User Interface Customization in Unified Engineering

MSIX is the installation method for AVEVA Unified Engineering. A consequence is that all the installed .dlls etc., are hidden. That is, there is no folder to which you can navigate and see the installed files. Files that relate to customizable parts of the UI are also hidden. The Unpack tool makes these files accessible.

1. At a command prompt, run ue /help.

2. Run UE -tool:Unpack.
   Files are unpacked to C:\Users\Public\Documents\Aveva\Unpack\AVEVA.UnifiedEngineering\version

3. In the unpacked files, find samples.zip. Extract it to your source code folder. This procedure uses C:\source\SampleAddins as an example.

4. In SampleAddins, expand FlexibleExplorerAddin and double-click FlexibleExplorerAdding.sln.
   Microsoft Visual Studio is launched.

5. In the Visual Studio Solution Explorer, right-click FlexibleExplorerAddin and select Properties.
   

6. Select Reference Paths in the left-hand menu.

7. Browse to the folder containing the unpacked files and click Add Folder.
   The path is added to the Reference paths pane.
   

8. Select Build>Build FlexibleExplorerAddin.
   

9. When the build is complete, exit Visual Studio.
   

10. Create a folder named Addins. This procedure uses D:\MyPlace\Addins as an example.

11. Copy FlexibleExplorerAddin.dll from C:\Source\SampleAddins\FlexibleExplorerAddin\bin\Debug to D:\MyPlace\Addins.

12. Copy FlexibleExplorerSample.xml from C:\Source\SampleAddins\FlexibleExplorerAddin\ to D:\MyPlace\Addins.

13. Copy DesignAddins.xml from the unpacked files to D:\MyPlace\Addins.

14. Open DesignAddins.xml and add these lines to the end of the file:
    <string>FlexibleExplorerAddin</string>
    <CustomizationFile Name="MyExample" Path="D:\MyPlace\Addins\MyExample.uic"/>

15. Copy DesignCustomization.xml from the unpacked files to D:\MyPlace\Addins.

16. In D:\MyPlace\Addins, create a text file. Change its name to Example and its extension to .uic.

17. Paste this code into Example.uic
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

    <UserInterfaceCustomization

    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"

    xmlns="www.aveva.com">

    <VersionNumber>1.0</Version>

    <FormsMetaData />

    <Tools/>

    <InstanceTools />

    <MenuBar />

    <CommandBars />

    <TaskPanes />

    <ContextMenus />

    <AreaLeftTools />

    <AreaRightTools />

    <FooterTools />

    <NavigationMenuTools />

    <QATTools />

    <ContextualTabGroups />

    <TabToolbarTools />

    <Tabs/>

    <MiniToolbarTools />

    <Namespace>MyExample</Namespace>

    </UserInterfaceCustomization>

18. Navigate to C:\Users\Public\Documents\Aveva\Projects\UE3.0 and open custom_evars.bat in a text editor.

19. In custom_evars.bat, specify these variables:
    SET CAF_ADDINS_PATH=D:\MyPlace\Addins\

    SET CAF_UIC_PATH=D:\MyPlace\Addins\