fun with tool palettes

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    Tool PalettesTool palettes are a great place to store collections of often-used commands,blocks, hatch patterns, images, xrefs, and tables.

    Anything you can do with toolbar buttons you can do with tool palette tools. There

    is one tool palette with as many individual palettes as you want. The tabs areoverlaid to give you more tools in a lot less space when you group themefficiently and use the autohide feature. One benefit of tool palettes over toolbars is that you can incorporate properties into your tools.

    You will have to re-export your profi le after making these changes.

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    To display the tool palettes window use one of the following methods:

    From the tools menu, choose tool palettes window.

    On the keyboard, press Ctrl+3

    At the command prompt type toolpalettes.

    On the standard toolbar, click the tool palettes button.

    Basic ways to populate a tool palette:

    Drag geometry from drawing onto tool palette

    Drag tool buttons from tool bars onto the tool palette

    Drag drawings or images from windows explorer onto tool palette

    Drag individual blocks and images from design center to the tool palette

    Right click from design center to send groups of blocks to the tool palette

    Creating a palette tool f rom exist ing geometryCreate tools from existing geometry in your drawing by holding down the rightmouse button and dragging the existing geometry onto the tool palette (the tool

    will land where the black line is displayed). The palette tool retains the objectsproperties, such as the layer, color, and linetype. Once a tool is on a tool palette,you can move it copy it or change its properties. When you drag a geometricobject or a dimension onto a tool palette, the new tool is automatically createdwith an appropriate flyout. Click the arrow on the right side of the icon on the toolpalette to display the flyout. When you use any of the flyout tools, the object youcreate in the drawing will have the same properties as the original tool on the toolpalette.

    To add or remove a flyout tool right click on thetool and choose properties in the tool

    properties dialog box, under command click inthe use flyout box, in the drop down list selectyes or no to the flyout option or select just theflyout options you wish to use.

    You may want to assign specific properties to a tool such as a hatch that youalways want to be placed on a hatch layer regardless of the current layer setting.The Tool Properties dialog box provides areas for each possible propertyoverride.

    When you use layer property overrides:

    If a layer is missing from the drawing it will be automatically created. If a layer to which you are adding content is currently turned off or frozen,

    that layer is temporarily turned on or thawed as you drop the geometryinto the drawing. Then AutoCAD will give you the message that a Blockwas inserted on a layer that is frozen or off.

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    Table tools can only be created from a drawing that contains a Table object.When a Table tool is created, the tool retains the table structure and formatting ofthe table that was dropped onto the tool palette.

    Text tools and Dimension tools retain their formatting also making it the perfect

    way to transfer dimension styles and text styles from one drawing to another.

    You can also create a tool that executes a string of commands or customizedcommands, such as an AutoLISP routine, a VBA macro, or a script

    Creating a palette tool from existing toolbarsWhen the Customize dialog box is open you can drag tools from a toolbar to thetool palette. (Even though you wont make changes in the Customize dialog box,it must be displayed.) Right click on the title bar of the tool palette to open thecustomize dialogue with the customize dialogue open drag the desired commandfrom any exiting toolbar button onto the Tool Palette.

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    Creating a palette tool with Windows ExplorerWith Windows Explorer you can drag and drop a drawing file onto the tool paletteas a block. Raster images can also be dropped on the tool palette from windowsexplorer. To create tools using windows explorer:

    Launch windows explorer and navigate to the location of the drawing or

    raster image file. Click and hold down the left mouse button over the drawing or raster

    image file.

    While holding down the left mouse button drag the drawing or rasterimage onto the tool palette.

    Creating a palette using DesignCenterOpen the DesignCenter and drag blocks, xrefs, images, and hatch patterns oneby one to the Tool palette. Or right-click on any drawing name in DesignCenter tocreate a new tab that contains all the blocks within the drawing.

    Blocks are the most popular form of reusable content. Tool palettes allow you toassign properties, layer and color to blocks on a palette.Blocks often need to be scaled during placement. With Tool Palette propertiesyou can set an auxiliary scale for a block or a hatch tool in the properties dialogbox. An auxiliary scale multiplies your current scale setting by the plot scale orthe dimension scale.

    Create a tool palette tab with predetermined content by right-clicking a folder, ora drawing file, in the DesignCenter tree view, and then clicking Create ToolPalette on the shortcut menu. This automatically creates a new tool palette thatreferences every drawing in the folder or every block in the drawing.

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    Automatically creates a new toolpalette that references everyblock in the drawing

    Automatically creates a new toolpalette that references everydrawing in the folder

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    You must plan ahead when creating tool palettes to share, keep in mind that theindividual tools store the path to the source file containing the tool. If you shareyour tool palettes with someone that has a different directory structure for thesource content the tool palettes wont work. If the source drawing file for a block,xref or raster image tool is moved to a different folder, you must modify the toolthat references it by right-clicking the tool and, in the tool properties dialog box,specifying the new source file location.

    Source File Location

    If you change the definition for a block you can update the icon by right-clickingthe tool in the palette and selecting Update Tool Image.

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    To create a tool palette group right click on the tool palette title bar and selectcustomize. In the Palette groups pane right click to create a new group then dragfrom the palettes pane the tool palettes you want in that group

    To switch between tool palette groupsright click on the properties button

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    To export or import tool palettes:Right click on the tool palette title bar to open the customize dialog box, right clicka palette name under palettes, and then select import or export from the shortcutmenu. Tool palettegroups can also be exported and imported between differentmachines.

    Export individual Tool Palette

    Export Tool Palette Group

    An exported Tool Palette has an extension .xtpAn exported Tool Palette Group has an extension .xpg

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    right click the tab belonging to the current palette.

    Move Up moves up the palette one.

    Move down moves down the palette by oneposition.

    View Options displays a dialog box thatdetermines the size and look of icons anddescriptive text. Each tab can have a different viewoptions.

    Paste pastes data from the Clipboard into thepalette. (This option is available only when theClipboard contains appropriate data, such as an

    AutoCAD block).

    New Tool Palette creates a new blank palette, andprompts you to name the tab.

    Delete Tool Palette deletes a tool palette.

    Rename Tool Palette renames the selected tab

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    Right-click an iconon the palette to.

    Cut removes the tool and places it in theClipboard. (You can then right-click thepalette, and select Paste.)

    Copy copies the tool to the Clipboard.

    Delete removes the tool.

    Rename renames the tool.

    Update tool image refreshes the icon (appliesonly to blocks).

    Block Editor allows you to call up the drawingthat contains the block the tool references toedit it.

    Properties displays the dialog box for changingproperties of the selected tool.

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    View OptionsControl the display and size of the icons by selecting View Options from theshortcut menu on the title bar (set to Icon Only to display more tools). Dontforget Each tab can have a different view options.

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    Right clicking in a blank area of the tool palette will allow you to add text toidentify groups of tools or add separator bars to organize groups of tools.

    Add Text

    Add Separator

    Add Text

    Add Separator