Modifying the CUI file for
AutoCAD Architecture 2008/2009
For this month’s article I thought it
would be nice to have a little review for the product
AutoCAD® Architecture. For many of you, this
might be the new software that came with your upgrade from
Architectural Desktop (ADT). Even though the commands are
mostly the same there have been a few changes to how exactly
you can work with the program. One such issue is the user’s
interface and the process of modifying the viewing area. The
step to do this used to be right-clicking in the toolbars
and selecting “customize.” Although this was very useful and
simple to do, Autodesk decided to use a different
methodology and process to get there.
The “Customize User Interface” (CUI) command now takes
charge of this process. This command now handles the
customizing of the entire user interface including shortcut
keyboard commands and mouse button assignments. This process
will also handle any migrating issues that the user may have
coming from other versions of the AutoCAD releases such as
version 14, 2000 all the way to 2008.
In this article I will help you to change your user
interface with a simple step by step outline of the CUI
command.
Step 1:
Type CUI in the command line. This will bring up the CUI
Editor.
If you do not see this dialog then you will need to expand
the box by clicking on the arrow shown in the bottom right
corner.
As you look at the opened dialog box you will see the first
open area at the top left. You will see the different
options that you can customize. The list includes:
Workspaces
Toolbar menus
Shortcut menus
Keyboard shortcuts
Mouse buttons
For the purposes of this article, I will briefly show how to
create a new toolbar that includes some frequently used
commands. In this example I will be using AutoCAD 2009.
With the CUI Editor open I will create the new toolbar.
Under the toolbar line item we will maximize the list. You
will see all current toolbars that are active within
AutoCAD.
To create a new toolbar, right-click on Toolbars and select
New Toolbar. This action will insert a new toolbar at the
bottom of the list and allow you to rename it to your needs.
Now that you have created the new toolbar you will need to
insert the commands desired. This is as simple as dragging
the commands onto the new toolbar. As you can see, I have
already started to populate the toolbar with some commands
that I use regularly. Once you have inserted several
commands you have an option in the sub menu if you
right-click on the commands, to insert a separator. Use this
to separate different type of commands and to organize them.
In order to find the commands you would like to list in the
toolbar, scroll down to the bottom left to scroll through
all the commands known in the software package. Just drag
and drop onto the toolbar.
As you drag and drop these commands to your toolbar, you
will notice in the top right corner of the CUI Editor a
graphical example of your toolbar being populated. This is
also the location where you will be able to edit the icon’s
image affiliated with the command. The properties of the
command and icon are listed below this section to allow you
to make changes if necessary.
Although this is brief I hope that I provided you with an
easy to understand example of how to change the CUI file.
You can always go to the Help menu through AutoCAD to get
more information.
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