Problem with sharing menu / toolbar

Hello All,

I have created an .mns file on our network, part of which is shown below.

//
// AutoCAD menu file - L:\LISPS\TOOLBAR\LispToolbars.mns
//

***MENUGROUP=LISPTOOLBAR

***TOOLBARS
**LISP-FILES
ID_LISP_FILES_0 [_Toolbar("LISP-FILES", _Floating, _Show, 464, 232, 1)]
ID_UserButton_0 [_Button("advert", "advert.bmp", "ICON_16_BLANK")]^C^Cadvert
ID_UserButton_1 [_Button("AreaT", "areat.bmp", "ICON_16_BLANK")]^C^CAreat

***HELPSTRINGS
ID_USERBUTTON_0 [adds vertexes to polylines]
ID_USERBUTTON_1 [Adds area of polyline in various units]


//
// End of AutoCAD menu file - L:\LISPS\TOOLBAR\LispToolbars.mns
//


The theory being change the toolbar / menu & it'll change on everyones
machine.
Problem is the toolbar will not load on any machine apart from the one that
originally compiles the menu, the menu loads but the toolbar doesn't.
Unloading the menu on the original machine then deleting the .mnr / .mnc
files on the server is the only way to get the toolbar to load on another
machine.
There is a support search path to the Network drive on each machine.
Is there any way to do this???

Steve

 

If the toolbars on other machines only show a 'happy face',
you need to copy the .bmp files to L:LISPS\TOOLBAR\
folder also. The icons are stored / referenced in the .mnr file.
Bob

 

Where are you loading the toolbar.mns file?

If your base menu is acad.mns the autocad will look for a .mnl file of the same name.
It is in the .mnl file that you can load the toolbar .mns.

(if (and (setq mnuloc (findfile toolbar.mns")))
(not (menugroup "lisptoolbar")))
(command "menu" mnuloc)
)
So each machine needs to have an .mnl file that matched their base menu file name and with the code above.

Bill

 

I am manually loading the .mns file using MENULOAD
Each user has their own ACAD.mn* and in a few cases AECARCHX.mn* which are
stored locally on their computer.
If I use the 'menu' command I lose all other menus bar ACAD. Changing to the
'menuload' command and I have the same problem, the menu loads but the
toolbar doesn't.
I think it has something to do with the .mnc file being locked, but I may be
wrong.
Any ideas?

BTW, when there is no problem with the icons.

Steve

file name and with the code above.

 

are you aware that you must delete mns, mnc, and mnr after revising mnu and
before reloading?
other wise acad will use previous mnc, mnr and ignore changes to mnu even
though you asked it to reload (via menuload)
eg:
this is what I use after revising my custom partial menu (by editing the mnu
file, not the mns or via toolbar)
;if you're editing the mns file or using editor/toolbar to change toolbars
(not recommended), don't use this technique, you'll lose your changes to the
mns file.
(defun c:RELOADZ (/ mn)
(command "menuUNload" "MARKZ");unload menugroup
;DELETE FILES "MARKZ.MNC MARKZ.MNS MARKZ.MNR")
(Vl-file-delete "Z:/ACsupport/MARKZ.MNR")
(Vl-file-delete "Z:/ACsupport/MARKZ.MNC")
(Vl-file-delete "Z:/ACsupport/MARKZ.MNS")
(Vl-file-delete "Z:/ACsupport/MARKZ._MN")
(command "menuload" "Z:/ACsupport/MARKZ.MNU");reload menu file
(princ)
)

 

Normally I only deal with mns files, but I was curious about this.

I copied an mns to mnu, then manually deleted a toolbar button in the mnu,
then used menuload to unload the menu and then load the mnu, without
deleting anything. The menu recompiled, and the previous mns, mnc, and mnr
files were overwritten with new files. There's no doubt that the mnc was
replaced, since it now has one less button on the toolbar.

 

Turns out our offices delightful combo of ADT, vanilla ACAD & LT was to
blame.
Any station running Vanilla ACAD that has the menu / toolbars loaded appears
to lock all LT stations out of the .mnc file somehow.
Looks like 3 separate .mnu files now, which is still better than 40 I
suppose.
Thanks for the help guys,

Steve

 

Then maybe my information is outdated. It used to be the case(or so i
thought)

 

Perhaps Bob's reply explains this. We keep menu files locally, but I would
imagine that as he says, you'd want to make any changes to a shared menu
either offline or while nobody else is using the files.

 

Not only that, but ACAD saves many things to Windows registry on close. References them on session open. This can also cause unexpected (results).
Bob