C3D Tool Palette sharing approach

[AF.258133]

Greetings Forum,

I have been tasked with creating a standard set of details for our company and making them available to some 40 odd cad users across 3 offices. To this end I have been searching the internet and this website for a while for methods of sharing and I think I have found a solution that works, but it is not very user friendly or 'elegant' as programming people like to say.

I was hoping to get some comments and criticism or suggestions for improvements before I advise that this be implemented. This may also be a workaround solution to what appears to be a problem exporting tool palette groups and the aparent inability to import them with their file structure actually populated.

To start with, our civil 3d 2010 deployment is set up with two locations in the options->tool palette file locations field, a location on the C: drive (different from the default i see with the \enu\ location), and a shared network drive location, (call it R: ). The C: location is on top of the list and is read/writable, and the R: location is naturally write only.

I have tried several times to create a tool palette set on my computer (both based in the C: location and on the shared R: drive after un write protecting it) and exporting that tool palette structure to the shared R: drive and importing it on a test machine. The palette structure always imported fine, but the palettes themselves never actually populated the structure.

After a lot of trial and error and a near solution using ContentBrowser i think i have a rather crude way to import a structured tool palette and have it actually populate itself, thus avoiding the need to drag each palette into the correct place one by one.

The idea here being to set the palettes up on the local machine (C: ) as a testbed and because I havn't decided if/how i want to make this available on the shared R: drive.

Abbreviated example of what i am referring to: (consider *'s as tabs to delineat subfolders)
Folder: Standard Details
*Folder(tool palette group): Drainage
**Folder(tool palette): Channels and Ditches
***Blocks
**Folder(tool palette): Detention Basins
***Blocks
**And so on...

When I right click on the Tool Palettes name bar (to change palettes, or as if to go to customize) it shows up with the assortment of CAD standard palettes, the all palettes option, and Standard Details with an arrow next to it that then yeilds another menu that contains Drainage and the rest of the list. Selecting Drainage activates the Drainage palette group containing tool palettes (tabs) for Channels and Ditches, Detention Basins, and others, that house their respective blocks.

So to get there!

I have the Standard Details drawing file .dwg's saved on the shared R: drive broken out into the appropriate folder structure for ease of access and editing.

In Civil 3D 2010 I changed the options and read/write permissions so that it would save my palette changes to the shared R: drive palettes folder.

Then i created all of the palettes using Design Center and created/populated the Tool Palette structure i wanted. Closed C3D to save the changes.

Now i am in posession of a folder populated with multiple .atc files (IE: Channels and Ditches_gibberish id string.atc and Detention Basins_gibberish id string.atc)

Then I went through the customize menu, right clicked on the Standard Details top folder and seleted export. I saved the Standard Details.xpg one level up from where the .atc files are stored.

I read through the AcTpCatalog.atc file and isolated the entries pertaining to the Tool Palettes i just created and copied them all to a blank notepad.txt file for later use.

Then I switched to my test computer (cleared of all previous versions of the test information, reset to original options setup) to test the implementation, steps are as follows.

1. Copy Tool Palette .atc files (Channels and Ditches_gibberish id string.atc and friends) from shared R:....\palettes to the C:...\palettes equivalent.

2. Copy relavant images between same files

3. Copy Standard Details.xpg to analogous location, one level up from C:...\palettes

4. Copy previously isolated chunk of code from AcTpCatalog.atc (saved in a .txt file) into the local version of the AcTpCatalog.atc file (same location as the .xpg, one level up from C:...\palettes). For ease of location and management I have been pasting the aforementioned text into the .atc file just BEFORE the closeout string (I dont know this particular language so i cant be much more specific and I only figured this out by looking at the patterns in the code), the following is the last part of the last line of the file and where I insert the copied code.

Insert copied code before this point in the LAST LINE of AcTpCatalog.atc
......\/
(-=HERE=-)</Palettes><Packages/><Categories/><StockTools/><Catalogs/></Catalog>

Now we have edited the local AcTpCatalog.atc file to recognize the palette .atc files that we have just added to C:...\palettes, more importantly, all the files have synchronized references to the ID strings appended to the .atc files.

Now open C3D, enter the customize command. In the left side Palettes list there are now palettes for Channels and Ditches, Detention Basins, and the rest of the palettes.

Next right click on one of the folders on the right side Palette Groups list to access the import command. Navigate to the C: version of Standard Details.xpg and load that in.

If I am correct, and have written this up properly and it has been interpreted correctly the Standard Details palette group will appear AND be populated(!)

Please if you can follow this or if you have a few minutes to create a dummy setup and test it out or just have input, leave a comment. I have only 2 years of C3D experience and very limited formal training so this was put together from expirementation and trial and error.

Thank you for your time!

-Adam

[RobertB]

The groups should populated when they are iDropped from Content Browser into the Tool Palette palette.

They are called "categories" in Content Browser. When you iDrop a category on to the Tool Palette palette a group is created.

[AF.258133]

You are correct, content browser will populate palette groups correctly, which is why i started trying to get it working, but the images never came through, and did not present the usual (any, actually) options for manually setting them.

I found it very difficult to track how content browser was operating and adding files as well, ending up with multiple copies of the same files and not knowing which ones were current. I was unsure how this would play out if files needed to be added or updated as well. So I put some more thought into the other way and ended up changing gears to try a different method.

But while we are diverted to content browser, i have read on several forums that you are supposed to be able to drag entire palette tabs into the content browser to add the entire tab and its contents, but no drag option/icon change ever worked, and i was unable to select multiple items, so it needed to be populated one by one. Thoughts?

[cadtag]

Have you looked at ADC? You can force it to open in specific folder, e.g. R:\CivilDetails,
and either keep the individual details as separate drawings in multiple folder (Draingage, ErosionControl, and so on) or keep the details as blocks in a library drawing,

Much simpler to maintain and update the shared R:\ details than using tool palettes. and if a user want tool palettes, he can make them readily for himself, and still point to the network drive. IMHO tool palettes are fine for blocks, especially at the user level, less fine for more corporate management and more complex details. YMMV

[AF.258133]

Yes, I created the palette blocks using Design Center targetted into the shared R:...\tool palettes file.

The actual DWG's live nearby on the same shared drive for that same ease of updating, but the intent is so that everyones computer can be set up to automatically show all of our standard detail set without the need for each user to have to go through and import them all.

I dont think i quite follow your distinction when you say "Much simpler to maintain and update the shared R:\ details than using tool palettes".

In my mind existing details can be edited and that will be picked up by C3D the next time it is opened, and the changed block will be used in all subsequent insertions of the block (provided the previous unedited version does not already exist in the drawing) and new details can be added in sort of 'service packs' via an email with some instructions.

[RobertB]

You are correct, content browser will populate palette groups correctly, which is why i started trying to get it working, but the images never came through, and did not present the usual (any, actually) options for manually setting them.

The image issue is rather more common than Autodesk thinks. But a refresh or two of the palette usually brings in all the images. The refresh button is in the lower left corner of each tool palette when you specify that the content in Content Browser is linked to the catalog.

I found it very difficult to track how content browser was operating and adding files as well, ending up with multiple copies of the same files and not knowing which ones were current. I was unsure how this would play out if files needed to be added or updated as well. So I put some more thought into the other way and ended up changing gears to try a different method.

The best approach I've found for corporate management of Content Browser and linked tool palettes is to:
[list][*]Create a "master" catalog[*]Author the tool palette in a new tool pallete in AutoCAD[*]Create a blank tool palette in the catalog[*]Drag and drop the content from AutoCAD into the catalog's tool palette (yes, you can drag-and-drop multiple items!)[*]Publish the master catalog to a "published" catalog[*]Populate the user's tool palettes from the published catalog

But while we are diverted to content browser, i have read on several forums that you are supposed to be able to drag entire palette tabs into the content browser to add the entire tab and its contents, but no drag option/icon change ever worked, and i was unable to select multiple items, so it needed to be populated one by one. Thoughts?

I am willing to create a video that shows you can drag-and-drop multiple items.