customizing toolbars

I've been doing a lot of assembly work lately and am using component
patterns quite heavily. It seems like a pretty logical thing that I
should be able to customize my Assembly toolbar and add a button to
"Insert (Linear/Circular/Feature) Component Pattern" - but I can't
find such a button in the Command section of the Customize dialog;
there's no Insert group, and the commands in question don't seem to be
under Assembly or anywhere else either. Am I missing something
obvious?
TIA,
-Mark

 

Hmmm, I would have also thought they were there. I see that you can assign
hotkeys to them, though.

WT

 

Hmmm. Looks like your right. That must be why I memorized the hotkey
sequence to instert patterns. Alt-i,p,f for a fature pattern, etc.

 

Would a macro be a convienent work around for this?

 

Yes...but from my brief flip through the API help, I don't see a way
to use a macro to simply call up a feature manager panel rather than
creating the feature within the macro. If it was worth my time, I
would take the "find first hole" macro from fcsuper.com (btw, great
site, Matt!) and add code to mate a fastener to that hole and pattern
it. However, this is something I'm going to be doing for the next day
or two and then not again for six months, so it's hard for me to
justify the time required to do that (I'm comfortable in VB but not
adept enough for something like that to be a quick job).
-Mark

 

Right click in the open gray area around your toolbars.
Click "Customize..."
A dialog box will open.
Click the "Commands" tab at the top of the dialog box
Click Features on the left.
Find the "Linear Pattern" icon
Drag the "Linear Pattern" icon from the area in the dialog box up to
your toolbar and drop it where you want it in the assembly bar.
Done.

 

The pattern that you are seeing is a feature pattern, to be used in a
part with holes, cuts, etc. What Mark is looking for is the component
patterns, which pattern components in an assy. Unfortunately, not
interchangeable.

WT

 

Your correct WT. I guess his only solution is a keyboard shortcut.