Custom Flyouts...

Ok, searched the newsgroup for this one but only found more of the same question, no answers. So here it is: I've created a custom toolbar on my custom mns. I then place a blank 'user defined flyout button' on a toolbar, then click on the blank flyout, it then asks me to associate it with a toolbar so I choose the custom toolbar I just created. The flyout works fine! But then when I close and restart ADT the flyout dissapears?! The custom toolbar (the one I associate to the flyout) remains in the mns. What's the deal? Thanks.

 

The only way I ever got flyouts to work is to:

1. Create your toolbars in the ACAD.mns file, not your own

2. Than create the custom flyout within the ACAD.mns file.

I had the same problem and this is the only way I have found to get it to work.

 

Check out this tutorial:

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/tutorials/select/parsai_user_defined_flyouts.htm

 

1. Create your toolbars in the ACAD.mns file, not your own

I've had no problem creating a series of custom flyouts in a custom partial
menu, which is menuloaded in addition to the unaltered Acad base menu. All
of my menu customizations are in partial menus, with nothing changed in the
standard Acad menu.

You just edit the mns and it's done. The "interactive" on-screen
button-dragging business has always been problematic. You might use that as
a starting point, but ultimately you need to go into mns and make sure the
icons are named properly anyway -- might as well cut to the chase and do the
menu modification directly with a text editor.

 

Tom, do you recommend replacing the 'RCDA####.bmp' with the actual name of the .bmp in all custom .mns files? Can you post an example of the coding for a custom flyout in a custom partial menu in the .mns so I can use it as a starting place? Thanks.

 

Tom, do you recommend replacing the 'RCDA####.bmp' with the actual name of
the .bmp in all custom .mns files? Can you post an example of the coding
for a custom flyout in a custom partial menu in the .mns so I can use it as
a starting place? Thanks.

I am on vanilla Acad 2004, but I believe menu customization techniques
should hold true for vertical apps. The best source I know is Mark
Middlebrook's article on doing toolbars "the right way" at
http://www.markcad.com/autocad/acadtoolbars.htm . I also highly recommend
his Cadalyst article on modular customization
http://www.cadalyst.com/cadalyst/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=80817 in which
he argues for the same approach I prefer, namely not modifying anything
whatsoever in the default Acad directory structure, but keeping all
customizations distinct, in their own folders.

Here is a toolbar composed entirely of flyouts. Note the menugroup name is
DAG_UTIL.

**DAG_MAIN
[_Toolbar("DAG (Main)", _Top, _Show, 1, 0, 1)]
[_Flyout("Views", ICON_16_BLANK, ICON_16_BLANK, _OtherIcon,
DAG_UTIL.VIEWS)]
[_Flyout("Layers", ICON_16_BLANK, ICON_16_BLANK, _OtherIcon,
DAG_UTIL.LAYERS)]
[_Flyout("Dimension", ICON_16_BLANK, ICON_16_BLANK,
_OtherIcon, DAG_UTIL.DIMENSION)]
[_Flyout("Lisp", ICON_16_BLANK, ICON_16_BLANK, _OtherIcon,
DAG_UTIL.TOOLS)]

Here is one of the toolbars referenced:

**VIEWS
[_Toolbar("DAG Views", _Floating, _Hide, 765, 110, 1)]
[_Button("Plot View", "plotview.BMP",
"plotview.BMP")]^C^C(dagrestoreview "plot");
[_Button("Front View", "front.BMP",
"front.BMP")]^C^C(dagrestoreview "FRONT");
[_Button("Right View", "right.BMP",
"right.BMP")]^C^C(dagrestoreview "RIGHT");
[_Button("Left View", "left.BMP",
"left.BMP")]^C^C(dagrestoreview "LEFT");

I name the custom bmp's however I like, and keep them in a dedicated folder
on the search path. It's important to me that the bmp names be
understandable and related to their function.