First of all... there are two popular confusing terms:

1.  Tool Frames

2.  Tool Boxes

Below is an example of a TOOL FRAME:

Tool Frames contain Tool Boxes and Icons!

Below is an example of a TOOL BOX:

Tool Boxes contain Icons only.   The Icons represent a variety of applications!

The most common "hacks" to these "Tool Boxes" are:

1.   Create your own from scratch

2.   Simply add icons to an existing "Tool Box."

3.   Sometimes you may even want to create a "Tool Frame" and add "Tool Boxes" to it.

I'll cover these in order...

• From the MicroStation pulldowns, select Tools > Tool Boxes and click on New.






• This brings up the "Create Tool Box" dialog box.   Type in the name and click on OK.






• This brings up the "Customize" dialog box.   Note that the name of this tool box is shown at the lower right of the dialog box.   Available tools to select from are shown at the left.






• Browse through the "Tools" selections on the left and copy the ones you want to your Tool Box by highlighting the tool and clicking on Copy.   In the example shown below, I've selected the Dimension Element tool from the "Dimension" tool box, the Extend Element tool from the "Modify" tool box, the Place Arc tool from the "Arcs" tool box and the Place Active Line Terminator from the "Cells" tool box.






• When finished, click on Save (on the Customize palette).   This new tool box can be turned on and off by accessing the MicroStation pulldowns, Tools > Tool Boxes.   Slide down to your new tool box, click on it, and click on OK:






• The new tool box should now appear as shown below:






• To make further modifications to the tool box, simply click on Customize, select the tool box as explained earlier and continue to Add or Delete tools from it.



• To delete this tool box from your system, simply highlight the toolbox from the "Tool Boxes" palette as shown above and click on Remove.



• To save this tool box and use it on another workstation...the following should be noted:

• When custom tool boxes and tool frames are created, the information is saved in a file named ustn.m01



• This file, (ustn.m01) is saved in the MicroStation Manager "Interface" workspace subdirectory as shown below:






• This palette, (MicroStation Manager) can be accessed prior to invoking a MicroStation session by invoking MicroStation via the Windows "Start" button and selecting MicroStation, or while already in a MicroStation session, simply press Ctrl W.


• The actual path (where the file ustn.m01 is saved) at least for this example, is C:\win32app\ustation\wsui\default



• If the Interface workspace setting had been set to something else, say, "civil," then the file ustn.m01 would have been saved to C:\win32app\ustation\wsui\civil

• From the MicroStation pulldowns, select Tools > Tool Boxes



• Click on "New" as shown below:






• Since we're not creating a "Tool Box," click on Cancel when the "Create Tool Box" palette appears.






• The Customize palette will appear even though you pressed Cancel.   Click on the "Tool Frames" tab at the top of the palette, and click on the little down arrow below the "Edit Tool Frame" window.   Select Create Tool Frame.



• Key-in the name of the new Tool Frame into the "Create Tool Frame" palette and click on OK.






• For this example, I'm going to place the custom tool box named Steve1 (that we created earlier) into this new tool frame, (Custom).   Pick the directory where the tool box was placed, (default) from the "Available Tools From" options as shown below.   Use the slide bar and move down to where the tool box (Steve1) is visible.   Highlight it and click on Copy.   I also want to point out that the column width for the custom tool frame can be set in the lower right corner of the Customize palette.   In this example, I've set it to 2.   I also copied another tool box (Cells) onto the frame to display the column width settings.   When finished placing tool boxes on the tool frame, simply click on Save.






• The custom tool frame "Custom" is shown below:






• Once again to save these custom tool boxes and tool frames, for use on another workstation, check the MicroStation Manager setting for "Interface" directory (as mentioned earlier) and use Windows Explorer or File Manager to copy the file ustn.m01 to a safe location.   The file can be copied to the Interface directory on additional workstations.

You can also create new tools from MDL applications such as the IGEOXS application written by Ted Wood.   This tool can be added to a tool box and then on to a frame.   Let's take a look at this example...and add the application IGEOXS to the tool box "Steve1."

• Invoke the "Customize" palette... Tools > Tool Boxes
• Use the slide bar and select the tool box Steve1.   Click on "Customize."
NOTE:   Tool Frames are shown in BOLD, Tool boxes are not.



• Select the tool box Steve1 from the "Edit Tool Box" window:






• Highlight the tool where you want the new application to appear, (they can be rearranged later by simply dragging the tools up and down inside the window).   Click on Insert.   The "Insert Tool" palette will appear as shown below:






• Design the Icon with the tools provided.   Fill in any information desired.   The "Tool Tip" is what will appear when you move your cursor over the icon in MicroStation, providing of course that this feature is toggled ON under the MicroStation "Help" pulldown.   The "meat and potatoes" here is the "Key-in" field.   Simply type the same command that you would issue in the MicroStation key-in browser.   When finished, click on OK.   The Customize palette should now look like this.






• The tool box Steve1 should now look like this: