About Customizing Toolbars

Some of the simplest toolbar customizations can make your daily drawing tasks more efficient.

You can add buttons or remove buttons you use infrequently, and rearrange buttons and toolbars. You can also create your own toolbars and flyout toolbars, and create or change the button image associated with a command. When creating a toolbar, you can create a toolbar from scratch, create a copy of an existing toolbar, or create a toolbar from an existing pull-down menu. Sub-menu items are not included when a toolbar is created from a pull-down menu.

Note: When you create a toolbar, you should determine in which workspaces you want to display the toolbar. By default, a new toolbar is displayed in all workspaces.

The following table shows the properties of the Standard toolbar as they appear in the Properties pane.

Properties for the Standard toolbar
Properties pane item	Description	Example
Name	String used as the caption for the toolbar.	Standard
Description	Text used to describe the element; does not appear in the user interface.	Standard Toolbar
Default Display	Specifies if the toolbar is displayed when the CUIx file is loaded as a partial customization file.	Add to workspaces
Orientation	Specifies whether the toolbar is floating or docked (top, bottom, left, or right) the first time the CUIx file is loaded.	Top
Default X Location	Specifies the location from the left edge of the screen when the toolbar appears when it is floating, or the location when it is docked. If docked, a value of 0 indicates the left most location in a docked area.	0
Default Y Location	Specifies the location from the top edge of the screen when the toolbar appears when it is floating, or the location when it is docked. If docked, a value of 0 indicates the top most location in a docked area.	0
Rows	Specifies the number of rows the items on the toolbar are displayed in when the toolbar is floating.	1
Aliases	Specifies the aliases for the toolbar. Click the […] button to open the Aliases dialog box. Each alias in the CUIx file should be unique and it is used to reference the toolbar programmatically.	TB_STANDARD, Standard
Element ID	Tag that uniquely identifies the toolbar.	ID_TbStandard

Note: The properties On By Default, Orientation, Default X Location, Default Y Location, and Rows are used only the first time the CUIx file is loaded and when no default workspace is set. After a toolbar is loaded the first time, a workspace is used to control the Appearance properties of a toolbar.

When you create a new toolbar, the first task you need to do is to provide a name for it. A new toolbar has no commands or controls assigned to it. If a toolbar has no commands or controls on it, it is ignored by the program until you add at least one command or control to it. You add commands and controls to a toolbar by dragging a command or control from an existing toolbar or the Command List pane and dropping it onto a toolbar.

Once a command or control has been added to a toolbar, you can change the text that is displayed in the tooltip when the cursor hovers over top of the button by changing the Name and Description properties that are displayed in the Properties pane.

Create Ribbon Panels from Toolbars

A ribbon panel can be created from a toolbar by dragging an existing toolbar from the Toolbars node under the Customizations In <file name> pane to the Panels node under the Ribbon node in the Customizations In <file name> pane. When the toolbar is dropped, you are prompted to convert a copy of the toolbar to a ribbon panel.