Palettes Palettes in Photoshop traditionally occupy the right side of the program window. However, no one is stopping you from moving them to any other place, but this is usually not practiced. Those palettes that are used constantly are grouped in the CS4 version on the right side of the Photoshop window like this

Despite the fact that AutoCAD is a fairly functional program, and very complex models are developed in it, you still have to perform a lot of routine operations when working. For example, when working with a drawing of a building, each time you have to draw the same blocks - plumbing, doors, windows, etc. It would be more convenient to save them and install them on the drawing by simply dragging them. And there is such a function - tool palettes are used for this.

Despite the fact that AutoCAD is a fairly functional program, and very complex models are developed in it, you still have to perform a lot of routine operations when working. For example, when working with a drawing of a building, each time you have to draw the same blocks - plumbing, doors, windows, etc. It would be more convenient to save them and install them on the drawing by simply dragging them. And there is such a function - tool palettes are used for this.

By default, they appear in the workspace when you first launch AutoCAD, but many people simply close them so as not to interfere.

Tool palettes are a window with many tabs where different tools and functions are collected. The beauty is that all these functions can be simply dragged and dropped from tabs to working window and vice versa. All tabs can be edited, deleted or added, and new elements can be saved in them. For example, you can save a drawing of a part in a panel and then simply drag it out to the desired location in another project.

Our free video course shows you how to use tool palettes and how you can benefit from them.

Many users, starting to work in AutoCAD, eventually realize that for more fast work with drawings, projects, the standard functionality of the program is not enough. Sometimes you want to modify existing commands to suit your needs, create your own buttons, functions, etc.

This topic is intended to help those who want to speed up their work, but do not know where to start or in which direction to move.

According to many advanced users, it helps to save time and nerves by creating your own tool palette, which will contain the most frequently used AutoCAD commands, modified commands, lisp functions, blocks, tables.

How to do it?

Creating a palette.

There is no direct way to create a palette as such, at least I haven’t found one. Such that, for example, I pressed a button, everything was created and saved where needed. Therefore, we will use a workaround.

If your AutoCAD is pristine, i.e. You did not play with the settings, did not change the standard paths to downloaded files, did not delete these files, then to create your own tool palette you will need to go to the following path C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD [version number]\ R19.1\rus\Support\RegisteredTools, this is if regular AutoCAD is installed. Or specify the name of the RegisteredTools folder in the search on the disk where the program is installed. It contains a clean palette ready to create your own.

We find the AcTpTools.atc file and copy it to ourselves. You can transfer it to another disk, basically wherever your heart desires. (If for some reason you still haven’t found the file you are looking for, I am attaching it here). We remember where we saved it and enter this path in the AutoCAD settings (Right-click on the command line, call “Options”). If you want AutoCAD to have only one palette - yours, then delete all paths except the path to your own palette, otherwise add your own to the existing paths.

Click OK. And voila, a new empty palette appeared in the program. (Enable tool palette in AutoCAD, Ctrl+3).

If the palette still does not appear, feel free to right-click on the title of the tool palette and select “Adapt palettes.”

A window will open with all currently connected palettes. It’s easy to find yours here; most likely it will be called “new palette”. We find it and with the usual movement of the hand, drag it to the right window with the left mouse button. A group of palettes is created, which will include our only tab. Rename it, for example “My Palette”.

Here it’s easy to create a bunch more of your own tabs by clicking on the left side of the window and clicking “create palette”, and then dragging them to the right in the same way.

Close the palette adaptation window. Our task is to include our own group of palettes, which we called “My Palette”. This can be done simply by clicking on the title of the tool palette and selecting “My Palette”.

You can do anything with this palette (create tabs, add blocks, standard AutoCAD commands, custom commands, lisp and much more).

And having set up this palette, you can later store it on a disk drive, carry it to work, to school, quickly adapting it to your workplace.

We'll do the setup in the next lesson.

In Fig. 2.1. shows the classic AutoCAD desktop for Windows.

Rice. 2.1. AutoCAD desktop

This desktop includes:

? drop down menus Menu Browser – a menu that appears when you click on the A button in the upper left corner of the program window;

? optional toolbars: the Standard panel and the Styles panel – the top line of the program window; panel of Workspaces, Layers and Properties – second line; Draw and Modify editing panel – columns on the left and right; Tool Palettes – on the right side of the program window;

? status bar - line at the bottom of the program window;

? command line window - above the status bar;

? graphic field, taking up the rest of the desktop.

The default drop-down menu bar contains the following items:

? File – commands for working with files: creating, opening, saving, publishing on the Internet, printing, exporting files to other formats, as well as managers of parameters for sheets, plotters, print styles, etc.;

? Edit – tools for editing parts of the graphic field of the program desktop, working with the clipboard, etc.;

? View – screen control, zooming, panning, setting a three-dimensional point of view, creating viewports and named views, setting visual styles, shading, moving path animation, installing the necessary toolbars;

? Insert – commands for inserting blocks, external objects, objects of other applications;

? Format – commands for working with layers and their tools; color, line types; management of text styles, sizes, multilines, tables; point marker type; setting units of measurement, drawing boundaries;

? Tools – workspace management; palettes; setting the order of drawing objects and obtaining information about them; working with blocks and their attributes; working with AutoLISP language; working with a custom coordinate system; setting design standards; managing Wizards (publishing on the Internet, installing plotters, creating plot style tables, color-dependent plot styles, sheet layout, creating a binder, importing print parameters); setting drawing parameters and bindings using dialog boxes, etc.;

Draw – two-dimensional and three-dimensional drawing commands;

Dimension – commands for setting dimensions and managing parameters of dimension styles;

Modify – commands for editing drawing elements;

Window – multi-window mode for working with drawings;

Help – displays a hypertext help system on the screen.

AutoCAD commands on toolbars are represented as icons. If you hold the mouse pointer over an icon, the name of the corresponding command appears next to it, placed in a small rectangle.

If there is a small black triangle in the lower right corner of the icon, this means that it contains a submenu with a set of related commands. To call a submenu, you need to hold the mouse pointer on the icon for a while by pressing its left button.

The Standard panel is shown in Fig. 2.2.

Rice. 2.2. Standard toolbar

It contains the following tools:

QNew – creating a new drawing file;

Save (Ctrl+S) – saves the current file;

Plot... (Ctrl+P) – output the drawing to a plotter, printer or file;

Plot Preview – preview of the drawing before printing, allowing you to see the placement of the drawing on a sheet of paper;

Publish… – publishing drawing sheets in Design Web Format (DWF) file format, loading the Publish dialog box;

3DDWF – export of a three-dimensional model in Design Web Format (DWF) file format;

Cut (Ctrl+X) – copying objects to the clipboard and deleting them from the drawing;

Copy (Ctrl+C) – copying selected drawing elements to the Windows clipboard without deleting them from the source document;

Paste (Ctrl+V) – paste data from the Windows buffer;

Match Properties – copying the properties of a given object to another object;

Block Editor – editing blocks;

Undo (Ctrl+Z) – undoes the last action;

Redo (Ctrl+Y) – restore a just canceled action;

Pan Realtime – moving the image on the current viewport in real time;

Zoom Realtime – increases or decreases the visible size of objects on the current viewport in real time;

The Zoom submenu is a drop-down set of tools in which you can set various ways increasing or decreasing the visible size of objects in the current viewport;

Zoom Previous – return to display of the previous view;

Properties (Ctrl+1) – loads the palette for managing object properties;

DesignCenter (Ctrl+2) – a dialog interface that allows you to quickly find, view, call, transfer previously created drawings to the current drawing, manage block occurrences, external links and other drawing elements, such as layers, sheets and text styles;

Tool Palettes Window (Ctrl+3) – tool palettes in the form of separate tabs in a special window that serve as an effective means of storing/inserting blocks and shading. Palettes may contain tools provided by third parties;

Sheet Set Manager (Ctrl+4) – manager of sheet sets of sheets, allowing you to organize the placement of sheet sets depending on the type of drawings and with the ability to effectively create, manage and share sets of logically related drawings;

Markup Set Manager (Ctrl+7) – manager of sets of marks, allowing you to organize work with drawings in DWF format;

QuickCalc (Ctrl+8) – calculator;

Help – call the help system.

The Styles panel, shown in Fig. 2.3, is designed for creating new text, dimension and table styles.

Rice. 2.3. Styles panel

The panel contains the following tools:

Text Style… – creating new and editing existing text styles;

Dimension Style... – creating new and editing existing dimensional styles;

Table Style… – creating new and editing existing table styles;

Multileader Style... – creates new and edits existing leader line styles.

The Workspaces panel shown in Fig. 2.4, allows you to set workspace parameters.

Rice. 2.4. Workspaces panel

Workspaces include only the necessary sets of menus, toolbars and palettes, grouped and ordered according to the task at hand. Interface elements that are not necessary for solving the current task are hidden, freeing up the screen area available for work as much as possible.

The following workspaces are defined in AutoCAD:

? 2D Drafting & Annotation – two-dimensional modeling;

? 3D Modeling – three-dimensional modeling;

? AutoCAD Classic - classic AutoCAD.

In addition to the ability to install working space, the Workspaces panel includes the following items:

? Save Current As... – opens the Save Workspace dialog box, allowing you to save the current workspace;

Workspace settings... – opens the Workspace Settings dialog box, which allows you to configure the current workspace settings for later use;

Customize… – opens the Customize User Interface dialog box, allowing you to customize the user interface.

The Workspaces panel also contains the following tools:

Workspace Settings... – opens the Workspace Settings dialog box, allowing you to configure the current workspace settings for later use;

My Workspace – Returns the name of the current workspace to the command line interface and sets that space as current.

The Layers panel shown in Fig. 2.5, provides work with layers.

Rice. 2.5. Layers panel

Layer Properties Manager – call the Layer Properties Manager;

Filter applied – layer control drop-down list. Each line contains icons for managing the properties of the layer or displaying its properties, as well as its name. These icons are listed below (from left to right): Turn a layer On or Off – turn a layer on/off; Freeze or thaw in ALL viewports – freezing/thawing on all viewports; Freeze or thaw in current viewport – freezing/thawing on the current viewport; Lock or Unlock a layer – lock/unlock a layer; Color of layer – layer color; Filter applied – layer name;

Make Object’s Layer Current – ​​setting the current layer in accordance with the layer of the selected primitive;

Layer Previous – return to the previous state of layers;

Layer States Manager – Loads the Layer States Manager dialog box.

Properties panel of objects Properties, shown in Fig. 2.6, is designed to work with color, line type and weight.

Rice. 2.6. Object Properties Panel

It includes the following tools:

Color Control – drop-down list for setting the current color, as well as changing the color of selected objects;

Line Type Control – drop-down list for setting the current line type, as well as changing the line type for selected objects;

Line Weight Control – drop-down list for setting the current line weight (thickness), as well as changing the line thickness of selected objects;

Plot Styles Control – drop-down list for setting plot styles.

The status bar (Fig. 2.7) is located at the bottom of the desktop.

Rice. 2.7. Status bar

It contains the current cursor coordinates, as well as buttons for turning on/off drawing modes:

Snap Mode – enable or disable step cursor snapping;

Grid Display – turn grid display on and off;

Ortho Mode – turn on or off the orthogonal mode;

Polar Tracking – enable or disable polar tracking mode;

Object Snap – enable or disable object snap modes;

Object Snap Tracking – enable or disable tracking mode for object snapping;

Allow/Disallow Dynamic UCS – enable or disable the dynamic user coordinate system;

Dynamic Input – enable or disable dynamic input;

Show/Hide Lineweight – turn on and off the mode of displaying lines in accordance with weights (thicknesses);

Quick Properties – enable or disable object properties;

Model or Paper space – switching from model space to paper space;

Quick View Layouts – turn on and off viewing sheets;

Quick View Drawings – enable or disable viewing of drawings;

Pan – panning of the picture;

Zoom – zoom the picture;

SteeringWheel – enable the Wheel tool;

ShowMotion – enable the Motion tool;

The display of buttons for turning on/off drawing modes in the status bar is set in the context menu. To do this, you need to left or right click on the Status Bar menu tool with the down arrow image, which is located in the right corner of the status bar.

The Command Prompt window is typically located above the status bar and is used to enter commands and display AutoCAD prompts and messages. By default, the command window is docked and equal in width to the AutoCAD window (Fig. 2.8).

Rice. 2.8. Docked command prompt window

You can change the height of the window using the dividing strip located in its upper part (if it is fixed at the bottom) or at the bottom (if it is fixed at the top). To resize, grab the divider bar with your mouse and drag it to the desired height.

You can view most of the command log - the so-called command history - by switching to the text window shown in Fig. 2.9. It is called up by pressing the F2 function key or the TEXTSCR command, as well as from the View drop-down menu > Display > Text Window F2.

The text window is similar to the command window; it also allows you to enter commands and see tooltips and messages from AutoCAD. To move around the window, use the scroll bar or the ^, v, Page Up, etc. keys.

The contents of the text window are read-only and cannot be modified, but the command log can be copied for later pasting into a command line or text editor.

Rice. 2.9. Text box

A pointing device, the mouse, is often used to select menu items and icons on the toolbar. When using a mouse, left-clicking in the drawing area is typically used to select and specify a point on the screen; Right-clicking brings up a context menu that provides quick access to commands. The form and content of the menu depend on the position of the mouse pointer and the state of the task.

Tool palettes are loaded using the command TOOLPALETTES from the Tools menu > Palettes > Tool Palettes Ctrl+3 or by clicking on the Tool Palettes Window icon (Ctrl+3) on the standard toolbar.

Tool palettes are separate tabs combined in a special Tool Palettes window (Figure 2.10), and are an effective means of storing and inserting blocks and hatches, and can also contain tools provided by third-party developers.

Rice. 2.10. Tool palette

It is convenient to place frequently used blocks and hatches on palettes. In order to insert a block or hatch from the palette into a drawing, you need to “grab” an element of the palette with the mouse and drag it into the graphics area.

The DesignCenter control center is designed to organize access to drawings and their elements and provides: viewing the contents of drawings on a local drive, network drive and web pages; viewing and inserting blocks, layers, text and dimension styles, line types, external references, hatch patterns and other drawing elements into the current drawing; access bitmaps and third-party objects created in other applications; updating block descriptions; Drag and drop drawing elements onto tool palettes.

AutoCAD Control Center is loaded with the command ADCENTER, or from the Tools drop-down menu > Palettes > DesignCenter Ctrl+2, or by clicking on the DesignCenter icon (Ctrl+2) on the standard toolbar (Fig. 2.11).

Rice. 2.11. DesignCenter

The toolbar, located at the top of the DesignCenter, provides access to a set of views and actions, as well as navigation within the window and viewing information in the structure and content areas. Region structures located on the left, it displays content sources. On the right is the area contents intended for adding elements to a drawing or to a tool palette. The viewing area for the sample and its explanations is located at the bottom right of the window.