CUSTOMISING ALLYCAD (Part 2)

This Tech Tip explains how to customise various personal preferences in AllyCAD.

There are various files that the program uses that can be configured by the user for personal preferences. These files include palettes, menus, toolbars and accelerator keys among others.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please regard the files in the Public User folder (see below) as belonging to the program. These files can and will be overwritten during patch installation, losing any modifications that might have been made. To modify the files copy the relevant file into your Private User folder (see below) or into the shared network folder (see the Configuration section in the Help file for details on how AllyCAD 2010 locates files) and make your modifications there. Such files will NOT be overwritten during patch installation, and will be used when the program is run.


Modifying Program Configuration files

Program defaults (Public User)
When you install your program, or when you install an update, the default configuration files (menu, accelerator keys, toolbars palettes and toolkit ini files) will be placed in the public user folder:

For Windows 2000/XP: c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD 2010

For Windows Vista/7: c:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD 2010

When you run AllyCAD the configuration files in the above folder will be used if you do not have a private user, or a network user set up. Do not edit the files in this public folder.

(User settings) Private User
If any of the files in your public user directory can be found in your private user, then that file will be used. To create a private user, simply copy the file you want to change from your public user folder, to the following directory and change it to what you want it to be. When you run AllyCAD and you are logged into that user, those settings will then be used.

For Windows 2000/XP: c:\Documents and Settings\<user>\My Documents\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD 2010

For Windows Vista/7: c:\Users\<user>\Documents\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD 2010 for Windows Vista, where <user> is the normal login name for the user.

Network User
If any of the files in your public user directory can be found in your specified network user directory, then those files will be used. To create a network user, simply copy the file you want to change, to any network folder and change it to what you want it to be. Then copy the 'SetSharedFolder.exe' file from the C:\Program Files\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD 2010 folder into the same network folder. From your workstations, double click on the 'SetSharedFolder.exe' situated in the network folder where your settings are:

Press OK to continue.

The next time you run AllyCAD from this workstation, the program will look for configuration files on this network drive first, if it cannot be found, then it will look in the private user directory, and if they cannot be found there either, the program will use them from the public user directory.


Defining Default Palette & Customising

Start Menu, All Programs, AllyCAD 2010, Tools

Pen Palettes
The standard AutoCAD, AllyCAD, Caddie and Ultimate CAD palettes are supplied with AllyCAD. If you load a DRG file, AutoCAD file, Caddie file or Ultimate CAD file, then the appropriate palette will be used.

When you save an AllyCAD2010 (DR4) file, then the palette settings will be saved with the drawing, so the next time you open that drawing, the correct palette will be used.

The palette to be used for the current drawing can be changed via Settings Menu › View Settings

To change the palette to be used when you start a new drawing, specify it in Settings Menu › System Settings

Custom Palettes
You can use a custom palette from any *.pal file in a drawing by selecting 'Custom' in the View settings dialog and then pressing Load Custom Palette button. Settings Menu › View Settings

You can customize AllyCAD to use a customized palette when creating a new drawing, by copying the 'cad.pal' file into the private user, or network user directories and then editing them in one of two ways:

1. Adding a custom palette:
Open the 'cad.pal' file in the Palette Editor, and add another palette to it, over and above the existing default AutoCAD, AllyCAD, Caddie and Ultimate CAD palettes.

Select Settings Menu › System Settings and set the 'Default pen palette' to be 'Custom'. Your custom palette will now be loaded when you create a new drawing.







2. Alter the default palettes to load old DRG files with.

AllyCAD 3.x did not store the pen palette with the drawing. When you load a DRG file in AllyCAD 2010, the program will automatically use the AllyCAD palette from the cad.pal file.

If you had a custom palette in AllyCAD 3.x then edit the AllyCAD palette in your cad.pal file using the Palette editor. Now, if you open a DRG file, this altered AllyCAD palette will be used. If you set the 'Default pen palette' in your system settings to 'AllyCAD', then this altered palette will be used when you create a new drawing.