Carlson 2015 on Autocad Map 2015

Pile on top of that the fact that AutoCAD Map, does similar things by not including workspaces furnished with the vanilla autocad. So you go to the help menu and all you get is help specific to GIS functions.

Very frustrated at this point, especially with Carlson Software.

I'm guessing it is a map thing. I use the civil suite 2015 on acad 2015 and don't have the duplicates like you do. I've got the ribbon menu minimized or shrunk down to the text only. I rarely even use the ribbon.
I guess your situation works OK, it just takes up more real estate than it should with the duplicate items?

Do you have access to the tool pallets?

I'm not so worried about screen size, it's just confusing as hell having so many duplicate menus (which are different).

So far, other than customize, the suggestion is to run two different profiles - YA that would be great managing all of those settings.

I guess I don't understand why they couldn't have loaded the default Autocad workspaces into the Carlson profile?

Run the command menuload and post the screenshot of what all menus are loaded.

First of all, "Carlson 2015"? 2015 what?? Carlson Civil 2015? Carlson Survey 2015? Carlson 2015 Crime Scene??
It's easier to understand the problem if we know exactly what software you are using.
I'm running Carlson Survey 2015 OEM and do not have this problem.
I have a hard time understanding why people load Carlson on top of AutoCAD. I don't have that big of a budget.
So, other then lisp routines, what am I losing by not loading up on top of an overpriced Autodesk product? (I'm not trying to be critical or a smart azz, I really would like to know the benefits, real or perceived.)
I have yet run into something in our survey office that made me go "WOW!! I should have spent the money for an additional software package".
Anyway, the double menu thing is probably because Autodesk AND Carlson are trying to load the same stuff. You'll probably have to modify the CUI and get it to load only one menu set.

I used the imbedded when I first started out. I missed user coordinate systems, lisp, and other things, so I bought Autocad and the Civil Suite. It's not really that much more expensive. You have to pay about 3k for the embedded version, and you can't "subscribe" to it. Every 3 years or so, if you want to keep up, you have to start over with the embedded version, close to full price again. I've got Acad and the Civli Suite subscription, so I stay current with both every year, and it don't cost much more than purchasing the embedded version, and I have access to ALL of the commands. If I want to do something a little different, I can write my own little lisp program if one hasn't been written already. It's worth it to me to have the full blown cad engine, as well as the full array of civil tools, because I can afford it.
I could get by with the embedded version. I could also work out of a yugo and get by, but I prefer a suburban.

All CAD engine add-on software should remember that they are just that, an add-on. No add-on should have a menu that is (by standard) already existent. No add-on should assume the CAD engine user wants to have all their menus replaced (or duplicated).

With that collection keep in mind that AutoCAD only remembers 21 menus and if you did attempt to add a partial menu of your own it would disappear after each close.

Sorry, I thought I mentioned Carlson Civil/Survey 2015 and AutoCAD map 2015.

> With that collection keep in mind that AutoCAD only remembers 21 menus and if you did attempt to add a partial menu of your own it would disappear after each close.

Well there are 38 menus loading each time I open the program, so I expect they must have increased the max. number available to the user.

I appreciate your comments and I know where you are coming from.

Carlson Civil/Survey Software has been a great tool and the company has provided excellent customer support (excepting this one issue). The software pretty much does what I want and if it doesn't, they are willing to implement suggestions if they make sense and have a real world application.

The refusal to polish up the workspaces into something that resembles a final product that complements the Autodesk software upon default install kind of chaps me.

I get the feeling that AutoCAD is being treated as an "engine" for their software to work, rather than their software complementing the (very expensive) specialized Autodesk software that users have purchased. In other words the though process is that people are going out and buying AutoCAD in order to use Carlson.

Per the MENULOAD command...

ACAD15TB
AUTODESKSEEK
CARLSON
CONTENTEXPLORER
MAPCLASSIC
MODELDOC
TASKBASEDRIBBON
TOOLBASEDRIBBON

> Per the MENULOAD command...
>
> ACAD15TB
> AUTODESKSEEK
> CARLSON
> CONTENTEXPLORER
> MAPCLASSIC
> MODELDOC
> TASKBASEDRIBBON
> TOOLBASEDRIBBON

My experience with this issue was solved by unloading the ACAD15TB menu
Unload ACAD15TB
Then if the menus go away, there is something wrong with the installation and you need to reinstall carlson. Do not import any other settings you may have had from previous versions.
To get back the ACAD menus and their items you can click on the ACAD icon in the carlson menus toolbar or just type in ACAD on the command line.

Whoever sold you the autocad should be able to lend some support for you. Total CAD systems in Houston (281) 445-6161 can screen share with you and they have a little bit of Carlson knowledge.

OK, so I unloaded AC15TB and the duplicate menu items went away (I have no idea what functionality I lost). At least it looks better and I'm not cross eyed.

I then clicked the autocad icon to reload as you suggested and it loaded the AC15BASE
menu instead. This seems to be the basic autocad menus. I'm OK with that as far as general drafting goes. Thanks for the help.

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Now I still have 5 different "Home" ribbon tabs.

I see where you can right click on the ribbon and select "Show Tabs" to turn ones on and off. It only shows 2 "Home" tabs, not 5. As a side note, the "Home" tabs all appear like they are configured for different workspaces i.e. MAP3D Data Editing, analysis, 3D Modeling, ect.

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I purchased directly from Carlson and my support has always been through them as well - so no dealer (which I prefer). Edit: Carlson should be handling this issue, not the Autocad dealer. The menu's and ribbons were all fine before the Carlson install.

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The problem I see is I lost all of my Map3D menus. I think that these different menu's and ribbon tabs are all designed to be loaded with specific workspaces, which Carlson choose not to include in their profile. So basically when you load any of the workspaces, you will always have a "file", "Edit", "View", ect. They will just have tools that are specific to the type of work you are doing.

I guess I HAVE to learn how to customize the CUI if I want to be able to retain the functionality of the Map 3D or Raster Design. That is my gripe.

By the way, thanks for the assistance. I know I am being a stubborn pill about this issue.

I'm a little late to the dance, but thought this would be a good topic to make my first post on this site. While I have you beat on Autocad experience (about 28 years now), I don't have your extended experience with Carlson. I've only been using it for about six months. We started off trying to use it with IntelliCAD, but that was a disaster. About a month ago, we decided to install Carlson 2015 on our Civil 3D 2013.

I got the same mess as you did with the menus. Not in quadruplets, as I believe I maxed out with triple menus. Thought I got rid of them once, then changed workspaces and the duplicate menus returned so had to modify the CUI a second time. I'm afraid to change workspaces now. Like you, I hadn't felt the need to modify menu files since probably around Release 13. I would just modify the visibility and location of some palettes and toolbars, save a workspace and call it good.

I agree with Terry 100% that an add-on should remember that they are just that. Not only did I lose my workspaces (I wear multiple hats so I had multiple workspaces) and help resources, but Carlson also overrides Autocad's quick keys (yes I know that there apparently are workarounds for that) and ribbons. I personally really like ribbons, but Carlson has stripped them of their most useful feature, which is their contextual nature. I would also like to dump the pull-down menus as I haven't used those in years, but Carlson's ribbons are lacking so many of the commands that I personally use the most that I'm forced to keep them on. Once I have time, I may be able to figure this all out, but why do I need to do that? I want Carlson to be the child, not the parent.

I also contacted Carlson support about this issue. I had other surveying questions, so I was routed to a support person who gave me a snarky response of "I don't answer interface questions". Well that's fine, but she didn't provide satisfactory responses to my surveying questions either so I didn't press the issue. From your experience I'm glad I didn't as it appears it would just be a waste of time.

So no, you are not alone. I feel better now knowing that it's not just me!

I too was connected to a lady that was a little short with me. Granted, I told her I was calling to complain. She wasn't having it.

This is in stark contrast to the support I have received over the years. I think as the software has grown, the expert support guys have been overwhelmed and they have had to hire additional people to filter the easy questions.

I know for a fact that I could solve this problem myself and set up some slick workspaces that represent what vanilla, map, and raster design would have come with as default. I just have other work that needs my attention. If they are going to customize the software by changing the menu's up, then by god they should do it right.

Based on your comments and the others, it seems this issue doesn't really exist with the vanilla versions. I also think most of the support people have their own customized profiles that they use on their work computers, so they do not see what gets dumped on the screen by default.

I am very satisfied with the Carlson software as a whole, despite their refusal to address this issue for several years. I have worked with Dave, Lon, Ladd, the whole crew to sort out minor bugs and provide input for new options and tools. They have always listened.

I'll post an update if I ever get around to working on the workspace solutions.