Menu

Adding Menu Items Tutorial Tool Bar Buttons Tutorial

Note

Every menu item has a command button, so you don’t need to use any menu items if you don’t want to.

Adding a menu item creates an action. When you create File > Open menu, the actionOpen action is created.

Warning

If you use the full-screen option, you will not be able to exit the application if you don’t have the Exit action or an Exit Push Button or Press ALT-F4 to close the GUI.

This shows the typical menu catagories which are the first items in each menu. The image is from the Qt Designer.

The following table shows the menu name you type into Qt Designer and the action name that is created by the Qt Designer. Menu catagories like File don’t create an action name.

Menu Items

File	Action Name
Open	actionOpen
Edit	actionEdit
Reload	actionReload
Save As	actionSave_As
Edit Tool Table	actionEdit_Tool_Table
Reload Tool Table	actionReload_Tool_Table
Ladder Editor	actionLadder_Editor
Quit	actionQuit
Machine	Action Name
E Stop	actionE_Stop
Power	action_Power
Run	actionRun
Run From Line	actionRun_From_Line
Step	actionStep
Pause	actionPause
Resume	actionResume
Stop	actionStop
Clear MDI History	actionClear_MDI_History
Copy MDI History	actionCopy_MDI_History
Homing	this creates a home menu item for each axis
Unhoming	this creates a unhome menu item for each axis
Clear Offsets	this creates a clear offsets for each coordinate system
Programs	Action Name
Show HAL	actionShow_HAL
HAL Meter	actionHAL_Meter
HAL Scope	actionHAL_Scope
View	Action Name
DRO	actionDRO
Limits	actionLimits
Extents Option	actionExtents_Option
Live Plot	actionLive_Plot
Velocity	actionVelocity
Metric Units	actionMetric_Units
Program	actionProgram
Rapids	actionRapids
Tool	actionTool
Lathe Radius	actionLathe_Radius
DTG	actionDTG
Offsets	actionOffsets
Overlay	actionOverlay
Clear Live Plot	actionClear_Live_Plot
Help	Action Name
About	actionAbout
Quick Reference	actionQuick_Reference

Action Names

When you add a menu item, it creates an action and the Object Name is created from the menu name automatically.

The Object Name must match the above items exactly in order to be discovered by Flex GUI:

Recent Files

Note

The Recent menu item is added after the Open menu. There must be at least one menu item after Open for the Recent menu to be added.

Location of the Recent menu after the Open menu:

Tool Bars

If you right-click on the main window, you can add a Tool Bar:

To add actions to the Tool Bar, drag them from the Action Editor and drop them in the Tool Bar:

To set the style of a Tool Bar Button, use the action name and replace action with flex_ for example the actionQuit would be flex_Quit. See Tool Bar Buttons in the stylesheet examples.

Shortcut Keys

Shortcut keys can be added in the Property Editor by clicking in the shortcut Value box and pressing the key or key combination you want to use. You can change text, icon Text, or tool Tip also.

Note

A toolTip can be handy, however they might not work on touchscreens.