Shortcut menus are displayed at or near the location of your cursor when you right-click with the pointing device. The shortcut menu and the options it provides depend on the location of the cursor and other conditions, such as whether an object is selected or a command is in progress.
Shortcut menus can contain static and context-sensitive menu options. Context-sensitive menu options are displayed relative to the current command or selected object when you right-click.
You can create new or edit existing shortcut menus to access the options you use most frequently. There are five main shortcut menus that are displayed in the drawing area
- Hot Grip Cursor - Displayed when you right-click in the drawing area while a grip on an object is selected.
- Object Snap Cursor - Displayed when you hold Shift and right-click in the drawing area.
- Default Mode - Displayed when you right-click in the drawing area while no command is active and no objects are selected.
- Command Mode - Displayed when you right-click in the drawing area while a command is active. In addition to the content of the CMCOMMAND menu, the command’s options (keywords within the square brackets) are inserted into this menu.
- Edit Mode - Displayed when you right-click in the drawing area while one or more objects are selected, no grips are selected, and no command is active.
When the Command or Edit Mode menu is displayed, the program displays a set of static menu options and merges an additional set of menu options (if they exist) that are specific to the active command or currently selected objects.
Shortcut Menu Aliases
Shortcut menus are referenced by their assigned aliases. In the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor, alias names must follow the proper naming conventions. For example, the shortcut menu named “Default Menu“ displays the following information in the Aliases section of the Properties pane:
POP501, CMDEFAULT
CMDEFAULT is one of the reserved alias names that the program looks for in specific situations. In this case, the shortcut menu assigned the alias CMDEFAULT is displayed if no objects are selected and there is no active command when you right-click over the drawing area.
Aliases for context-sensitive shortcut menus must be numbered between POP500 and POP999, with the exception of the Object Snap menu which uses an alias of POP0. The following aliases are reserved for use by the program:
- GRIPS - Hot Grip Cursor menu
- SNAP - Object Snap Cursor menu
- CMDEFAULT - Default Mode menu
- CMCOMMAND - Command Mode menu
- CMEDIT - Edit Mode menu
Object Specific Shortcut Menus
Object shortcut menus are inserted into the CMEDIT shortcut menu based on when one or more of a specific object type is selected. Object menus use either of the following naming conventions for alias names:
OBJECT_objectname - Used when a single object of the specified type is selected.
OBJECTS_objectname - Used when more than one of an object of the specified type is selected.
If no OBJECT_objectname is available, the program uses the OBJECTS_objectname menu (if it exists).
objectname must be a valid object name and match the DXF ™ code 0 of the object you want the shortcut menu to be displayed for. The object name is used for the alias name of most object shortcut menus cases except for blocks and external references (xrefs). The following object names are used specifically for blocks and xrefs:
- ATTBLOCKREF - Block reference with attributes
- ATTDYNBLOCKREF - Dynamic block reference with attributes
- BLOCKREF - Block reference without attributes
- DYNBLOCKREF - Dynamic block reference without attributes
- XREF - External reference (xref)
Command Specific Shortcut Menus
Similar to object shortcut menus, command shortcut menus are inserted into the CMCOMMAND shortcut menu based on which command is currently active. Command shortcut menus use the COMMAND_commandname naming convention. commandname can be any valid command name, including custom-defined or third-party command names.
In many cases, you can enter a hyphen before a command to suppress the display of a dialog box and display prompts for the command instead. For example, creating a shortcut menu with the alias COMMAND_-INSERT would allow you to add context-sensitive menu options for the -INSERT command when it is the active command.