AutoCAD CUIX Builder

Conversational skill that generates a complete AutoCAD .bundle folder:

• Ribbon tab + panels + buttons (CUIX)
• Extended tooltips with GIF animations (XAML)
• LISP command file (copied from lispPath)
• PackageContents.xml — AutoCAD plugin manifest

Drop the bundle in %APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\ and AutoCAD auto-loads on next startup.

Architecture reference: see references/cuix-architecture.md.

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Step 0 — Verify generator is available

$exe = "$env:USERPROFILE\.cuixbuilder\CuixBuilder.exe"
if (Test-Path $exe) {
    & $exe --help          # shows all config fields
} elseif (Get-Command dotnet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
    dotnet --version
} else {
    Write-Host "Neither found — run install.ps1 first"
}

• exe found → use & $exe <config.json> in Step 5
• dotnet SDK → use dotnet run --project <src-path> -c Release -- <config.json> in Step 5
• neither → tell user to run install.ps1 first (downloads exe, no SDK needed)

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Step 1 — Collect plugin identity

Ask:

• Plugin display name — shown as ribbon tab and group label (e.g. Drafting Tools)
• Internal name — derive from display name, no spaces (e.g. DraftingTools)

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Step 2 — Collect panels

Ask:

• How many ribbon panels?
• Name of each panel (e.g. Annotation, View)

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Step 3 — Collect buttons (per panel)

Auto-scan icons folder (when user provides a folder path)

If the user says "use icons from <folder>", list that folder and auto-match files by button name:

Get-ChildItem "D:\SkillDemo\demo\icons\" | Select-Object Name

Matching convention (case-insensitive, spaces→empty):

• {buttonname}.bmp → imagePath (16×16 ribbon icon)
• {buttonname}.gif → tooltipImage (expanded tooltip animation)
• {buttonname}.png → tooltipImage (fallback if no GIF)

Example: button label Zoom Selection, internal name zoomsel:

• zoomsel.bmp → imagePath
• zoomsel.gif → tooltipImage

Derive internal name from label: lowercase, strip spaces/special chars (e.g. Zoom Selection → zoomsel, Isolate Layer → layiso). If no match found, use colored placeholder.

Per-button fields

For each panel, for each button ask:

• Label — text on the button (e.g. Quick Leader)
• Command — one of:
  • Bare AutoCAD command: QLEADER → generator adds ^C^C automatically
  • LISP expression: (c:ZOOMSEL) → generator adds ^C^C automatically
  • Pre-formatted: ^C^CMYCOMMAND → used as-is
• Image — auto-matched from icons folder, or path to .bmp file, or skip → colored placeholder
• Tooltip — short hover text (defaults to label)
• Tooltip description — optional extended body text shown in expanded tooltip
• Tooltip GIF — auto-matched from icons folder, or path to .gif/.png (recommended: 300×187px, <30KB)
• Help topic — anchor name for F1 help (e.g. zoomsel); derive from internal name if not given

CHM / F1 help

If user does not mention a CHM file, always ask:

"Do you have a CHM help file for F1 support? If yes, provide the path."

If provided, set chmPath in config. If skipped, omit chmPath (F1 will open AutoCAD's own help). Help topic per button = anchor name derived from button internal name (e.g. zoomsel).

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Step 4 — Output path

Ask where to save the .cuix file. Default: current directory + <PluginName>.cuix

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Step 5 — Confirm, build JSON, generate

Show a summary table:

Plugin : <DisplayName>   Tab : <Tab>   Output : <path>

Panel: <name>
  [1] <label>  →  <command>   image: <file or "placeholder blue">
  [2] ...

Confirm with user, then build the JSON config:

{
  "pluginName": "DraftingTools",
  "displayName": "Drafting Tools",
  "tab": "Drafting Tools",
  "outputPath": "C:\\full\\path\\DraftingTools.cuix",
  "acadDir": "C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\AutoCAD 2027",
  "lispPath": "C:\\full\\path\\DraftingTools.lsp",
  "panels": [
    {
      "name": "Panel Name",
      "buttons": [
        {
          "label": "Zoom Selection",
          "command": "(c:ZOOMSEL)",
          "imagePath": "C:\\icons\\zoomsel.bmp",
          "tooltip": "Zoom to selected objects",
          "tooltipDescription": "Zooms viewport to fit current selection set.",
          "tooltipImage": "C:\\icons\\zoomsel.gif"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

• acadDir — AutoCAD install dir, used to detect R-series (R26.0 = 2027, R25.1 = 2026, R25.0 = 2025)
• lispPath — copied into bundle; .Help.html and .chm next to it are also auto-copied
• tooltipImage — GIF/PNG shown in expanded tooltip; recommended 300×187px, <30KB
• imagePath — 16×16 BMP for ribbon button icon; omit for auto-generated colored placeholder

Write config with an explicit timestamp to $env:TEMP, then run:

$configPath = "$env:TEMP\cuix_$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd_HHmmss').json"
# ... write config to $configPath ...

# With exe (preferred)
& "$env:USERPROFILE\.cuixbuilder\CuixBuilder.exe" $configPath

# With SDK fallback — clone source from GitHub
$src = "$env:TEMP\acad-cuix-builder-src"
if (-not (Test-Path $src)) {
    git clone https://github.com/ADN-DevTech/acad-cuix-builder $src
}
dotnet run --project $src -c Release -- $configPath

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Step 6 — Report result

On success:

Done: <outputPath>
In AutoCAD: CUILOAD → browse to <outputPath>

On failure: show stderr and diagnose (common: missing exe, wrong path, invalid JSON).

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Command normalization

User types	Becomes
QLEADER	^C^CQLEADER
zoom e	^C^CZOOM E
(alert "Hi")	^C^C(alert "Hi")
^C^CMYCOMMAND	^C^CMYCOMMAND (unchanged)

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Placeholder icon colors (auto-generated when no image provided)

Index cycles 0→7 across all buttons in the CUIX.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Blue	Green	Orange	Purple	Teal	Red	Amber	Cyan

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F1 Help — CHM via PackageContents

F1 help works via CHM + PackageContents.xml. Tested and confirmed working in AutoCAD 2027.

How it works

• HelpFile="./Contents/Win64/Plugin.chm" on <ApplicationPackage>
• <Command Local="ZOOMSEL" HelpTopic="zoomsel" /> — anchor name only (no .htm)
• CUIX <ToolTip HelpTopic="zoomsel" HelpSource="C:\absolute\path\Plugin.chm" />

Config

Set chmPath + helpTopic (anchor name, not filename) per button:

{
  "chmPath": "C:\\path\\to\\DraftingTools.chm",
  "panels": [{
    "buttons": [{
      "helpTopic": "zoomsel"
    }]
  }]
}

CuixBuilder strips .htm/.html extensions automatically if user provides a filename — always outputs anchor name only.

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Requirements

• CuixBuilder.exe — install via install.ps1 (downloads from GitHub Releases, ~200KB)
• .NET 10 runtime — ships with AutoCAD 2027; or install from https://dot.net
• Windows only — AutoCAD bundle format is Windows-specific