Customizing image tile menus

Image tile menus are used to create custom dialog boxes that contain lists and images of frequently-used blocks or commands. A legacy user interface, image tile menus are used most commonly by third-party programs to display the contents of block libraries and to make it easy to insert blocks in drawings. They can be added to any existing menu, toolbar, or ribbon tab (if supported by your program version).

Image tile menus display images from slide (.sld) files that are created with the Make Snapshot command. For details about creating .sld files, see Creating snapshots.

To create a new user interface for inserting blocks or running commands, it is recommended to use tool palettes instead. For more details, see Starting commands using tool palettes.

To create an image tile menu

   1   Do one of the following to choose Customize UI ():

    On the ribbon, choose Tools > Customize UI (in Manage).

    On the menu, choose Tools > Customize UI.

    Type cui and then press Enter.

   2   Click the Customize tab.

   3   In the Current Customization area, select a customization file (for example, ICAD), then right-click Image Tile Menus in the list.

   4   Choose New Image Tile Menu.

   5   Type the name of the new image tile menu, then press Enter.

   6   Do the following for each command you want to add to the image tile menu:

    Drag a command from the Command List to the new image tile menu.

    In the Properties area for the command, in Slide Label, enter the name of the slide (.sld) file, without the file extension, that you want to associate with the command. For details about creating .sld files, see Creating snapshots.

    Place the .sld file in the programs installation folder.

    7    Click OK.

To add an image tile menu to the user interface

   1   Do one of the following to choose Customize UI ():

    On the ribbon, choose Tools > Customize UI (in Manage).

    On the menu, choose Tools > Customize UI.

    Type cui and then press Enter.

   2   Click the Customize tab.

   3   In the Current Customization area, select the image tile menu you want to add to the user interface.

   4   In the Properties area, copy the alias that was assigned automatically to the image tile menu, for example IMG3001.

   5   In the Current Customization area, select a customization file (for example, ICAD), then right-click where you want to add the image tile menu, and create a new item. For example, to add the image tile menu to a menu, right-click the command located below where you want to add the image tile menu, then choose Insert Menu Item.

   6   Enter the name as you want it to appear in the user interface, then press Enter.

   7   In the Properties area, enter the following for the Command Name, where IMG3001 is the alias of the image tile menu:

$I=IMG3001 $I=*

   8   Click OK.