AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies (2006)

622 Creating a New Shortcut Key

Separator bars

Separator bars are used to organize and group commands together on a toolbar, pull-down menu, or shortcut menu. Separator bars can be inserted by right-clicking over a toolbar, pull-down menu, or shortcut menu and selecting Insert Separator. A separator bar is displayed as a horizontal or vertical line in the user interface, and as a short dash in the CUI editor.

Creating a New Shortcut Key

Shortcut keys allow you to access commands by using a keyboard combination that includes at least one modifier key and another key on the keyboard. Shortcut keys must use the Ctrl modifier key, but the Ctrl key can also be combined with the Shift or Alt key.

Follow these procedures to create a shortcut key:

1.From the menu bar, choose Tools Customize Interface.

The CUI editor is displayed.

2.In the Customizations In pane, click the plus sign next to the Keyboard Shortcuts node.

The Keyboard Shortcuts node is expanded and displays two additional categories: Shortcut Keys and Temporary Overrides.

3.In the Command List pane, select the command that you want to add to create a shortcut key for. Hold down the mouse button after selecting the command and drag it up to the Shortcut Keys node of the Customizations In pane. Release the mouse button when the cursor is over the node to add the command.

A new shortcut key is created based on the command dropped onto the node.

4.In the Properties pane, select the Key(s) field and click the button that appears on the right side of the field.

The Shortcut Keys dialog box is displayed (see Figure 3-10).

Figure 3-10:

The Shortcut Keys dialog box.

624 Migrating and Transferring Customization

A new double-click action with the default name DoubleClick1 is created under the Double-Click Actions node.

3.In the Properties pane, change the double-click action’s Name.

The Name is used to locate the double-click action.

4.Enter the object name that the double-click action should be associated with in the Object Name property field.

The Object Name is used to identify which double-click action should be fired off when a user double-clicks an object in the drawing window.

5.In the Command List pane, select the command that you want to associate with the double-click action. Hold down the mouse button after selecting the command and drag it up to the new double-click action in the Customizations In pane. Release the mouse button when the cursor is over the node to add the command.

The command is now associated with the double-click action and the specified object name.

6.Click Apply to stay in the CUI editor and save the changes, or click OK to exit the CUI editor and save the changes.

The changes are saved out to file.

Migrating and Transferring Customization

Upgrading to a new version of AutoCAD has always been a somewhat timeconsuming problem with all of the customization and settings that need to be updated for a new release. Since AutoCAD 2005, AutoCAD has offered a utility called Migrate Custom Settings, which allows you to easily migrate a majority of your custom settings to a new release.

The utility migrates only settings, profiles, and customization located in specific support files but doesn’t do anything with menu customization.

To resolve part of this problem, the CUI editor was designed with a Transfer tab. The Transfer tab allows you to migrate custom toolbars, pull-down menus, and other user interface elements to the new release.

Transferring customizations has always been a manual process: opening two customization files with a text editor, and then copying and pasting sections between the two files. The problem is that the approach of copying and pasting between two files can result in missing information or a file structure problem. The CUI editor resolves this problem by migrating your menu customization files forward to the .CUI file format and allowing you to move user elements by dragging and dropping right in the editor.

626 Working with Partial and Enterprise Customization Files

The Legacy node contains tablets, image tile menus, and screen menu customization. If you have customized any of these sections in previous releases, don’t forget to transfer these elements too.

7.Switch back to the Customize tab and make any necessary changes to the transferred user interface elements.

You may need to add additional commands or even update workspaces to include or exclude toolbars and pull-down menus.

8.Click Apply to stay in the CUI editor and save the changes, or click OK to exit the CUI editor and save the changes.

The changes are saved out to file.

Working with Partial and Enterprise

Customization Files

Partial and enterprise customization files are ways of organizing and sharing customization between users. Whether you work in a large or small company, you can use an enterprise customization file to share standard company tools with all the members of your drafting teams. You might use tools in

an enterprise customization file to ensure layer and annotation standards, along with accessing company title blocks.

A partial customization file can contain a subset of customization when compared to the main customization file. The customization in the partial customization file is usually personal or task-based customization. You might use different partial customization files for different disciplines like Civil or Architectural.

Loading an enterprise customization file

Follow the procedures below to load an enterprise customization file.

1.From the menu bar, choose Tools Options.

The Options dialog box is displayed.

2.Click the Files tab, and click the plus sign next to the Customization Files node.

The Customization Files node expands and shows some additional nodes: Main Customization Files, Enterprise Customization File, and Custom Icon Location.

3.Click the plus sign next to the Enterprise Customization File node.

630 Working from a Script

What is a script file?

A script file is used to automate functionality in AutoCAD using standard AutoCAD commands, options, and AutoLISP expressions. (AutoLISP expressions are not supported by AutoCAD LT, however.) A script file is a plain text file that contains commands and options in a specific format and has the file extension of .SCR. The structure of a script is very similar to the way AutoCAD commands and options are entered at the command line. Here is an example of a script file that does some basic drawing setup and demonstrates how to use comments in a script file:

; Created 11/13/05 by Lee Ambrosius LTSCALE 24

BLIPMODE 0 LIMITS 0,0 24,17 ZOOM EXTENTS

The opening line of the example is a comment that is ignored during the execution of the script. Comments don’t execute, but they can contain very important information that comes in handy when updates are made to the script file, for example. Comment lines begin with a semicolon, so AutoCAD ignores everything to the right of a semicolon.

The second line, LTSCALE 24, sets the linetype scale system variable to a value of 24. The space between LTSCALE and the value 24 is just like pressing the Enter key while entering values at the command line or dynamic input tooltip. AutoCAD automatically issues an Enter for each new line as the script is being evaluated.

The next line, BLIPMODE 0, turns blip markers off. The next line, LIMITS 0,0 24,17, is used to set the lower-left and upper-right drawing limits. The last line, ZOOM EXTENTS, is used to make sure the drawing is zoomed to its limits. At the end of the script file, make sure that there is a single blank line to let AutoCAD know when the script file ends.

Alternatively, commands and options can be on separate lines or on the same line; neither method is right nor wrong, but rather a preference. The following example shows the same script as previously shown with commands and options on separate lines.

;; Created 11/13/05 by Lee Ambrosius LTSCALE

24 BLIPMODE 0

LIMITS 0,0 24,17 ZOOM EXTENTS