Create and Edit Dashboard Panels (Concept)-Autodesk AutoCAD 2008 Customization Guide-kxcad

Dashboard customization helps you to organize commands that you use frequently on panels that are similar to toolbars. Panels allow you to quickly access commands, and help you to reduce the number of user interface elements that you might have displayed in AutoCAD.

Show Me: Create a Dashboard Panel

Click the Play arrow below the following image to start the animation.

The animation below shows how to create a dashboard panel, add a row, add commands to the rows on it, and control the visibility of a panel through a workspace. The animation does not show how to create a custom command. For information about creating a custom command see Create, Edit, and Reuse Commands. For information about assigning an image to a command see Create Images for Commands. For information on creating and customizing workspaces see Customize Workspaces.

Dashboard panels are divided into two different sections, an upper and lower. The <PANEL SEPERATOR> item is used to control how the rows of a dashboard panel are displayed in the two sections. The rows in the upper section are displayed by default when the dashboard panel is displayed on the Dashboard palette; those in the lower section are displayed only after the double down arrow is clicked to expand the dashboard panel. You can create and modify dashboard panels to tailor the user interface to the way you work.

Rows are used in a dashboard panel to control the placement of the tools that should be displayed. You can add rows to a section of a dashboard panel, remove rows that are no longer needed, and rearrange rows between the upper and lower sections of a dashboard panel. Rows can be created by dragging toolbars above or below the panel separator.

You can add buttons to a row, remove buttons you use infrequently, and rearrange buttons. Along with buttons, you can also create flyouts and add controls.

The following table describes the 2D Draw dashboard panel properties as they appear in the Properties pane.

Properties for the 2D Draw panel
Properties pane item	Description	Example
Name	Title for the panel; displayed in the Control Panels sub-menu when you right-click of the Dashboard palette.	2D Draw
Description	Text used to describe the element; does not appear in the user interface.
Aliases	Specifies the aliases for the panel. Click the ellipses button [...] to open the Aliases dialog box. Each alias in the CUI file should be unique and it is used to reference the panel programatically.	2D_Draw
Element ID	Tag that uniquely identifies a panel.	PNL_0001
Small Image	ID string of the small-image resource (16 × 16 bitmap). The string must include alphanumeric characters with no punctuation other than a hyphen (-) or an underscore (_). It can also be a user-defined bitmap. Click the ellipses button [...] to open the Select Image File dialog box.	RCDATA_16_DASH_2D_MAKE_MODIFY
Large Image	ID string of the large-image resource (32 × 32 bitmap). If the specified bitmap is not 32 × 32, the program scales it to that size. The string must include alphanumeric characters with no punctuation other than a hyphen (-) or an underscore (_). It can also be a user-defined bitmap. Click the ellipses button [...] to open the Select Image File dialog box.	RCDATA_16_DASH_2D_MAKE_MODIFY

A row, similar to a toolbar, controls the order and position of tools on a dashboard panel. Rows run horizontally on a dashboard panel. If all the tools in a row cannot be displayed at once on the Dashboard palette, a small black triangle is displayed on the right side of the row so you can access the additional commands in the row via a flyout.

The following table describes the properties for Row 1 of the 2D Draw dashboard panel as they appear in the Properties pane.

Properties for Row 1 of the 2D Draw panel
Properties pane item	Description	Example
Name	Logical name for the section of a panel; does not appear in the user interface.	Draw
Description	Text used to describe the element; does not appear in the user interface.	Draw Toolbar
Row s	Number of rows that are in a panel section. A panel section is defined by the rows that are above or below the <PANEL SEPARATOR> node of a panel.	2
Aliases	Specifies the aliases for the panel section. Click the ellipses button [...] to open the Aliases dialog box. Each alias in the CUI file should be unique and it is used to reference the panel section programatically.	TPL_0001
Element ID	Tag that uniquely identifies a panel section.	TPL_0001

Dashboard panels, like toolbars, can contain flyouts that hold a number of buttons and separators to help organize similar tools. A dashboard panel flyout is created in a slightly different way from that of a flyout on a toolbar. Instead of the flyout referencing a toolbar; it is created like a sub-menu on a pull-down menu, but it has the same properties as a toolbar flyout.

The following table describes the properties for the Block flyout of Row 1 on the 2D Draw dashboard panel as they appear in the Properties pane.

Properties for Block flyout on Row 1 of the 2D Draw panel
Properties pane item	Description	Example
Name	Logical name for the flyout; does not appear in the user interface.	Block
Description	Text used to describe the element; does not appear in the user interface.
Use Own Icon	Controls whether the last used button is set as the current button or not. The possible values are Yes or No.	No
Small Image	ID string of the small-image resource (16 × 16 bitmap). The string must include alphanumeric characters with no punctuation other than a hyphen (-) or an underscore (_). It can also be a user-defined bitmap. Click the ellipses button [...] to open the Select Image File dialog box.	RCDATA_16_BLOCK
Large Image	ID string of the large-image resource (32 × 32 bitmap). If the specified bitmap is not 32 × 32, the program scales it to that size. The string must include alphanumeric characters with no punctuation other than a hyphen (-) or an underscore (_). It can also be a user-defined bitmap. Click the ellipses button [...] to open the Select Image File dialog box.	RCDATA_16_BLOCK

When you create a new dashboard panel, row, or dashboard flyout, the first task you need to do is assign a name to it. When you create a new dashboard panel a single row is created, the <PANEL SEPARATOR> is added, and no commands or controls are assigned. You can drag commands and controls onto a row of the new dashboard panel from existing dashboard panels or from the Command List pane. Once a command has been added to the dashboard panel, you can change the tooltip text by changing the Name property in the Properties pane.

Commands and controls can be added to or removed from a row in a dashboard panel in the Customizations In <file name> pane. They can also be added or removed using the Panel Preview pane with the Panel Preview pane you can add and remove commands or controls visually in real-time instead of just using the tree view. You can also drag command and controls in the preview to reposition them.