2004 Drafting enahncements

Who's utilizing palettes (custom or otherwise) to enhance drafting and/or
standards compliance?

 

Tool Palettes work great for us. All of the palettes and the blocks they
call to are stored in one location on the server so that everyone has access
to the exact same information. This way any changes or additions made to
the block library or the palettes are strictly background and every user
gets the changes automatically the next time he opens AutoCAD. Also, since
our directory on the server is restricted, the standard palettes come up
with a lock symbol in the bottom right corner of the palette. This means
they can change the order of the blocks in the palette on their screen, but
cannot change the structure of the actual palette. I have another palette
for lisp routines and related applications. Any new routines we have are
placed there and I simply send an email to the users stating what the
routine is and what it does. They are then free to check it out without
having to know where it is and load it themselves. Look into the Tool
Palette Extension. Very cool. That actually is what gives you the
functionality to add lisp routines and various command items to the
palettes. It also allows you to build groups so that you don't have to see
all your palette tabs every time. I have one group for each major client
and discipline, so that the user only needs to load that specific group to
have what he needs without sifting through palettes unrelated to his
project. It greatly speeds drafting. I've gotten very positive feedback
from our users. It's much easier to update and maintain than the old slide
libraries, by being centrally located it is much easier for me to control
the standards compliance issues. Also, the same palettes will work
throughout, vanilla CAD, Map, LDD and Civil since they aren't tied to any
specific menu.