Symptoms

M-Color works as expected. M-Color menu in AutoCAD fails to work and ??? or greyed out for the buttons. In AutoCAD when attempting to use the M-Files plug-in, the buttons do not work and have ??? or are greyed out.

Cause and Reason

This can occur when either of the AutoCAD or M-Files is updated.

Either they are missing files associated to menu items or the menu bar was not associated correctly when AutoCAD was installed/updated.

Solution

In M-Color installation folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\M-Color), verify .arx and .ltx files for 2018 and 2019, are present.

If not, download the new M-Color installation package, uninstall, and install M-Color again. 

Next to get the menu working:

1. Close AutoCAD
2. Add the M-Color to AutoCAD installation from M-Color menu > Add M-Color to new AutoCAD installation
3. Start AutoCAD

If still not working try the following, when the server machine is not in active work phase:

1. Start AutoCAD.
2. Use the CUILOAD command.
3. Select the MCOLOR98 menu group and click Unload.
4. Close the dialog box.
5. Exit AutoCAD.
6. Start AutoCAD again.
7. If the M-Color 9.9 popup menu and/or ribbon does not yet appear
   1. enter the command MCO_MCOLOR_MENU on the command line in AutoCAD and press Enter.
   2. If this does not help, enter MCO_MCOLOR_MENU2 and press Enter. If the menu still does not appear, try the following:
      1. Close the AutoCAD and M-Color.
      2. As an Administrator, log on to the server machine to the profile that people are using to work with. Open the Windows Explorer and navigate to the path: C:\Users\[USERACCOUNTNAME]\AppData\Local\Motive
      3. Delete the M-Color folder and its subfolders and content.
      4. Restart the AutoCAD.

The ribbon should now show up normally with M-Color icons.

NOTE: CUILOAD command varies by AutoCAD language version. Here are what the command is called in some language versions: