There are two ways to do this: you can combine your custom pattern with acad.pat or add a support file search path. I personally will recommend the last one. You may loose your custom pattern if you somehow need to reinstall AutoCAD or your Windows account corrupts. Or you may just make your acad.pat corrupt.

Combine with acad.pat

You can find acad.pat in support folder. It should be something like C:\Users\YOURWINDOWSACCOUNT\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD XXXX – English\RXX.0\enu\Support. Find acad.pat and open it with text editor like notepad or notepad ++. Do not use Microsoft Word. I suggest you to make a backup of this file before you start to work.

Open another instance of Notepad and open your custom hatch. Select all, then copy it using [ctrl] + C. I use chainlink pattern from DotSoft website.

Paste it at the bottom most of your acad.pat file.

There is a comment that if you add user defined hatch below that section, then when you upgrade your AutoCAD this file will be migrated properly.

However, I still avoid this method.

Now save this file. Now you should immediately see your custom hatch in pattern list.

Add support file search folder

If you place all your custom hatch in your own folder, you can simply add support file search path. Open AutoCAD options (type OP then enter).

In files tab, below support file search path, add your folder.

Click OK to accept this changes, then when you activate hatch command, you should see it in your pattern list. If you can’t find it, you may need to change pattern type to user defined.

If you use hatch dialog box, you can change pattern type to custom or user defined.

I always use the last method, and avoid the first one. So I never really have problem or may be benefits of the first method. If you use the first one, why do you choose to use it? Will you recommend it instead of the last method?

Image illustration: © Daniel Gilbey – Fotolia.com

In the last few weeks, we published a tutorial series to work with customization file. This is the roundup of the tutorial, 5 steps on how you work with AutoCAD customization.

1. Exploring CUI and create your own customization file

In this first tutorial, we cover how you can access CUI dialog box. We explore elements in cuix file. And also how you can create your own customization file as partial cui.

Having separate customization file from default acad.cuix is important. Many things can make us to reset acad.cuix to its original state. And when you do this, you will loose your customization!

Find out more about accessing CUI dialog and exploring customization elements here.

2. Creating a command and ribbon tab

After having our own customization file, the common thing we do is to add our custom command. Here you can learn how to define a command, change it’s properties. And to give you a quick feel how to place it to your interface, you will create a panel and ribbon tab. Then place the command there.

Find out more about creating a command, panel, and ribbon tab here.

3. More about ribbon

Now after we can create commands, panels and tabs, we need to arrange them to make it looks neat. Ribbon is the default interface, so we start from here. You will learn about rows, sub panel and slideout panel. How to use them, and how to adjust their properties.

Find out more about ribbon elements’ properties here.

4. Working with toolbar and menu

Old timer like me? I don’t use toolbar and menu anymore because I’m not really a CAD user now. I have to use ribbon for presentation and training. I quite like it, but I’m not sure if I will stick to ribbon if I have to work 9-5 as AutoCAD user.

So here we cover how you can create your own toolbar and menu.

Find out more about creating toolbar and menu here.

5. More things you can do with CUI

There are several more things you can do with CUI. Not limited to creating commands, toolbar, menu and ribbon, you can tweak several more things. Rollover tooltip and mouse click are some of them.

Find out more cool things you can do with AutoCAD CUI here.

Bonus: Reusing CUI and sharing with team

As we mentioned before, we use our own customization file. Partial CUI can be saved in a custom (and safe) location, including a shared location over a network. This is safer and you can make it read only so users won’t be able to modify it.

Loading Partial customization file

So you have a partial CUI and want to load it. How you can do that? You can click load partial customization file in CUI dialog box. Just browse and find your file, then load it.

Unloading partial customization file

What about unloading it? expand partial customization file and right click above file you want to unload. Choose unload from contextual menu.

Using CUILOAD or MENULOAD

There is another way to load and unload cuix files. In older version, you can load your .mnu files using MENULOAD. This functionality is still exist. Alternatively, you can use CUILOAD. Both will load the same dialog box. You can click browse and load it. Or select loaded files in the list and click unload.

Few things to consider

What you need to consider is, your CUI may use image files for icons and load LISPs. Make sure these files’ path is also available when you load your CUI. If you tend to work locally, probably put CUI, all images and LISPs to a folder. For example C:\ACADLIB.

If you want to share it to all users from a network location, use that location when you create CUI.

After you master customization and you need to maintain it for dozens or more users, you might want to explore enterprise CUI. By defining it, you can make all users have same interface and commands. It’s also can be set as read only – no one else can modify it. This is a good start: create an Enterprise CUIx file (AutoCAD help).

Do you think you will use CUI?

Do you manage commands and interface using CUIx or planning to do it? I know many veterans prefer to create AutoLISP only but never bother to place it to AutoCAD interface. However, if you want other users to use your customization in your company, you must consider to place them to interface. Not everyone is command line kind of guy. But if you are a veteran who only customize AutoCAD for your own use, you probably never bother to use it.

Share your opinion here. Also if you used to do this using old way (mnu, mns) you can compare which is better in your opinon.

1. Rollover Tooltips and Quick Properties

Rollover tooltips and quick properties both give you quick information of your object. Rollover tooltips  will appear when you hover your mouse above an object. Quick properties is a palette that will open when you double click an object. Or you can set it to open automatically when you select object.

If you only want to see object’s properties, rollover tooltip would be a logical choice. But if you don’t like to wait until it appears, you can just choose quick properties. But the real difference is, you can edit the properties in quick properties but not in rollover tooltip.

Let’s say you are a surveyor. You would like to get information of an object quickly, like what is the object, its length and its area. You can just hover your mouse above it, and don’t have to inquiry its length and area! Isn’t that cool?

If you want to have this on your tooltip, open CUI dialog. You can work with your own customization file or just use default CUI.

Click rollover tooltips category.

You will see a list of objects at the right pane. If you use your own CUI, this list is still empty. Click edit object type list to add objects to this list.

You will see a complete list of AutoCAD objects. Select all objects which you want to modify the tooltip appearance. Let’s say I want to customize polyline tooltip.

I click it and click OK. Now polyline is on the list. But it has an exclamation mark. It means we haven’t defined any properties yet. So click all properties you want to show on tooltip for this object.

I select layer, area and length here.

Click OK to accept your changes and close CUI. Now test it. Create a rectangle or polyline and hover your mouse above it. Pretty cool right?

What about quick properties? You can do it the exact same way. But remember, you may want to select properties you change regularly.

2. Keyboard Shortcuts

AutoCAD users probably use command alias as shortcut more than keyboard shortcut. And many probably don’t even realize this kind of shortcut exist.

There are common Windows shortcut we can use in AutoCAD. Like [ctrl] + A to select all, [ctrl] + C to copyclip, and [ctrl] + V to pasteclip. Some AutoCAD users also use other applications intensively. They probably prefer this kind of shortcuts than command alias. But if you use AutoCAD as primary software, it’s more likely that you prefer command alias.

If you open your CUI again, click shortcut keys under keyboard shortcuts.

You will see a list of complete shortcuts on the right pane.

If you select a command here, you will see the command’s properties below that pane. Find Key(s) below Access category here. Click … button. After AutoCAD open a small dialog box, press key combination that you want to assign.

Ok, what if I want to add commands that’s not on the list? You can drag that command to shortcut keys category.

It is a good thing to add it to your own customization file, so you will not mess default AutoCAD CUI. And it would be easy to use it on other computer. You can simply load your customization file!

3. Double Click Actions

Double click action is similar to right click menu. It’s context sensitive. You can define what command should be executed when you double click an object. Lynn Allen has a tip on her blog before: convert a line to polyline with double click.

OK, let’s just use Lynn’s tip to add this command to our CUI. Lynn uses AutoCAD default CUI, so I guess I need to explain extra steps if you want to add it to your own CUI.

1. Create a new command

You can create a new command to convert a line to polyline using macro below:

^C^CPEDIT;y;;

Create it on your own customization file.

2. Add double click action

Right click double click actions, and choose new double click action in context menu.

Select the action and change object name to LINE.

3. Add command to action

Now drag your command below this action. You’ve done this several times, right?

It should look something like this:

Close your CUI and give it a try!

4. Mouse Click

Previously, when we work with our own customization file, it will override default settings. For example, if you assign keyboard shortcut [ctrl] + A in your CUI, AutoCAD will use it instead of select all as defined as default command.

I found that it’s different in mouse click. If you want to modify mouse click, you must change it directly in acad.cuix. If you know how to add this to our own cui without modifying acad cui, share in comment section below.

Here’s a little explanation about mouse buttons. Common mouse we use is a 3 buttons mouse. The left button is button 1, right button is button 2, and middle button is button 3.

See the structure below. You can also combined mouse click with [ctrl] and [shift] key. ctrl + shift + click > button 2 means: you hold [ctrl] and [shift] key then right click your mouse.

Like working with other actions, you can change the assignment by dragging command here. Try to replace ctrl + shift + click button to with erase and see if it works!

Why there are so many buttons? If you have more than 3 buttons mouse, you can assign commands to all of those buttons!

5. Loading LISP File

Another thing you can do with CUI is to load AutoLISP file. There are several ways to load AutoLISP automatically. The other ways are you can use startup suite or acaddoc.lsp.

However, if you intend to deploy customization to use for all users in your company, using CUI probably is the preferred way. You only need to load it once.

To load AutoLISP using CUI, right click above LISP files and choose load LISP from context menu. Consider to create a default location so all users can have the same folder in their computer. Otherwise, it will not work.

Do you use these custom setup in your CUI?

So do you use them already? If you are familiar with customization, you probably already do this. What is your favorite from these 5? If you haven’t which one do you think will be useful for you, and what will you use it for? Share it here!

In this post we will look at another automation tool – the command Macro. We will look at the difference between a Script and a Macro and discuss the possibilities of both.

To review:

• An AutoCAD Script Is an ASCII text file, with the file extension .SCR, that contains a number of instructions for AutoCAD to perform at the command line.
• An AutoCAD command Macro is also a list of instructions for AutoCAD to follow, but a Macro is run from the AutoCAD UI (A tool bar button, menu pull down or short cut key combination). A Macro usually lives within your CUI or on a Tool palette.

I hope to demonstrate that the process of writing a Macro is the same as that of writing a Script. All you really need to automate AutoCAD is a good understanding of the sequence of commands that you need to complete to get the job done.

AutoCAD Scripts

The Good – AutoCAD scripts can contain long lists of instructions for AutoCAD to follow. AutoCAD scripts can be stored in a central location on your server. Should you want to update a Script file, you only need to change it in one place for everyone to get the changes. AutoCAD scripts can contain comments, to remind you what the script does.

If you are using the full version of AutoCAD, you can use the LISP programming language within your script. This is not available to AutoCAD LT users.

The Bad – Loading Script files can be a fiddle, and your users will need to know where to find the Script files. Some internal training will be required to run your Scripts.

AutoCAD Macros

The Good – AutoCAD command Macros can be distributed via the CUI or tool palettes, making it much more intuitive for your users to use. AutoCAD Command Macro’s can contain LISP code, and they can also contain DIESAL code (which is good for AutoCAD LT users). Macros can contain pauses for user input, but be careful – there is no error handling method in a Macro.

The Bad – Writing long, complicated command Macro’s can be very difficult to debug.

Tip: You can of course, get the best of both worlds by using a command Macro to call a Script…

Automate your plotting – reloaded

In the last post, we learned how to examine what we had previously written at the command line to write a script. We end up with this script to create an A1 PDF plot in our default plotting location:

-plot
y

DWG To PDF.pc3
ISO A1 (841.00 x 594.00 MM)
m
l
n
l
1:1
0.00,0.00
y
monochrome.ctb
y
n
n
n
n
y

To write the same routine as a macro, we would put it all on one line, like this:

^C^C-plot;y;;DWG To PDF.pc3;ISO A1 (841.00 x 594.00 MM);m;l;n;l;1:1;0.00,0.00;y;monochrome.ctb;y;n;n;n;;n;y;

Note that, instead of a carriage return macros use the semi-colon to indicate where you would usually press return on your keyboard. Spaces are also interpreted as hitting the return key (just like when you are operating AutoCAD manually). However, using spaces can make your code difficult to read and debug so I suggest that you replace the spaces with semi-colons.

The ^C^C at the beginning of the command is equivalent to pressing ‘Esc’ on the keyboard twice. This should cancel any other commands that are running before your Macro runs. You can read more about the Syntax for AutoCAD Macros here.

Running and Debugging your Macro.

You can run your Macro from the AutoCAD CUI (See Edwin’s post on creating new AutoCAD commands) however I am going to show you how to run your command from a tool palette.

First use the keyboard combination shortcut CTRL+3 to open your tool palettes. Right click over any blank area on your palette and chose ‘New Palette’ to create a new blank palette which we will use for testing our macro.

Tip: These instructions are for AutoCAD 2012. Previous releases may be a little different. If you are new to working with Tool palettes, read Edwin’s post ‘creating your own AutoCAD palette’ for more information on creating and working with tool palettes.

(click image to enlarge)

1. Right click over any blank area on your new palette and choose ‘Customize commands’. This will bring up the ‘Customize user interface’ dialogue.
2. Type ‘script’ into the search box to bring up the run script command.
3. Drag and drop the run script command from the customize user interface dialogue onto your palette.

You don’t have to use the run script command for testing Macro’s, but there isn’t a ‘Run Macro’ command, so it will have to do!

To add your command Macro to the new toolbar button, right click on the ‘Run script’ tool palette button, and chose ‘Properties’. You can now paste your Macro in under ‘Command string’.

(click image to enlarge)

Click on the OK button to close the dialogue and save your Macro.

Finally, click on your new button… and see what happens!

You now have all the fun of debugging your Macro. I hope that it works for you first time. If it doesn’t – Hit ‘F2’ to bring up the AutoCAD text window to see what happened and what you might need to adjust to get your Macro working.

Macro examples

Here are some examples of command Macros that you could use, see if you can work out the commands and options used.

^C^C_fillet;r;0;

Start the fillet command with a radius of zero – Handy for joining reluctant polylines.

^C^C_pedit;m;\\;j;;;

Join multiple lines or arcs into a polyline in one go (this Macro assumes that the variable ‘PEDITACCEPT’ is set to 1)

^C^C_break;\@;

Break a line at the point you click on.

^c^_copy;\;\\_rotate;l;;@;

Copy and then rotate your selection

^c^_zoom;e;_zoom;0.95x;

Zoom a bit more than extents

^C^C-purge;r;*;n;

Purges all registered applications from memory.

^C^C_erase;all;;

Erase everything! – be careful with this one :D

What will you write a Macro for?

Writing Macro’s for AutoCAD can be simple and fun. You can create simple quick Macro’s that will save you time and effort every time you have to create a drawing.  You could create a Macro to plot your drawings at the click of a button, update your title block or create geometry on your company standard layers. Or you could create Macro’s to pull AutoCAD commands together that you use frequently.

What will you create today?

-Paul-

Working with toolbar

Working with toolbar should be easier. It has fewer properties than ribbon.

First, let’s open our CUI dialog box. Remember to activate customization file to yours (mine is cad-notes, yours might be different).

Creating new toolbar

Now we work on our own customization file. Try to click the + sign on the left of toolbars category. You should see there is no item below it yet. Our customization file is empty, remember?

Right click above toolbar, and choose new toolbar from contextual menu.

Give your toolbar name. I named mine ‘my viewport tools’. Not very catchy name, but at least I know what tools are in it.

Placing commands to a toolbar

To place commands is easy. Switch to ‘all customization files’ and expand ‘partial customization file’. Expand your cui and expand toolbar.

Drag your commands to your custom toolbar. Very similar with ribbon, right?

After you finish placing commands, just click OK. You don’t have to add toolbar to workspace, even if you were working in ribbon interface. You should immediately see the toolbar.

Loading toolbar

Just in case you don’t see the toolbar, you can load it manually.

If you use ribbon interface, go to view tab, windows panel, toolbars> YOUR CUI> YOUR TOOLBAR.

If you use classic interface, you can access it from menu tools> toolbars> YOUR CUI> YOUR TOOLBAR.

As I said before, it’s very easy. Especially if you compare it to placing commands in AutoCAD ribbon!

Working with menu

Working with menu is also the same. You create a new menu below menu category in CUI file and drag your commands there.

There are things to consider, because menu is not as flat as toolbar. You can create sub menu to group same commands with different options, and separator for similar commands.

See the menu structure below. Viewport layers is a sub-menu. It contains several commands.

To easily differentiate creating viewport and modifying viewport, we can add separator. This is very logical, especially if you are already familiar with programming or customization.

Now, how can we create the menu above in CUI?

1. Similar to toolbar, create new menu. Right click above menus category and choose new menu from contextual menu.
2. Drag your commands below your menu.
3. Add new sub-menu if necessary and drag your group of commands there.
4. Add separator if necessary. You can arrange the sequence by dragging them in CUI tree.

Arranging menu in workspace

Your new menu by default should appears as the last item. If you want it to appear elsewhere, you have to move the sequence using CUI.

Open your CUI, choose to show ‘all customization files’. Expand workspaces and select which workspace you want to arrange.

After you select the workspace, from the right pane expand menus. Drag your menu to arrange the sequence.

Contextual menu

Do you like to choose commands from contextual menu? You can access it by right click your mouse. We call it contextual menu because it will show only relevant commands with your selection set.

Below is contextual menu for associative array.

If you don’t have anything in selection set, then common tools you can get are navigation tools.

We covered how to create contextual menu in the past, so if you are interested on how to create it, you can read creating contextual menu tutorial here.

We still have more CUI tutorial coming! If you don’t want to miss the tutorial, subscribe to our email newsletter and receive updates in your mailbox. We are on twitter and facebook too!

We will add several more commands there, custom and AutoCAD default commands. If you haven’t got any custom command, you can follow our previous tutorial or just continue with default commands.

Adding custom commands

I created several commands from Paul Munford’s macro like below. You can refer to those macros or create your own if necessary.

I’m too lazy to create proper icons for each command, so I just use default icons. Of course, as you can see, the circular viewport is the same with draw circle icon. It can confuse your team if you do this. In the real job, create custom icons for them!

Drag all the commands to our viewport panel. Arrange the sequence in logical order. I arranged mine like below. The top to bottom commands will show in panel from left to right.

You might want to click OK, close the CUI dialog to see the changes. The ribbon panel should appears similar like below.

OK, the panel shows all command in one row, just like the old AutoCAD toolbar. This is not right. We still have plenty of space above and below it. We will add more rows to arrange them.

Working with rows

Open your CUI dialog again. We are still working with our own customization file.

Find your panel below ribbon category. Right click above your panel title, and choose new row from context menu. This will create ‘Row 2’ below your panel.

Repeat the process to create ‘Row 3’.

Place all the rows above <SLIDEOUT>. We will discuss about slide out later in this article.

Arranging commands in different rows

Now we have 3 rows in our panel. Drag and drop your commands to those rows. You can place similar commands on the same row. Below is how I arrange my commands.

You can see on the right pane the preview of your ribbon panel now. It looks better, but you can see that there are empty spaces at row 1 and 3. It’s because they don’t have the same commands number on each row.

You can add more commands or move them to different row to make it looks neat. But this time, let’s adjust the appearance by change the command button width.

Adjusting command appearance

Let’s change the viewport fit button. Select it under your panel tree.

Change button style to Small With Text. You can see at the panel preview now the button is wider. But the text is too long, now it’s become longer than other rows.

Change display name to VPort Fit to make it shorter.

You may not see the changes immediately on preview panel. Change the button style to other style, then choose small with text again.

Do the same thing with the last row. Now my custom panel looks like below. It looks better, isn’t it?

Add default AutoCAD commands

There are some default viewport commands we can add here. I consider to add this viewport dropdown control. It will allow us to create different shapes of viewport, only with one button.

To add this button, in CUI dialog switch to all customization files. This will allow you to access all commands from all CUI files.

Change command filter to ribbon control elements. This action will filter the commands. There are still many commands available. To control it further, type viewport in search field.

Drag create viewports drop-down to your panel.

Working with Sub Panel

Here is the thing: the create viewport drop-down is the common command that we will use often. So we want to make it standout from the crowd. We want to make it large. So change the button style to large with text.

But wait! This doesn’t look right. The large button should be on the left, using all three rows’ height. The other commands should be on its right.

How to make it looks like this?

We need to separate the commands in a sub panel. A sub panel lets you to define the placement just like in different panel.

Right click above Row 1 and choose New Sub-Panel from drop down menu. You should see a sub panel is added, with one row. Add two more rows for the sub panel.

Move all custom commands from main panel rows to this sub panel. Leave the large button on the main panel.

After the rows are empty, you can delete them.

The final arrangement should be like this:

So our all of our custom commands are now on the sub panel, and the create viewports drop-down on main panel. You may want to play a little bit more by yourself about this arrangement.

About slideout panel items

Do you notice the <SLIDEOUT> item in your panel? Do you know what it’s for?

Let’s add one more row in main panel. Don’t create it in sub panel. If you do it right, you should see Row 2, not Row 4.

Add more viewport tools to that row. Choose any tools you want to.

Check the preview and close CUI dialog by clicking OK.

So what does the slide out do? You will see small arrow pointing down at your panel name. Click it. Now you should see it slide out and show the second row!

This is useful if you have more tools to place at your panel, but rarely used.

You may want to try placing your custom panel at existing tabs. Or playing around with more configurations. Feel free to do it. We created our own customization file, didn’t we?

Next, we will cover about creating menu and toolbar. Yes, even the latest AutoCAD by default using ribbon, many of us still use menu and toolbar!

How are you doing so far?

Let’s see what we will do:

1. We will use our own cui file. So create it first before you follow this tutorial. We did it on the last tutorial.
2. We will create custom commands. Later, we will combine them with existing AutoCAD command  to our panel.
3. We will create a panel and a ribbon tab.
4. We will define in which workspace the panel should appear.

Change your active customization file

In your CUI dialog, select your custom CUI you created before. If you miss the first step, you can check it in this first tutorial. I named it CAD-NOTES, but you may use your own name.

You should see your cuix file here. The command list is still empty, and there is no toolbar, menu or ribbon defined yet.

Create a new command

Let’s try to create a ribbon panel version of Paul Munford’s killer macro. There are few default AutoCAD command, but we also need to create the commands. So I guess this is a good exercise.

First, we need to create a command. In command list area, click create a new command.

Now you should see a command is listed here. The default name is Command1. Notice that the source is CAD-NOTES. It means the command is defined in that file. Select it.

The properties on the right pane is now showing the command’s properties.

Configuring your command

Change the properties as shown below:

Here are some considerations:

1. You should give the command a unique name, so you can find it easily.
2. You need to define the macro that will be executed when this command is active.
3. Optionally, you may add information to description and other fields. You can also define the icon image. You can create 32×32 pixel image for large icon and 16×16 pixel for small icon. Or just pick one from available icons.

You may create as many tools as you want. In Paul’s article, you can find very useful custom tools. Read it, you may find some custom tools that you want.

But remember, if it’s already a default AutoCAD command, you can just use it. You don’t need to create a new one.

Placing your command

You already have your custom command. You can define it to execute macro like we did above, or run an AutoLISP program.

But you haven’t place it to a toolbar, menu or ribbon panel. AutoCAD doesn’t know where you want to place it. Yet. We must tell AutoCAD where it should be.

We’re still working on our custom CUI file. For this exercise, let’s work with ribbon. You may try to place it on menu or toolbar later, but this time just ribbon.

Where do you can find a command? In a ribbon panel. So now we must create a ribbon panel for our command.

Remember: If you decide to add this command to existing panel, you don’t need to create a new one.

Creating a panel

In customization tree, expand ribbon. You will see panels category there, but there is no panel defined yet. Remember, we are working on a new customization file.

Right click above the panels category and choose new panel from contextual menu.

Give your panel a name. I named mine viewport tools.

Now we have a panel, but it’s still empty. How can I add my command to this panel? By drag it from command list and drop it under the panel.

We will fine tune the appearance later. Just drag your command there now.

Creating a ribbon tab

Now AutoCAD knows on which panel the command should appear. But where the panel should be? Is it at home tab? annotation tab? We also need to define this.

Because we want to place all of our custom command to a separate tab, we need to create a new ribbon tab. Again, if you just want to add that panel to existing tab, you don’t have to create a new tab.

Right click above tab category, then choose new tab from context menu. Give the new tab a name.

Because we want our panel before to appear on this tab, drag that panel here.

The last thing: Define the workspace

Are we done yet? Unfortunately no. There is one last thing we have to define. In which workspace it should appear.

Follow these steps to place our tab to workspace ribbon.

1. Change the customization file to ‘all customization files’ (1).
2. Select drafting & annotation default (2). You should see the right pane is now showing the workspace contents (3).
3. In customization files tree, expand partial customization files> your customization file> ribbon (4).
4. Find your custom tab then drag it to ribbon tabs category.

We are done! Click OK to accept all changes and close CUI dialog.

You should see your tab now. Click that tab to activate it. Your panel and command is now there!

If you don’t see it, make sure you use drafting and annotation workspace! You  can change it from quick access toolbar.

Try the command to make sure it works.

Isn’t that cool? We will add more commands next, and how to arrange the commands in our panel.

So let’s discuss about customize user interface (or CUI). In this first article, we will discus about accessing the dialog and preparing our own CUI that we will use later.

You can open the dialog by clicking the button in manage tab>customization>user interface.

Or veteran users usually do it by typing CUI then [enter].

Customize User Interface dialog box

The dialog box probably looks a bit scary with all the commands, tree and graphics. While it looks complicated, it is arranged logically. And should be easy to understand.

First, let’s understand what are the three panes are for.

1. Customization tree

Customization tree is where you can arrange your commands, menu, toolbars, panels, ribbon tabs, and other customization items.

If you click the + sign near an item, you will see sub items inside it. Let’s try to expand the ribbon.

Below the ribbon, there are tabs and panels. It also has contextual tab states: tab that will open when you select objects.

This is the way we define where our commands, panels, tabs, toolbars and other elements.

Depends to which version of AutoCAD you have, you can see all CUIx files loaded to AutoCAD. You can see it from customization files list dropdown or under the partial customization files category.

Try to expand ACFUSION.

Under each customization file, you will see they have the same element: ribbon, tabs, panels, and so on. If you expand the ribbon and panels, then you will see Inventor Fusion panel.

Where does it appear? It appears at ribbon tab.

It is a good idea to create separate customization file and not messing the default acad.cuix. We will do it later in this tutorial.

2. Command list

Command list is the area where you can find existing command, or create a new command. Try to drag the slider on the right side of the command list. You should be able to see all commands here.

You can filter the command by typing in search field, or choose list to display from dropdown menu.

We will explore about creating new command on the next tutorial. If you only want to create a custom panel without creating a custom command, you only need to find default command here.

3. Properties pane

Select a command, then you should see the right pane (3) is updated. Now it shows this command properties.

You can change the button image, the command name, and macro that will be executed when you click the button. This is where you define the properties of commands, panels, tabs, and other elements.

We will define a new command properties on the next tutorial, and use it to fine tune our custom panel and tab on other tutorial.

Preparation

Before we start to make a customization, lets do some preparation. We will create a new CUIx file to work on this tutorial series.

Create a custom CUIx

Let’s create our own custom CUI. We will create commands, define panels and tab here. We will not use AutoCAD default CUI.

To create a CUI file, go to transfer tab in CUI dialog. Click new button or choose new from dropdown menu.

Click save to save it to a new CUIx file.

Load CUIx file

You have created the CUI file. But you haven’t load it yet. Go back to customize tab, then click load partial customization file. Or you can right click when selecting partial customization file, then choose it from contextual menu.

Find your saved customization file you saved in previous step, then load it. Now you should see your file listed both in dropdown menu and under partial customization files.

We will continue to work with customization on the next tutorial.