AutoCAD® 2009 & AutoCAD LT® 2009 Bible

Chapter 33. Customizing the Ribbon and Menus

Although the ribbon and menu are designed to be useful for most people, the whole point of customization is that everyone has different needs. You can probably draw more easily and faster by customizing the user interface to suit your own individual requirements. Not only can you add commands, but you can also add items consisting of a series of commands that run like a macro. If you're using AutoCAD, you can even add AutoLISP routines. You may want to create specialized items that are used only for one drawing — for example, to help clients view a drawing. User interface customization includes the ribbon, menus, mouse or puck buttons, toolbars (covered in Chapter 29), rollover tooltips, shortcut menus, image-tile menus, keyboard shortcuts, temporary override keys, the double-click function, and the Quick Properties panel. The only limits are your imagination and the time that you can devote to customization.

Working with the Customization File

The AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT user interface is contained in a file that you don't edit directly; instead, you use the Customize User Interface, or CUI, dialog box to modify the menu.

Note

In AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD LT 2009, the entire menu file is in XML format. This change occurred in AutoCAD 2006 and AutoCAD LT 2006. If you're upgrading from an earlier release, you'll see that in place of the MNU, MNS, and MNC files is one file in XML format, acad.cui or acadlt.cui. Instead of editing the file directly, ...