Sharing Your Customized Toolbars

[MudawarCad]

Hi,

 

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make a toolbar that can be downloaded for all to use. My problem is how do you share a "common directory" with the world? The toolbar works perfectly fine on my computer, because  I have defined my own directory in the macro under the cui command. So the question is: how do you make a "common directory" so that the toolbar can be accessed on any computer? I hope I have made myself clear.

 

Thanks!

[marko_ribar]

I would suggest you that you share your link from DropBox folder installed on your PC - or alternatively One Drive that comes with Windows...

If you really want to share your folder - this means your HDD, you should look for Google Drive, but be aware that someone may misuse your storage and you wouldn't have control over it - only share your folder with someone you really trust...

BTW. I never used Google Drive that way as no one would be willing to share his/her HDD with my HDD this way...

You may also want to look at QNAP and server services they offer, of course if you pay for it I think so...

[MudawarCad]

Hi Marko_Ribar,

 

Thank you for your suggestion. Sharing is not the problem. What I'm trying to say is that if someone downloaded my custom toolbar, the directory for the icons, and fas files would be different on his / her computer. I'm assuming the solution would be placing the custom files in the Autocad directory folder, that should be common for everyone.

[BIGAL]

We had 8 pc's and had the cuix on a server that was in the support paths, then you just use menuload and point to the cuix on the server, if you make changes to the menu use menuload and make sure you save it on server. We had multiple menus and toolbars.

 

The nice thing is if you make changes to the menu's when a user starts their Autocad the new menu/toolbar is auto loaded.

 

Sharing with the world is a whole different problem you may be able to setup a internet directory, only problem is that if you shut down your web site the link stops.

 

You can definitely read files etc on a web server not sure though about cuix.

 

I supply custom software and making an installer may be worthwhile. You can force unzip to unzip to a directory, then amend support and trusted paths. 

 

The lisp for unzipping to a directory

(startapp "c:\\program files\\7-zip\\7z x c:\\temp\\project2.zip -oc:\\temp\\ziptest")

Edited April 7, 2020 by BIGAL

[MudawarCad]

8 hours ago, BIGAL said:

We had 8 pc's and had the cuix on a server that was in the support paths, then you just use menuload and point to the cuix on the server, if you make changes to the menu use menuload and make sure you save it on server. We had multiple menus and toolbars.

 

The nice thing is if you make changes to the menu's when a user starts their Autocad the new menu/toolbar is auto loaded.

 

Sharing with the world is a whole different problem you may be able to setup a internet directory, only problem is that if you shut down your web site the link stops.

 

You can definitely read files etc on a web server not sure though about cuix.

 

I supply custom software and making an installer may be worthwhile. You can force unzip to unzip to a directory, then amend support and trusted paths. 

 

The lisp for unzipping to a directory

(startapp "c:\\program files\\7-zip\\7z x c:\\temp\\project2.zip -oc:\\temp\\ziptest")

Hi Bigal,

 

I have accomplished sharing on the server at the office - that's the easy part. You did mention reading files via web server (reminds me of Marko_Ribar's idea not sure if this is what he meant) that could be a solution to my problem. I have a website that runs on large servers, so the website runs 24/7 no problem there. You also mentioned about making an installer, someone also suggested this idea to me but I worried that it would creep the users out. I'll let you know if things work out.

 

Thanks guys.

[BIGAL]

By installer it can be a lisp that just copies files etc I did post about unzipping to a directory, the vl-mkdir can be used to make the directory same as you can add the support path and trusted path, so if an end user can drag and drop a lisp onto Autocad you will be 50% of the way there. Other 50% is to drag the downloaded zip file to the new directory or ask where they have put the zip file and unzip to there.

 

; check that pdf directory exists
(setq dwgpre (strcat (getvar "dwgprefix") "\pdf"))
(if (= (vl-file-directory-p dwgpre) nil)
(vl-mkdir dwgpre)
)

 

[MudawarCad]

10 hours ago, BIGAL said:

By installer it can be a lisp that just copies files etc I did post about unzipping to a directory, the vl-mkdir can be used to make the directory same as you can add the support path and trusted path, so if an end user can drag and drop a lisp onto Autocad you will be 50% of the way there. Other 50% is to drag the downloaded zip file to the new directory or ask where they have put the zip file and unzip to there.

 

; check that pdf directory exists
(setq dwgpre (strcat (getvar "dwgprefix") "\pdf"))
(if (= (vl-file-directory-p dwgpre) nil)
(vl-mkdir dwgpre)
)

 

This would be a great solution if I could make this work. I need some time to check it out as I have received work from the office. I'll get back to it ASAP. Thanks again.

[BIGAL]

No worries let us know what you ended up with.

 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/visual-lisp-autolisp-and-general/access-internet-remote-directory/td-p/9380587

[MudawarCad]

I apologize, I've been very busy lately. I've spent time trying to work this out and here's what I came up with:

 

^C^C(load (strcat (substr (getvar "ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX") 1( + 8(vl-string-search "Autodesk"(getvar "ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX")))) "/ApplicationPlugins/MY TOOLBAR/MY APPLICATION.FAS"));abc

 

I used this line in the macro field under the cui command. It works perfectly with other users. The idea is that the user manually copies the "MY TOOLBAR" folder into his %appdata% directory and the lisp applications are called from AutoCad by clicking on the custom toolbar buttons. The variable is the username on the computer (getvar "ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX"). This part has been solved.

 

The only problem left is calling the icons that are tied to these lisp applications that are located in the same folder as the .fas application files. I can't load these bitmap icon files just as I did with the .fas similarly. The icons are appearing as question marks.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[BIGAL]

My toolbars are custom.mnu files so a individual cuix is made. The cuix holds the bitmap images.

 

Re install I have just started playing with .BUNDLE and its super easy code, menus etc and all loads on start up. You just need a sample xml to start with then edit it USE notepad++.  You just match the application directories and make a zip then unzip into ApplicationPlugins. You can update files send to a user get them to save in correct directory and changes are reflected.

 

I have been running a protected version of my software so my bundle to the end user is up to date  and I know it works.

 

 

 

 

 

[MudawarCad]

My cui (not cuix) files are not storing the icon images. I shared them with colleagues over the internet, everything's working fine except the icons - they appear as question marks on the toolbar.

 

I'm using AutoCad 2006, I give the command "cui" on the command line, after customizing my toolbar, I go to the transfer tab, drag my custom toolbar to the new cui file, and there I save it as a new cui file.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

[BIGAL]

Just use menuload, if no images can save all the icons and add the path to where they are.

[Dadgad]

Hello Mudawar, if you are using AutoCad 2006, and not AutoCad 2020, as is shown to the left of your post, it would be a good idea to EDIT your Profile software

to indicate that is the case.  There will be times when that will impact forum members responses and suggestions quite appreciably.

[MudawarCad]

Ok problem solved! I used the idea of the installer as Bigal (thanks Bigal) mentioned earlier where it copies the lisp files to the proper support location and automatically loads the toolbar to AutoCad. It did take me a while to figure out though but turned out beautiful, thank God.

 

@Dadgad, thanks I'll keep that in mind.