AutoCAD Blog | Autodesk: In AutoCAD, tool palettes provide you with a combined method of accessing tools. Whether you prefer ribbons or toolbars, tool palettes provide the best of both worlds. Tool palettes can consist of commonly used blocks, hatch patterns, and commands. AutoCAD comes with many default tool palette categories that can be expanded or customized, allowing you to create one for your own needs. As with other palettes, you can dock the tool palettes or have them float within your workspace or even another monitor. Tool palettes can also be shared by exporting/importing to/by other users, and can be grouped like directories to provide you with even more flexibility and organization.
3 comments:
This was a very technical article. I first have to say I am a VectorWorks personae through and through. Being a Lighting Designer have always used it, and it will be difficult when I have to learn autoCAD. But I was still able to relate the update they were talking about and relate it to what I know about CAD programs in general. Now I am a little old school even when it comes to vectorworks, But I think I remember having the ability to ( in vectorworks) creat objects and make them into symbols that could be pasted repeated. I think this is similar to the new upgrade call palettes. I wonder, first if I’m correct on that about vectorworks, but also is this something that VW has had that AutoCAD has just now come around to making. I just feel like VW has come so far of the past decade and has really out shined all its competitors a little bit.
This is a very customizable function of autoCAD I had no idea even existed. On large drafting projects that require a lot of cross-referencing and homogeny, custom tool palettes and especially hatching and block palettes, would be extremely useful. There have been so many times I would be hatching the same material over and over again and then would switch to something else and not be able to find my hatch pattern for a specific material again without wasting time scrolling through the hatch menus. Creating these palettes also seems pretty easy to do, which is refreshing for autoCAD’s customizable attributes, and I think if I built a proper library for my autoCAD things, I would definitely be interested in building myself some tool and hatching palettes. This could also be useful here at school as we could have our selection of blocks from the Chosky and Rauh and common hardware and casters all in one place on the server and then we could make a Carnegie Scenic Palette.
The idea behind the tool palettes is great. By putting all of the tools or commands you use the most in one place, you can save a lot of time and be more efficient and effective in your use of AutoCAD. The downside to this is the set-up time. While it may not take long, it does take time. And, the tools that you use the most might change with your level of experience within AutoCAD. I can see this being useful for someone just starting out to put all the basic tools that they might use in one place. Personally, I don’t see much need for it since most of the commands I use, I type in. The ones that I don’t – I know where they are. The most useful part of this article, I think, is the ability to put blocks in a tool palette. This might be the most time saving element in the article. Unless your block library is organized, and mine isn’t, this is a great way to get the ones you use the most in one convenient place.
Post a Comment