Pages

Friday, November 16, 2007

Tool Pallets

Tool Pallets have been around since AutoCAD 2004, but the way they are set up has changed through the years. To add commands to a tool pallet in 2007 and 2008, open the tool pallets. Right click on an existing pallet and a window opens. Select the “Create Pallet” option, and name it what you want. Right click the pallet again and select “Customize Commands”. This will bring up another window. Every command in CAD will be listed. This list can be filtered and sorted by source. The source is the CUI that the command is saved in. The commands are simply the buttons in a toolbar, menu, or pallet. If you want any of these commands on your tool pallet, select it, hold, and drag the command to your pallet. If you want to make a new command, click the NEW button in 2007, in 2008 click the NEW icon (it looks like a star). Give it a name and define the macro. The macro is the series of instructions to AutoCAD that executes the command. Look at other commands to help you determine the proper format. You could even copy a command and edit it. Click OK when finished. OR, if you have already drawn an object, hatch pattern, etc. select it in the drawing, hold, and drag it to the tool pallet. Another way is to open Design Center (tool, pallets, design center, - or CTRL + 2). Browse to a file that has the info you want. Select the item, hold, and drag it to the tool pallet.

2 comments:

  1. Hi any way of being able to set a a new Tool Pallet Window not just a Tab within the Tool Pallet, we Have lots of different Stud Sizes that we use on our homes. What i wanted to do was to have a 70mm Stud Tool Pallet with all Window BLOCKs and Door Blocks and Than create another Tool Pallet but for a 90mm Stud.

    Thanks People, Doing a great job with the site,


    Peter Ways,

    Peterw@inbox.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter, Great question. The answer is no, sorry. I would like this feature myself. It would be nice if I could have multiple tool pallets, one for parts, one for commands, one for lisp routines, one for, well whatever I wanted. But for now, we only have one toll pallet with a gazillion tabs. If you feel strongly enough about this, go to www.augi.com and add this idea to their wish list. Autodesk takes this list very seriously. AUGI members get to vote for their favorite wishes, then AUGI sends the top choices to Autodesk. Maybe your can get in.

    How have you (CAD-a-Blog readers) handled this situation?

    ReplyDelete