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TIP: Troubleshoot missing icon menu images - AutoCAD Electrical
March 16, 2008, 05:25 PM Nate HoltThis posting is in response to a couple recent customer calls. In both cases the customer moved some support files to a shared network drive. This coincided with the Insert Component icon menu's images being lost.
Easy to restore, but background first...
AutoCAD Electrical's Insert Component / Panel Footprint icon menuing system has two main support files.
First, there is an ASCII text file with a ".dat" extension that carries the icon menu's definition. This file name is displayed in the command window the first time you use the menu during an AutoCAD session. It might look like this:
Command:
Reading C:\Documents and Settings\holtn\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2008\R17.1\enu\Support\ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT
Command:Second, there are the icon image files. The product ships with files s1.dll and s2.dll and also includes the older icon menu's "slide library" files s1.slb and s2.slb. The icon menu system can use either the newer "dll" version or the older "slb" version and will default to the dll version if both are present.
Under normal conditions, AutoCAD Electrical looks for the s1 and s2 image files in the SAME FOLDER as where the icon menu's ".dat" file is located. In our example above, these two files, s1.dll and s2.dll need to be in the same folder as the ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT file.
So, with everything working properly, here's what the schematic Insert Component icon menu looks like:
Problem Scenario #1 - the s1.dll and s2.dll not found
If the two ".dll" image files are not found, then the icon menu command looks for and uses the older ".slb" slide library versions of the images. The result is shown here:
Problem Scenario #2 - neither the dll nor the slb versions found
If no image libraries are found in the same folder as the icon menu ".dat" file, then the icon menu displays as shown here. It works fine, just no images:
Summarizing, this can happen if the icon menu ".dat" file is moved to some other folder but the s1.dll and s2.dll files are not moved or copied with it.
The wd.env file work-around
But, what if I want to keep all my icon menu ".dat" files on a shared network drive but want to keep the image files local to improve performance?
Easy to do. Requires a one-line edit to the wd.env file (ex: c:\documents and settings\{user name}\My Documents\Acade 2008\wd.env). Look for the "WD_SLB" entry in this ASCII text file. Uncomment it (remove the leading asterisk character) and enter in the full path to the folder that carries the s1.dll and s2.dll files. Save the file, restart AutoCAD Electrical, test.
Comments
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September 3, 2008 09:29 PM STAN S
I am trying to redirect the default panel layout icon menu, I have tried all I can think of this is thelast entry I made can anyone please post the correct syntax PLEASE!!! WD_PMENU,C:/Documents and Settings/sshulenski/Application Data/Autodesk/AutoCAD Electrical 2009/R17.2/enu/Support/ACE_GAVAN_PANEL_MENU.DAT,to override default panel layout icon menu Thanks, Stan
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