Product(s):	Bentley Substation
	Version(s):	10.00.00.232
	Environment:	N/A
	Area:	PowerPlatform Support
	Subarea:	N/A

Background

If using a V8i (08.11.xx.xx) version of the software, see the [[Customizing the Interface - V8i]] article.

This article explains how the user interface in Bentley Substation CONNECT Edition can be customized.

To demonstrate the techniques, this document describes how to create custom buttons for grid spacing. These techniques can be extended to create other tools and customize other tool boxes and tasks, see the Other Customizations section below.

Steps to Accomplish

Create a new button

1. Select File > Settings > Customize Ribbon or right-click the ribbon and select Customize Ribbon.
2. In the Customize the Ribbon pane on the right side of the resulting dialog, find the group to which the new button will be added. For this example, drill down into the Electrical workflow, then into the View ribbon tab, then into the Display group. Note that the Grid Snap split button where default grid spacing buttons are found is locked, so a new tool cannot be added to the Grid Snap area.
   
3. Right-click Display and select Add New Panel. Name the panel "Custom". This name is not displayed and does not have to be "Custom". Adding a new panel allows for better control of where the custom grid spacing button will appear.
4. At this point, any existing tool could be dragged from the Choose Components From pane on the left into the new "Custom" panel.  For this example, right-click Display and select Add New Button.
   Optionally, if there were more than one custom grid spacing to add, a split button could be added and the grid spacing buttons added to the split button.
5. In the Properties pane for the new button, set the properties as follows:
   
   Label: 0.0625
   Description: Grid 0.0625
   Key-in: active gridunit 0.0625
   Show label only: set this check box
6. Drag the "Custom" panel item so that it is between the Grid Snap item and the Electrical.View.Display.LeftGP item.
7. Click Apply on the Customize Ribbon dialog. Note that the new "0.0265" tool created by the above procedure is now listed in the Choose Components From pane on the Customize Ribbon dialog, so it could easily be dragged into other areas of the ribbon.
8. Click OK.

Distributing the customization

The changes made to the ribbon interface using the procedure above are stored in the file specified by the MS_PERSONALDGNLIB configuration variable. This file is typically:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Bentley\Substation\10.0.0\prefs\Personal.Substation.dgnlib

Select File > Settings > Configuration > Configuration Variables and Edit the MS_PERSONALDGNLIB variable (make no changes) to confirm the path and name of the file to which the customizations have been added.

This file could be copied to other users' workstations, replacing their Personal.Substation.dgnlib, as a means of distributing the customizations.

Other Customizations

The techniques described in this document can be extended to create other customizations as well.

• Tools can be created that perform multiple commands by stringing commands together in the Key-In field of the tool. Commands are separated with semicolons.  For example, a tool can be created to select a certain Wire Use and then invoke a "draw wire" type of command.  Wire Uses are also known as Wire Layers.  The Key-In for such a tool would be:

ECAD COMBOWIRELAYERS combosetinx <Wire Use>; ECAD EXEC DRAWWIRE

Substitute the desired wire use, such as 3Phase  for <Wire Use>.  Be aware that the wire use name is case-sensitive.  Substitute the desired wire command, such as ECAD EXEC THREEPHASELINE, for ECAD EXE DRAWWIRE.  Use Workspace > Customize to look at the tools in the Wiring toolbox in the .DGNLIB file supplied with the software to see their Key-in commands.

• A tool could be created to turn on or off a level or group of levels.  For example, show or hide the display of device IDs by turning on and off the ECT_DGRM_TAGS level.  To turn off the level the key-in would be:

level set display off ECT_DGRM_TAGS

To turn the level on:

level set display on ECT_DGRM_TAGS

To toggle the level:

level set display toggle ECT_DGRM_TAGS

• A tool could be created to set certain active element properties and then initiate a drawing tool.  An example of this would be a tool that sets the active color to 2 (green), sets the active line style to 3 (dashed), sets the active line weight to 5, then initiates the Draw Wire tool.  The key-in for this tool would be:

active color 2; active style 3;active weight 5; ECAD EXEC DRAWWIRE

• A tool to complement the custom Draw Wire tool in the previous example would be one that sets the active element properties back to "normal".  The following Key-in sets the active color to ByLevel, and the line style and weight to 0.  Your "normal" may differ.

active color bylevel; active style 0;active weight 0

• DGNLIB files are cumulative. To remove an item from the interface it must be removed from all DGNLIB files the software is using. In other words, to remove an unwanted interface item supplied with the software, remove it from the DGNLIB file supplied with the software. Merely leaving the unwanted item out of a custom.dgnlib file does not remove it from the interface. Backup the supplied DGNLIB file before modifying it.

• A tool to hide elements not in the current selection set can be handy, especially for 3D design work. The key-in for this is

  displayset set selection

  Another tool could be created to re-display the hidden elements. The key-in for this is

  displayset clear

See Also

[[Customizing the Interface - V8i]]

Creating Tool Icons

AskInga - Export MicroStations icons from the open DGN library

AskInga - What command was that?

AskInga - Combine your keyins

AskInga - How to extract keyins for the tool settings in MicroStation V8i

External Links

YouTube - How to Customize the Ribbon

Original Author:

Matt_P