Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published November 2004

Tool Palette Updates for A2005

In my March 2004 column I did a review of the Tool Palettes in… AutoCAD 2004. There were a number of changes to tool palettes in AutoCAD 2005 which I wanted to bring to your attention. Especially since I frequently teach from this column when students have questions and don’t want to take copious notes.

BLOCK Updates

You can drag blocks from the drawing directly onto a tool palette. [In A2004 you could only get blocks onto the palette from the Block node in DesignCenter.]

The Tool Properties dialog box for a block has two new options since A2004:

Auxiliary Scale: Choose to scale the block by the Dimscale or the Plotscale. This would be a good idea if you had created a "unit block", one which is scaled based upon the current drawing's Dimension or Plot Scale.

Prompt for Rotation: Set this to Yes if you would like to be prompted for a rotation after specifying a basepoint. [In A2004 you needed to type R prior to specifying a basepoint to place the block].

HATCH Updates

You can drag a hatch from the drawing directly onto the a tool palette. The icon displayed on the tool palette also reflects the hatch parameters, such as angle of the hatch and if it is double-hatched.

Tool Type: You can edit the hatch tool type and change the hatch from a standard hatch pattern to a Gradient pattern type.

INTERFACE Updates

1. You can drag commands from the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box directly onto a tool palette.

Tip: If you drag an object from the drawing to the palette, the command used to create that object is added to the palette.

2. You can drag a User-Defined Button from the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box directly onto a tool palette.

1. 1. To add a macro to a User-Defined Button, right-click on the new button and click Properties.
   2. In the Command String area, enter the desired command string. For example, ZOOM;.8X will reduce your display to 80% of the current view; essentially zooming out.

Tip: To add an image to your User-Defined tool, right-click in the Image area and select Specify Image. File types include BMP, JPG, PNG, TIF or GIF.

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