Acad Cuix Builder

AutoCAD CUIX Builder

Conversational skill that generates a partial AutoCAD CUIX file. No manual XML editing.

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

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Step 0 — Verify generator is available

Run in PowerShell:

$exe = "$env:USERPROFILE\.cuixbuilder\CuixBuilder.exe"
if (Test-Path $exe) { Write-Host "exe found: $exe" }
elseif (Get-Command dotnet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) { dotnet --version }
else { Write-Host "Neither found — see install.ps1" }

• exe found → use & $exe in Step 5
• dotnet SDK → use dotnet run --project -c Release -- 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)

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: (alert "hi") → generator adds ^C^C automatically
• Pre-formatted: ^C^CMYCOMMAND → used as-is
• Image — path to .bmp file, or Enter/skip → auto-generates a colored 16×16 placeholder
• Tooltip — optional hover text (defaults to label)

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Step 4 — Output path

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

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Step 5 — Confirm, build JSON, generate

Show a summary table:

Plugin :    Tab :    Output : 

Panel: 
  [1]   →     image: 
  [2] ...

Confirm with user, then build the JSON config:

{
  "pluginName": "NoSpaces",
  "displayName": "Human Name",
  "tab": "Tab Label",
  "outputPath": "C:\\full\\path\\Plugin.cuix",
  "panels": [
    {
      "name": "Panel Name",
      "buttons": [
        {
          "label": "Button Label",
          "command": "raw input",
          "imagePath": null,
          "tooltip": "Optional"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Write config to $env:TEMP\cuix_.json, then run:

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

# With SDK fallback
dotnet run --project "" -c Release -- $configPath

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Step 6 — Report result

On success:

Done: 
In AutoCAD: CUILOAD → browse to 

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 |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: autodesk-platform-services
• Source: autodesk-platform-services/skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.