Custom Menus in TBC can be a bit of a pain to manage because TBC can end up resetting to its defaults if you have a crash or use Task Manager to quit TBC without closing it properly for some reason. This is made worse also if you typically have multiple TBCs open and make changes to one setup and not the same changes to the other - so while they may both be the same when you start them, if you make changes to one and not both then this can get TBC confused as to which setup you want to use etc. The following can help to mitigate this however I was at Trimble last week and I raised this with them that TBC is not the greatest at remembering your custom setups, however here are some tips that can mitigate the problems significantly.
First - know that the TBC Menu Configuration contains several things
- The Menu Ribbon setups and their visibility states
- The Quick Access toolbar setup
- Your Custom Toolbar setups
- Your Keyboard Shortcut Setups
To save your custom setup once you have it as you want it use Support, Customize Ribbon and Export to create a .bin file that is your custom setup as you have it at the time of saving.
To load your custom ribbon use Support, Customize Ribbon and Import to load your custom ribbon from the .bin file that you saved previously. So any time TBC resets your menus for you, you can restore from your .bin file quickly and easily. While you don’t want to do this, you will find that this is the downside of having a Custom Ribbon setup.
Once you have your ribbons and toolbars loaded etc. then do the following
- Right lick in the Menu Ribbon and select “Customize” this may or may not be an option - note it is “Customize” NOT “Customize the ribbon”. If the function is not on the right click menu, then press F12 to open the Command Pane and type in Custom and then select Customize Tools from the provided options.
- Click on the Save / Load Tab of the dialog and then click New and create your own Layout File Name e.g. RPS Layout and then Save it. This should save your current Menu Config as a Layout file in your Project Templates and Custom Imports Folder - the two files that are created have the extension .Layout and .Layoutd - these carry the Menu Config in use and all of the locations of your Custom Toolbars and where you have them docked etc. If TBC is e.g. moved from a wide screen to a normal screen then all of the toolbars get relaid out by TBC because the screen real estate is now smaller, however when you move it back to the wide screen - these layout files will restore the layout as you defined it - this is helpful.
- If you crash out of TBC or force a close / end task using Task Manager for any reason - TBC may lose its setup after the restart - you should restore your setup using Support - Customize Ribbon command and reload your custom setup. If you try restoring from the Customize - Save Load - select Layout config, it will restore your setup, however it restores all Menu Ribbons regardless of whether you normally have them turned on or off - that results in you having to go into the Support - Set Ribbon Tabs command and switch off all tghe menu ribbons that you do not want to see.
NOTE
Whenever you make changes to the menus, toolbars, quick access toolbars or keyboard shortcuts, you should do so when there is only one instance of TBC running and when you have completed the setup you should
- Save out your Custom Menu Configuration using Support - Customize Ribbon and then Export the .bin file
- Use the Customize Tools function to create a new Layout and layoutd file of your setup
- Use File Exit to quit TBC rather than the X in the top right corner as this forces TBC to create a layout file update that should allow it to restore the menus etc. as you have them setup. Failure to use File Exit seems to cause TBC to lose sight of the Menu config that you are using forcing you t reset it using the above procedures.
COMMENTS
- I have found that running 2 instances of TBC can cause TBC to lose the menu configuration
- If you change the config and do not exit and restart TBC if you have a crash or force a close with Task Manager you can lose your menu config
- Changing screens and screen resolutions will cause TBC to continuously re layout your Toolbars - using The CustomizeTools and Save / Load process will fix that issue.
While I have found that the above mitigates the TBC losing my Menu Config regularly I have still found that I have to reset my Menus every so often - maybe more than the average user because of all the testing we do, however still way more than I would like.
There may be some other factors here like the age of the menu base that we are currently using for the current RPS Menu configuration, and there are some settings in the Set Ribbon Tabs command that I have not got to the bottom of and those may make a difference - I will try and get back to looking at that in April, and may rebuild our Menu Configs from scratch using the 2023 or next release of TBC menus as a basis for the RPS Menu Config.
The issues associated with the menus are nothing to do with Rockpile as far as we know - the issues are 100% down to TBC methods of handling it’s menu configurations after a crash or X Exit or a forced closure using Task Manager and the users lack of saving their configuration so that it can be restored (which can happen because of a crash etc.).
I have reported the issues - whether or not they will be looked at is a question for Trimble
Alan
Hope that this helps
Alan