AutoCAD Electrical toolset supplies two default icon menus: one for schematic symbols and the other for panel symbols. Each menu is driven by a text file with a .DAT extension. AutoCAD Electrical toolset defaults to icon menu ACE_<standard>_MENU.DAT (where <standard> = IEEE, JIC, IEC, IEC-60617, GB, HYD, JIS, PID, or PNEU) for schematic symbols and ACE_PANEL_MENU.DAT for panel symbols. These menu files are located in \Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical {version}\{release}\{country code}\Support\.
The icon menu files include: ACE_IEEE_MENU, ACE_JIC_MENU, ACE_IEC-60617_MENU, ACE_IEC_MENU, ACE_AS_MENU, ACE_GB_MENU, ACE_JIS_MENU, ACE_HYD_MENU, ACE_PID_MENU, and ACE_PNEU_MENU.
Use the Icon Menu Wizard dialog box to select the function to be performed when the icon is selected from the icon menu.
There may be times when you want to bypass the Icon Menu Wizard and edit the .dat text file directly using any text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad). It is important to maintain the menu file structure, otherwise your menu may not activate properly.
Here are the first few lines of the first page and a submenu (JIC: Push Buttons) of the ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT file. Refer to it in the following sections.
**M0
D0
JIC: Schematic Symbols
Push Buttons |s2(s_pb)|$S=M3
Selector Switches |s2(s_ss)|$S=M6
Limit Switches |s2(s_zs)|$S=M8
**M3
D5W
JIC: Push Buttons
Push Button NO |s2(shpB11)|HPB11
Push Button NC |s2(shpB12)|HPB12
Each menu page starts with a menu number line preceded by two asterisks (**). The next line is an AutoCAD Electrical toolset code, which defines the menu page format (such as how many rows, how many icon buttons per row). It is used for .dat files that are used before the 2008 release. The next line is the title, with optional column labels, for the menu page. The rest of the lines define the information for each icon button on the menu page. These icons can either launch a command, insert a component or open a submenu.
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**M0 |
Menu number |
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JIC Symbols |
Main menu title. In the Insert Component dialog box, it is the main menu title in the Menu tree selection view and is also displayed above the Symbol Preview window of the dialog box. |
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Push Buttons |
Description text of the icon. It is also the tooltip for the submenu page, command, or component to insert. In this example, clicking Push Buttons in the Insert Component dialog box opens a submenu. |
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s2(s_pb) |
Image information with the syntax: slide_library_name(slide or .png). In this example, the slide library (or resource dll library) is “s2” and the slide file (or .png image) is “s_pb.” Note: If both s_pb.png and s_pb.sld exist,
AutoCAD Electrical toolset searches for the .png file first. If not found, looks for the s_pb.sld file.
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$S=M3 |
Submenu trigger. The syntax is: $S=menu number. In this example, menu 3 is used for push buttons. It is used to develop the Menu tree structure in the Insert Component dialog box. |
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**M3 |
Submenu number |
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D5W |
(Used for .dat files before 2008) Indicates the number of rows in the menu. After 2008 you can have any number of rows or columns in your menu. This value is only used to structure .dat files in older versions of the product. |
|
JIC: Push Buttons |
Submenu page title. This displays below the main menu (JIC Symbols) in the Menu tree structure view of the Insert Component dialog box. |
Add submenu pages
Enter the definition for any new submenu pages at the bottom of the .dat file. A new Special Symbols submenu page added using the Icon Menu Wizard adds the following lines of text:
**M101
S P E C I A L S Y M B O L S
Explanation:
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**M101 |
Menu page number. User-created menu pages should begin at 100 since the product uses 1-99 for its own use. |
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S P E C I A L S Y M B O L S |
Menu page title |
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Push Button N.O. |
Description text of the icon. It is also the tool tip for the component to insert. In this example, clicking Push Button N.O. in the Insert Component dialog box inserts the component in the drawing. |
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s2(shpB11) |
Image information with the syntax: slide_library_name(slide or .png). In this example, the slide library (or resource dll library) is “s2” and the slide file (or .png image) is “shpB11.” |
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HPB11 |
Specifies the block name. The block name is searched in the symbol library search path as defined by the Project Properties dialog box and is inserted into the drawing. |
Each entry consists of three parts separated by "|" characters. The first part is the text that is displayed in the Menu tree structure view or as a tool tip in the Symbol Preview window. The second part is the slide (or .png) name. Include the path to the .SLD. If the slide is contained within a slide library (or resource dll library) the format here is library_name (slide_name). The third part is the actual icon function. The function can be a symbol name to insert, a submenu trigger, or a command. A line that looks like this can be added by the menu wizard to insert a special switch:
Special Switch | hzs11.sld| HZS11
Clicking on an icon in the icon menu can also execute an AutoCAD Electrical toolset command. The following example shows the syntax for commands:
3 Pole Disconnect |s1(shds13)|$c=wd_3unit HDS11
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3 Pole Disconnect |
Description text of the icon. It is also the tool tip for the command. In this example, clicking 3 Pole Disconnect in the Insert Component dialog box runs a command. |
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s1(shds13) |
Image information with the syntax: slide_library_name(slide or .png). In this example, the slide library (or resource dll library) is “s1” and the slide file (or .png image) is “shds13.” |
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$C=wd_3unit |
Code that executes a command. The syntax is: $C=command name {command parameters}. In this example, the command wd_3unit is run when the icon is clicked. |
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HDS11 |
Specifies the command parameters. |