yang686526

creating a custom menu for 2008
hi all,
for years i've been using a 3rd party program in order to create a custom menu in sw (bitwright solidmenu) however it does not seem to work with sw 2008 and the developer seems to have disappeared.
what do i need to create a custom menu of my own? visual c++?
is there any sort of documentation to assist in doing this?
many thanks
matt
bitwright has been idle for years.
i put this information in another post, but it also seems to fit here.
i created a menu add-in tool that has an editor allowing you to add in any program. plus i incorporated printing into the program, so that you can have shortcuts to creating pdf's, and prints. it also allows you to setup the configuration files on a network drive so all users have the same menu. i am currently selling the software, and a handful of companies in minnesota are using it currently. i am working on the website for this tool, and others. the website should be done in the next few weeks. i currently sell it for $50/seat or it is included in my other tool for editing file properties which sells for $150/seat. the printing alone is a time saver in my opinion.
feel free to contact me at jl_innovations@comcast.net
bob
i would like to have the ability to add tool bars and edit the interface more readily without having to make add-ins.
matt lorono
solidworks 2007 sp3.1
cad engineer/ecn analyst
it can do toolbars, but does require you to supply the icon for each item added to the menu.
it doesn't take much work to create a sw menu, nor to create a program that will generate either the code for you to compile to make the menu, or a dll that simply reads from an xml file to dynamically create a menu.
if there really is a market for that i might as well create one when i get some spare time, and sell it at £20 a pop!
the thing is, if you know enough to write macros, it takes about 5 minutes more work to know how to create toolbars, so what is the problem people are having?
not everyone using solidworks knows anything about programming.
i don't know how large the market is, but i have sold a handful of copies in just the past year. people like the ability to add in programs as they need to, plus it simplifies the installation for users. now you only need to load one program, and then just use a config file to point to all of the other programs which can just be copied to someones folder (or on a network). one of the companies has 8 programs, and just copies them to their user's pc's. then they install the menu and point to that folder. much easier and less confusing for the user. it makes it easier to the update the programs as well.
hi luke, bob...
give us information about the power of api.
regards,
dd
quick