ME10 toolboxes

[Skoobjr]

Here is what I am trying to do. Create a toolbar button that once clicked creates a pop-up dialog box.

Looking through the documentation I have found something I believe is it and I have tried it to no avail. "SHOW_AS_POPUP"

Has anyone used it before, I am going to keep trying.

[John Scheffel]

What do you mean by "Dialog Box"? In the Classic UI you can create menus. In the Windows UI you can create Toolbars. Dialog box sounds like something you create in Modeling/SolidDesigner.

You can create a toolbar button which opens another toolbar or a drop down menu. Something like:

TOOLBAR_ITEM OVER_WRITE 'pob_button_name' CAPTION 'My Button'
TOOLTIP 'This opens my custom menu'
ITEM_TYPE POPUP_BUTTON 'tlb_my_toolbar'
ADD_TO_TOOLBAR
END

Then you need to define a toolbar named 'tlb_my_toolbar'

TOOLBAR DEL_OLD 'tlb_my_toolbar' END
TOOLBAR_ITEM OVER_WRITE 'txt_my_toolbar' CAPTION 'My Toolbar'
ITEM_TYPE STATIC_TEXT ADD_TO_TOOLBAR 1
END
TOOLBAR_ITEM OVER_WRITE 'Separator' ADD_TO_TOOLBAR 2
END
TOOLBAR_ITEM OVER_WRITE 'btn_function_1' CAPTION 'Button 1'
TOOLTIP Description'
ON_ACTION 'macro_name'
ADD_TO_TOOLBAR 2
END
..... more buttons
TOOLBAR CAPTION 'AT EPDM' VISIBLE OFF FLOAT 50 50 1 END

[Skoobjr]

For example in Me10 you click Setup-->Edit Environment--> Contruction....

The Construction settings dialog box appears.

You see what I am able to do is in the old ME10 create a menu with about 2 columns. You can place buttons. I think that this can be done in the Windows Interface. I think it can be a toolbar that is a pop up dialog box. I click on a button, this lauches the new toolbar to give the user some interation.
I am attampting to move the old ace Hardware macro to windows, I have been able to move most of the fuctionality I needed over and I believe once I get this to work the way I know it can, I may be able to solve a few other problems I am having.

Thanks for your Help.

[John Scheffel]

Originally posted by Skoobjr
For example in Me10 you click Setup-->Edit Environment--> Contruction....
I suspect those type of dialogs were created using something like Visual Basic or Visual C. I'm not aware of any way to create them from macros. However, we would need someone from CoCreate to confirm this since I don't know what tool they used to create them.

Did you know that you can open Classic style menus in the Windows UI? I think this feature was added in version 10.50. It definitely works in version 11. If you want to try it, enter "Sm_plot" on the command line. This should open the classic PLOT menu. You might be able to open ACE this way in the Windows UI, although it might require some tweaking. You can definitely create your own Classic style menus then open them from Toolbar buttons.

[Skoobjr]

That is the way I go the old menus to work, which is OK, but at one time Cocreate was thinking about removing that functionality so we need to rebuild what menus we are using in the old interface.
I suspect I need to create a toolbar containing these buttons.

[John Scheffel]

Originally posted by Skoobjr
That is the way I go the old menus to work, which is OK, but at one time Cocreate was thinking about removing that functionality so we need to rebuild what menus we are using in the old interface.
I'm not sure if that is still the plan. Since they went to the trouble of adding the new Mixed UI in 11.6, I would think they plan to continue supporting the classic style menus for a while.

It sure would be nice to get some official information from somone at CoCreate. It seems that many of the lab people involved in Modeling development post here, but not much repsonse from the Drafting developers.

[Mike "the Rat"]

Attached is a photo of a Toolbox on the Left with Combo Box's, CheckBox's and Push Button. Default width of each item is based upon the widest control. Sometimes can make the Form large and clumbersome.

I prefer to call up a Form created in Visual Basic (Form on the right) and be able to control the size and location of the controls. The form is called up thru DDE.:eek:

Good luck,
Mike "the Rat"

[Mike "the Rat"]

Why can't I attach a file ?

[John Scheffel]

Originally posted by Mike "the Rat"
Attached is a photo of a Toolbox on the Left with Combo Box's, CheckBox's and Push Button. Default width of each item is based upon the widest control. Sometimes can make the Form large and clumbersome.

I prefer to call up a Form created in Visual Basic (Form on the right) and be able to control the size and location of the controls. The form is called up thru DDE.

Some good info Mike. Was the Custom Plotting Toolbox created using the standard Toolbar macros? If so would you be willing to attach or post the actual code or an example of how you did it? I would be interested to see how you created the two column format.

I would also like to know how you open a VB form from ME10 and pass the results back to ME10 (if it's not too much work to explain). I know it's supported, but have never seen any documentation on how to use it.

[brm]

When I close ME 10 11.65 and re-entry the toolbar are in other position-
Can I block the toolbars in a structure.
Thanks

[John Scheffel]

Originally posted by brm
When I close ME 10 11.65 and re-entry the toolbar are in other position.
Are these standard toolbars, or toolbars you created? Are the toolbars being loaded from a file?

Normally the toolbar layout is saved and restored when you exit and restart Drafting/ME10. However, if you are loading a custom toolbar from a file everytime you startup, it's position could be established by that file and overide the saved position.