I have been working on & off for a while now to create a custom Workflow ribbon for our CONNECT environment. I do not like all the tabs and the need to switch from one tab to another. I've also created/modified some of tool panels. As you can see in the screenshot I have the Attributes panel so that the standard drop down fields are available, but I also added the button to show the dialog for the various Level Filters. This allows us to change the active level filter from this list (I know you can drop the active level list and select the filter there, but that causes the drop down to collapse & you need to click it again to access the levels once again). As you can see the active level drop down is on top with the line style & line weight drop downs directly underneath. The color, priority & transparency buttons are pushed to the outside edge of the active level drop down. Looking at the Help documentation there is mention of margins (for tools) and center alignment (for panels). There is a panel section as well that allows you to define the type of panel and alignment of the buttons within the panel.
I do not see any of the alignment options or the panel type options anywhere and the margin field is greyed out.
Is there a way to reorganize the tool buttons within panels on the ribbon?
Hi,
mwlong said:I have the Attributes panel
How the panel was created? Is it referenced Attributes panel, or you created it manually and added only the panel content?
mwlong said:the margin field is greyed out.
Originally I though that it is because you use "ribbon non standard" controls, when drop down menus are implemented using special providers. But, as I see, margin is greyed out even when I add simple button.
mwlong said:Looking at the Help documentation there is mention of margins (for tools) and center alignment (for panels).
It looks like help describes what is possible technically (features of ribbon), but not what is allowed, when simple customization using the customization tool is used.
mwlong said:Is there a way to reorganize the tool buttons within panels on the ribbon?
Yes and no.
In general, a concept of ribbon layout is dynamic, based on rules and preferences: What control is fixed size, what can be resized automatically, using what layout, margins etc. It allows to render the ribbon content flexibly, depending on GUI configuration.
On the other hand, some controls allow to define margins (Group panel, all controls derived from Button...) and horizontal / vertical alignment (Group panel...). The problem here is that these settings are not accessible through the customization tool.
When you want to define own ribbon, using all available features, you have to use "ribbon xml definition" (optionally compiled into rsc file). Tt is described in MicroStation SDK documentation, based on .xsd file and have to be created manually.
With regards,
Jan
Bentley Accredited Developer: iTwin Platform - AssociateLabyrinth Technology | dev.notes() | cad.point
Jan Šlegr said:How the panel was created?
It was created by copying the delivered gui.dgnlib and modifying that by right-clicking on the ribbon and selecting Customize. I created the MT Custom workflow. Then I created the MT & More tabs. Then I pulled tools from column of choices.
Jan Šlegr said:described in MicroStation SDK documentation
So I would need to use SDK in order to access additional setting to customize the ribbon properly? I've always been interested in SDK, but never really looked into it.
Microstation CONNECT - 10.17.2.61
ORD - 2021 R1 10.10.1.3
ORD 2022 R1.1 - 10.11.3.2
ORD 2022 R3 - 10.12.2.4
Microstation v8i SS 10 - 08.11.09.919
Power InRoads v8i - 08.11.09.615
ProjectWise - 10.0.3.453
mwlong said:It was created by copying the delivered gui.dgnlib
Why to copy gui.dgnlib? When ribbon is customized in "a user graphical way", customization is stored in personal.dgnlib by default.
mwlong said:to customize the ribbon properly?
I would say "fully", because even the limited graphical way (ribbon customization tool) creates the customization "properly" too.
mwlong said:So I would need to use SDK in order to access additional setting to customize the ribbon
In fact, not. As long as xml definition is acceptable (and not to be compiled to .rsc file), you only need perfect knowledge of xml and editor, that supports xml editing using .xsd definition.
SDK itself adds documentation (quite basic ) and resource compiler, when .xml is not enough and .rsc should be delivered.
mwlong said:I've always been interested in SDK, but never really looked into it.
If you have access to SDK (your SELECT agreement covers also BDN membership, which is free for in-house development) and a few hours (well, maybe days) to read and understand how ribbon definition works, and to play with it to get some knowledge, probably no problem to go this way.
Regards,
Jan Šlegr said:Why to copy gui.dgnlib?
I copied it so I could add my customization and make them accessible to all users company wide. I append MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST to add my customized gui.dgnlib. In v8i I customized the task dialog and had all the tools I use on 1 tab. I am not a fan of switching tabs to access various tools. I also added a lot of custom tools. With v8i the customizations were only available to my office and not company wide. Many users in other offices liked the customization when we started sharing work and they had access to my environment. With CONNECT I was asked to provide this company wide.
Thanks for the information on the .xml file. I will look into this. I am not very familiar with editing .xml, but I can do some research and figure it out.