Quick Access / Ribbon Customization

[DonSenchuk]

I think I'm at my wit's end with the Quick Access and Ribbon customization. Or I was. One can never tell once one loses all his wits.

Over a year ago, on M020, I created a customized Quick Access UI. The users seemed to be plenty happy with the choices I made (Layers, Auto Check In, Server Management) so I ignored it. Fast forward to recently when one asks for some additional customization. I think, "No problem!" Ha. Ha.

(We're on M090 now, BTW.)

So I added Activate Window and ModelCheck Interactive to the default 'nothing open' screen, drw, prt and asm. Then, when I tested, the two new icons were present but the previous ones were gone. So I added the old ones back in. Only to find that they were all there except Server Management.

I started chasing this round and round. Got to a point where all the icons new and old would appear correctly for prt, asm and drw, but Server Management would not show up for the default 'nothing open' screen. So I added it back in to the 'nothing open' mode, exported the .UI file and tested again. Everything was gone. WTF?

Time for methodical. I added just the quick access icons to the drw mode, including Server Management which is important to note. Tested -- and by tested I mean deleted all .UI files except the admin one, restarted CreoParametric -- and everything worked. I added the quick access icons to the prt mode, tested, and everything worked. I added the quick access icons to the asm mode, tested, and everything worked. I added Server Management to the 'nothing open' mode, tested, and everything is gone again.

Went back and restored the .UI where it worked properly for prt, asm and drw from the recycle bin. Tested once again and all the icons are there. I then tested adding Server Management to the ribbon instead of the quck access toolbar with nearly the same results. The only difference was one test where all the custom icons were gone from the quick access toolbar but the Server Management icon was left in the Ribbon in 'nothing open' mode.

So it looks like adding Server Management to the 'nothing open' mode, regardless of quck access or in the ribbon, was the cause of the problems. Because I didn't test what happens if I add any other icons to the 'nothing open' mode I'm not sure if it's the mode or that particular icon that's causing the problems.

I've seen some members mention being frustrated by the customization. I can't say whether this has anything to do with their frustrations, but if so I can certainly see why they have such negative feedback on the custom ribbon / quick access toolbar. If you're getting some wonky results from your attempts at customization, try putting no custom icons in the 'nothing open' mode and see if that helps.

It'll be interesting to hear if anyone else has seen the same problem or if I'm just overlooking something simple and obvious. For now I'm just leaving it with no customization in the 'nothing open' mode.

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[AndyHermanson]

Take a look at this. If you are using the creo_parametric_admin_customization.ui and placing it in the text dir this should help troubleshoot.

[davehaigh]

You can add stuff to the initial "Nothing Open" mode. I have these:

[cid:image001.png@01CF480D.5D6AD190]

Going back and adding to the ribbon can be a real pain in the neck. The only good way of doing this I've found is to create a new startup script that only loads one .ui file. And that should be from the startup directory.

I think what's happening is you are either loading multiple .ui files or you have your config set to read the .ui file from the start in directory. If that happens it's not going to write your changes back to the load point .ui file.

This is what my startup script for editing the .ui file looks like. What's unique to this are the line hi-lited in yellow.

1. tskill creoagent

2. tskill nmsd.exe

3. del "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\PTC\Creo\Platform\2.28\agent\ServerMgr\.srv_mgr_db.fldx"

4. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\cache\no_pdm_cache\PTC\ProENGINEER\.wfwsi2008

5. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\cache\no_pdm_cache\PTC\ProENGINEER\.Settings\active_server_config.fld

6. attrib -R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.pro"

7. attrib -R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.sup"

8. echo y|copy "P:\Creo 2.0\dted_configs\config.pro" "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.pro"

9. echo y|copy "P:\Creo 2.0\dted_configs\config.sup" "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.sup"

10. attrib +R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.pro"

11. attrib +R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.sup"

12. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\Creo_2_home\cache\no_pdm_cache\PTC\ProENGINEER\.Settings\creo_parametric_customization.ui"

13. del " C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m070\text\creo_parametric_admin_customization.ui"

14. Move "%USERPROFILE%\Creo_2_home\creo_parametric_customization.ui" "%USERPROFILE%\pro\Creo_2_home\configs\creo_parametric_customization.ui"

15. echo f|xcopy "P:\Creo 2.0\dted_configs\creo_parametric_customization.ui" "%USERPROFILE%\pro\Creo_2_home\creo_parametric_customization.ui" /y /r

16. set PTC_WF_ROOT=%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\cache\no_pdm_cache\PTC\ProENGINEER

17. set PTC_HELP_CENTER_URL=P:\Creo 2.0\Help\help\creo_help

18. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.log*"

19. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.xml*"

20. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.inf*"

21. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.m_p*"

22. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.out*"

23. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.crc*"

24. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.usr*"

25. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.bom*"

26. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.tst*"

27. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.ger*"

28. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.err*"

29. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.lst*"

30. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.idx*"

31. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.isl*"

32. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*trail.*"

33. start "LLNL" "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe"

I have a copy of my master .ui file in a directory on my server. I copy that to the users machine every time they start Creo.
In this script, I do the following for each line:
12. Delete any .ui file that may exist in the local cache. (Notice I'm using a cache not connected to PDMLink for this, but that's not a requirement)
13. Delete the load point .ui file
14. Move any personal .ui file I might have in the start in directory.
15. Finally copy the master .ui file to my start in directory.

At this point if you go to File, Help, System Information, you should see in the Configuration Info section, just one .ui file. You don't want to see two or more .ui files. That will cause you problems.

David Haigh

[DonSenchuk]

First I'd like to thank you both for the information no updating an existing .UI file. It looks like a very comprehensive list of steps.

In reading over these two responses something doesn't quite sit right. Looking over them both I'm struck by the non-intuitive nature of what you've provided compared with the frustration many users or admins seem to have had with this aspect of Creo Parametric.

The intuitive approach would be to right-click on the ribbon and modify each mode as needed. Then, if one needs to apply that company wide to raname it to the admin .UI, copy to the correct location (text folder) and turn on the proper config setting.

The fact that on one hand we have to worry about going into APPDATA and on the other hand we have a script that is as long as that just to update the interface it's easy to see where the frustration comes from.

In short, customizable interface is a good idea, terrible implementation.

I'm also now left wondering if what I did will make a bit of difference without having gone into every users' APPDATA folder and removed the .UI file, then gone into their Start In folder and also removed any .UI that may be there, hoping I don't bone any .UI that they've made for themselves.

[davehaigh]

There is no question that it's a terrible implementation by PTC.

At this point I don't use a .ui in the load point at all. An upgrade install will wipe it out anyway.

What I do is force an overwrite of the .ui in the local cache. That .ui is my master.

I have the config option load_ui_customization_run_dir set to yes.

That means any changes the user makes to the Ribbon will get saved in the start in folder.

You could write a script to move the local cache copy of the .ui to a safe location, that would let the user grab it if needed. Then you could then place your system wide .ui down there.

What follows is my normal startup script. The line in question is hi-lited in yellow.


1. tskill creoagent

2. del "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\PTC\Creo\Platform\2.28\agent\ServerMgr\.srv_mgr_db.fldx"

3. attrib -R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m090\text\config.pro"

4. attrib -R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m090\text\config.sup"

5. echo y|copy "P:\Creo 2.0\dted_configs\config.pro" "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.pro"

6. echo y|copy "P:\Creo 2.0\dted_configs\config.sup" "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m080\text\config.sup"

7. attrib +R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m090\text\config.pro"

8. attrib +R "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Common Files\m090\text\config.sup"

9. echo y|copy "%USERPROFILE%\pro\Creo_2_home\configs\user\my_config.pro" "%USERPROFILE%\pro\Creo_2_home\config.pro"

10. echo f|xcopy "P:\Creo 2.0\dted_configs\creo_parametric_customization.ui" "%USERPROFILE%\pro\Creo_2_home\cache\PDMLink_cache\PTC\ProENGINEER\.Settings\creo_parametric_customization.ui" /y /r

11. set PTC_WF_ROOT=%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\cache\PDMLink_cache\PTC\ProENGINEER

12. set PTC_HELP_CENTER_URL=C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Help\help\creo_help

13. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.log*"

14. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.xml*"

15. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.inf*"

16. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.m_p*"

17. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.out*"

18. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.crc*"

19. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.usr*"

20. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.bom*"

21. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.tst*"

22. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.ger*"

23. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.err*"

24. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.lst*"

25. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.idx*"

26. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*.isl*"

27. del "%USERPROFILE%\pro\creo_2_home\*trail.*"

28. start "LLNL" "C:\ptc\Creo 2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe"

David Haigh