Following a number of recent Discussion Group posts, I thought I would put together a summary of how I go about managing the interface of AutoCAD at an enterprise level, over a network for multiple users.
The customization and management of the User Interface has changed with recent releases of AutoCAD, with the change over to the new CUI format menu files, introduction of Workspaces and Toolpalettes, the CAD Manager has an array of tools to provide customized and standardized content to users.
I will share how I manage the AutoCAD Interface, that's not to say that this is how it should be done, this is how I do it. If anyone reading this has some other good ideas, please share, I am always interested in alternatives, and everything I do has been learnt over the years from someone else.
The menu file - CUI
The new CUI format file (xml format) replaced the old .mnu file some time ago, we no longer have to modify our menus at a code level, we are now able to customize our menu's using the Customize User Interface dialog...
The CUI is where we manage the content of our interface, Workspaces, Toolbars, Menus etc. etc.
The Toolpalettes
The toolpalettes are (in my opinion) the easiest way to provide customized content to users. They are easy to customize, using a drag-and-drop process for building palette content. I can add, change, remove content from the toolpalettes as I am undertaking other work tasks.
With the combination of the CUI and the ease of building and customizing the toolpalettes, I am able to provide a comprehensive set of customized content to users. Managing new content in a development environment and then replicating this new content to the users working environment when new tools have been fully tested.
Enterprise CUI
I maintain all company specific content in a separate CUI and make this the "Enterprise CUI", and leave the AutoCAD CUI's alone.
The Enterprise CUI is no different from a standard CUI file, but rather that loading this company specific CUI as a partial menu, which is then open to modification, I load the company specific CUI as an Enterprise CUI. By doing this the CUI is read-only.
This standard CUI file which contains all the company specific customized tools is located on the network, in a folder that is also read-only to users... CAD users are a curious bunch, and have been known to load the CUI as a partial menu. By placing this Enterprise CUI in a read-only location it can't be damaged.
Loading the CUI as an Enterprise CUI is simple enough, this is done via the options dialog...
On the Files tab, expand the Customization Files node, and then expand the Enterprise Customization File node. You can then select the Browse button to select the CUI file to be used as your Enterprise CUI.
The profile can then be saved/exported and used to maintain user settings.
An important note to make here, is that in an enterprise environment, where you are supporting multiple users, I recommend that you setup a development area, where as the CAD Manager, you can run your software configured to use the support file structure pointing to your development locations, where you can develop your CUI's, Toolpalettes, custom programs, Lisp, VBA etc. independently from your users. Then roll-out updates to the system in an organized manner, possibly integrated with upgrade training etc.
I will follow-up this posting with another, detailing methods for managing Enterprise Toolpalettes.
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