In this Click Saver I want to talk about Tool Palettes in AutoCAD. For a lot of us Tool Palettes can be a great tool to enhance our productivity during the day. When you drag and drop your blocks onto the Tool Palette there is an image that is created for them. Most of the times it will be created just like you would think they should and sometimes not. Below is the list from Autodesk on how custom tool button images are created for your tool palettes.
When you customize a tool palette, the image files that are used for the tool buttons are placed in the default tool palette Image folder (locations are at the end of the article). But how a corresponding image file is created depends on what type of item you are adding to the tool palette.
Tools from customized toolbar buttons
The image file that is used by the toolbar button is copied directly to the Image folder. It is not converted to a PNG file.
Blocks from Design Center or drawing files in Windows Explorer
The image is created by opening the drawing in a temporary folder and reading the drawing directly. If errors prevent the file from being opened or read, the image is created based on the preview stored in the drawing file header.
Blocks from the drawing area
- The tool image is created by reading the block definition directly.
Custom hatch tools
The tool image is based on the selected pattern and on the angle and color properties of the hatch object.
Tools with modified images that were originally created from a (default) AutoCAD toolbar
If you modified the image of a tool using a BMP, JPG, or other file, then that file is copied to the Image folder.
If you add one of the following items to a tool palette, the images that are stored in the appropriate DLL file are used and no image file is created in the tool palette Image folder:
Tools created from the (default) AutoCAD® toolbars
Drawing tools created from drawn objects
If AutoCAD creates a certain image that you don’t like you can replace it by following the location below.
XP Location
C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\AutoCAD 200x\Rxx\enu\Support\ToolPalette\Palettes\Images
Windows 7 Location
C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013 – English\R19.0\enu\Support\ToolPalette\Palettes\Images
This is a subfolder of the folder that is designated for tool palettes in Options menu > Files > Tool Palettes File Locations.
See you in class,
Jarod
