Customizing and Editing Toolbar Icons
Do you have a mapkey you would like on the toolbar ... but you think the smiley faces look a
little silly? Add a bit of flair and functionality, by customizing the icons.
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Figure 1 |
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For this Tip-of-the-Month, we'll use an example of two mapkeys created for printing -- one for printing A-Size
the other for B-Size. They need to be on the toolbar and be easy to identify.
The first step (assuming the mapkeys exist) is to open the customize dialog box using Utilities >
Customize Screen ... then select the Commands tab, File Category and Print icon as shown
in Figure 1. Using the Modify Selection pull-down menu (Figure 2) select Copy Button Image.
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Figure 2 |
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Next locate the mapkey in the Mapkey Category -- in this case, mapkeys "lza" and "lzb" shown in
Figure 3. Select one then use Modify Selection > Paste Button Image
(see Figure 2). The print icon then appears instead of the smiley.
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Figure 3 |
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Next, change the icon using Modify Selection > Edit Button Image (see Figure 2).
This will start the Button Editor where changes can be made as shown in Figure 4. (This is not
a high tech editor, so if you make a big mistake, you have to start over.)
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Figure 4 |
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Once the images are created and assigned (Figure 5), you can simply drag them onto a toolbar
like in Figure 6.
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Figure 5 |
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If you want to get a little more sophisticated, put them in a flyout. A new flyout is created by selecting the
New Menu Category (seen in Figure 5), then dragging the "New Flyout" words onto an existing toolbar.
The appropriate icons than then be dragged into the flyout. The result can be as shown in Figure 7.
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Figure 6 |
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Figure 7 |
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Figure 8 |
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This kind of customization can be done for any of the toolbars in Pro/E. One caveat is that you have to be
in the right mode to view specific toolbars -- in Sketcher to work with the Sketcher toolbar for example.
In general, you can put any icon in any toolbar or in any flyout. You can also take any icon out of a flyout.
A good example is disposing of the Done / Cancel flyout in the sketcher toolbar and putting the check
and X in their own spot. (Figure 8).
See you next month!
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