Hagerman & Company, Inc. Technology Bulletin


Tips and Tricks: Custom electrical symbol menu

By Clayton Pepmiller,
MCAD Solutions Engineer
Hagerman & Company

We recommend that you create your own symbol menu and leave the AutoCAD Electrical symbol menu intact.

The following steps can be used to create your own custom symbol menu.

  1. Copy the current AutoCAD Electrical symbol menu to a new location.

    C:\ Documents and Settings \ <USER> \ Application Data \ Autodesk \ AutoCAD Electrical 2009 \ R17.2 \ enu \ Support \ ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT

    Copy to…

    C:\ Electrical Customization \ ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT
     

  2. Rename the menu copy to a new name.

    C:\ Electrical Customization \ ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT

    Rename to …

    C:\ Electrical Customization \ CUSTOM_MENU.DAT
     

  3. Launch AutoCAD Electrical.
     

  4. Start the Icon Menu Wizard.

    COMPONENTS / SYMBOL LIBRARY / ICON MENU WIZARD
     

  5. Select the current AutoCAD Electrical symbol menu.


     

  6. Create a new Command in the current AutoCAD Electrical symbol menu.

     

  7. Assign your command button a name.
     

  8. Select an image file for your command button. (Optional).
     

  9. Type the command line as follows…

    (c:wd_loadmenu "Custom_Menu.dat")(c:wd_insym_go2menu 0)


     

  10. Select OK and close the Icon Menu Wizard.
     

  11. Start the Icon Menu Wizard.

    COMPONENTS / SYMBOL LIBRARY / ICON MENU WIZARD
     

  12. Select your new custom symbol menu.


     

  13. Delete the existing AutoCAD Electrical tools. (Right Click).


     

  14. Create a new Command in the custom symbol menu.


     

  15. Assign your command button a name.
     

  16. Select an image file for your command button. (Optional).
     

  17. Type the command line as follows…

    (c:wd_loadmenu "ACE_JIC_MENU>DAT")(c:wd_insym_go2menu 0)


     

  18. Select OK and close the Icon Menu Wizard.
     

  19. Set the AutoCAD Electrical search path to recognize your new menu location.

    TOOLS / OPTIONS / FILES TAB


     

  20. Close and restart AutoCAD Electrical.
     

  21. Test the new menu system.

Start the Insert Component tool and select your custom menu button. Your menu should immediately appear and remains the default for subsequent component inserts. If you want to go back to the AutoCAD Electrical default menu, click the standard menu button you added to your custom menu. AutoCAD Electrical flips back to the default icon menu and it now remains the default for subsequent inserts.

Now that you have your own custom menu you can place all your custom symbols into your menu. This provides you with easier migration when upgrading to the next version of AutoCAD Electrical.