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Figure 32-8: The picture and shape of the letter P.

Editing shape files

You don’t often get a shape right the first time. You don’t see the result until after you’ve compiled, loaded, and inserted the shape. Editing shape files involves the following steps:

1.Erase all copies of the shape.

2.Purge the .shx file by using the PURGE command and choosing Shapes in the dialog box. (You may sometimes need to purge more than once.) If you forget this step, when you try to insert the corrected shape, AutoCAD uses the old definition!

3.Edit the .shp file. Don’t forget to change the #ofspecs value in the first line if necessary. Save the file.

4.Recompile the .shp file.

5.Reload the .shx file.

6.Reinsert the shape using the SHAPE command.

Creating Fonts

AutoCAD’s support for TrueType fonts makes so many fonts available that the need to create your own is certainly less than with earlier versions. However, you might want to add special symbols to some existing fonts, especially if you often use these symbols within text.

Font files use the same codes to define the characters as shape files. They have the following unique characteristics:

The shapenumber part of the definition must correspond to the ASCII code value for the character you’re defining. Appendix A of the “AutoCAD Customization Guide” (choose Help Help Contents Customization Guide ASCII Codes) contains all the ASCII codes in octal, hexadecimal, and decimal formats. Fonts generally use either hexadecimal or decimal format.

The shapename part of the definition is lowercase and is usually used to label the character — for example, ucp for uppercase p and lcr for lowercase r.

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The file must include a special shape number 0 that defines the entire font, using the following syntax:

*0,4,font-name above,below,modes,0

The above value specifies how far above the baseline uppercase letters extend. The below value specifies how far below the baseline lowercase letters, such as p or q extend. Together, these two values define the size of the characters. AutoCAD uses these values to scale letters when you define a text height for the font. Modes should be 0 for a horizontal font and 2 for a font that supports both horizontal and vertical orientations. For example, a header for a font named arch with capital letters 21 units high and lowercase letters that extend 7 units below the line could be:

*0,4,arch

21,7,0,0

You must define the line feed (LF), which drops down one line without drawing so that lines of text can be placed beneath each other. The line feed is ASCII code 10.

You need to create a start point and endpoint with the pen up to create spacing between letters. See the previous Step-by-Step exercise for an example.

As with all shapes, you probably want to use AutoCAD to draw all the characters on a grid with a spacing of 1. Decide on the height of the letters and be consistent.

Big fonts and Unicode fonts

The Japanese and Chinese written languages use fonts with thousands of characters because each character represents a word. AutoCAD uses big fonts to support these languages. It is beyond the scope of this book to go into detail about how to create these fonts, but a short explanation is useful.

Big font files use special codes to allow for the larger number of shapes. Big fonts allow up to 65,535 shape numbers. Unicode fonts support the ISO10646 standard, which uses 16-bit encoding to support many languages in one font file. If you open one of the .shp files, you’ll see characters for all the letters that may have accents in French, Spanish, and so on. All the fonts in AutoCAD are now compliant with this standard.

The advantage of Unicode fonts is that characters that you type appear the same in all systems and countries. This is important if you exchange drawings with clients or colleagues in other countries. Unicode fonts use a special header that includes two extra codes.

Unicode special characters can be inserted by typing \u+ and the hexadecimal Unicode value in the font file. (For this reason, Unicode font files use hexadecimal shape numbers.) For example, the hexadecimal code for the plus/minus sign is 00B1. If you type \u+00b1 and press Enter (using DTEXT in this example), you get the plus/minus sign. (It works with multiline text, too.)

If you don’t need the additional capabilities of big fonts or Unicode fonts, you can create fonts without them.

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Summary

In this chapter, you read about how to create shapes. You discovered how to:

Use shape files when you need to insert a shape many times, using as little storage space as possible

Create fonts using shape files with a few special codes that define both the font as a whole and each character

In the next chapter, I explain how to customize menus.

Customizing Menus

You probably use the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT menus all the time. (If you don’t, you can skip this chapter.) The menus are designed to be useful for most people, but the whole point of cus-

tomization is that everyone has different needs. You can draw a lot easier and faster by customizing the menus to suit your own individual requirements. Not only can you add commands to a menu, but you can also add menu items consisting of a series of commands that run just like a macro. If you’re using AutoCAD, you can even add AutoLISP routines to your menus. You can edit the default menu or create your own menu. You may want to create specialized menus that are used only for one drawing — for example, a menu to help clients view a drawing. The only limit is your imagination — and the time you can devote to customization.

Working with Menu Files

Menu files were once simple (a long time ago). Now, under Windows, menu files are a complex subject, indeed. However, you need to understand the menu files and how they interact with each other before starting to change them.

Caution	Don’t even think about customizing a menu until you’ve backed
	up at least acad.mnu or aclt.mnu. Better yet, back up all the
	menu files (see Table 33-1 for a listing of menu files).

Understanding menu files

Your menu is comprised of several files in both text and compiled format. In order to customize your menus, you need to understand these files and how they work with each other. Table 33-1 lists all the menu-file types and their functions.

33C H A P T E R

In This Chapter

Understanding and working with menu files

Loading menus and partial menus

Creating commands and macros for menus

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	Table 33-1: Menu Files and Functions
File	Function
MNU	The template menu file. AutoCAD comes with acad.mnu. AutoCAD LT comes with
	aclt.mnu. This is an ASCII file that you can edit.
MNS	The source menu file that is generated from the MNU file. It is also an ASCII file. When
	you customize your toolbars as described in Chapter 29, the changes go in this file.
	You can edit this file instead of using the MNU file to retain your toolbar
	customizations.
MNC	The compiled, binary file that the software actually uses when you choose an item on
	a menu. Compiled menus offer faster access. When you start AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT,
	if you’ve made changes in the MNS menu file, the menu is recompiled, creating a
	new MNC file.
MNR	A binary file that contains bitmaps (images) used by the menu.
MNL	An ASCII file that contains AutoLISP routines used by the menu. When AutoCAD
	loads a menu file, it automatically loads this file if it has the same filename. AutoCAD
	contains a number of commands that are actually AutoLISP routines — these are found
	in acad.mnl. AutoCAD only.

The file types listed in Table 33-1 constitute a family of menu files. For example, AutoCAD comes with acad.mnu, acad.mns, acad.mnc, acad.mnr, and acad.mnl. AutoCAD LT comes with aclt.mnu, aclt.mns, aclt.mnc, and aclt.mnr. If you create your own menu, you create a file called, let’s say, special.mnu. From that file, AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT creates special. mns and special.mnr as a minimum. If you’re using AutoCAD, you can also place AutoLISP routines in a file called special.mnl, which will be loaded automatically whenever special. mnc is loaded. If your menu has bitmaps, AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT also creates special.mnr. You can place your menus in any folder in the support-file search path.

Note	Remember that you can add to the support-file search path by choosing Tools Options
	Files tab, choosing Support File Search Path, and clicking Add. The same item shows you the
	current location of your menu files.
New	AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT now come with a separate menu, custom, that you can use for
Feature	your own customization. See Chapter 29 for an example of using this menu for toolbar
	customization.

Loading and unloading menu files

There are two types of menus — complete and partial. A partial menu usually has only one or two pull-down menus (or toolbars). You can then load this partial menu into your regular base menu. If your menu customization consists of simply adding a few menu items, you can create a partial menu and add it to your current menu.

However, you may also want to have alternate complete menus. Perhaps two different people work on one computer and have different menu needs. Or you may find it useful to have one menu for architectural drawings, another for mechanical drawings, and a third for electrical schematics. Of course, you can customize your one full menu to better suit your needs.

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Loading a complete menu with the MENU command

To load a complete menu in AutoCAD only, you can use the MENU command at the command line. AutoCAD opens the Select Menu File dialog box, as shown in Figure 33-1.

Figure 33-1: The Select Menu File dialog box.

AutoCAD assumes that you want to load either an MNC or MNS menu file. However, you can use the Files of Type drop-down list to choose an MNU template file. You do this when you’re customizing a menu and want to recompile all the menu files that arise from the MNU file. If you’re simply loading a different menu to use, you should load either the MNC or MNS file. Select the file and click Open to load the menu.

Caution

Loading a full menu unloads any partial menus that you might have loaded.

When you start AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, the last menu you used, which is stored in the Windows registry, is loaded. If you want to use a new menu while in AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, you must load it.

Caution	When you load an MNU file, you get a warning that loading the file will overwrite any
	changes you’ve made to your toolbars. To avoid this problem, either customize the MNS
	menu file or follow the procedure explained here.

If you’ve customized a menu using the MNU file, here’s how you save the changes you’ve made to your toolbars while you’re customizing a menu:

1.Make the changes to the toolbars.

2.Open the MNS file of the menu you’re using. You can use Notepad to do this.

3.Select the entire toolbar section. It starts with ***TOOLBARS. Copy it to the Clipboard.

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4.Close the MNS file.

5.Open the MNU file of the same menu. (It has the same filename.)

6.Select the entire toolbar section.

7.Choose Paste from the Standard toolbar. Notepad (or your text editor) replaces the entire toolbar section with the new one from the MNS file.

8.Save the MNU file and close it.

Now your customized toolbars are incorporated into your template MNU menu file. You can customize this file as much as you like and ignore any messages about overwriting your toolbar changes.

Of course, if you make a mistake, you’ve backed up your MNU, MNS, and MNC menu files, so you can simply copy them back over the ones on your hard disk.

You can also load a complete menu with the MENULOAD command, as I discuss next.

Loading or unloading a menu with MENULOAD

You can use the MENULOAD command to load or unload a full or a partial menu. In AutoCAD LT, you need to use this command. To load a full or partial menu, choose Tools Customize Menus. The Menu Customization dialog box (shown in Figure 33-2) opens.

Figure 33-2: The Menu Customization dialog box.

Every menu, both complete and partial, has a menu group name. The menu group name of the menu that AutoCAD comes with is ACAD. The AutoCAD LT menu is ACLT. When you create your own menus, you give them a menu group name, often (but not necessarily) the name of the file. For example, the files for the ACAD menu group are acad.mnu, acad.mns, acad.mnc, and so on.

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You can use the Menu Groups tab to load and unload full or partial menus:

To load a partial menu, type the name of the file in the File Name text box or choose Browse to locate the file. Then click Load.

To unload a loaded partial menu, choose the menu you want and click Unload. If you modify a menu, you must unload it first and then reload it.

To load a complete menu in either AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, use the same procedure for loading a partial menu but choose a full menu. Check the Replace All check box and click Load.

Caution	If you want to load a partial menu only, be sure that the Replace All check box is not
	checked.

Use the Menu Bar tab, as shown in Figure 33-3, to display, hide, or reorder pull-down menus. First choose the menu group you want from the Menu Group drop-down list.

The Menus box on the left lists all the available pull-down menus. The Menu Bar list on the right displays the current order of the menu bar, from left to right.

Figure 33-3: The Menu Bar tab of the Menu

Customization dialog box.

To remove a pull-down menu, choose it from the Menu Bar list and click Remove. Click Remove All to remove all the pull-down menus.

To insert a pull-down menu, follow these steps:

1.Choose the menu from the Menu Bar list that you want your menu to be to the left of. For example, to insert the Modify menu to the left of the Dimension menu, choose Dimension.

2.Then choose the menu that you want to insert — for example, the Modify menu.

3.Click Insert.

You can move menus by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons. Click Close after you finish using the dialog box.