up. What am i doing wrong?

 

[BillZ]

Not sure if you're doing anything wrong.
Are you giving the new .mns a group name of it's own?

***MENUGROUP=YOURMENU_ACAD

Or whatever name you want.

Bill

 

[Tom Smith]

I'd recommend reading Mark Middlebrrok's excellent article on modular customization http://www.cadalyst.com/solutions/mc/1100cm/1100cm.htm as well as his on toolbars http://www.markcad.com/autocad/acadtoolbars.htm .

Our setup is almost exactly as he describes: Acad is installed completely unaltered, and then our customizations are added on top of it. The custom stuff is earlier in the search path, so in the few cases where files are duplicated (i.e. our customized acad.pgp versus the standard) the custom versions take precedence. We add a few pulldowns and toolbars in a custom partial menu, and also provide a bare-bones "user" partial menu that the intrepid can modify to suit themselves. As Middlebrook says, it's a lot easier to debug and maintain if you isolate your custom stuff from the huge acad menu. It would also be possible to load/unload different partial menus for different uses, though we don't have a need for that.

Sorry I can't offer any insight on the screen menus, but I haven't used them in a long time.

I'm an amateur lisp writer, though definitely not a beginner. I've

completely customized our menu at work and it works great. But now, we are growing to a point that maybe we need some custom menus.

Now I may created my menu in all the wrong ways but the right way and that

is partially my question. My menu has been setup completely within the confines of the acad2002.mns file. Every pulldown and the screen menu.

And now i am trying to disassociate them with the main mns file and want

to make them where i can add them like another menugroup and also be able to take those off and add other menugroups when needed. We work almost basically off the screen menu. And so i have tried to just take them out of the acad2002.mns file and just create a new mns file . But when i load it it doesn't show up. What am i doing wrong?

 

[Ted Broekhuizen]

The screen menu (didn't realize people still use it) is enabled in the profile at "config" command, Display tab, top left second button down called "Display Screen Menu"

Good luck

I'm an amateur lisp writer, though definitely not a beginner. I've

completely customized our menu at work and it works great. But now, we are growing to a point that maybe we need some custom menus.

Now I may created my menu in all the wrong ways but the right way and that

is partially my question. My menu has been setup completely within the confines of the acad2002.mns file. Every pulldown and the screen menu.

And now i am trying to disassociate them with the main mns file and want

to make them where i can add them like another menugroup and also be able to take those off and add other menugroups when needed. We work almost basically off the screen menu. And so i have tried to just take them out of the acad2002.mns file and just create a new mns file . But when i load it it doesn't show up. What am i doing wrong?

 

[Walt Engle]

My recommendation is to customize the acad.mnu. Be sure to back it up first. You can add pops to it as well as delete those you don't need (the HELP pop for instance). If you do it this way, all you need do is type "menu" (without the quotes) at the Command: line and your new customized menu will appear. All of your acad.mn? files will be changed accordingly. You can add pops to include specialized lsp routines or images for insertions of various standards.

You might also consider acad.lsp file for startup where you can set styles, fonts, layers with your choice of linetypes and colors, architectural or decimal format as well as a host of other things that reflect your company's standards. It takes time, but is well worth it.

 

[R. Robert Bell]

| My recommendation is to customize the acad.mnu.

NOOOO!!!!!!!

(We are *trying* to get him away from that.) ;^)

 

[Walt Engle]

Do it your way but don't lecture me - I only give advice of how I use it. ok with you?

 

[R. Robert Bell]

yes.

 

[Tom Smith]

Based on a quick experiment, what you've been told is correct. You need the right menugroup name in the mns, and you need to have a corresponding entos.mnl which includes a statement (menucmd "s=ENTOS.S") where s is the starting screen name, to make the screen menu display. Enabling the screen menu under Options will turn on whatever menu is active, but you need the menucmd to make your version the active one. Of course, you'll also need to make sure all your screen menu macros call the correct entos menugroup.

I'm an amateur lisp writer, though definitely not a beginner. I've

completely customized our menu at work and it works great. But now, we are growing to a point that maybe we need some custom menus.

Now I may created my menu in all the wrong ways but the right way and that

is partially my question. My menu has been setup completely within the confines of the acad2002.mns file. Every pulldown and the screen menu.

And now i am trying to disassociate them with the main mns file and want

to make them where i can add them like another menugroup and also be able to take those off and add other menugroups when needed. We work almost basically off the screen menu. And so i have tried to just take them out of the acad2002.mns file and just create a new mns file . But when i load it it doesn't show up. What am i doing wrong?

 

[Warren Trost]

Or create your own menu and switch back and forth with commands like:

(defun C:WAR (command "._menu" (GPath #LISP15 "WARREN"))) ;; gpath simply strcats the subdirectory specified by #LISP15 with the menu name. (defun C:ACAD (command "._menu" "C:/PROGRAM FILES/ACAD2002/SUPPORT/ACAD"))

Makes it easy to use multiple menus without having to change the original ACAD.

I do this as my menu is 336K without having any of the ACAD menu in it

My recommendation is to customize the acad.mnu. Be sure to back it up first. You can add pops to it as well as delete those you don't need (the HELP

pop for instance). If you do it this way, all you need do is type "menu" (without the quotes) at the Command: line and your new customized menu will appear. All of your acad.mn? files will be changed accordingly. You can add pops to include specialized lsp routines or images for insertions of various standards.

You might also consider acad.lsp file for startup where you can set

styles, fonts, layers with your choice of linetypes and colors, architectural or decimal format as well as a host of other things that reflect your company's standards. It takes time, but is well worth it.

 

[Jim Claypool]

I don't think you were getting a lecture here , just some good advice. I don't think anyone will be bothered if you want to do it your way. In AutoCAD there are many way to do things, but when you customize the acad.mnu, you are creating problems later when you update AutoCAD. You will do yourself a great favor in the long run by creating a custom menu that can be used in later releases.

(Please excuse me Mr. Bell if it was a lecture.)

 

[R. Robert Bell]

Well, *I* didn't think either my post or yours was a lecture. ;^)

| I don't think you were getting a lecture here , just some good advice. I | don't think anyone will be bothered if you want to do it your way. | In AutoCAD there are many way to do things, but when you customize the | acad.mnu, you are creating problems later when you update AutoCAD. You will | do yourself a great favor in the long run by creating a custom menu that can | be used in later releases. | | (Please excuse me Mr. Bell if it was a lecture.) | | | > Do it your way but don't lecture me - I only give advice of how I use | > it. ok with you? | > | |

 

[Tom Smith]

Jim, I tend to agree w/ you -- the Middlebrook article I referenced makes a strong case for modularity.

Walt's entitled to his preference, of course, but the the original post was on "how to?" get a partial menu working, not on whether it's a good idea. If Walt has reasons to "recommend" against the whole approach, it would be helpful to spell them out. I'd holler if I saw someone innocently going in a completely wrong direction.

 

[Jim Claypool]

I didn't either, but I didn't want to step on anymore toes.