Customizing the Tools Menu

The Tools menu can be customized to give users the ability to launch other applications from within Bentley Utility Designer and the Design Assistant. System-defined tools are those that are intended for all users whereas a user-defined tool is intended for use at an individual workstation. Custom commands can be defined for any executable, batch file, or .com file as well as for any custom method that has been developed for a particular installation. If the command applies to a particular context, it will be displayed on both the Tools menu and the shortcut (right-click) menu.

Custom Menu Files

The following files, stored in Bentley Utility Designer’s Bin directory, are used to configure custom commands for the Tool access:

systemtools.dat (for system-defined tools that will be accessed from Bentley Utility Designer’s Tools menu)
usertools.dat (for user-defined tools that will be accessed from Bentley Utility Designer’s Tools menu)
DAsystemtools.dat (for system-defined tools that will be accessed from the Design Assistant’s Tools menu)
DAusertools.dat (for user-defined tools that will be accessed from the Design Assistant’s Tools menu)

Each file contains instructions for creating a comma-delimited file in the proper format. The configured version of the file(s) must be copied to each user’s Bin directory. (To modify or overwrite the default files, turn off the Read Only attribute.)

Custom Command Format

The required format for each custom command is as follows:

TITLE,COMMAND,ARGUMENTS,CONTEXT,INVOCATION TYPE,INITIAL WORKING DIRECTORY,REFRESH CONTEXT

Where:

TITLE—The name of the custom command that will appear on the Tools and shortcut (right-click) menus.

COMMAND—Any fully qualified path of an executable, batch file, .com file, or custom method name.

ARGUMENTS—Any command line arguments without context.

CONTEXT—Specifies that the custom command takes a database index from either Bentley Utility Designer or the Design Assistant. Any custom Tools command that specifies a Context value will automatically be displayed on the shortcut menu for that context.

INVOCATION TYPE—A value indicating the type of invocation.

Asynchronous execution of executable or batch file or .com file of Tools menu = 0
Synchronous execution of executable or batch file or .com file of Tools menu = 1
Synchronous execution of custom method in ICHCustomMenu Interface of Tools menu = 2

INITIAL WORKING DIRECTORY—Fully qualified path to an initial working directory.

REFRESH CONTEXT—Optional parameter that specifies the context to be refreshed in either Bentley Utility Designer or the Design Assistant. Values are same as those for the Context parameter (see above). If this parameter is not specified, then the Context value will be used as the Refresh value.

Example with arguments:

Notepad,C:\WINNT\notepad.exe,readme.txt,0,0,C:\WINNT

Example with context:

Special Report,C:\CrystalReports\crystal.exe,,1,0,C:\CH\V300