AutoCAD LT 2011 - Autodesk | 3D Design, Engineering

AutoCAD LT 2011 Customization Guide February 2010 ©2010 Autodesk, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by Autodesk, Inc., this publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose. Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder. 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Published by: Autodesk, Inc. 111 McInnis Parkway San Rafael, CA 94903, USA Contents Chapter 1 Basic Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Overview of Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Organize Program and Support Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Overview of File Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Multiple Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Multiple Drawing Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Locate Customized Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Locate Plot Style Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Locate Plotter Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Locate the PMP File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Locate Support Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Locate Drawing Template Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Customize a Publish to Web Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Create Command Aliases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2 Custom Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Overview of Linetype Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Simple Custom Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Text in Custom Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Chapter 3 Custom Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Overview of Hatch Pattern Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Hatch Patterns with Dashed Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 iii Hatch Patterns with Multiple Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Chapter 4 User Interface Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Understand User Interface Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Overview of the Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Use the Customization Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Overview of the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Work with the Customizations In Pane . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Work with the Command List Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Work with the Dynamic Display Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 How Customization Has Changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Customization Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Work with the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor . . . . . . . . . . 58 Create a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Create User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Create a Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Customize the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Create a Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Create a Pull-Down Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Create a Shortcut Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Customize Shortcut Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Create a Double Click Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Create a Mouse Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Create and Modify Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Create a Workspace from the User Interface . . . . . . . . . 70 Create a Workspace with the CUI Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Create and Manage Customization Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Basics of Customization Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Create and Load a Partial CUIx File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Create an Enterprise CUIx File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Find and Replace Commands and Text in a CUIx File . . . . . . . 86 Customize Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Overview of Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Create, Edit, and Reuse Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Create Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Overview of Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Use Special Control Characters in Macros . . . . . . . . . . 104 Pause for User Input in Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Provide International Support in Macros . . . . . . . . . . 108 Repeat Commands in Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Use Single Object Selection Mode in Macros . . . . . . . . 110 Use Macros to Swap User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . 110 Use Conditional Expressions in Macros . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Control the Display of Command Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Assign Search Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 iv | Contents Create Tooltips and Extended Help for Commands . . . . . . . . 122 Create Status Line Help Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Assign, Create, and Manage Images for Commands . . . . . . . 129 Assign Images to a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Create and Edit Custom Images for Commands . . . . . . 132 Manage, Import, and Export Custom Images . . . . . . . . 134 Customize User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Quick Access Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Ribbon Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Ribbon Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Ribbon Contextual Tab States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Create and Edit Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Add Flyouts to a Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Add, Remove or Switch Toolbar Controls . . . . . . . . . . 207 Pull-down and Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Overview of Pull-Down and Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . 212 Create a Pull-Down Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Create a Shortcut Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Create Submenus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Reference Pull-Down or Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . 229 Swap and Insert Pull-Down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Quick Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Rollover Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Shortcut Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Temporary Override Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Double Click Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Overview of Double Click Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Double Click Action Object Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Examples of Double Click Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Mouse Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Overview of Mouse Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Accept Coordinate Entry in Button Menus . . . . . . . . . 271 Legacy Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Create Tablet Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Customize Tablet Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Create Image Tile Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Customize Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Overview of Workspace Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Control User Interface Elements Outside the CUI Editor . . . . . 293 Control User Interface Elements in the CUI Editor . . . . . . . . 296 Control the Appearance of Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 Transfer and Migrate Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Contents | v Chapter 5 DIESEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Customize the Status Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Overview of the MODEMACRO System Variable . . . . . . . . . 325 Set MODEMACRO Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 DIESEL Expressions in Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 Catalog of DIESEL Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 + (addition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 - (subtraction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 * (multiplication) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 / (division) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 = (equal to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 < (less than) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 > (greater than) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 != (not equal to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 <= (less than or equal to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 >= (greater than or equal to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 angtos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 edtime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 eq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 eval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 fix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 getenv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 getvar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 if . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 nth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 or . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 rtos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 strlen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 substr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 upper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 xor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 DIESEL Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 Chapter 6 Slides and Command Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Create Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Overview of Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 View Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Create and View Slide Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Create Command Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Overview of Command Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Run Scripts at Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 Run Slide Shows from Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 vi | Contents Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Contents | vii viii 1 Basic Customization Your dealer can offer you independently developed applications that can further tailor AutoCAD LT to your needs. Overview of Customization AutoCAD LT can be customized in simple ways. For example, you can change the directory structure or move a button from one toolbar to another. If you want to change the interface further, you can edit the CUIx file and use DIESEL code to create customizations with your own commands. The list that follows is arranged from least to most complex: ? Organize files. You can organize program, support, and drawing files. For example, you can make a separate folder for each project that includes only the support files that project needs. ? Customize Tool Palettes. You can create a tool by dragging objects from your drawing onto a tool palette. You can create a tool palette by right-clicking on the Tool Palettes title bar and selecting New Palette. For information about customizing tool palettes, see “Customize Tool Palettes” in the User's Guide. ? Create custom templates. Use templates to define common parameters when you publish a drawing using the Publish to Web wizard. ? Define command aliases. You can define simple abbreviations, or aliases, for frequently used commands from within AutoCAD LT by adding the command to the PGP file acadlt.pgp. For example, you might want to start the BLOCK command by entering b. 1 ? Create custom linetypes and hatch patterns. You can create linetypes and hatch patterns that conform to your company standards and working methods. ? Customize the user interface. The CUIx file controls many aspects of the user interface, including the behavior of your pointing device buttons and the functionality and appearance of pull-down, tablet, and image tile menus, toolbars, and accelerator keys. You can edit or create a CUIx file to add commands or combine commands and assign them to a menu, toolbar, or other location. ? Customize the status line. You can use the DIESEL string expression language and the MODEMACRO system variable to provide additional information at the status line, such as the date and time or system variable settings. ? Automate repetitive tasks by writing scripts. A script is an ASCII text file containing commands that are processed like a batch file when you run the script. For example, if a set of drawings needs to be plotted a certain way, you can write a script that opens each drawing, hides and displays various layers, and issues PLOT commands. You can use scripts with slides to create automated presentations like those used at trade shows. A slide is a “snapshot” of the drawing area that cannot be edited. Slides can also be used in image tile menus and dialog boxes. See also: ? “Organize Program and Support Files” ? “Toolbars” ? “Customize a Publish to Web Template” ? “Create Command Aliases” ? “Custom Linetypes” ? “Custom Hatch Patterns” ? “User Interface Customization” ? “DIESEL” ? “Customize the Status Line” ? “Slides and Command Scripts” 2 | Chapter 1 Basic Customization