Here is the latest version of the TBC Menu Ribbon suitable for TBC v5.6.X and higher.
Note that in the Support - Set Ribbon Tabs function, you can turn On and Off menu items that you do / do not want to see at any given time.
The Menu Ribbon contains the following items
The Menus
The menu ribbons combine RPS commands with the standard TBC commands into workflow steps.
Each ribbon tab is a workflow step like Image and PDF placement / management, Data Prep and Cleanup, Modeling, Takeoff etc.
Within each ribbon tab, where appropriate the intent is that you would start on the Left and work towards the Right across the ribbon to complete the process step. On completion of the process step you would change to the next menu ribbon in the sequence. In some menus like RPS Data Prep, the commands are organized into groups because Data Prep process is not really a linear process.
The Menu also contains the standard 3 menus of Rockpile Solutions that contain all of our licensed and unlicensed commands in one place. These are organized into Data Prep, Modeling and Tool Shed menus.
The Quick Access Toolbar
We reorganize the Quick Access Toolbar to have the commands that we believe are used most by contractors.
On the left side of the View Filter control you will find the system operations and panes managers like New, Open, Import, Export, Undo, Redo, Properties, View Filters, Project Explorer and Selection Explorer
On the right side of the View Filter control you will find the measurement, query and view pane managers (Plan View, 3D View, Surface Slicer etc.). In addition you will find the Options, Edit and Print functions.
Custom Toolbars
We also provide Custom Toolbars. These are docked above the plan view window below the menu ribbon by default. The Toolbars are split into logical groups that can be turned On / Off individually. The logical Groups include Layer Management tools, Measure and Query tools, Create tools (lines, points etc.), Data Prep tools, Edit tools (clip, break, trim, extend), Elevate tools, Surface modeling tools and Corridor Modeling Tools. To turn the toolbars On and Off you can right click in the menu ribbon and select Customize and then switch the toolbars On and Off as you see fit. You can also add / remove commands to the toolbars using the customize function.
The toolbars give you quick access to the commands that are not on the current menu ribbon that you will likely use most of the time. This saves having to switch menus to find a command all the time.
Command Shortcuts
The menu installation also includes a lot of keyboard shortcuts for commands that you can also use to rapidly access commands while working in any menu. The Excel Sheet attached lists all of the commands and their associated shortcuts. There are some easy to remember ones like
CTRL A = Select All
CTRL B = Break
CTRL D = Delete
CTRL E = Change Elevation
CTRL F = Filter Line Markings
CTRL G = Geometric Selection
CTRL I = Insert Line Segment
CTRL J = Smart Join
CTRL K = Clip Lines
CTRL L = Convert to Linestring
CTRL M = Move Objects
CTRL N = New Layer
CTRL O = Offset Lines
CTRL P = Create Point
CTRL Q = Quick Line
CTRL R = RPS Relayer
CTRL S = Create Surface
CTRL T = Takeoff Lines
CTRL W = Surface Slicer View
CTRL X = Crop Crossing Lines
CTRL Shift C = RPS Copy to clipboard
CTRL Shift V = RPS Paste
CTRL Shift T = Trim / Extend Lines
Command Shortcut List Command Shortcuts v5.0D.xlsx (12.9 KB)
To install the menu file we recommend the following
- In TBC - go to support - Customize Ribbon and select Export to create a backup of the menu system that you have available today prior to installing the rockpile menu. If you ever want to get it back you can simply use the Import function to import this backup copy of your original menus. We recommend that you create a folder in your My Documents folder called TBC Master, and then create a subfolder called Menus and Toolbars and then save the file as Original Menu version X.X.bin - where X.X is the version of TBC that you are currently using.
- Download the menu configuration file below and save it in that same folder.
- In TBC run Support - Customize Ribbon and select Import. Browse to the folder and select the latest menu.bin file that you downloaded in the previous step.
- Once the menu ribbon has loaded, we recommend that you go to Support - Set Ribbon Tabs and select those ribbons that you think you will use most of the time and turn off those that you feel you are less likely to use. When you are happy with that configuration, we recommend you go to Support - Customize Ribbon and select Export to create your own version of our standard ribbon setup.
- To lock in the menus and toolbar configuration, you should select File - Exit (not the X in top right corner) and exit TBC. TBC writes a layout file as it exits this way which will lock in your configuration.
Notes:
- You can change the size of the icons on the quick access toolbar using Support - Options - Use Large Icons on Quick Access Toolbar.
- You can change the size of the icons on the Custom Toolbars using right click in the menu ribbon and select customize. Select the Options tab and then select Large Icons on Toolbars.
- You can add / remove commands to menus using the Support - Options - Customize Ribbon command. Drag and drop or move commands in the menus. When complete we recommend that you export your updated configuration so that you can quickly restore it after an update or in the event that you lose the menu configuration for some reason.
- You can change command shortcuts using the Support - Options - Define Command Shortcuts command. Note that if you wish to use a key sequence like CTRL D to use a different command than the one currently assigned, you first have to unassign that command by setting it to None, to free up the key sequence CTRL D for what you would like to use it for.
If you intend to use the RPS Menu Structure and Workflows, we recommend that you do not change too many things in the menu. Please send in requests for change for consideration and we will see what we can do to accommodate you.
Most of Menu and Command Shortcut use is muscle memory. Changing can initially be hard, however after a few days of use it will become second nature and you will regain full productivity as a result. We recommend that when you make the change you persevere through that learning process to get to a better way of working downstream.
Menu Configuration File v5.0D
This menu configuration file has been developed for TBC v5.6.x. If you are using an earlier version of TBC there are menu items in this version of the menus that were not available at 5.5.x or earlier.
Last updated - May 5th 2022
RPS Toolbox - v5.0D Menu.bin (4.2 MB)