In this article, you will learn to:

1. add an user defined drop-down menu to the menu bar of Pro/Engineer UI.
2. add mapkeys to the user defined pull-down menu.
3. add a sub-menu to the drop-down menu.
4. add horizontal separator to the drop-down menu.
5. create a mapkey with an embedded hot key(mnemonic).
6. insert a hot key for the user defined menu.

I will start with adding a menu to the menu bar of the Pro/Engineer UI.

STEP 1: ADDING A NEW MENU TO THE MENU BAR

• Choose Utilities > Customize Screen
• Click on the Commands Tab of the resulting Customize dialog
• Scroll down the Categories list till you find New Menu , and click on the New Menu from the Commands area to the right

• Hold down the LMB and drag the “New Menu” on to the menu bar.

STEP 2: RENAME THE MENU ADDED TO THE MENU BAR

• While keeping the CUSTOMIZE dialog remain opened, right click on the New Menu(added) in step 1, and select “Rename”.

• Enter the name for the new menu, in the textbox. Ex: Measure

Here the task is to make one of the alphabet of the menu act as a Hot key or mnemonic. Hot key is that letter of the menu name, which when pressed by holding down the ALT button activates the menu.

This is how you do it…

• While entering name of the menu insert an ampersand(&) symbol before the letter which you wish to be used as Hot key to activate the menu. For example when you type Mea&sure as the name of the menu, you are asking the system to make “s” to be the hot key of that menu. i.e when you hit ALT +S this menu should be activated.

• Click OK.

STEP 3: CREATING MNEMONIC EMBEDDED MAPKEYS

Follow the regular procedure of creating mapkeys; but while typing name of the mapkey, do remember to insert the ampersand(&) symbol before the letter you intend to be the Hot key.

You can modify the existing mapkeys also, to embed a hot key in it. To do this…

• Choose Utilities > Mapkeys
• Select the mapkey in to which you want to insert a hotkey and click on the “Modify” button.
• In the name field you add that ampersand(&) symbol.

STEP 4: ADDING MAPKEYS TO THE DROP-DOWN MENU

After creating/modifying the mapkeys…

• Choose Utilities > Customize Screen
• Click on the Commands Tab of the resulting Customize dialog
• Scroll down the Categories list till you find Map Keys , and click on it.
• From the Mapkeys listing to the right, select the mapkey you wish to add to the drop-down menu; hold down the LMB and drag the mapkey to the menu.
• Repeat the step above to add the mapkeys to the drop down menu.
• Once you are done with adding the mapkeys click OK.

STEP 5: ADDING A SUB -MENU TO THE DROPDOWN MENU

Adding a sub-menu to a drop-down is identical to the procedure of adding a drop-down menu to the menu bar, except that instead of dragging and dropping the New Menu on to the menu bar, drag & drop on to a drop-down menu. To add this place your cursor over the menu to which you want to add a sub menu, it will drop and move the cursor down the menu on to the required location and drop the New menu there.

• Rename the sub-menu, and add as many mapkeys you want.

STEP 6: ADDING A HORIZONTAL SEPARATOR TO THE DROP-DOWN MENU

• Choose Utilities > Customize Screen
• Click on the menu in which is to add the horizontal separator, place the cursor over the menu item before which the horizontal separator is to added; click RMB and choose Begin a Group.

You will now see the horizontal separator, before the menu item on which you right clicked the mouse to select Begin a Group .

Before	After

IMPORTANT NOTE

While naming the mapkeys, it is to be ensured that the letters you select to be the intended hot-keys are unique. It is because if you add (to a menu) two mapkeys with same alphabet as the hotkey; always the first definition will be executed, and the second, never.

Dwaraka Nadha Reddy.M
Design Engineer(Consultant)
Motor Control Centers, GE- IBC
Hyderabad
INDIA
dwarakanadha.reddy@ge.com

Feel free to write to me, should you need further clarifications.

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