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NX 8 toolbar ->NX9 Ribbon Tab 1

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cubalibre000

cubalibre000

Mechanical
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
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1,070
Location
IT
Hi,
In our company we have three company toolbar.
One for custom journal (Utility), another for title block operation and the last PLM toolbar.
Now, how can create automatically three NX9 Ribbon Tab that are loaded automatically to all users ?

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and TC9.1
 
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Cubalibre00,

Place the existing shared tbr files
in the %UGII_SITE_DIR\application\profiles\all directory.

Create a text file with rtb extension in the same directory. e.g. Ribbon_toolbars.rtb

in that Ribbon_toolbars.rtb file add a GROUP entry for each toolbar with the name of the tbr file.

e.g.
Code: 
TITLE  Customer Tab
VERSION 170

GROUP  customer_toolbar_1.tbr
GROUP  customer_toolbar_2.tbr
GROUP  customer_toolbar_3.tbr

HTH, Joe
 
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Joe,
it works fine.

Thank you...

Using NX 8 and TC9.1
 
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Joe,

Thanks for the code snippet.

Does anyone know where to find more documentation on how to manage ribbon tabs and groups through these type of files (.rtb, .tbr, etc)?

Dustin
 
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The link didn't work for me for some reason (may be a work network issue). However, I was able to search GTAC for "SFB-NX-7793" and I found the document you mentioned. Thanks so much!

Dustin
 
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What is the difference between a CASCADE and a DROP DOWN?
 
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I assume that you're talking about the '.ddb' and '.csb' files mentioned in the document, correct?

Actually there is very little difference between these files types, or for that matter, any of the so-called 'UI object' files described in the document that Joe pointed you toward. The different extensions were assigned more as an aid in helping developers to better understand what they were creating these files for and also so that the system knew exactly how to handle them if and when they're referenced. It's interesting that you're focusing on the TWO files types that we ourselves have NOT done that much with (in fact, there's only a single '.csb' file in NX 9.0 and just four '.ddb' files). The reason for that is that you can create Drop-Downs/Cascades inside of a Ribbon Tab, '.trb' file, just like you were able to define a 'cascade' in a '.men' file and 'dropdowns' in '.tbr' files. The real reason for now having explicit '.ddb' and '.csb' files, even if we've not chosen to use them much, was to provide developers with the flexibility to create 'UI Objects' which could be reused in more than one place. An example might be that rather than cloning the text to create the same 'dropdown' in two different Ribbon Tabs, I could create a single '.ddb' file which I just referenced from two (or more) '.rtb' files. That way I could change the content of all instances of that user-defined 'dropdown' by editing a single file.

So I guess the bottom line is that you can use them or not, it's up to you and the type of customization that it is that you're attempting to do. That being said, due to the fact that most people who are interested in customizing the NX 9.0 UI may not be replacing big chunks but more likely simply wanting to add some of their own special functions and/or user-developed applications, that our users just might benefit more from using these various files then we would since they can then be easily added to an existing Siemens created '.rtb' file by just making a single reference, eliminating the need to add large amounts of explicit text.

Anyway, I hope this helps remove some of the confusion that you might have over this group of new file types that we added to the mix, as it were.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
 
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John,

Thanks for your thorough post. That definitely helps me understand better everything that the ribbon bar can do. I appreciate the fact that you created multiple file types that developers can use. It is very convenient. We have so many custom applications at work and we are trying to fit them all on one tab, so I'm just trying to completely understand what all we can do and how to best do it. That's what I need to figure out now :)

Yesterday, I created all the different file types and played around with them to see how they work. I discovered a couple things about Cascades and Drop Downs in case anyone finds it useful:

1) By default, both a Drop Down and a Cascade display the icon of the top most menu item (when there is room to display a large icon with text below it). The difference is that with a Drop Down a user can click on the icon which will run that action. Clicking on the text will open the drop down menu. With a Cascade, the menu appears when click the icon or the text. The icon cannot be launched.
2) A Drop Down's icon changes to the icon of the action that was last clicked, while the icon of the Cascade is always the icon of the top most item.
3) A Drop Down can be customized to show a list of icons with text (AS_POPUP_MENU) or simply icons (PALLETE). If PALLETE is chosen, a user may also specify the number of columns to use. This functionality is compatible with a Drop Down and not a Cascade.

Hopefully that is useful for those looking to customize NX menus.

Another question, how does one use the Attachment files (.abr)?

Thanks,

Dustin Hill
 
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Attachment files, '.abr', are a bit more esoteric. What we've used them for is to populate the Top Border Bar, where you see things like the selection tools, snap points, etc., and the Quick Access Toolbar, where you find Save, Undo/Redo, Last Command, etc. Since these can be used to define any of the Border Bars, the use case for customers might be to create pre-defined, shareable Border Bars containing whatever functions you desire. With that in mind, if anyone thinks about using Attachments, we would recommend that they be confined to the Left, Right and Bottom Border Bars since the other two mentioned above, are pretty well taken and since Attachment files cannot be used to insert item into an existing Border Bar, it must define the entire contents, cope with what happens when you change applications or enter a Task environment, since they already override the default content of these items.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
 
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Hi John, Joe

Jumping on to this topic...
We have our legacy Toolbar files located in dedicated folders (grouped according their function).

Code: 
GROUP $SITE_PREF_PATH\Text_Symbols\startup\DesignTextSymbol.tbr
GROUP $SITE_PREF_PATH\titleblock\startup\wgPDM.tbr
GROUP $SITE_PREF_PATH\ShipPower\startup\ShipPower.tbr

I tried above code for the rtb file which doesn't work... How can I call a tbr file from a different path in the rtb?

Ronald van den Broek
Mechanical Engineer
Cad Environment Coordinator
Wärtsilä, Propulsion Services
NX8.5.3 / TC9.1.2
HPZ420 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz, 32 Gb Win7 64B
Nvidea Quadro4000 2048MB DDR5

 
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Have you looked at the document that Joe mentioned on Friday?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
 
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There's no need to use the entire path name for the file since they are already in a 'startup' folder, which by definition means that when NX starts, these files have already been loaded and so you only need to use the file name itself, nothing more. Just becareful that no two files of any one type has been given the same name even if they're in different 'startup' folders.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
 
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You are correct John...

I had a look at the document and didn't notice one of my calls wasn't it in the correct case. That's why it didn't work right away.

Thanks!

Ronald van den Broek
Mechanical Engineer
Cad Environment Coordinator
Wärtsilä, Propulsion Services
NX8.5.3 / TC9.1.2
HPZ420 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz, 32 Gb Win7 64B
Nvidea Quadro4000 2048MB DDR5

 
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