A plethora of menu files
Updated 03-Aug-2002 with more information about compiling BMP files into a DLL file and with a description of the MNL file. Thanks to Tony Tanzillo for the former and Lionel Camara for the latter.Note: You may not need to know all of this stuff in order to customize AutOCAD menus, but it's useful background information, and it might help you avoid or fix menu problems.
Ah, for the good old days before AutoCAD R13, when menu files were simple. There was an MNU file (the ASCII source file that you edited) and an MNX file (the binary file that AutoCAD read its menus from and compiled automatically after you made changes to the MNU file). Now we have deal with half a dozen different menu file types:
Menu source files:
- menuname.MNU: Menu template or "pre-source" file. The MNU file is a vestige from the old MS-DOS days, when it was the file that you'd edit in order to customize a menu. It's only purpose now is to confuse you and to give AutoCAD the opportunity to obliterate your menu customization. You should delete it and edit the MNS file instead.
- menuname.MNS: Menu source file. The MNS file is the real menu source file: an ASCII file that you edit with a text editor in order to customize menus. This also is the file that the Toolbars dialog box modifies, if you're foolish or brave enough to try to use it to customize your toolbars. Note that, under certain circumstances, AutoCAD will create an MNS file from the MNU file automatically. This attempt to be helpful can overwrite important changes in the MNS file. That's why you don't want to have an MNU file.
- bitmapname.BMP: A graphics file containing a single toolbar bitmap (i.e., one lousy, little button). If you create custom toolbars, you usually end up with dozens of these things.
- ACADBTN.DLL: A Windows resource file containing the standard AutoCAD toolbar bitmaps, all bundled into a single file. This is a standard AutoCAD support file, and it lives in the AutoCAD program directory.
- menuname.DLL: A Windows resource file containing custom AutoCAD toolbar bitmaps, all bundled into a single file. The advantage of this kind of file is that it replaces the dozens of little bitmapname.BMP files. If you have a third-party application that includes its own toolbars, it might come with a menuname.DLL file instead of a bunch of bitmapname.BMP files.
If you know how to use a resource editor, you can create a custom toolbar bitmap DLL for your custom menu, but be forewarned that the procedure can be moderately complicated. I've done it with a resource editor add-in for Visual Basic, but the procedure was tedious and the resulting DLL file appeared to require a separate, large DLL that wasn't installed on all of my clients' computers. (See Creating a Toolbar DLL on the AfraLisp site.) Angus Johnson's free Resource Hacker utility appears to offer a better approach. The Creating a Toolbar DLL Re-Visited page on the AfraLisp site describes how to use Resource Hacker to create a DLL file containing AutoCAD menu bitmaps.
- menuname.MNC: Compiled menu file. AutoCAD automatically creates this binary file from the MNS file, whenever the MNC doesn't exist or is older than the MNS file. When AutoCAD needs to display a menu (including a toolbar), it reads the menu structure, labels, and macros from the binary MNC file, probably because it's faster than reading this stuff from the ASCII MNS file.
- menuname.MNR: Compiled toolbar bitmaps. AutoCAD automatically creates this binary file from the BMP and/or DLL files that contain toolbar bitmaps referenced by the menu's toolbars. When AutoCAD needs to display a toolbar, it reads the bitmaps from the MNR file. If AutoCAD can't find the required bitmaps, then it uses the infamous smiley face instead. (It seems to me that AutoCAD should display a frowning face, but I suppose it's another example of the triumph of marketing cheer over reality: "hey, it didn't work, but be happy!")
- menuname.MNL: When AutoCAD loads a menu (i.e., the compiled MNC file), it looks for an MNL (MeNu Lisp) file of the same name and, if it finds one, loads it. MNL files can contain exactly the same kinds of AutoLISP expressions as LSP files. You typically use an MNL file to automate the loading of pull-down partial menu pages and of LSP files that contain additional functions required by your menu macros.
When you call an image tile menu from a menu macro in a partially loaded menu file, you must prefix the image submenu name with the menu group name. For example, if you were creating a base menu, you might have something like this:
In a partial menu, you change the macro that calls the image submenu (in the ***POP1 section in this example) to:
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Image tile menus in partial menu files
Image tile menus (a.k.a. "icon menus" in older AutoCAD versions) present a series of menu choices with text descriptions in a list on the left and images (or icons) on the right. In many cases, image tile menus have given way to toolbars, but image tile menus retain the advantage of showing a much larger, and therefore clearer, picture.
***MENUGROUP=MYCUSTOM
***POP1
[MyStuff]
[My Symbols]$I=MYSYMBOLS $I=*
***IMAGE
**MYSYMBOLS
[My Symbols]
[my_slb(widget_01,Widget 1)]^c^c^csome_macro_here
***MENUGROUP=MYCUSTOM
***POP1
[MyStuff]
[My Symbols]$I=MYCUSTOM.MYSYMBOLS $I=*
***IMAGE
**MYSYMBOLS
[My Symbols]
[my_slb(widget_01,Widget 1)]^c^c^csome_macro_here
Other tips
Last updated 20-Jan-2004 by
mark@markcad.com