---
name: "wxGUI.toolboxes"
section: "1grass"
platform: "linux"
package: "grass-doc"
version: "8.4.1-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/wxGUI.toolboxes"
---

# wxGUI.toolboxes(1grass)

## wxGUI Toolboxes

## KEYWORDS

general, GUI

## DESCRIPTION

The **Toolboxes** is a way to customize items in *wxGUI* menu. Toolboxes enable to:

- •

  hide unused menu items in menu (e.g. Imagery, Database) or submenu (e.g. Wildfire modeling)

- •

  change order of menu items and subitems

- •

  add new menu items (e.g. Temporal)

- •

  add addons modules

- •

  add your own modules

Toolboxes are configured through two XML files (`main_menu.xml` and `toolboxes.xml`) located in your user home GRASS directory, subdirectory `toolboxes` (`$HOME/.grass8/toolboxes/` on UNIX). Currently, there is no GUI front-end for toolboxes, however only simple editing of text files is needed.

### Brief description of file `main_menu.xml`

This file represents the main menu (File, Settings, Raster, ...). By modifying this file you show and hide menu items which are represented by `subtoolbox` tag.

Tag `user-toolboxes-list` is interpreted as a menu containing a list of all user-defined toolboxes. If not needed it can be removed.

Following lines can be copied to `.grass8/toolboxes/main_menu.xml` and by removing, adding or reordering lines users can change the main menu items. See further examples.\

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<toolbox name="MyMainMenu">
  <label>Default GRASS GIS main menu bar</label>
  <items>
    <subtoolbox name="File"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Settings"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Raster"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Vector"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Imagery"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Volumes"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Database"/>
    <user-toolboxes-list />
    <subtoolbox name="Help"/>
  </items>
</toolbox>
```

### Brief description of file `toolboxes.xml`

This file contains structure and description of individual toolboxes. Note that both *Raster* and e.g. *Query raster maps* are individual toolboxes although one contains the other. Tag `toolbox` contains `subtoolbox` tags which are defined later in the file. These nested toolboxes are linked through `name` attribute.

Apart from `subtoolbox` tag, tag `toolbox` can contain individual items (modules) and separators (for visual separation in the menu tree).\

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<toolboxes>
  <toolbox name="Raster">
    <label>&amp;Raster</label>
    <items>
      <subtoolbox name="DevelopRasterMap"/>
      <subtoolbox name="ManageRasterColors"/>
      <subtoolbox name="QueryRasterMaps"/>
      <subtoolbox name="RasterMapTypeConversions"/>
      <separator/>
      <module-item name="r.buffer">
        <label>Buffer rasters</label>
      </module-item>
      ...
      ...
  <toolbox name="QueryRasterMaps">
    <label>Query raster maps</label>
    <items>
      <module-item name="r.what">
        <label>Query values by coordinates</label>
      </module-item>
      <module-item name="r.what.color">
        <label>Query colors by value</label>
      </module-item>
    </items>
  </toolbox>
```

To redefine a toolbox (or use it as a template), copy specific part of file `grass7/gui/wxpython/xml/toolboxes.xml` from GRASS installation to a new file in user home (`.grass8/toolboxes/toolboxes.xml`) and edit it. Rename this new toolbox.

## EXAMPLES

### Hiding menu items

If we are for example working only with raster data, we can hide menu items *Vector* and *Database*. The file `main_menu.xml` then contains the following lines where we omitted the two toolboxes:\

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<toolbox name="CustomizedMainMenu">
  <label>Default GRASS GIS main menu bar</label>
  <items>
    <subtoolbox name="File"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Settings"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Raster"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Imagery"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Volumes"/>
    <user-toolboxes-list />
    <subtoolbox name="Help"/>
  </items>
</toolbox>
```

### Creating custom toolbox

In this example we create a new toolbox *Favorites* containing existing GRASS module and toolbox, custom module created by the user and addon module. The `toolboxes.xml` file contains following lines:\

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<toolboxes>
  <toolbox name="MyFavorites">
    <label>&amp;Favorites</label>
    <items>
      <module-item name="g.region">
        <label>Set region</label>
      </module-item>
      <module-item name="r.mask">
        <label>Mask</label>
      </module-item>
      <separator/>
      <module-item name="m.myown">
        <label>Do my own stuff</label>
      </module-item>
      <module-item name="i.histo.match">
        <label>Calculate histogram matching</label>
      </module-item>
      <subtoolbox name="RasterReportsAndStatistics"/>
    </items>
  </toolbox>
</toolboxes>
```

Optionally, we can add this toolbox to the main menu items. The `main_menu.xml` file contains following lines:\

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<toolbox name="CustomizedMainMenu">
  <label>Default GRASS GIS main menu bar</label>
  <items>
    <subtoolbox name="File"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Settings"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Raster"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Vector"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Imagery"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Volumes"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Database"/>
    <user-toolboxes-list />
    <subtoolbox name="Favorites"/>
    <subtoolbox name="Help"/>
  </items>
</toolbox>
```

If we have `user-toolboxes-list` tag in the `main_menu.xml` file, our custom toolbox will be listed in the automatically added *Toolboxes* main menu item. The screenshot shows the resulting menu:\
\
\

## NOTES

After the first start of wxGUI with custom toolboxes, `.grass/toolboxes` directory will contain file `menudata.xml` which is auto-generated and should not be edited.

## SEE ALSO

*wxGUI,* *wxGUI components*

## AUTHORS

Anna Petrasova, OSGeoREL, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague\
 Vaclav Petras, OSGeoREL, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: wxGUI Toolboxes source code (history)

Accessed: Monday Feb 24 10:57:24 2025

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© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.1 Reference Manual