Is there any way to create and edit palettes other than through the built-in interface?
Hello All,
I'm not sure if this is the right thread, it's kind-of programming and customization. I have a question regarding the creation of tool palettes please. I looked through various threads but could not find something specific on this. (As before, please bear with me if I use the wrong terminology, I’m an architect and also our IT/CAD manager, have done a lot of customizing in AutoCAD with toolbars and menus, but am not an expert and I don’t know LISP). I will explain what I am trying to do:
I’m experimenting with tool palettes which may be useful but seem to have some major drawbacks as well. I have our system well-organized and our building files have three main groups of elements, new, existing and demolished. When I started with mns files years ago, I could write a block of code, say for inserting new elements, test and trouble shoot it, then, once it was all working, copy the entire block of code and, with minor editing, quickly create whole new sections of code for existing and demolished elements and so on.
I created many toolbars and menus to improve our CD production and minimize operator error (which I imported into the CUI) and they work well. Inserting blocks from my toolbars is very quick and efficient but it is very cumbersome for me to create icons for buttons and, when I have a lot of blocks, they are a pain to access on a long flyout. My menu pulldowns work well but are also a bit cumbersome in use when you have to move down through a few sub-levels to get to the block you want.
Thus, palettes look like a promising solution but, unless I am missing something, I am finding the creation and editing of pallets to be very dumbed-down and extremely painful and tedious. I included screenshots showing my building plans workspace, the palette I am creating and the tool property dialogue box. I made a palette group, “AGR BLOCKS” then made palettes according to the way I have set up my files, i.e. for inserting new, existing, and demolished blocks. I used the Design Center to go to my libraries, selected the specific blocks I wanted and dropped them onto their respective palettes.
My problem is with creating and editing palettes. The only way it seems possible to edit the insertion layer and rotate option is to manually right-click on each individual block on the palette, change these options, then save the properties which is amazingly tedious. Is there no way to access the code behind the scenes directly in a textual based system where such changes could be done much faster and more efficiently? In the old mns days, I could copy the entire “agr Flr Plns N” group here, rename it to “agr Flr Plns X” (i.e. existing), edit it textually and, with minor tweaks to my block names, quickly create a whole new section for inserting my existing block elements and so on.
It seems to me that this cannot be done at all and, after creating my palette here for inserting new building plan elements, I have to go through the entire laborious process again to create an almost identical palette for inserting my existing block and also have to manually edit every single block property again to set the insertion layer and rotate option. Is this really the only way Autodesk has for us to create and edit palettes or is there a more efficient way?
Another problem I see is that there is no way for me to get to the code in the “Source file” box and the issue here is that it is hard-coding the drive and path to my blocks. Thus, if I ever have to change my drive to anything other than “I:” nothing will work. It only gives me the option to browse to the block and it then inserts the hard code whereas I want the following in there:
(strcat (getenv "agracadblks") "/data/cad/acad/bloks/plans/doors/new/dn1085")
Is it possible to place a string like this into the “Source file” box?
Sorry for the long read but thanks for taking the time to so…
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Originally Posted by alangroberts
