About Customizing Ribbon Tabs

Ribbon tabs are used to control the display of ribbon panels on the ribbon.

Ribbon tabs do not contain any commands or controls; instead, they manage the display of ribbon panels on the ribbon. Once a ribbon tab is created, you can then add references to the ribbon panels you want to display when a ribbon tab is current. After a reference to a ribbon panel is added to a ribbon tab, you can control the ribbon panel's initial display order on the ribbon tab when the ribbon tab is added to a workspace.

A ribbon tab must be added to a workspace before it can be displayed on the ribbon. After you add a ribbon tab to a workspace, you can control the default display state for the ribbon tab and the ribbon panels associated with it. You can also associate a tool palette group with the ribbon tab, and the collapse behavior, resize order, and orientation of a ribbon panel.

Note: New ribbon tabs are not automatically added to a workspace.

The following table describes the properties for the Home - 2D ribbon tab as they appear in the Properties pane.

Properties for the Home - 2D ribbon tab
Properties pane item	Description	Example
Display Text	Title of the ribbon tab; displayed when the ribbon tab is assigned to a workspace and the Ribbon palette is displayed.	Home
Contextual Display Type	Specifies whether the ribbon tab is displayed on its own tab or is merged with the ribbon tabs already displayed on the ribbon.	Full
Default Display	Specifies if the ribbon tab is displayed the first time the CUIx file is loaded as a partial customization file.	Add to workspaces
Workspace Behavior	Specifies how the ribbon tab is merged or added to the ribbon when the CUIx file is loaded as a partial customization file.	Merge or add tab
KeyTip	Specifies the character sequence to access the ribbon tab on the ribbon from the keyboard when the Alt key is pressed. Note: The MENUBAR system variable must be set to 0, in order to use keytips.	H
Aliases	Specifies the aliases for the ribbon tab. Each alias in the CUIx file should be unique; it is used to reference the ribbon tab programmatically.	ID_TabHome
Element ID	Tag that uniquely identifies a ribbon tab.	ID_TabHome

Display Ribbon Tabs from a Partial CUIx File

When you load a partial CUIx file with ribbon tabs, you can use the Workspace Behavior property to control how the ribbon tabs are displayed in all existing workspaces. The Workspace Behavior property can be set to the following options:

• Add Tab Only - Displays a ribbon tab as its own tab on the ribbon.
• Merge Tab Only - Merges a ribbon tab with a ribbon tab in the main CUIx file that is assigned the same alias.
• Merge or Add Tab - Attempts to merge the ribbon tab before a new ribbon tab is created on the ribbon.

The Plug-ins ribbon tab found in the acad.cuix or acadlt.cuix files, employ the concept of merging multiple ribbon tabs from all loaded CUIx files into a single ribbon tab. If you create custom applications that utilize the ribbon, you can merge your ribbon tab with the Plug-ins tab.

If you want to merge your ribbon tab with the Plug-ins tab, set the properties of your ribbon tab to:

• Default Display: Add to workspaces
• Workspace Behavior: Merge or add tab
• Aliases: ID_ADDINSTAB

Note: You can merge any number of ribbon tabs together as long as the aliases are the same.