Topic: We are upgrading Does CUI take place of MNS and MNU files?

[SDETERS]

We are upgrading from 2004 to 2007.  We have the Pnuematic and electircal symbols in 2004 as pull down menus.  Now I go to tools and then customize menus.  Then load the indivdual menus into Autocad.  With this new CUI stuff will I be able to do this in 2007 the same way I did it in 2004?  Or is there a completely different way of doing this?

[mjfarrell]

Essentially it's a 'new' format for your mnues and mnses.
The workflow is similar to, yet different from those older menu files.
Be sure to back up your folder now, before you whack something.

[SDETERS]

Oh Wow whacked This is not sounding good.  I did a search here and read about CUI.  But I do not completly understand it all.
We use straight out of the box Autocad.  These two Block libraries is all we really customize and add to Autocad.  Is there a conversion or how does one get the MNU file to be used in the CUI?

[mjfarrell]

Yes,  you enter CUI (see you cry), take several deep breaths....
and then the CUI editor enterface appears. What happens next;
I can't predict.

[SDETERS]

So is there a way to keep doing mnu and mns loads instead of going through this CUI stuff in 2007?  By what I have read and comments it seems this is not that robust of a process to change these two MNU files to CUI. 

[David Hall]

In a nutshell, you will be fine.  Dont dive all the way into the CUI pool yet, just stick your toes in for now.  So what does that mean?  Do the 07 install, make a copy of your mnu/mns files, and then menuload the mnu/mns file into Acad.  It just got converted for you.  You are now the proud owner of a CUI file.

That being said, now you can type CUI and open the editor and begin looking around at whats new.  Dont get overwhelmed at first, as this just leads to being pissed at what Autodesk did to such a simple concept.

Make some changes, try moving things around, and see what you can break.  At some point, you will throw up your hands and decide you like the old way better.  This is ok.  You can decide what changes you want to make, and go edit your mnu/mns.  Delete the CUI file that was created, and reload your mnu.  At some point you will have learned enough that you will get comfortable in the CUI editor.  It took me 3 years and a lot of cussing and complaining

[SDETERS]

Thanks this makes sense.  I am just scared of anything called conversion and Cry and take several deep breaths.  LOL

Thanks for the information. 

[craigr]

We just completed a similar upgrade - 2005 to 2008.

It was HORRIBLE!!!!! and a couple more !!!!'s

The conversion brought over all of my many macros, but most lost their icon & flyout associations. I basically spent a better part of a week going thru each and every icon / macro and either verifying or reassigning.

Basically, IMHO 'it sucks to be you'.

But, once you get it going, you will like the new software.

craigr

[quamper]

Apparently I'm the only person that actually likes the CUI. Albeit I haven't used Autocad for as long as other people, but I started with 2002 and 2004 so I know what it was like before the CUI and I wouldn't go back.

I personally think it's a lot more user-friendly/flexible now, but my wife tells me I'm wrong all the time so this may be another instance of that   

[David Hall]

Craigr, were all of your macros in a custom mnu or did you put them in the acad one?  If acad, I can see why it sucked so bad.  If custom, you should ahve been able to just load your mns file and it would all be there.  Do you have your icons in a DLL file or did you path them through the menu?  If pathed, you would have to update them all to the new path.  Did you save all your icons before upgrading?

[David Hall]

quamper, I know what your saying.  For new users that didn't really get to know and love the old simpler way, the CUI is a great tool.  Those of us that have been editing MN* files for 20+ years find it cludgey and not that user friendly.  Having to create a command before adding to a pulldown or toolbar seems like extra steps.  And not being able to reuse existing icons is also a pain in the butt.

[craigr]

I had all of my macros in Custom.

They were all toolbars - no pulldown menus.

My icon path was a folder in the AutoCad directory called 'icons'.

I have wondered if this was part of the problem, but had it set up this way for a long time and didn't want to change and have to repath every icon. I figured that If I had it set up the 'correct way' - whatever that is, it would have come over much better.

The CUI editor isn't too bad, the only complaint I have is that toolbars & macros aren't listed alphabetically, so you have to sort thru them looking for what you want.

craigr

[ronjonp]

Craigr, were all of your macros in a custom mnu or did you put them in the acad one?  If acad, I can see why it sucked so bad.  If custom, you should ahve been able to just load your mns file and it would all be there.  Do you have your icons in a DLL file or did you path them through the menu?  If pathed, you would have to update them all to the new path.  Did you save all your icons before upgrading?

I was just thinking the same thing....if you want to easily move any customizations around, they need to be separate from the acad.cui and loaded in as a partial.

Any other thoughts on this?

[sinc]

That being said, now you can type CUI and open the editor and begin looking around at whats new.  Dont get overwhelmed at first, as this just leads to being pissed at what Autodesk did to such a simple concept.

I think that assessment is biased.  It's probably like assessments of WinXP vs. Vista - the better you are with WinXP and the more you know how to "tweak" it, the more you will probably complain about the switch to Vista.  But from what I've been hearing, Joe Shmoe User seems perfectly happy with the switch (assuming Joe Shmoe has a new computer and relatively-new peripherals, and doesn't run into any driver issues, that is).

Keep in mind that the CUI is replacing more than just the old menus and toolbars.  And now 75% of Autocad Customization occurs in only one place, as opposed to the "old way", which had customization stuff spread all over the place in a chaotic mess.

Of course, the implementation of the CUI was pretty pathetic, and it's been fraught with bugs, and there's still the 25% of customization that isn't included in the CUI.  But with the 2008 version of the CUI, I only curse it occasionally, rather than constantly.  So I think they're making progress in a good direction.  Maybe it will be working well by the 2010 release...

[sinc]

And not being able to reuse existing icons is also a pain in the butt.

Can you elaborate on that?  I haven't noticed any issue like that...