Augi World - July/August 2008 - (Page 18) Untying the Ribbon The user interface (UI) found in many of the products developed by Autodesk contains some ground-breaking ideas. AutoCAD® 2009 continues the trend of introducing new ways of interacting with AutoCAD’s UI. The UI feature that I am going to cover in this article can also be found in Microsoft’s Office 2007. This feature is known as the ribbon. The ribbon is a tool targeted at new and casual users of AutoCAD, allowing them to quickly access an abundance of tools while losing a relatively small portion of screen real estate. While some advanced users may find the ribbon to be a nuisance and slower than other ways of interacting with AutoCAD, advanced users should quickly realize the power of the ribbon for customization. This is one of the ways that Microsoft Office 2007’s ribbon differs. Maximizing screen real estate and quickly accessing tools is a balance that an AutoCAD user is always seeking. the ribbon tab. For this article I am going to use the name “My Tab” (Figure 2). Press enter after you have finished typing the name. Now that you have a tab, wouldn’t it be great to add existing ribbon panels or Figure 1: Ribbon tabs, panels, and tools, oh my. create new ribbon panels to associate to the “My Tab” ribbon tab? To create a new ribbon panel, in the Customizations In All CUI Files pane, lists, flyouts that display a set of similar locate the Ribbon Panels tools, and textboxes for textual input. Rib- node. Right-click over the Ribbon Panels bon panels can be set up to display a set of node and select New Panel to create a default tools or can be expanded to allow blank panel. Once the new ribbon panel you to access additional tool buttons. The is created, enter a meaningful name and vast majority of the tool buttons are driven by macros as well as built-in functionality for the combo boxes and textboxes. AUTOCAD The ribbon’s components Customizing the ribbon Customizing the ribbon in AutoCAD 2009 is done using the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor, which is also used to customize toolbars and other user interface elements. The ribbon has a couple of elements that make up the architecture of the Ribbon. Figure 1 identifies the various components of the ribbon: 1 – ribbon tab, 2 – command, and 3 – ribbon panel. The first element is known as the ribbon tab. The ribbon tab is basically a way to break up certain tools into different categories. The ribbon comes with six standard tabs containing elements known as ribbon panels. Each ribbon panel contains a number of different tool buttons and controls. The tools on the ribbon can be buttons with images, combo boxes with drop-down 18 To begin customizing the ribbon, at the command line type in CUI and press Enter. The Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor will be displayed. On the left, under the Customizations In All CUI Files pane, select All Customizations Files from the drop-down. From there, select the Ribbon Tabs node. Next expand the Ribbon Tabs node by choosing the plus sign symbol to display the ribbon tabs associated with that .cui file. Right-click over the Ribbon Tabs node and choose New Tab. A new tab node appears at the bottom of the list of ribbon tabs nodes, en- Figure 2: View of the ribbon components in the CUI Editor. abling you to type a new name for w w w. A U G I . c o m http://www.augi.com
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