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.