Toolbars
Several commands can be accessed through toolbar icons. This is the fastest way of activating commands.
Some commands are not available in a default Tekla Structures toolbar. How-ever, you can add commands to default toolbars, or you can create your own tool-bars.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 59
Creating new toolbars
Step plan • Go to Tools > Customize
• Click <New>
A new toolbar, named User Toolbar 5 will be added to lthe list.
60 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
• Select the name of the toolbar to change it.
The left column contains a list with all available Tekla Structures com-mands.
With the Filer listbox, you can filter commands by groups.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 61 Example • Select the option ‘Inquire’ from the Filter listbox to add the
com-mand Inquire assembly to a toolbar.
• The list will now contain commands from the Inquire group only.
Make sure a toolbar is selected where the new command should be added to. Select command Inquire assembly and double click it or press the right-arrow button. The command will now be added to the selected toolbar.
In front of the toolbar, a ‘+’-character is displayed. This means that at least one command is put in that toolbar. By pressing the + character, you can see which command(s) are in the toolbar.
If multiple commands are added to a toolbar, you can reorder the commands with the buttons opposite.
In front of each toolbar, an ‘eye’ is displayed. The appearance of this eye can be with or without a cross. If the eye is not ‘crossed’, it means that the tool-bar is visible in Tekla Structures. A ‘crossed-eye’ tooltool-bar is invisible in Tekla Structures. Toggle between visible and invisible state can be done by checking/ unchecking the ‘Visible’ option.
Right-arrow button for adding a command to a toolbar.
Left-arrow button for removing a command from a toolbar.
62 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
Individual ’leaf through’ toolbars
It is possible to create leaf-through toolbars. In these toolbars, you can add fre-quently used components for instance. Creating these toolbars basically works the same as creating ‘normal’ toolbars, although there are some things to pay attention to.
Step plan • Go to Tools > Customize and create a new toolbar. Name this toolbar Macro 1.
• To create a ‘leaf through’ toolbar, two commands, Previous page and Next page, must be added to the toolbar.
The easiest way of selecting these commands is to enter “prev” and/ or
“next” in the filter string in the dialog box. Note that these items are double listed.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 63
• Make sure you add ‘Previous page’ and ‘Next page’ (and not ‘Previ-ous toolbar’ or ‘Next toolbar’)!
Wrong
Right
64 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
• You can now add the component toolbar buttons Create current connection, Create User connestion, or a pagenumber Display information about connections.
• Select the components which you want to add to the toolbar. The cre-ation of the 2nd or 3rd toolbar is in the same way.
The sytem folder contains, among other things, the files:
TS_FUD.reg (on behalf of the module Full Detailing)
TS_PCD.reg (on behalf of the module Precast Concrete Detailling) TS_PRM.reg (on behalf of the module Project Management)
TS_RCD.reg (on behalf of the module Reinforced Concrete Detailing) TS_SDE.reg (on behalf of the module Standard Design)
TS_STD.reg (on behalf of the module Steel Detailling) TS_TID.reg (on behalf of the module Timber Detailling) TS_VIE.reg (on behalf of the module Viewer)
• Doubleclick one of these files, depends on the module you have, a number of schortcuts and toolbars will be added to the Windows Registry. Also, 2 ‘leaf through’ toolbars are added (Macro 1 and 2), containing a number of frequently used components. The content of these toolbars may be edited to your own opinion.
If personal ‘leaf through’ toolbars are used, you can switch off the general component toolbars to save screen space.
The toolbars’ names must be equal, only their running numbers must vary.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 65
• The best way to switch off toolbars is by unchecking the ‘Visible’-option for the selected toolbar in the Customize dialog box (Window
> Toolbars > Customize).
Now the standard componentpages are disabled. By checking the Visible checkbox, the pages will be visible again.
To make the default component toolbars invisible permanently, set the Tekla Structures variable
set XS_CREATE_STANDARD_JOINT_TOOLBARS.
The default toolbars can be made visible or hidden by checking or uncheck-ing the toolbars in pulldown menu Window > Toolbars. If checked, the toolbar is visible.
66 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
The user defined toolbars are not listed in the pulldown-menu. To hide or display those toolbars, you always have to do that in the Customize dialog box by checking/ unchecking the Visible-option.
Creating ’own’ pull-down menu’s
Tekla Structures offers the possiblilty to create your own pull-down menus. For both the Model environment as the Drawing environment, one pull-down menu can de added.
Pull-down menu in the Model Editor
Step plan • Go to Window > Toolbars > Customize or Tools > Customize.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 67
• Select the tab Menu
• On the left side, select a command which you want to add to the new pull-down menu
• Click the arrow button to add the command to the menu
• Repeat these steps untill all desired commands are added to the menu
• Close the dialog box
• Open and close a drawing, or restart Tekla Structures to have the modifications carried through
Now, you will see a new menu is added to the environment. The menu is called
‘User’. Note: the name of this menu can not be changed.
You can even add a command for opening the Customize-dialog box.
It can be convenient to put a ‘deep’ command in an own pull-down menu. (For example: Tools > Numbering > Full or File >
Catalog > Profile > Modify.
68 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
Pull-down menu in the Drawing Editor
To add a user pull-down menu in the drawing environment, a drawing has to be opened.
Step plan • Go to Window > Toolbars > Customize or Tools > Customize.
• Select the tab Menu
• In the left column, select a command which has to be added to the user pull-down menu
• Click the right-arrow button to add the command to the menu
• Repeat these steps until all desired commands are added
• Close the dialog box
• Note: the user pull-down menu is only visible after re-openeing a drawing or resarting Tekla Structures.
The name of the pull-down menu is User. The name of this menu can not be changed.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 69
Using shortkeys in Tekla Structures
To access Tekla Structures commands more quickly, you can make use of short-keys.
For example, for the Number objects > Full command, you can set the “n” char-acter as shortkey.
Step plan • Go to Window > Toolbars > Customize or Tools > Customize
• In the left column of the dialog box, look up the Number objects >
Full command. (Use a filter for quick look up; in this case select
‘Tools’ from the Filter-listbox and enter the characters “num”. Only commands which match these criteria will be shown in the list)
• Click the command Number objects > Full and press the “n” key.
• Reopen a model or restart Tekla Structures
70 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
• Go to Tools > Number objects > Full
• You will see that an “n” character is added to the Numbering com-mand.
• When pressing the “n”-key, the Full numbering command is carried out.
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 71 Model Editor
Command Command
a Customizing toolbars m Move > Translate c Copy > Translate n Numbering > Full
e Open model folder o Ortho
f Phasemanager q Create clip plane
g Redraw all s Smart Select
h Rollover highlight t Xsnap
i Inquire assembly u Update all
k Inquire object v Pick rotation point
l Drawing list w Wizard
Command Command
1 Create single-part drawing 3 Create GA drawing 2 Create assembly drawing 4 Create cast unit drawing
Command Command
Enter Repeat last command Alt + p Print Alt +
Enter
Properties Ctrl + c Undo last polygon pick
Home Zoom original Space
bar
72 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
Drawing Editor
Command Command
Ctrl + a Select all objects Shift + k Column properties Shift + b Bolt Shift + l Beam properties Shift + c Copy > With 3
points
Shift + m Move > With 3 points
Shift + f Fitting Shift + z Line cut Shift + h Construction line
Command Command
a Customizing toolbars l Drawing list
b Black and white drawing m Move objects
c Copy objects many times o Ortho
e Open model folder s Smart Select
f Phasemanager t Xsnap
j Close drawing u Update all
o Inquire > Object z Zoom in
Command
Ctrl + b Open named view list Alt + Enter Properties
Home Zoom original
Enter Repeat last command
Ctrl + Page Up Open previous drawing Ctrl + Page Down Open next drawing Shift + A Associative symbol
Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys 73
Copying toolbars and shortkeys
It is possible to copy the produced toolbars and shortkeys to another PC or from Tekla Structures 12.1 to Tekla Structures 13.1 These setting are stored in the Windows Registry.
To copy the settings, an export file of the registry has to be made:
1. Close Tekla Structures
2. In Windows, go to Start > Run 3. Enter regedit and click <OK>
4. Select the Tekla Structures version for which you want to export the toolbars and shortkeys. For example, copying the toolbars and shortkeys from ver-sion 12.1 to 13.1, select HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tekla\Struc-tures\12.1, see picture below:
5. In the menu, go to File > Export
6. Enter a filename and a location for the registry file.
7. Close the Registry.
8. The file (extension *.reg) is stored on the specified location.
If you want to use the toolbars and shortkeys on another PC, then copy that reg-file to that PC and double-click the reg-file. Answer the question “Are you sure you want to add the information....” with Yes.
If you want to export the toolbars and shortkeys to another Tekla Structures ver-sion, e.g. from version 12.1 towards version 13.1, the following actions need to be done:
1. Right click the exported registry file and select “Open with” from the con-textmenu. Select Notepad.
2. Replace the line (using Ctrl+H on the keyboard, or go to Edit > Replace):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tekla\Structures\12.1 through HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tekla\Structures\13.1 and click the
<Replace all>-button
Select
74 Creating toolbars, own pull-down menu’s and shortkeys
3. Close the file, with saving of course.
4. Double-click the file, answer the question (Are you sure you want to add this information to the Registry) with Yes. The toolbars and shortkeys are now imported in the new version.
Dimensioning Reference side 75