The AutoCAD API provides a way to display a specific contextual tab upon entity selection, but the approach involves creating a custom xaml file and .Net assembly, place them in AutoCAD install directory and finally modify the CUI file to make it aware of the new tab selector rule we created. The technical details of that functionality are described in one of our DevNote article available only for ADN members at the moment.
The approach I am exposing here is more flexible and straightforward to put in place as it only relies on the Ribbon runtime API: it sets up a couple of event handlers and will display dynamically a contextual tab upon an entity selection, with ability to perform advanced logic whether or not to display you tab.
Note: Running “CtxTabUponSelect” command multiple times in the same document will have the effect of setting multiple event handlers for “ImpliedSelectionChanged”. Though the effect won’t be noticed from the user interface, you may want to take some precautions not to listen twice to an event when you use that in production code.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Use: Displays a contextual tab upon entity selection,
// using Ribbon runtime API.
//
// Author: Philippe Leefsma, April 2012
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Autodesk.Windows.RibbonTab _ctxTab = null;
[CommandMethod("CtxTabUponSelect")]
public void CtxTabUponSelect()
{
Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
//Set up event for selection changed
doc.ImpliedSelectionChanged +=
new EventHandler(doc_ImpliedSelectionChanged);
}
void doc_ImpliedSelectionChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
PromptSelectionResult psr = doc.Editor.SelectImplied();
//if no entities are selected, we hide our context tab
if (psr.Value == null)
{
HideTab();
return;
}
//In this example we only display the tab if only circles are
// selected. You may want to change this condition of course.
foreach (SelectedObject selObj in psr.Value)
{
if (selObj.ObjectId.ObjectClass.DxfName.ToLower()
!= "circle")
{
HideTab();
return;
}
}
//We will use the Application.Idle event to safely display our tab
if (_ctxTab == null || !_ctxTab.IsVisible)
{
Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.Application.Idle +=
new EventHandler(OnIdle);
}
}
void OnIdle(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Make sure ribbon manager is available
if (Autodesk.Windows.ComponentManager.Ribbon != null)
{
//Create tab if it doesn't exist
if (_ctxTab == null)
CreateCtxTab();
//Otherwise make it visible
if(!_ctxTab.IsVisible)
{
Autodesk.Windows.RibbonControl ribbonCtrl =
Autodesk.Windows.ComponentManager.Ribbon;
ribbonCtrl.ShowContextualTab(_ctxTab, false, true);
_ctxTab.IsActive = true;
}
if(!_ctxTab.IsActive)
_ctxTab.IsActive = true;
}
}
//Tab creation method
void CreateCtxTab()
{
Autodesk.Windows.RibbonControl ribbonCtrl =
Autodesk.Windows.ComponentManager.Ribbon;
_ctxTab = new RibbonTab();
_ctxTab.Name = "MyTab";
_ctxTab.Id = "MY_CTX_TAB_ID";
_ctxTab.IsVisible = true;
_ctxTab.Title = _ctxTab.Name;
_ctxTab.IsContextualTab = true;
ribbonCtrl.Tabs.Add(_ctxTab);
}
void HideTab()
{
Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.Application.Idle
-= new EventHandler(OnIdle);
if (_ctxTab != null)
{
Autodesk.Windows.RibbonControl ribbonCtrl =
Autodesk.Windows.ComponentManager.Ribbon;
ribbonCtrl.HideContextualTab(_ctxTab);
_ctxTab.IsVisible = false;
_ctxTab = null;
}
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