Customising Menus Using The Menu Editor

This Tech Tip explains how to use the Menu Editor.

All the Menus in AllyCAD 2011 can be customised to suite a users' specific work environment.

Opening the Menu Editor

Start Button › All Programs › AllyCAD 2011 › Tools › Menu Editor

The new Menu Editor

Customising the Menus

We are going to add a menu item called "My Tools", and the add submenu items to run a CAD function.

File Menu › Open

The Menu Editor open dialog appears, select the cad.mnu file, and then click on the Open button

The menu file will be opened in the editor.

Once we have opened the default menu file, we will save the file to the user folder, this will prevent the file being overwritten when any updates are released.

File Menu › Save As

Click on the Open Local user Folder Location button, the file name must be cad, click Save to continue.

Adding the Toplevel Menu Item

To add the new "My Tools" menu item, we click on the Edit Menu › Insert › Toplevel Popup

An UNKNOWN menu item will be added to the menu list.

On the Right handside of the editor change the default name to My Tools (any name maybe used)

The new menu item position may also be changed, by using the two arrow buttons. The Command and Help area will be unavailable as this it the toplevel menu item.

The menu items may also be modified to use accelerator keys, i.e. pressing Alt-F to open the File Menu.

When inserting an ampersand (&) in front of a letter, the letter will become the shortcut key for the menu, and the letter will appear underlined on the menu, so in our example it will look like My Tools, and pressing Alt Y will access the menu.

Adding the Sublevel Menu Item

Click on the menu item we have just added i.e. My Tools, then click on the Edit Menu › Insert › Item

The new Item will be added to the menu, using the default name UNKNOWN

Type in a new Name for the Item, in this example we will be adding the Alignment Settings, in the Command click on the drop down, all the default commands are listed (make sure the name used is a correct description of the command used)

When using any of the default commands, the Help text will automatically be added. The text may be edited if required.

AllyCAD also has a few default scripts that can be added to a menu. Click on the browse button.

The Open dialog appears, double click on the Scripts folder.

Select one of the default scripts, then click on the Open button.

The selected script will be added, the Name will have to be modified accordingly. Note the Help text shows you are running a script, this may be edited if required.

Save the changes to the menu file

File Menu › Save

Viewing the new Menu

To view the new menu, AllyCAD will have to be closed and reopened.

Note the My Tools menu item, with the Alignment Settings.