AutoCAD Block Insertion using Custom menus

[surendrameghani]

I Have AutoCAD blocks. For insertion of these blocks I want to create a menu in AutoCAD and wanted to pull the blocks using this menu.DO i need to write a LISP routine to call these blocks from the Custom Menu?

[dbroada]

It can be done and if you look in the threads listed below you may find some hellp there but why aren't you using palettes? They are so easy to make and much more flexible than creating your own.

[Cherilm]

I have a complete set of electrical menu items and button menus to insert them all from toolbars, the easiest way to do electrical. It can all be done in the dos mode, using ascii from notepad, or some editor. Then brought into the menu. You have to make all of your own icons. If you read the customization manual you'll find the latest quirks about how the commands work. When they update Acad it sometimes screws up my menu's and I have to go in and edit each command that is affected. I can't give it to you, but you just use the insert command and a space or semi colon to do a return, and you need to know exactly how each command works to know how to write each one. I never used lisp, but I need some lisp now. But the basic commands are easy to do this way.

[alanjt]

I'll just leave this here...

 

[pBe]

ditto

 

There are tons of good Native commands stuff in Autocad. no need for lisp on this one.

[troggarf]

Good one Alan,

I totally agree

[BIGAL]

We use the old fashioned way slides and menu's if you can use notepad you can make it work its just a line in a menu. (look at the hatch swatches as an example)

 

Before everyone starts about tool palletes we seriously edited our drawings to make the slides clearer a problem we found with tool palletes was it takes the drawing as an image this would mean for around 150+ dwgs we have a nice A4 title block and a fly spec for a picture.

 

We have not given up on tool palletes so any advice on saving images differently would be appreciated.

[Cherilm]

FYI, I've tried using acad's palettes and I think they are time wasting and clumsy. It's a pain to search thru the list of thumbnails and find what you want. Good idea but poor execution, especially when you have thousands of symbols.

[Cherilm]

I hope you got your question answered. I've been meaning to check back. It looks glum, like you are still in the dark. The dos way really is easy. Post again if you need help, I can give you a portion of my menus, just not the whole thing, and so on.

[GP_]

surendrameghani,

the block must be chosen by image tile menus or added directly by selecting the menu item?

[SLW210]

Has anyone mentioned tool palettes? Easily create tool palettes.

 

Tool palettes would be the way to go.

[Lee Mac]

Has anyone mentioned tool palettes?

 

Not much...

[SLW210]

Maybe someone will mention tool palettes at some point.

[Cherilm]

Yes, blocks are inserted directly by picking the menu toolbar, chance to scale, rotate, etc are given depending on the need of each symbols. Some symbols never rotate or scale. I wrote a diesel for the scale factor. I have over 15 toolbars with flyouts based on categories of the symbols. Some blocks have nested blocks to support options for the symbols, they can be erased or extended. Block names are short abbreviations to avoid a bulky menu. Having the symbols on toolbars has sped up our work times tremendously, it's just getting the drafters to recognize and learn how to use them.

[Cherilm]

No, SLW210, in this case they are a real pain to deal with. You need a smaller button where many ready items are at your reach. AS soon as you have to go search and page thru multiple thumbnails, you defeat the purpose. Especially in electrical work. Tool palettes are a waste of time.

[SLW210]

Funny 99.9% of the AutoCAD population have no problems with tool palettes. You just need to learn how tool palettes work.

[kramerO]

Image Tile Menus are superior to tool palettes.

[Cherilm]

I know they work for some disciplines, but I want to click and get now, not browse. It's fine if you only have to bring in a few things. I found them to be too slow for what I need. Like inserting 50 receptacles and rotating them differently on one floor plan, it just doesn't work the same with palettes.

[SLW210]

It can be done and if you look in the threads listed below you may find some hellp there but why aren't you using palettes? They are so easy to make and much more flexible than creating your own.

 

That is from an electrical.

 

I do electrical, piping, structural, plant layouts, civil and machine design.

 

Image Tile Menus are superior to tool palettes.

 

Show how that works.

 

I know they work for some disciplines, but I want to click and get now, not browse. It's fine if you only have to bring in a few things. I found them to be too slow for what I need. Like inserting 50 receptacles and rotating them differently on one floor plan, it just doesn't work the same with palettes.

 

You can do the same even easier with palettes.

[GP_]

Funny 99.9% of the AutoCAD population have no problems with tool palettes. You just need to learn how tool palettes work.

 

Many complain about the small size of the images.

 

 

 

Image Tile Menus are superior to tool palettes.

 

To enlarge the slides to video edit acad.dcl:

add width = 25; or another value that satisfies

 

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acad_icon: dialog {
       key = "label";
       initial_focus               = "listbox";
       : row {
           : list_box {
               width               = 20;
               height              = 21;
               fixed_height        = true;
               key                 = "listbox";
               allow_accept        = true;
           }
           : column {
               : row {
                   : icon_image {
                       key         = "icon1";
                       [b][color=red]width = 25;[/color][/b]                    }
                   : icon_image {
                       key         = "icon2";
                       [b][color=red]width = 25;[/color][/b]
                   }
                   : icon_image {
                       key         = "icon3";
                       [b][color=red]width = 25;[/color][/b]

                   ....................
                   ....................
                   ....................
                   ....................
                   ....................

                   : icon_image {
                       key         = "icon18";
                       [b][color=red]width = 25;[/color][/b]
                   }
                   : icon_image {
                       key         = "icon19";
                       [b][color=red]width = 25;[/color][/b]
                   }
                   : icon_image {
                       key         = "icon20";
                       [b][color=red]width = 25;[/color][/b]
                   }
               }
/*
*              : row {
*                  : icon_image {
*                      key         = "icon21";
*                  }
*                  : icon_image {
*                      key         = "icon22";
*                  } 

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