Toolbar Question

I have created a custom toolbar that others in my area would like to have. Is there a way to save this toolbar onto a floppy and install on other computers? Thanks for the help.

 

Toolbars exist in the menu file.
Did you create this toolbar from inside AutoCAD?, or manually edit the menu ASCII file?
Did you create this toolbar in your own custom menu file?, or add it to an existing menu (ACAD.MNU/MNS?)
Did you create custom bitmaps, or use the standard icons?
If you created this toolbar inside AutoCAD, did you add existing buttons from different menugroups? Do you know what this means?

All these things have a bearing on how to best answer your question.

 

Yes, I created the menu within Acad, and in the existing menu group. What I did was create a new toolbar by right clicking on a menu and creating a new toolbar and then creating custom buttons with custom bitmaps. I know where the bitmaps are saved to however I can't find the toolbar if it's in its own file. I'm thinking it just part of the menu group file. So I need to know how to make it a stand alone toolbar that I can save with it's own file name. At least I think thats what I need to do. Does that make sense?

 

Makes perfect sense.

The toolbar is located in the 'acad.mns' file.

To make it stand-alone you must create your own 'sarczar.mns' file.

Use below as an example:

//
// Example menu file - MASi Tools.mns
//

***TOOLBARS
**MASI_DOORS
ID_Masi_Doors_0 [_Toolbar("MASi Doors", _Floating, _Show, 400, 50, 0)]
ID__0 [_Button("Add", "C:/Program Files/Cadentity/MASi/DAdd.bmp",
"ICON_24_BLANK")]^C^C^p_masi-cdoor
ID__1 [_Button("Remove", "C:/Program
Files/Cadentity/MASi/DRemove.bmp", "ICON_24_BLANK")]^C^C^p_masi-remove

//
// End of AutoCAD menu file - MASi Tools.mns
//



The menu group portion you must copy clip from the 'acad.mns' file. If you
don't want happy faces then provide the BMPs were autocad can find them or
hardcode the location as I've done, and illustrated.
--

AUTODESK
Authorized Developer
http://www.Cadentity.com
MASi

I did was create a new toolbar by right clicking on a menu and creating a
new toolbar and then creating custom buttons with custom bitmaps. I know
where the bitmaps are saved to however I can't find the toolbar if it's in
its own file. I'm thinking it just part of the menu group file. So I need to
know how to make it a stand alone toolbar that I can save with it's own file
name. At least I think thats what I need to do. Does that make sense?

 

That's exactly what I was looking for, worked great. Thanks for the help

 

Ok, I made the toolbar with no problem, but now I want to make it a flyout. Before I have just made an user-defined flyout and then associated a toolbar with that. However when I try to do that with this one I get the following "cannot find associated toolbar "mns.bom_flyout3" in menu group "h:/documentation\users\scra\bom_flyout3" please associate another toolbar with this layout" does anyone kjnow what i"m doing wrong? I have attached the menu group I made if that will help. Thanks.

 

I would guess that you're missing the primary toolbar.

So just go back to the MNS file and look for it.

flyout. Before I have just made an user-defined flyout and then associated a
toolbar with that. However when I try to do that with this one I get the
following "cannot find associated toolbar "mns.bom_flyout3" in menu group
"h:/documentation\users\scra\bom_flyout3" please associate another toolbar
with this layout" does anyone kjnow what i"m doing wrong? I have attached
the menu group I made if that will help. Thanks.

 

Try different MENUGROUP name.
Something like this might get it.
***MENUGROUP BOMFLYOUT3

Don't include the 'path' h:/doc....
not needed in menugroup name.

Bob

 

Rudy,

IMHO, create not as an mns file but mnu...
mns files can an will be updated, and overwritten by AutoCAD,
thus making it hard to go back to your original design.

mark

 

I totally agree. Especially in this case with a user who is new to the entire process.

I always edit the MNU and let AutoCAD worry about the MNS/R/C files.

 

For what he was proposing, it would be wiser to just create a partial menu
MNS and have that instead of touching the acad.mnu.

If he's going to share that with the entire office, it would easier to
simply menuload the partial menu than to hard code or overwrite each station
you'd like to update.

--

AUTODESK
Authorized Developer
http://www.Cadentity.com
MASi

I totally agree. Especially in this case with a user who is new to the
entire process.

I always edit the MNU and let AutoCAD worry about the MNS/R/C files.

 

I agree. The best way is to leave the acad.mnu alone, and add a customized 'mns' file.

 

Mark,

This problem won't happen at all if the .mnu file doesn't exist. Note that
the .mnu file hasn't been _required_ for years now. You only run the risk of
losing stuff in the .mns when the .mnu inadvertently is loaded, so if it
doesn't exist, that error cannot happen.

Now, if the user does some toolbar customization, and hates it, of course
they will need to restore a backup of the .mns (which, BTW, is the *only*
rationale for continuing to have a .mnu file, but I prefer true backup of
the .mns file).

--
R. Robert Bell



Rudy,

IMHO, create not as an mns file but mnu...
mns files can an will be updated, and overwritten by AutoCAD,
thus making it hard to go back to your original design.

mark

 

nobody mentioned editing acad.mnu...
i was proposing a custom menu (MNU) file w/ menuload
instead of an MNS w/ menuload

mark

 

What's wrong with creating a 'mns' file for the custom menu ??

 

The MNS file is created from the MNU file when the menu is compiled. After that any customization that occurs from with the ACAD editor will only be updated to the MNS, making the MNU outdated.

Example:
During the first compile of MYMENU.MNU, three additional file are created MYMENU.MNS, MYMENU.MNR and MYMENU.MNC. If, in an ACAD session you right-click on a toolbar, select "Customize", and modify anything within any of the toolbars defined by MYMENU, that modification is only updated back to the MNC and MNS. The MNU does not carry the modification. And were it to be re-loaded instead of the mns, all modifications would be lost.

We leave the ACAD.MN_ alone (write-protected) and we MENULOAD several discipline specific menus behind that (also write-protected). Then each user is supplied a PERSONAL.MNS to menuload behind all of those. This PERSONAL.MNS can be modified as the user requires.

All MNU files have been removed to a singular access directory and are not accessible by anyone but CAD management. Once a modification is made to an MNS and has been "bounced-checked" to make sure it works, CAD management copies the new MNS over the old MNU as a backup.

 

Using the AutoCAD menu customization interface is just a very BAD idea.
You are better off creating a partial menu file/group from scratch
with a text editor. You can use a copy of an existing menu as a
template to edit.

There are two kinds of menu's in AutoCAD. The main menu (acad.mn*) by
default and partial menus which are often used by third party
applications. the main menu is loaded using MENU command, partial menus
are loaded using MENULOAD command.

Never edit AutoCAD's default menus, always keep user and custom menu's
as partial menus with theirown group name and loaded using MENULOAD
command. Portability is the key here.

Only use the AutoCAD bitmap editor to create a bitmap image, then saveas
and give it a filename, then simply cancel out of the bitmap editor so
no changes are made to the menu files directly. Otherwise it creates
generic bitmap naming conventions (e.g. ICON001 ICON002 etc) and places
them in the current AutoCAD working directory (e.g. the current drawing
directory). This may appear to work okay on a standalone system for
awhile but in shared network environments its a disaster.

After creating the bitmap files, manually edit the bitmap filenames in
the menu source file.

Another suggestion, forget the AutoCAD bitmap editor alltogether and use
an external bitmap editor to create the bitmaps. AutoCAD's bitmap
editor pallette only has 16 colors, however toolbars will display
bitmaps using all colors available to your OS which many commerical and
freeware bitmap editors will make available in their color pallettes.

Just some helpfull hints to avoid a great deal of problems.


Regards,

Jesse