Tech Tip: Create Your Own Toolbar Buttons In Zwcad

By Author: Jenny Wu
Total Articles: 5
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Batch plotting is a highlight of ZWCAD. Although the Publish command is available to plot several files at one time in AutoCAD, ZWCAD's batch plotting is better at managing the job of plotting on local networks. With the help of batch plotting, I can specify and plot several copies of a drawing as fast as possible in a single plot job. My only regret is that I cannot start batch plotting by simply clicking a button on the toolbar.

Of course, I could access batch plotting from the File menu through the Batch Plot item, or by entering the PltPlot command at the keyboard. But I would like to use it from the toolbar. I learned that I can create a toolbar button for batch plot, because ZWCAD supports customized toolbar buttons!

Let me show you how to create a toolbar button for batch plotting:

First, you need to know the name of the command. For batch plotting, it is PltPlot. (If you are unsure of a command's name, select its function from the menu, and then look for the command's ...
... name in the command line).

Second, add an already-existing button to a toolbar. Follow these steps:

* From Tools menu, choose Customize | Toolbar.
* Select the Command tab.
* From the Commands list, drag any button to any toolbar. For example, I dragged the QNew button to the Standard toolbar.

Finally, modify the new button to make it work with the command you want, like this:

1.Move the cursor over the QNew button, right click, and then choose the Modify option from the shortcut menu.

2.In the dialog box, change the text of the Command area from "^C^C_qnew" to the following:
^C^C_pltplot

3.Click the OK button.
4.To change the icon image of this button, right-click the button, and then choose Change Button Image from the shortcut menu.

5. Choose another image from the submenu that appears.

You can now click the button to start batch plotting.

You can repeat the steps shown above to create more custom buttons for toolbars. Here is one example I've thought of: drawing circles through tangent-tangent-tangent entity snaps. This is a command that is not easily entered at the command line. In this case, you can find the command code from the Customize dialog box: from the Tools menu, select Customize | Toolbars, and then choose the Menus tab. Find the Tan-Tan-Tan item on the tree menu, as illustrated below.

ZWCAD has toolbar buttons for most of the features that I used frequently. But it also supports customization of toolbars, something that I like very much.

About ZWCAD

As the flagship product of ZWCAD Software Co., Ltd., ZWCAD is a powerful CAD solution, which is highly compatible with DWG format. ZWCAD meets the needs of broad-based target groups of 2D/3D design industry, including architecture, engineering, construction, mechanics, manufacturing and electronics. So far, it has become the leading brand in China's CAD industry and now competes successfully in over 75 other countries, with more than 150,000 users throughout the world.

For more information, please visit www.zwcad.org or contact ZWCAD team at sales@zwcad.com.

(C) Copyright 2009 ZWCAD Software Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.