Lame image menus

I am frustrated with Autocad R14 to 2005 image menus. Autocad forces you to
have a minimum of 20 image tiles for each menu and submenu. Slides in each
tile are quite small and can be very difficult to read. Why hasn't Autocad
addressed this problem? In the old days (Release 9 or so) Autocad let the
user decide how many slides to display in the menu up to a maximum of I
think 16. That way the tiles could be displayed larger and therefore be
much more readable. Why didn't they keep it that way instead of forcing you
to have always 20 tiles in each menu? To me that is taking a step
backwards. Does anyone out there share the same feelings as I do when it
comes to these lousy image menus? You'd think by now Autodesk would have
made some major improvements in this area. To this day, you still can't
have solid hatched areas in image menus? Pretty lame if you ask me. With
the speed of computers these days, solid areas in image menus will display
fast enough. Get with it Autodesk. You've improved everywhere else, why
not image menus?

 

I've been experimenting with Tool Palettes for my block libraries over menu
driven slide libraries. I can at least enlarge the view of the slides to
meet my needs and change the size or location of a specific block within a
library on the fly.

As for the solid hatch area in image menus this hasn't been an issue for me.

J. Logan

 

You can modify the ACAD.DCL file (be sure to make a backup copy). You can lessen the number of tiles by commenting them out. You can add 4 more than the normal 20 by taking the comments out of the original ACAD.DCL. You can change each tile's size to one you choose. Here is the snippet of my ACAD.DCL that deals with the Image Tile. I found the code to change it on here and modified it a little bit.

Code:

acad_icon: dialog {
key = "label";
initial_focus               = "listbox";
: row {
: list_box {
width               = 20;
height              = 26;
fixed_height        = true;
fixed_width       = false;
key                 = "listbox";
allow_accept        = true;
}
: column {
: row {
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon1";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon2";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon3";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon4";
}
}
: row {
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon5";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon6";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon7";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon8";
}
}
: row {
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon9";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon10";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon11";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon12";
}
}
: row {
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon13";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon14";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon15";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon16";
}
}
: row {
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon17";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon18";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon19";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon20";
}
}

: row {
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon21";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon22";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon23";
}
: icon_image {
width          = 22;
height          = 7;
key         = "icon24";
}
}

}
}
: row {
: row {
spacer_0;
: row {
fixed_width = true;
: button {
label = "&Previous";
key = "prev";
width = 8;
}
:spacer {
width = 2;
}
:button {
label = "  &Next  ";
key = "next";
width = 8;
}
}
spacer_0;
}
spacer;
ok_cancel;
}
}

 

Thanks for the great advice, I will give it a try. I am quite familiar with
DCL having written many DCL interface progams myself.

Cheers!
Gord

lessen the number of tiles by commenting them out. You can add 4 more than
the normal 20 by taking the comments out of the original ACAD.DCL. You can
change each tile's size to one you choose. Here is the snippet of my
ACAD.DCL that deals with the Image Tile. I found the code to change it on
here and modified it a little bit.

 

I changed acad.dcl file by increase width and height attributes for
icon_image tiles and also commented out tiles 13 to 20 so that only 12
images will appear in the dialogue box. I can now see all my images clearly
thanks to Dommy2Hotty.

Cheers!

 

No problem...glad to help...but credit goes to someone else on this board, where I got my info from