windows 8 app window makes drawing title hard to read

hi all.

 

even if i personalize the theme to make all my windows bright pink, AutoCAD 2009 just stays very light grey, with barely readable white writing. what simple tip am i missing please?!

 

see very top of pic:

 

 

thanks!

hi all.

 

even if i personalize the theme to make all my windows bright pink, AutoCAD 2009 just stays very light grey, with barely readable white writing. what simple tip am i missing please?!

 

see very top of pic:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45506[/ATTACH]

 

thanks!

Sorry, I am in the same boat. I have the same issue with AutoCad LT 2009 on my Win 8 64 bit machine. I have tried everything. So far, no luck. ONE TIME, I changed the windows fonts somehow to get the drawing title to show dark, but alas the next time I opened AutoCad it was back to white. Besides, that same change messed up the titlebar and menu fonts in a lot of other apps, like Word, and Outlook. They were way too fat.

 

Also, my window control buttons at the upper right do not function in any way. I have to right click the frame to get Windows to show me a menu for closing, min. max. Restore... It made me get into the habit of closing with the quit command.

 

Do you have a problem with your text flying all over the screen until regen-ing? I do. It may be my barely adequate graphics processor though.

Ouch... As a small workaround, you could supply MODEMACRO (bottom left) with a concatenated string of DWGPREFIX and/or DWGNAME.

 

That's great if using SDI, but for MDI, you may want to implement a DocumentCollection.DocumentActivated Event handler (reactor) to update the value of MODEMACRO... Let me know if you need help.

 

Cheers

 

[Edit] - Still in the .NET mindset , for LISP reactor, one might use :vlr-DocumentBecameCurrent event instead.

Here's LISP, which implicitly requires being loaded into each document:

 

(defun bboxModemacro:ReactorStart ()
 (or *bboxModemacroReactor*
     (setq *bboxModemacroReactor*
            (vlr-docmanager-reactor
              nil
              '(
                (:vlr-documentbecamecurrent
                 .
                 bboxModemacro:onDocumentBecameCurrent
                )
               )
            )
     )
 )
 (bboxUpdateModeMacro)
 (princ)
)

(defun bboxUpdateModeMacro ()
 (setvar 'modemacro (strcat (getvar 'dwgprefix) (getvar 'dwgname)))
)

(defun bboxModemacro:onDocumentBecameCurrent (rea doc)
 (bboxUpdateModeMacro)
)

(bboxModemacro:ReactorStart)
(princ)

 

** NOTE - This does not account for existing MODEMACRO value.

 

 

... And here's .NET (C#), which need only be NETLOADed once via Acad.lsp, or Registry loader (for 2011 and older, newer versions also support Autoloader):

 

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

using acApp = Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.Application;

[assembly: ExtensionApplication(typeof(BlackBox.AutoCAD.ModeMacro.Events))]

namespace BlackBox.AutoCAD.ModeMacro
{
   class Events : IExtensionApplication
   {
       private static DocumentCollection acDocs;

       void IExtensionApplication.Initialize()
       {
           acDocs = acApp.DocumentManager;
           acDocs.DocumentBecameCurrent += onDocumentBecameCurrent;

           UpdateModeMacro(acDocs.MdiActiveDocument);
       }
       void IExtensionApplication.Terminate()
       {
       }
       private static void onDocumentBecameCurrent(object sender, DocumentCollectionEventArgs e)
       {
           Document doc = e.Document;

           if (doc != null)
               UpdateModeMacro(doc);
       }
       private static void UpdateModeMacro(Document doc)
       {
           acApp.SetSystemVariable("MODEMACRO", doc.Name);
       }
   }
}

WOW!

 

first, dana, if YOU still have this problem i guess it's here to stay.... suppose its good to know it's not just me, but to be honest i don't have all the whizzy text and dud buttons you mention - so maybe your setup is a little more mad than mine ;-)

 

so why is this? it's not like the window colour is the same as anything in AutoCAD, or all my other windows. how did it become very light grey?!

 

second, blackbox, thanks for all that. TBH i do not understand most of your first post! i like to use lisps but know nothing of .net. it seems MODEMACRO puts the drawing name on the command line, yes? it's clever as a workaround, but i guess i'd have to add a line to my command bar for this. widescreen laptop already like working through a post box!

btw Dana, i have been away from CADTutor for a couple of years, but in that time have quoted your signature many times. nice to see where it came from!

second, blackbox, thanks for all that. TBH i do not understand most of your first post! i like to use lisps but know nothing of .net. it seems MODEMACRO puts the drawing name on the command line, yes? it's clever as a workaround, but i guess i'd have to add a line to my command bar for this. widescreen laptop already like working through a post box!

 

You're welcome; apologies if I was too geeky.

 

Put simply, MODEMACRO is a system variable that displays string content at bottom left of your screen (left of the cursor coordinates). Disregard the .NET code if you're not familiar. The LISP code above, when loaded into each drawing, will automagically update MODEMACRO to display the current drawing's file path, and name.

 

Obviously, if you already use MODEMACRO to display custom information, you'll have to modify the code above to first strip out the previous drawing's information, and then append the current drawing's information before, or after your custom content. Not applicable to all.

 

HTH

WOW!

 

first, dana, if YOU still have this problem i guess it's here to stay.... suppose its good to know it's not just me, but to be honest i don't have all the whizzy text and dud buttons you mention - so maybe your setup is a little more mad than mine ;-)

 

so why is this? it's not like the window colour is the same as anything in AutoCAD, or all my other windows. how did it become very light grey?!

Well, I have a 27" touchscreen All in one computer, Windows 8 64 bit, so there are probably huge differences to the graphics. I ran the trial version of AutoCad LT 2014 on that machine. It worked perfectly, and 2014 has a "Touch Mode".

 

I think the 2009 file title bar somehow is falling outside of the Window Limits (?) so the operating system can''t find it. That light gray color is the Microsoft default background.

 

We all owe Yogi Berra many thanks for his communicating ability.

 

Casey Stengal: "Yogi, what time is it?"

Yogi Berra: "You mean now?"

thanks black box, that's better than i thought. however i gave it a play, and it seems you have to load it EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE DRAWING. so if you have 4 drawings open and tab through them, regardless of if you have already run the script in each drawing in this session, it needs to be run again as soon as you switch drawings.

 

as this is the main thing i want the functionality for, this method does not help. thanks though, i learned something today!

thanks black box, that's better than i thought. however i gave it a play, and it seems you have to load it EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE DRAWING. so if you have 4 drawings open and tab through them, regardless of if you have already run the script in each drawing in this session, it needs to be run again as soon as you switch drawings.

 

as this is the main thing i want the functionality for, this method does not help. thanks though, i learned something today!

 

I've just re-tested the LISP code above, and the behavior you describe is not observed here.

 

When the code is loaded with AcadDoc.lsp into each drawing, the code executes automatically each time the DocumentBecameCurrent event is raised, which occurs each time one switches to, or opens another Document.

 

How are you loading the code?

Also worthy of consideration, have you considered using one of the many tabbed interface plug-ins (i.e., iDwgTab, MdiTab, DwgManager, etc.)?