Managing Your Drawings with DesignCenter and the Tool Palettes


As you start to build a library of drawings, you'll find that you reuse many components of existing drawing files. Most of the time, you will probably be producing similar types of drawings with some variation, so you'll reuse drawing components such as layer settings, dimension styles, and layouts. It can be a major task just to keep track of all the projects you've worked on. It's especially frustrating when you remember setting up a past drawing in a way that you know would be useful in a current project, but you can't remember that file's name or location.

AutoCAD offers DesignCenter to help you keep track of the documents you use in your projects. You can think of DesignCenter as a kind of super Windows Explorer that is focused on AutoCAD files. DesignCenter lets you keep track of your favorite files and helps you locate files, blocks, and other drawing components. In addition, you can import blocks and other drawing components from one drawing to another by using a simple click and drag. If you've been diligent about setting a unit format for each of your drawings, you can use DesignCenter to import symbols and drawings of different unit formats into a drawing, and the symbols will maintain their proper size. For example, a 90-cm door symbol from a metric drawing can be imported into a drawing in Imperial units, and the DesignCenter will translate the 90-cm metric door size to a 35.43-inch door.

Getting Familiar with DesignCenter

At first glance, DesignCenter looks a bit mysterious . But it takes only a few mouse clicks to reveal a tool that looks much like Windows Explorer. Try the following steps to get familiar with DesignCenter:

  1. Open AutoCAD to a new file and then click the DesignCenter tool on the Standard toolbar.

    DesignCenter opens as a floating palette (see Figure 21.4).

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    Figure 21.4: DesignCenter opens as a floating palette.

    Tip  

    If your DesignCenter view doesn't look like this, with the DesignCenter window divided into two parts , click the Tree View Toggle tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. The tree view opens on the left side of the DesignCenter window. Click the Home tool to display the contents of the \Sample\DesignCenter folder.

  2. Click the Favorites tool in the DesignCenter toolbar.

    DesignCenter displays a listing of the Favorites folder. What you are actually looking at is a view into the C:\Documents and Settings\ User Name \Favorites\Autodesk folder in which User Name is your login name. Unless you've already added items to the \Favorites\Autodesk folder, you see a blank view in the right-hand panel. You can add shortcuts to this folder as you work with DesignCenter. You might also see a view showing the tree structure of the files you have open in AutoCAD.

  3. Place your cursor in the lower-right corner of the DesignCenter window so that a double-headed diagonal arrow shows; then click and drag the corner out so that you have an enlarged Design- Center window that looks similar to Figure 21.5. By the way, the view on the right containing the DesignCenter folder is called the Palette view, and the view on the left is called the Tree view.

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    Figure 21.5: The components of the DesignCenter palette

  4. Place your cursor on the border between the Tree view and the Palette view until you see a double-headed cursor. Then click and drag the border to the right to enlarge the Tree view until it covers about one-third of the window.

  5. Finally, use the scroll bar at the bottom to adjust your view of the Tree view so you can easily read its contents.

    Tip  

    Like the Tool palettes and the Properties palette, DesignCenter has an autohide feature. To use it, click the double-headed arrow icon near the bottom of the DesignCenter title bar. DesignCenter will disappear except for the title bar. You can then quickly open DesignCenter by placing the cursor on the title bar.

After you have it set up like this, you can see the similarities between DesignCenter and Windows Explorer. You can navigate your computer or network by using the Tree view, just as you would in Windows Explorer. There are a few differences, however, as you'll see in the following exercise:

  1. Click the Home tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. The view changes to display the contents of the DesignCenter folder under the \AutoCAD2005\Samples\ folder.

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  2. Instead of the usual listing of files, you see sample images of each file. These are called preview icons.

  3. Click the Views tool in the DesignCenter toolbar, and then choose Details from the menu. The Palette view changes to show a detailed list of the files in the DesignCenter folder.

  4. Click the Views tool again and then choose Large Icon to return to the previous view. The Views tool is similar to the various View options in Windows Explorer.

  5. Click the Basic Electronics.dwg file to select it. You see a preview of the selected file in the Preview panel of DesignCenter. You can adjust the vertical size of the Preview panel by clicking and dragging its top or bottom border.

You can also open and close the Preview panel by clicking the Preview tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. The preview can be helpful if you prefer viewing files and drawing components as a list in the main part of the Palette view.

Below the Preview panel is the Description panel. This panel displays any text information included with the drawing or drawing element selected in the Palette view. To add a description to a drawing, choose File   Properties; to add a description to a block, use the Block Definition dialog box.

You can open and close this panel by clicking the Description tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. Because the Basic Electronics.dwg file doesn't have a description attached, the description panel shows the message No description found .

Both the Preview and the Description panels can offer help in identifying files that you might be looking for. After you find a file, you can click and drag it into a folder in the Tree view to organize your files into separate folders.

You can also add files to the Favorites folder under the Windows folder by right-clicking and then choosing Add To Favorites. The file itself won't be moved to the Favorites folder; instead, a shortcut to the file will be created in the Favorites folder. If you want to work on organizing your Favorites folder, you can open a window to the Favorites folder by right-clicking a file in the Palette view and choosing Organize Favorites. A window to the Favorites folder appears.

Because you'll be working with the sample drawings from the companion CD, go ahead and add the Projects folder to the Favorites folder:

  1.  On the CD      Locate the Projects folder (the one created when you installed the sample files from the companion CD) in the left panel Tree view and right-click it.

  2. Choose Add To Favorites from the shortcut menu.

  3. To go directly to the Favorites folder, click the Favorites tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. The Favorites folder appears in the right panel in Palette view.

  4. Double-click the Projects shortcut in the Palette view. You see the contents of the Projects folder.

You can go beyond just looking at file listings. You can look inside files to view their components:

  1. In the Palette view, locate the file named 16b-unit.dwg in the Chapter 16 folder and double- click it. You see a listing of its components in the Palette view. The Tree view also shows the file highlighted.

  2. Double-click the Block listing in the Palette view. Now you see a listing of all the blocks in 16b-unit.dwg .

From here, you can import any of the drawing components from the DesignCenter palette into an open drawing in AutoCAD. But before you try that, try a few other features of the DesignCenter.

Tip  

If you were to try to view the contents of the file 16a-unit.dwg , you would see that most of the blocks in the drawing do not show preview in the Palette view. This is because the layers for those blocks were turned off when the drawing was last saved. The 16b-unit.dwg file is identical to 16a-unit.dwg except that 16b-unit.dwg has all its layers turned on.

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Using the Favorites Tool in the AutoCAD File Dialog Boxes

As you use AutoCAD, you might notice the Tools option in the upper-right corner of nearly all file dialog boxes.

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When you choose Tools, you'll find the Add To Favorites option. This option creates a shortcut to the currently selected file and places it in the Favorites folder. You can then easily retrieve that file by clicking the Favorites tool in the left column of the file dialog box and selecting the shortcut to the file.

You can use the Favorites folder like a collection of bookmarks to those files that you use frequently. Instead of searching your hard disk or your network for a file, use the Look In Favorites tool to go directly to your favorite file. Be aware, however, that if the file is moved from its location at the time the shortcut was made, the shortcut won't work. You'll have to delete the old shortcut and establish a new one by using the Add To Favorites tool.

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Opening and Inserting Files with DesignCenter

By using DesignCenter, you can more easily locate the files you are looking for because you can view thumbnail preview icons. But often that isn't enough. For example, you might want to locate all the files that contain the name of a particular manufacturer in an attribute of a drawing.

After you've found the file you're looking for, you can load it into AutoCAD by right-clicking the filename in the Palette view and then choosing Open In Window. Try it with the following exercise:

  1. Click the Up tool in the DesignCenter toolbar twice. This takes you up two levels in the Palette view, from the view of the drawing blocks to the list of filenames.

  2. In the Tree view, select the Chapter 12 folder. Then in the Palette view of DesignCenter, locate the 12c-unit2.dwg sample.

  3. Click and drag 12c-unit2.dwg to the AutoCAD 2005 title bar. The drawing appears in the AutoCAD window.

If you want to insert a file into another drawing as a block, you can do so by clicking and dragging the file from the DesignCenter Palette view into an open drawing window. You will then be prompted for insertion point, scale, and rotation angle. If you prefer to use the Insert dialog box to insert a drawing from DesignCenter, right-click the filename in the Palette view and then choose Insert As Block. The Insert dialog box opens, offering you the full set of Insert options, as described in Chapter 3.

Finally, you can attach a drawing as an Xref by right-clicking a file in the Palette view of Design- Center and choosing Attach As Xref. The External Reference dialog box opens, offering the insertion point, scale, and rotation options similar to the Insert dialog box. This is the same dialog box described in Chapter 6.

Finding and Extracting the Contents of a Drawing

Aside from the convenience of being able to see thumbnail views of your drawing, DesignCenter might not seem like much of an improvement over Windows Explorer. But DesignCenter goes beyond Windows Explorer in many ways. One of the main features of DesignCenter is that it enables you to locate and extract components of a drawing.

Imagine that you want to find a specific block in a drawing. You remember the name of the block, but you don't remember the drawing you put it in. You can search the contents of drawings by using DesignCenter's Find dialog box. In the following exercise, you will search for a block named Kitchen2-metric among a set of files:

  1. In the DesignCenter toolbar, click the Search tool to open the Search dialog box. It looks similar to the Search tool that comes with Windows.

  2.  On the CD      Select the drive that contains your Projects folder from the In drop-down list.

  3. Select Blocks from the Look For drop-down list. As you can see from the list, you can look for a variety of drawing component types.

  4. Enter Kitchen2-metric in the Search For The Name input box. The magnifying glass icon in the lower-right corner will move back and forth, telling you that the Search function is working. After a minute or two, you'll see the name of the block in the window at the bottom of the dialog box.

  5. Double-click the block name. DesignCenter displays the block in the Palette view and the file that contains the block in the Tree view.

Search Options

As you can see from this example, the Search dialog box can be helpful in finding items that are buried in a set of drawings. In the exercise, you searched for a block, but you can search for any named drawing component, including attribute data and text. For example, if you want to find all attributes that contain the name ABC Manufacturing Company in your drawings, you can do so with the DesignCenter Search dialog box. Here is a summary of its features:

In     Lets you select the drive you want to search.

Look For Options     Lets you select the type of item to search for. The options are Drawings, Drawings And Blocks, Layers, Layouts, Linetypes, Textstyles, and Xrefs.

Browse     Lets you locate a specific folder to search.

Search Subfolders     Lets you determine whether Search searches subfolders in the drive and folder you specify.

Search Now     Starts the search process.

Stop     Cancels the current search.

New Search     Clears all the settings for the current search so you can start fresh on a new search.

Help     Opens the AutoCAD help system to the Search topic.

Additional Hidden Options

When you select Drawings from the Look For drop-down list, you see a set of additional tabs in the Search dialog box:

Drawings tab     Contains two options:

Search For The Word(s)     Lets you specify the text to search for in the Drawing Properties fields.

In The Field(s)     Lets you specify the field of the Drawing Properties dialog box to search through, including filename, title, subject, author, and keyword. These are the fields you see when you choose File   Drawing Properties.

Date Modified tab     Lets you limit search criteria based on dates.

Advanced tab     Offers three options to further limit your search to specific types of drawing data or to a range of dates:

Containing     Lets you select from a list of data to search for, including block name, block and drawing description, attribute tag, and attribute value.

Containing Text     Lets you specify the text to search for in the types of data you select from the Containing option.

Size Is     Lets you restrict the search to files greater than or less than the size you specify.

Automatically Scaling Blocks at Insertion

After you've found the block by using DesignCenter, you can click and drag the block into your open drawing. In the following exercise, you'll do just that, but with a slight twist. The block you've found is drawn in centimeters, but you'll be inserting the Kitchen2-metric block into a drawing named 12c-unit2.dwg , which was created in the Imperial measurement system. If you were to insert the Kitchen2-metric block into 12c-unit2.dwg , the kitchen would be exactly 2.54 times larger than it should be for 12c-unit2.dwg . But as you'll see, DesignCenter takes care of scaling for you. Follow these steps:

  1. In AutoCAD, make sure the 12c-unit2.dwg sample drawing is loaded if you haven't done so already. You can temporarily close DesignCenter to do this.

  2. Back in DesignCenter, click and drag the Kitchen2-metric block from the Palette view into the 12c-unit2.dwg window in AutoCAD. The kitchen appears at the appropriate scale.

  3. To see that DesignCenter did indeed adjust the scale of the Kitchen2-metric block, click it in the 12c-unit2 window, and then right-click and choose Properties.

  4. Check the Scale X, Scale Y, and Scale Z settings in the Geometry category. Notice that they show .3937 as the scale factor instead of 1.

  5. After reviewing the Properties palette, close it.

You might recall from Chapter 3 that you have the opportunity to specify the type of units the drawing is set up for in the Drawing Units dialog box under the Drag-And-Drop Scale drop-down list. DesignCenter uses this information when you drag and drop blocks from DesignCenter into an open drawing. This is how DesignCenter is able to correctly scale a block drawn in metric to a drawing that is drawn in the Imperial format. The same option is offered in the Block Definition dialog box.

Blocks aren't the only type of drawing component you can click and drag from the Palette view. Line types, layouts, dimension styles, and text styles can all be imported from files on your computer or network through DesignCenter's Palette view.

Exchanging Data between Open Files

You've seen how you can extract a block from a file stored on your hard disk and place it into an open drawing, but what if you want to copy a block from one open drawing to another open drawing? You change the way the Tree view displays data so that it shows only the files that are loaded in AutoCAD. The following exercise demonstrates how this works:

  1. In AutoCAD, make sure that 12c-unit2.dwg is still open; then open the 12c-unit2- metric.dwg file.

  2. In DesignCenter, click the Open Drawings tab above the Tree view. The Tree view changes to display only the drawings that are open.

  3. Click the plus sign (+) to the left of the 12c-unit2.dwg filename in the Tree view. The list expands to show the components in 12c-unit2.dwg .

  4. Click Blocks in the Tree view. The Palette view changes to show a list of blocks available in 12c-unit2.dwg .

  5. Locate the Kitchen block in the Palette view.

  6. Click and drag Kitchen from the Palette view into the open 12c-unit2- metric.dwg drawing in AutoCAD. You see the block move with the cursor. Once again, DesignCenter has automatically scaled the block to the appropriate size, this time from Imperial to metric.

  7. Click anywhere in the drawing to place the Kitchen block.

In this example, you inserted a block from one open drawing into another drawing. If you prefer to use the Insert dialog box, you can right-click the block name in step 6 and choose Insert Block. The Insert dialog box opens, enabling you to set the insertion point, scale, and rotation options.

Just as with drawings, you can see a preview and descriptive text for blocks below the Palette view. In Chapter 4, you had the option to save a preview icon with the block when you first created a block. This is where that preview icon can be really helpful. The preview icon gives you a chance to see what the block looks like when you use DesignCenter to browse through your drawing files. If you don't save a preview icon, you'll see the same block icon that was displayed in the previous Palette view.

You can also add the text description at the time you create the block. Before saving the block, enter a description in the Description input box of the Block Definition dialog box.

If you're updating older drawing files to be used with DesignCenter, you can add text descriptions to blocks by using the Make Block tool in the Draw toolbar. Click the Make Block tool, and then, in the Block Definition dialog box, select the name of a block from the Name drop-down list. Enter the description you want for this block in the Description input box toward the bottom of the Block Definition dialog box. When you're finished, click OK.

Loading Specific Files into DesignCenter

You've seen how you can locate files through the Tree view and Palette view. If you already know the name and location of the file you want to work with, you can use a file dialog box to open files in DesignCenter. Instead of choosing File   Open, you use the Load tool in the DesignCenter toolbar to open the Load dialog box. This is a standard file dialog box that lets you search for files on your computer or network.

If you want to open a file in DesignCenter that you've recently opened, you can use the History tab just above the Tree view:

  1. In DesignCenter, click the History tab. The Tree view closes , and you see a list of the most recent files you've worked on.

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  2. Locate 12c-unit2.dwg and double-click it. The Tree view returns, displaying the file you selected, and the Palette view displays the contents of the selected file.

Downloading Symbols from DesignCenter Online

Besides enabling you to obtain files and blocks from your computer or network, you can also download symbols directly from Autodesk's DesignCenter Online website. This option offers thousands of ready-to-use symbols for a variety of disciplines. Follow these steps:

  1. Connect to the Internet.

  2. Click the DesignCenter Online tab that appears above the Tree view. The DesignCenter Online symbol categories appear in the Tree view, and the Palette view shows the same categories in a text view.

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  3. Expand the 2D Architectural listing to display a set of subcategories .

  4. Expand the Bathrooms category, and then click Bath Tubs. The Palette view displays a set of bathtubs.

  5. Place the cursor over one of the bathtubs. The i-drop icon appears.

  6. Click a tub to display an enlarged preview of the tub in the display panel along with a description of the symbol.

  7. Click and drag a symbol into the current open drawing. The i-drop cursor appears in the drawing. When you release the mouse button, the symbol appears at the cursor, waiting for you to select an insertion point.

  8. Click a location to place the symbol.

  9. To return to the opening page of DesignCenter Online, click the DesignCenter Online listing at the top of the Tree view.

Because DesignCenter Online is a website, AutoCAD uses the i-drop feature to bring the symbols into your drawing. As you can see, the list of symbols is fairly extensive . Many of the symbols are samples from third-party vendors that offer expanded symbols libraries.

Customizing the Tool Palettes with DesignCenter

Many AutoCAD users have built their own custom library of symbols and are accustomed to using them in conjunction with custom menus. But creating and editing menus is a bit cumbersome and can become difficult to manage. In Chapter 1, you saw how easy it is to drag and drop a symbol, known as a tool, from the Tool palettes. At first glance, there is no obvious way to add your own tools to the palettes. Adding tools and additional palettes to the Tool palettes is actually fairly simple once you are familiar with DesignCenter. The following exercise shows you how it's done:

  1. If it isn't open already, click the Tool Palettes tool in the Standard toolbar to open the Tool palettes.

  2. Right-click in the Tool palettes and then choose New Tool Palette from the shortcut menu.

  3. Enter My Tool Palette . A new, blank tab is added to the Tool palettes.

  4. Go back to DesignCenter, make sure the Folder tab is selected, and click the Home tool.

  5. In the Palette view to the right, double-click the Landscaping.dwg file, and then double-click the Blocks icon that appears in the Palette view.

  6. Make sure that the Tool palettes are visible behind DesignCenter, and then Ctrl+click Clump Of Trees Or Bushes “ Plan And North Arrow.

  7. Click and drag the selection to the Tool palettes.

    Warning  

    If you click a tool in a Tool palette, it is inserted in the current drawing; so take care when clicking around in the Tool palettes.

You've just created a Tool palette and added a symbol. You can continue to add symbols from other drawings to your custom Tool palette. Or, if you have a drawing that contains all the blocks you need for a Tool palette, you can quickly create a Tool palette directly from a file. Here's how that's done:

  1. In DesignCenter, click the Up tool to move up one folder level to the Samples folder.

  2. Scroll down the Tree view to locate the Wilhome.dwg file. You'll use Wilhome.dwg as a sample because it contains a lot of blocks.

  3. Right-click Wilhome.dwg and then choose Create Tool Palette. After a few moments, a new Tool palette called Wilhome appears in the Tool palettes. This new palette contains all the blocks found in the Wilhome.dwg file.

This exercise shows that you can quickly create a palette of all the drawings from a file. You can do the same thing with entire folders of drawings, though you might want to make sure such folders don't contain too many files.

But what if you don't want some of the items in your custom palette? You can remove items easily by using a shortcut menu:

  1. In the Wilhome palette, select the top three symbols by right-clicking the tool that is third from the top and then Shift+clicking the top tool. This is a little different from the typical Windows method for selecting items from a list.

  2. Right-click and then choose Delete Tools from the shortcut menu. Click OK to confirm the deletion.

You might have noticed the Cut and Copy options in the shortcut menu in step 2. You can use these options to move symbols from one palette to another. For example, instead of deleting the three symbols in step 2, you can choose Cut from the shortcut menu, open another palette, right- click, and choose Paste. The symbols will move to the new palette location. In the next section, you'll see how you can use the Copy and Paste shortcut menu options to make a copy of a tool within the same palette.

Customizing a Tool

Other shortcut menu options let you delete entire palettes or rename tools or palettes. You can also edit the properties of symbols in a palette. The following exercise shows how to use the shortcut menu options to create two scale versions of the same tool:

  1. In the My Tool Palette tab of the Tool palettes, right-click the North Arrow tool and choose Copy from the shortcut menu.

  2. Right-click a blank area of the palette and choose Paste. A copy of the North Arrow tool appears in the palette.

  3. Right-click the copy of the North Arrow tool, choose Rename from the shortcut menu, and then enter North Arrow Copy .

  4. Right-click the North Arrow Copy tool and then choose Properties to open the Tool Properties dialog box.

  5. Click 1.0000 to the right of the Scale listing and change the value to 4 .

  6. Click OK, and then click and drag the North Arrow Copy tool into the drawing.

  7. Now click and drag the original North Arrow tool into the drawing. Notice that the original North Arrow is smaller than the North Arrow Copy whose scale you changed to 4.

This exercise demonstrates that you can have multiple versions of a tool at different scales . You can then use the tool appropriate to the scale of your drawing. And as you can see from the Tool Properties dialog box, you can modify other tool properties such as color and layer assignments. You can use this feature to set up sets of tools for different scale drawings. For example, you can create a palette of architectural reference symbols for ¼ ² -scale drawings, and you can create another palette for 1 / 8 ² -scale drawings.

Adding Hatch Patterns and Solid Fills

You've seen how you can turn blocks into Tool palette tools, but what about solid fills? In Chapter 1, you saw that sample hatch patterns and solid fills are available in the Tool palettes. Here's how you can add your own:

Tip  

To find out exactly where support files are located, choose Tools   Options to open the Options dialog box. Click the Files tab. Expand the Support File Search Path listing at the top of the list, and then place the cursor on the item just below Support File Search Path. You'll see the path to the support folder.

  1. In DesignCenter, use the Tree view to locate the AutoCAD 2005 Support folder. In Windows XP, it is typically in:

    C:\Documents and Settings\ User Name \Application Data\Autodesk\ AutoCAD 2005\R16.1\enu\Support

    ( User Name is your Windows login name.)

  2. Double-click the Acad.pat file shown in the Palette view. AutoCAD will build a list of the patterns and display the list in the Palette view.

  3. You can now click and drag a pattern into any Tool palette. You can also click and drag an entire .PAT file into the Tool palette to create a palette of all the patterns in a hatch pattern file.

In this exercise, you used the standard hatch patterns that come with AutoCAD. You can also create your own custom hatch patterns and import them to the Tool palettes by using the method described here. See Chapter 20 for more information on creating custom hatch patterns.

If you want to set up a set of solid fill colors, you can do the following:

  1. Click and drag the solid fill pattern from the Acad.pat file into the Tool palette.

  2. Right-click the new solid fill tool, choose Properties from the shortcut menu, and then select a color from the Color drop-down list in the Tool Properties dialog box.

You can select any color, including colors from the True Color or Color Book tab in the Select Color dialog box that you learned about in Chapter 4. You can also cut and paste an existing solid fill tool to make copies. You can then modify the color property for each copy to get a set of custom solid fill colors.

Tip  

Command tab of the Tool palette in a way similar to adding blocks. Open a toolbar, right click on the toolbar, and select Customize. You'll see the Customize dialog box. You can then click and drag tools from the toolbar into the Customize tab of the Tool palette.

Managing the Tool Palettes

You can perform other types of Tool palettes maintenance operations by using the Customize dialog box. For example, you can change the order of the Tool palette tabs, or you can group tabs into categories that can be turned on or off. The following steps offer a glimpse of what you can do by showing you how to group palettes together:

  1. To open the Customize dialog box, right-click the Tool palettes and choose Customize from the shortcut menu.

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  2. Select the Tool Palettes tab then right-click in the Palette Groups panel and select New Group.

  3. Enter My Group for the new group name.

  4. Click and drag Wilhome from the left panel to the right panel just below My Group. You'll see a black bar appear below My group. After you see that bar, you can release your mouse button.

  5. Click and drag My Tool Palette from the left panel to the right, just below Wilhome.

You've just created a new palette group and moved the two new palettes. You can then view the palettes separately or all together:

  1. Click Close to close the Customize dialog box. You see that the Tool palette still displays all of the tabs.

  2. To display only the new tabs, click the Properties button at the bottom of the palette.

  3. Select My Group. Now the Tool palette shows only the two tabs you just created.

You might have noticed that in the Properties menu, you also have the option to show just the new groups or all the palettes. This feature lets you keep the tabs in the Tool palettes organized.

The Tool Palettes tab of the Customize dialog box also lets you change the order of the tabs by clicking and dragging the tab names up or down in the left panel. If you select a palette in the left panel and right-click, you can rename, delete, import, or export a palette.

Warning  

If you use the Export or Import options to move a palette from one computer to another, be aware that you must also import or export the drawings that are the source files for the palette tools.

DesignCenter and Tool palettes offer some great features that will prove invaluable to AutoCAD users. Although these examples show you how to use DesignCenter on a stand-alone computer, you can just as easily perform the same functions across a network or even across the Internet.

This ends our exploration of DesignCenter and Tool palettes. In the next part of this chapter, you'll look at AutoCAD's tools for maintaining layer-naming and other standards throughout an organization and for converting between your own layering system and those of clients or partners .




Mastering AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD LT 2005
Mastering AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD LT 2005
ISBN: 0782143407
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 261
Authors: George Omura

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