Augi World - July/August 2008 - (Page 19) press enter. For this article, I am going to use the name “My Panel” (Figure 2). By default, there are a few items that are created under the “My Panel.” The first item is Row 1, which represents the first row of tool buttons on the ribbon panel. Below Row 1 is the , which is used to control which rows are displayed when the ribbon panel is collapsed or expanded. Now that you have added some components to the ribbon, you need to add commands to a ribbon panel to create tool buttons. You can use existing commands or create new custom commands in the Command List pane, and then add them to a ribbon panel. To create a new command that saves and closes the current drawing, in the Commands List pane, right-click over the list box and choose New Command. In the Properties pane on the right, locate the Name field and enter Save & Close. In the Macro field, enter ^C^C_ QSAVE;CLOSE. The text sequence ^C^C emulates pressing the ESC key twice to ensure any current command is properly cancelled and QSAVE is used to start the Qsave command which performs a save on the current drawing. After QSAVE you will find the ; (semicolon) symbol which initiates the Enter keystroke, and finally CLOSE closes the current drawing. In the Button Image pane, located in the top right, select an image to use as the button’s image when it is displayed on the ribbon panel. If a custom image is desired, select an image from the list of available images and click the Edit button. Adjust the image as needed using the tools provided, and select Save As and save it to your “Custom Icons Location” as established in your file’s search path. Next locate the image just saved or selected in the Button Image pane to apply the selected button image to the command. Repeat the steps above to create any additional custom commands. To add a command to the “My Panel” in the Command List pane, simply hold your left mouse button over a command and drag and drop the command from the Command List pane to Row 1 under “My Panel.” In the Panel Preview pane, a button will appear for the command that is added to the ribbon panel. Repeat this process to add additional commands to the panel. To add additional commands to “My Panel” that are not displayed by default, right-click over “My Panels” and choose New Row to create a second row named Row 2. Drag and drop additional comJ u l /A u g 2 0 0 8 mands to the Row 2 of “My Panel.” Since Row 2 is below the the tools are only accessible when the down arrow on the ribbon panel is clicked to expand the ribbon panel. The final step to customizing the ribbon is to associate “My Panel” with “My Tab.” To do this, select the “My Panel” and hold your left mouse button down. Then drag and drop it onto the node of “My Tab.” Close the CUI Editor by clicking Close to save the customization file and return back to the drawing window. To display the newly create ribbon tab, if the ribbon is not already displayed, type in RIBBON and press Enter. This will display the ribbon, with the newly created ribbon tab and panel at the end of the Ribbon Tabs list. Trimming the ribbon Customizing the ribbon does not stop at adding tabs, panels, and tools. The ribbon’s UI can be customized in a variety of ways to display your tools while saving precious screen real estate. On the ribbon, rightclick over a ribbon tab and select one of the options from under the Minimize submenu (see Figure 3). access the tools on the panel. • Full Ribbon – Displays all the ribbon panels associated with the current ribbon tab. TIP: A quick way to cycle through the display states of the ribbon is to select the arrow to the right of the last ribbon tab. The ribbon is housed in a horizontal orientation as the default, but can be adjusted to a vertical orientation as well. By rightclicking over a ribbon tab and choosing Undock, one may move the ribbon about on the screen, to a second monitor, to the bottom of the screen, or anchor it to the right or left side of the screen. By choosing a vertical orientation for the ribbon and customizing which tabs and panels appear, you can quickly create a replacement for the discontinued “Dashboard” feature. The ribbon panels themselves can also be customized and be torn off to display similar to how a toolbar functions. Simply hold the left mouse button down over the top of a panel title and drag it onto the drawing window or a secondary monitor display. Conclusion Figure 3: Controlling the display of the tabs on the ribbon. Utilizing the new ribbon in AutoCAD 2009 not only helps users to better organize and access tool buttons, but it also helps open up more screen real estate within AutoCAD. Even users who are new to AutoCAD and lack a lot of “old school” menu-writing experience will be able to quickly customize the ribbon to meet their specific needs once the basics of customization are understood. The following options are available under the Minimize submenu: • Minimize to Tabs – Displays the name of the tabs on the ribbon only. Users must select a ribbon tab to display the ribbon panels associated with the ribbon tab and to access the tools on each ribbon panel. This option provides you with the most screen real estate over the other options available. • Minimize to Panel Titles – Minimizes the ribbon panels on a ribbon tab to show only the panel’s titles. Users must select the panel’s title to Mark Douglas is the Assistant CAD Manager for MKM & Associates, a Structural Engineering company located in Santa Rosa, California USA. He specializes in AutoCAD Customization, Dynamic Blocks and general knowledge of AutoCAD 2000 through 2009. He also uses DWF and Design Review to develop custom office applications for the engineering industry along with VBA, AutoLISP, and VB.Net. Mark can be reached via e-mail at dynamicinterface@hotmail.com or on his blog at http://mdouglas.blogs.com. 19 http://VB.Net http://mdouglas.blogs.com
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