For those who are now using or thinking of using the AutoCAD Tool Palettes there is even more reasons to use them. I am not being a cheerleader here just spreader a tip that can help you realize more productivity with very little time investment. You can place blocks, dimension Styles, LISP and customization, material settings, text styles, tables, and more on Tool Palettes making them organized content pages. One excellent use is you can set the object default properties so for example a block would be inserted on a default layer at a default scale you had setup and distributed to your team. Tool Palettes can even be set to roll up and roll out and docked to eliminate the concern of used screen real-estate.
To paraphrase a top rated AutoCAD trainer, Matt Murphy and what he mentions during his excellent Tool Palette classes at AUGI CAD Camps and Autodesk University "you can have your Tool Palette point to a network location or the ancestral blocks (blocks that have existed forever) and you can give it a nice name instead of PT3X3ED-SM.DWG and having to find where it is located".
Don't just take my word ask fellow AutoCAD users who are using it now. I have heard over and over "why isn't Autodesk promoting this excellent AutoCAD gem of a feature" even Robert Green and Matt Murphy have been spreading the word at AUGI CAD Camps on this feature and its value and power to users of AutoCAD to reduce clicks and errors. Some have even mentioned the ROI increasing and standards management benefit of using the AutoCAD Tool Palettes to help others follow CAD Standards by setting up standard based, discipline, and project Tool Palettes thus reducing error or standards compliance rework.
Tool Palettes Rock and save time for single seat AutoCAD users and thousand seat AutoCAD companies that rollout standard palettes.
Cheers,
Shaan
