Description
Key Learnings
- Learn how to create custom desktop icons
- Learn how to create command aliases
- Discover tools and tool palettes
- Learn how to modify the ribbon and Quick Access toolbar
Speaker
- LALee AmbrosiusLee Ambrosius is a Senior Principal Content Experience Designer at Autodesk, Inc., for the AutoCAD® and AutoCAD LT products on Windows and Mac. He works primarily on the customization, developer, and CAD administration documentation along with the user documentation. Lee has presented at over 15 different Autodesk University events on a range of topics, from general AutoCAD customization to programming with the ObjectARX technology. He has authored several AutoCAD-related books, with his most recent projects being Discovering AutoCAD 2024, and AutoCAD Platform Customization: User Interface, AutoLISP, VBA, and Beyond. When Lee isn't writing, you can find him roaming various AutoCAD community forums, posting articles on his or the AutoCAD blog, or tweeting information regarding the AutoCAD product.
LEE AMBROSIUS: So this morning we're going to be talking about AutoCAD customization. So to make sure that you're in the right place, hopefully you're signed up for the AutoCAD Customization Boot Camp-- Basic, No Experience Required class. Typically if you're not, they won't let you through the door up until about right now anyways.
We will be using AutoCAD 2018. For the most part, everything that we talk about today goes all the way back to about 2009, though. So if you use 2012, '14, whatever it happens to be. I'm not here to judge.
And then obviously you want to learn how to customize AutoCAD. We're only going to be talking about very basic stuff today. No programming, no AutoLISP, nothing from that perspective today. Now you could classify it as part of customization, but for the most part, it's not really needed. You don't need to learn how to program in order to become more productive with AutoCAD itself.
Now, obviously, hopefully you know AutoCAD. Everybody in this room knows AutoCAD? Who doesn't know AutoCAD? It's OK. You can raise your hand. All right. It is kind of important-- there's always one of those. It's very important to know at least AutoCAD, how to start a command, utilize its options, and something like that. I don't expect everybody to be an expert with everything inside of AutoCAD, but hopefully at least you can draw a line, circle, arc, create some layers, and stuff like that. So that's essentially the foundation of what you want to automate inside of AutoCAD, to reuse a command in a different way then.
So, my name is Lee Ambrosius. I'm almost to my 10 year anniversary at Autodesk, about four or five days short at the moment. I'm a principal learning experience designer. My title keeps getting longer and longer every year. Pay doesn't really increase to reflect that. But in layman's terms, I'm a technical writer. I work primarily on the customization and the programming documentation for AutoCAD then, so the AutoLISP documentation.
The stuff that you're going to do today, a lot of that I've written the documentation for, or have enhanced it over the last few years, for the last 10 years anyways. So in a nutshell, what do I do? I just document AutoCAD, the past, the present, for the future, essentially then.
So since it is a lab today, there are three individuals-- actually, a fourth one today. Alex is in the back. Sam's in the back as well as Scott. And then I have a coworker, Bud from Autodesk as well, who's going to help you guys. If you get stuck on anything, just simply raise your hand. They're here to help you out. That's their job, to make sure that everything runs smoothly then.
So, at this moment, make sure your phone is silenced. Any type of mobile device that you have with you is silenced. There are tendencies to get phone calls and whatnot during the session. If you do need to leave for any reason at all, please do quietly and courteously for everybody else that's in the room. Hold all questions to the end. I'll make sure, or hopefully make sure, that there's enough time for questions then, as well. And if you do get stuck, as I mentioned, make sure you just raise your hand then.
So do you customize AutoCAD today? Chances are, you would actually be surprised, you are actually customizing AutoCAD. It might not be to the level that you are thinking about when it comes to customization, but you're already doing certain things to enhance the productivity of the out-of-box nature of AutoCAD itself. So who today, and it's a judgment-free zone, who doesn't customize AutoCAD today, simply just use it as it's installed? I do. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Hopefully you get some things out of this class, so you realize why you don't want to just use the out-of-box behavior of AutoCAD. There are things that you probably don't use today. Just get them out of your way at that point in time. There's probably things that you use more frequently that you want access to readily, more easily. And that's what customization is going to do for you as well. And maybe there's simply just things that you don't want to be doing over and over again. There's ways of automating that stuff as well, using scripts and stuff like that, which we won't be talking about today.
So I classify, in group customization, in three different groupings, basic, intermediate, and advanced. Inside of those, too, there's drawing and application. Drawing is anything that I can do to my drawing file, such as add layers to it, textiles, dimension sounds, whatever it happens to be. I could take that stuff and save it to a drawing template file. And then whenever I create a new drawing, those styles, layers, and settings are available for me at that level. Application is going to be more of your tools like the ribbon, the QAT, things that are independent of a specific drawing then.
So underneath basic, you have things like layers, blocks, drawing templates, annotation styles, plot styles for the application settings, command aliases, tool palettes, workspaces, and so forth then. So today we're going to only talk about desktop icon command aliases, tool palettes, and workspaces. Chances are, you're probably already creating layers today. If you're not saving them to a drawing template, I would recommend doing it. Doesn't mean you have to do it. Simply just so you don't have to create the layer over and over and over again every time you want to use it.
Underneath intermediate, dynamic blocks fall underneath here. You can put underneath basic if you want to, but there seems to be a little bit more that has to go into a dynamic block. So I tend to put that on a different level when it comes to drawing then. And then, application, action macros, scripts, and stuff like that. You need to know a little bit more about the application, and as far as what you want to customize then. Not programming specific, but simply just an elevated level of knowledge you need to know inside of AutoCAD to utilize or to create those types of things then.
So for this class, we're going to look at the user interface CUI editor. So it allows you to create things like a QAT, customize the ribbon, a lot of the visual elements inside of the AutoCAD environment itself. And in advance, this stuff we're not going to talk about at all, but just be aware that it is there. There's a whole bunch of different things to allow you to tailor AutoCAD to do lots of things that it can't do out of the box then. So underneath this realm, basically anything that requires a programming language then.
So, as I mentioned, no experience is required, outside of just needing to know AutoCAD itself. Can you start a command? Great. That's the foundation that we're going to use today. A command, I can start, create an option, I know what types of values commands need, and so forth then. And then we're going to build those and turn those into things like a macro to be able to add to our ribbon, or a QAT then.
So, as I mentioned very early on, customization doesn't need to be programming. You don't have to be a programmer to customize AutoCAD, and then become more productive with it. Does it help? Sure. It allows you to access those advanced programming options, and to be able to customize AutoCAD, create your own custom commands itself to maybe execute or do multiple things many different times, whenever you need to use them.
So during this session, we're going to take a look at desktop icon customization, things that I can do when I start up AutoCAD. What are the things that happen when I double-click on that icon that I can automatically have it do every time then for me? Take a look at command aliases, tools and tool palettes. Tool palettes have been in there since roughly around AutoCAD 2004. They are typically under utilized, but they allow you to actually enforce standards. Maybe you want a title block to always be placed on a specific layer. Maybe you want the dimension command to start up, and start on a specific layer as well, or with a specific style. You can do some of that stuff from the tool palettes as well.
And then the QAT and the ribbon allows you to customize the little bar that's at the very top of AutoCAD, typically where you would create a new drawing, open a drawing, plot a drawing, file management types of operations. But there are the additional things that you can actually put up there. If you want to, you can put the layer dropdown list up there as well. So it's always available no matter where you are on the ribbon.
And then create your own panels. Maybe you want to hide panels on it that deal with the parametric drawings, because you don't use that feature. Maybe you want to create your own panel that organizes your tools the way that you work. You can do all that stuff as well. And then workspace is just simply control where things happen to appear on the AutoCAD screen itself.
So, as I mentioned, we're going to use AutoCAD 2008. The customized user interface editor, which is actually inside of AutoCAD then. So it gets started with what's the CUI command itself is then.
And then we're going to use Notepad. Great tool inside of Windows for some of the things that we're going to use or do today. We're not going to spend a whole lot of time in Notepad, but there are files that you can edit for AutoCAD that just simply require a simple text editor. You could use something else if you wanted to have different text editor, but it always has to be basically just an ASCII text file that you save to, though. So Notepad is one of the better solutions for that.
There are two different groups of documents for this class. We're going to go through the exercises today, which are also up on the AU website, that handout. And then there's a supplement. Basically, a lot of the talking points that I'm doing, as well as a little bit more in-depth, is also part of the data set that's out on the AU website as well, that you can go back and read. If there's something that you forgot or missed, or whatever it happens to be, it's documented fairly well, though.
So, things that we need to know before proceeding. There's always different things when I do a lab every year. It never seems to be the same. There's always different caveats to the computers that they decide to set up. So this year, they were a little bit more proactive and let us know some of the things. So a lot of times we maybe want to use Alt-Tab to switch between open applications. Today that is a no-no based on how these machines are set up. It will actually toss you out of the virtualized environment and into Google Chrome, which isn't where we want it to be.
If you're one of those that does an Alt-Tab, it is supposedly Tilde-Tab. I didn't try it this morning. Will allow you to switch applications inside a frame then. I would probably say don't do it, and use the taskbar, the Windows taskbar itself to switch applications, just to minimize the frustration. I understand old habits die hard, but we want to make sure that you're focused on what you're trying to learn here, and not so much focused on what the machine isn't trying to do for you at the moment.
So if you do happen to press Alt-Tab, and end up in an unknown environment for whatever reason, F1 should restore full screen mode for the frame environment. Now one of the things I always tell people, at least in the past anyways, is, hey, why don't you dock your handouts to the left side, dock AutoCAD to the right side. Then you don't have to be worried about switching applications so much.
I learned this morning frame is a very picky target zone in order to get applications to snap. So just simply switch between applications at the taskbar. That's going to be the best thing to do today then. They made data sets fairly easy to find this year. They're actually right on your desktop. There's a data sets folder. Allows you get to the data sets instead of having to navigate all the way down into Windows Explorer, and hopefully you locate it based on how they've named the paths then. So you don't need to worry about going to C data sets right now. It's basically just go to the data sets folder itself on the Windows desktop.
So the data set shortcut is here then. And it's still going to be C data sets Lee Ambrosius, and then the top one. Now, as I mentioned, since this is a lab, there's that AS122151-L, and I think then the class numbering gets longer and longer every year as well. Ambrosius-AU2017.pdf. That is going to be the handouts for this class.
So at this moment, everybody go to your desktop. Open up that data shortcuts folder then. So if AutoCAD happens to be running on your machine, just minimize it. The data sets shortcut will bring you to the data sets folder. Go to Lee Ambrosius. And then it's the top one today. And then the very first PDF file itself.
So that is the handout you're going to be using. So that explains step by step. I'll go through it as well, but that is what you're going to follow along for this lab then. Everybody find it? If you didn't, make sure you raise your hand. Lab assistants are here to help you.
All right, so desktop shortcuts. Chances are, you already used desktop shortcuts today.
STUDENT 1: The one that doesn't have the labs on it.
LEE AMBROSIUS: Doesn't have the labs on it?
STUDENT 1: No.
LEE AMBROSIUS: All right, well, I'll get to it in just a little bit. I don't want to slow this up, though. All right, so desktop shortcuts. Chances are, you start AutoCAD from the Start menu, or a shortcut that's been added to your desktop by your IT department. Or maybe you install AutoCAD yourself. Whatever it happens to be. So a desktop shortcut can start an application. In the case of AutoCAD, maybe it's to access a folder or a document that you use very frequently, whatever the reason happens to be.
The AutoCAD executable, or shortcuts, supports 16 different additional behaviors, for the most part. When you start AutoCAD, you get a drawing that's based acad.dwt. For most people, it's not very useful. They close that document, and they go and start up a drawing based on their drawing template. You can actually tell AutoCAD, say, hey, don't use acad.dwt. That's just goofy. Use this one instead every time you start up to create a default drawing.
There's things like workspaces, those things that allow you to display different tools inside of the AutoCAD environment itself then. By default, there's about two to three different workspaces inside of AutoCAD that we ship. So there's the 2D drafting workspace. None of the 3D tools are showing, although you can access the 3D tools by just entering them at the command line. There's a 3D modeling, might be 3D basic one in there as well, and it allows you to display the 3D tools. Just simply controlling the display of those tools, and therefore affecting your workflow to the AutoCAD environment itself.
Maybe there's only 12 commands that you ever use from the ribbon. You could create your own panel, throw those 12 tools on there, and just say goodbye to everything else if you don't want to work that way. Or maybe you want to add some functionality for all your drafters in a specific department, and you can create your own company ribbon itself, or panel, and add your tool specifically to that itself.
So that's what the workspace is, and you can actually tell AutoCAD to start up with that. Maybe you want and create two different workspaces, civil and architectural, because they have to access different tools, or different settings, if it happens to be. So you can do that same thing with the profile as well. Maybe you have different blocks and templates for different disciplines inside of your company, and you use a workspace as well as a profile to control the visibility of the tools that are inside of AutoCAD, as well as the files or the blocks that those individuals have access to itself then.
And then, for the heck of it, you can actually shut off the splash screens in AutoCAD. Does it affect load speed? It can, based on the machine. This is something that's been there for 20, 30 years, or whatever it happens to be now since it went up to Windows, to be able to shut off the splash screen. It's fancy. It just bypassed different things. So AutoCAD does load a little bit faster. Even to this day, AutoCAD will load a little bit faster without the splash screen itself at startup.
So, the syntax is, basically, if you ever looked at a shortcut on your desktop, it needs to know what executable or file or folder that it needs to access at this point in time, when that shortcut happens to be double-clicked. In this case, AutoCAD happens to be located in C Program Files, Autodesk, AutoCAD 2018. Obviously, if you have a different release, it's going to be whatever release that happens to be. And then acad.exe.
Some of the newer AutoCAD versions have /product AutoCAD. So if you have like AutoCAD mechanical, AutoCAD electrical, there's different product codes in order to get AutoCAD to load up with that tool set when it's installed. Now you can't just toss in whatever product code and get magically AutoCAD Architecture, or AutoCAD MEP without having it installed.
And then languages, /language "en-US." If you have offices in different countries, you can actually install the different language packs, and actually see what the environment looks like for them. So when you're rolling out or deploying some type of customization, you can kind of see how this looks. So you could install the French language pack and have your instance of AutoCAD display with the French language pack, if you wanted to. So that's what you would do with the language. So maybe you have different icons on your desktop for that type of functionality as well.
So that's what the base AutoCAD 2018 shortcut has assigned to it then. As I mentioned, there is some additional stuff that you can do to it. And you can just sit there and just keep stacking that on there. So there's that /nologo that I had mentioned a few slides ago. /t happens to be, hey, I want to use this template for a default drawing, and here's where it happens to be located. It could be on a network drive someplace. If you have AutoCAD already understands with the profile, as part of the profile where your templates happen to be sitting, you shouldn't need the actual path itself. AutoCAD will resolve that during start up then.
And then there's that /w. So I want the 3D basics workspace to start up, or be displayed by AutoCAD itself then. Every time I use this particular icon. So maybe I have, as I mentioned, different disciplines. So I have a civil and an architectural and an engineering icon, or whatever it happens to be, on my desktop itself then.
Shortcuts can be created. Now, obviously, the easiest one is to just simply take what exists, make a copy of it, and modify it. Now that has been the easiest way, obviously, but it's based on how your environment work is set up as well. And, obviously, how the machines have been set up here in the past, I've ran into issues with just copying the icon. It copies the security permissions that are assigned to that icon that's up there, but created by an admin. I can't change the default behavior, even though I made a copy of it. It's something inside of Windows that's locked.
So the best thing to always do is start from scratch. It's not too complicated. Simply just right-clicking on a desktop, new shortcut inside the dialog box, tell the dialog box where the AutoCAD executable happens to live, and then I'm off to the races. I can then add whatever switches I want from that standpoint then.
So, on my machine, as I mentioned, if I just right-click, and I go to new shortcut. And you can watch me right now. You'll have time to step through it yourself. And then using the Browse, and, of course, this is where I am going to get Autodesk 2008. Scroll down. Here's the AutoCAD executable. And then I want to make sure I just click in that field, so that nothing else is selected. And then once that I do at the end then, I just type in whatever my shortcut switches that I want then. Give it a name. And I have my own icon now.
So if I double-click on it, you won't see this error message. It's simply just specific to my machine, because I'm projecting. AutoCAD's a little grumpy. It doesn't like the current resolution. But notice when AutoCAD started, there was no splash screen. It's that easy to actually create an icon. Now, on these machines, we've noticed this morning, AutoCAD tends to load a little bit slower than it should on yours back at work, and that's based on how it's being virtualized with the frame presentation in these labs then.
So just because I turned off the splash screen, it doesn't affect the load time that much then. That's it. So that's how you customize and create a desktop shortcut then.
So everybody has the handouts open then. On page three, you're going to create a new AutoCAD 2018 shortcut, and you're going to add some command line switches to it. So, basically, you're going to point to a drawing template that has a title block already in it, and you're going to specify a specific workspace in this case. So I'll go along with it.
Step through the handout, though, yourself right now. All righty, we're going to get moving along. Who got it working? 50-50? OK. If you have any questions or anything like that, obviously it does work. So it's not just all magic behind the mirror, or behind this curtain anyways. Sometimes it's just simply the environment, copy-paste, whatever happens to be the issue isn't there. Hopefully you see the value that this might bring to be able to get your instance of AutoCAD up and running a little bit more efficiently, to take a few steps out of the way then.
So, command aliases. I need to switch back. So, command aliases. I started with AutoCAD many, many years ago on Release 12. It feels like eons ago. And I adapted to command aliases. Command aliases allow you to start a command without actually going to someplace inside of the user interface. I personally find it cumbersome to leave my drawing area and go someplace else to start a command. A lot of people learn it that way because it's visual. There's an icon for line. I know where line always happens to be.
But when it comes to production, though, often that movement is time. Time is money. So I tend to sit with one hand on the keyboard, probably like most people do, because they have to type in values at some point in time anyways. So a command alias allows you to start a command without ever visiting the ribbon itself, or a pulldown, for those that have been around for a while.
And what's really interesting is that command aliases typically have never changed. If you learned a command alias back in Release 12, it has, for the most part, been carried forward and works with 2018. So I've never had to change the way that I work, for the most part, when everything around me inside of AutoCAD has changed itself then. And then, as I said, I don't need to move back and forth between where my cursor happens to be, up to the ribbon, back to where I want it to draw the line or this object that I'm working on then.
So, not everything has an alias, and not everybody works the same. Not everybody wants to create circles all day long. They tend to copy objects more than they create circles. So, instead of using C for circle, you can change C to be copy, if you want to.
So you can do things in order to access a command a lot faster, that you might more frequently use. And there are commands that are rather long that you maybe use that may not have an alias, and you can actually add those as well then. So aliases are stored in an acad.pgp file. And it's just simply a text file. If you don't know what the aliaes are, you can open that file up, look at all the aliases, and go, hey, I use these commands frequently from the ribbon. If I just learn the aliases, I'll be a little bit more efficient, a little bit faster then. So you can print those off if you want to. You can change those if you want to. And if you're on a LT, or you have LT users, a acadlt.pgp, same concept.
So for the most part, when you want to add or modify command aliases, you're going to use Notepad. So that's the instance of when we're going to use Notepad. Aliases start commands they do not start commands with options or values, though. If you want a specific option in a specific value, you're going to need to either create a button on the ribbon, or learn a little bit of basic AutoLISP syntax. From that point, you could create what looks like a command alias to start a command and a specific option in a specific value, if that's what you want. And it doesn't have to be an elaborate AutoLISP plan or function itself. It could just be a simple single line statement itself.
So command aliases. It's the abbreviation, whatever you want to type in at the command line, comma, asterisk, and then whatever the command name is then. So, C-comma-asterisk-circle. C would allow me to start the circle command. L would allow me to start line command. M allows me to start to move command. But, as I mentioned, I can change C to be copy if I wanted to, because I don't draw circles all day long. I place blocks and move stuff around. Because my trade is, I learned office furniture layout. That's what I did when I first got started. So customization was key for me to keep my sanity at that point in time.
So when you want to add, create, modify a command alias, you're going to work with the PGP file. Inside of AutoCAD, there's a tool on the ribbon that allows you to open the PGP file, so you don't have to ever browse for the file itself then. AutoCAD knows where it happens to live and exist itself. From there, just simply use Notepad, make the changes, save it. And then once you get inside of AutoCAD, you're going to use what's known as the REINIT or re-initialize command itself. That command has been around since the tablet days with pucks and everything else. So it's a very Legacy-ish command. If I close AutoCAD or restarted AutoCAD, it would load my command alias changes as well.
So inside of AutoCAD, I have what's known as the Manage tab. A lot of the customization tools of AutoCAD are present on the Manage tab itself then. So we can see underneath the customization panel itself, I have the CUI user interface tool palettes. The CUI user interface button allows me launch the CUI editor, which we'll use a little bit later on, but I'm going to focus on the Edit Aliases itself in this case.
So the Edit Aliases dropdown list contains Edit Aliases. It allows me to edit the autocorrect list, which is also a version of a PGP file introduced in newer releases of AutoCAD that allows me to, say, if I type in a command wrong, and then I pick it from the list, and I type it wrong again. Eventually AutoCAD says, hey, you picked this command wrong three times. I'm just going to autocorrect that. So if you type in LNE and go, oh, I meant to pick the line command, and pick it from the list that appears, it will actually over time, it'll allow you to type in LNE for line instead. It actually creates a command alias for you then. So that's what that is.
And then the Synonym List is a list that basically has some industry terminology that's different between AutoCAD and maybe it's MicroStation, maybe it's Inventor, maybe SolidWorks. So things like cells and symbols match to-- if I type in cell, it should bring up the layer command itself. If I type in symbol, it should bring up the blocks command itself. Or the insert command. So that's there as well.
So if I go to Edit Aliases then, in a giant screen full of text, these are all the different command aliases that are defined inside of AutoCAD. And then, as I mentioned, there are some that do, over time, disappear, because functionality is removed or replaced by something newer. Typically, when you do your own command aliases, you want to be all the way at the bottom of the file.
And this is important if you've ever started AutoCAD and had an older release, there's a migration tool that pops up. There are things that it does well. There are things that it doesn't do well. One of the things it does fairly well is it will migrate any type of command aliases that you add to the bottom. And the way aliases work is that the last one in wins. So if I define like C-comma-asterisk-star-copy at the bottom, it is the last C command alias that AutoCAD sees, so therefore it overrides anything up above. So I don't need to worry about changing anything above and going, oh, why didn't it migrate? Or where are my custom settings when I move forward to a future release of AutoCAD then?
So I just simply come in here, type in RV Maybe I want to do REVCLOUD. Oh, what happened there? So our REVCLOUD. Because I want to start the revision cloud command itself then. So I just save it. If I type in RV without loading it or anything like that, AutoCAD doesn't know what RV happens to be. So this is where you would use that REINIT, or reinitialization. Specify the PGP file that I want to reinitialize. So basically, it just says, AutoCAD, go and reload the PGP file without me having to restart AutoCAD itself.
Now when I type in RV, now it's the REVCLOUD command itself. So I can then just pick and create a revision cloud. So, as I said, I could change C to be copy instead. And then maybe I do want to draw some circles, but I don't want to go the ribbon on those occasions. Maybe I'll create CC for circle itself, for those few instances that I actually need to create a circle and don't want to use the ribbon then.
So, in exercise number two, you're going to open the PGP file that's associated with AutoCAD, using that Edit Aliases from the Manage tab itself on the ribbon. Create a few new command aliases, as well as overwrite an existing-- we're not really modifying it, because they're not going up above and making the change to it. We're going to actually tell AutoCAD to override this specific instance, and then we're going to reload it inside of AutoCAD. The steps start on page 8 then.
All right, just to keep things moving along. I don't stop whatever conversations you guys are having, but we only have an hour and a half, unfortunately.
STUDENT 2: Half is gone through. We're halfway.
LEE AMBROSIUS: We're halfway point, yes. Feel like people are learning something? All righty, that's the important part. At least one person has learned something, right? And then everybody else has learned not to show up for my class at 8 o'clock in the morning, right? But as long as you give me good feedback, I don't really care, honestly.
All right, so command aliases, they're very basic. But, as I mentioned, they can save some time for those people that are relatively new to AutoCAD, they've learned the ribbon honestly. It's interesting to see how they learn, and, like I said, most people are visual learners, right? I know where that icon is always at. The problem is, at least not more in recent years anyways, Autodesk-- and I guess I can point fingers at myself since I've been with them for almost 10 years now-- prior to being at Autodesk, I was a customer as well. And with every new release, everything was moved around, and it's like, uhhh. Where do I find ABC icon anymore? Or ABC menu item?
And then there was a time where toolbars were the hip, cool thing at that point in time, and it's always seemed to me that the newest release, there is a standard toolbar that had like the cool, new stuff on it, and the next release, it was all gone. I learned to go there. Now it's gone. What happened?
So, and my starting point was simply just more of a DOS environment anyways. There was no graphical UI, for the most part. So I learned to live at the command line. Now people learn the ribbon. They go and click a button. Which there's nothing wrong with that. They can find it. They're productive people. But, as I mentioned, the movement from the screen in the middle where the drawing lives and resides to the ribbon is time.
So any time you can cut some of that stuff down, the better it happens to be. Less clicks means more productivity, or hopefully more productivity. That way you can leave the office at 4 o'clock instead of 5 o'clock. Or get more work done. More work is usually the more important part. More projects through.
Tool palettes. Tool palettes start getting a little bit further down the line here. So we worked with the desktop icons, command aliases, relatively basic stuff. You used icon to start AutoCAD today. You used commands already to start doing a task inside of AutoCAD. Tool palettes allow you to take commands and do something else with them, enforce a little bit more standards. But it also brings in a visual element as well, for those that are more visual learners as well, once again.
So on a tool palette, I can start a command. I could, instead of putting it on the ribbon, I could actually put it on a tool palette. But maybe there's a few other things I want to do with it. I can create geometry, which isn't the same as starting a command. I can actually take a hatch pattern, add it to my tool palette, and it's going to remember those settings, its scale, its layer that it happens to be assigned on. So when I use that hatch tool, it's always going to go to the same layer it happens to be created with.
So I don't have to go and say, oh, I want to hatch. And then you go to change the layer. I'm on a different tab. I need to switch to the Home tab inside of the ribbon. Switch my layer, and then start my hatch command. Go and pick which hatch style and settings and stuff like that, and then apply it. Well, I can create a single tool that eliminates all those types of steps. I don't need to worry about the user remembering, oh, just make sure you put the hatch on the correct layer instead of the doors layer, or whatever it happens to be.
Maybe you want to force a specific standard or style. Tool palettes allow you to get that little bit further down the road. As I said, dimensions are one of those things as well. I can create a dimension tool that allows me to create a dimension from that tool on a specific layer with a specific style itself. So I don't have to worry about making sure all that stuff is set up correctly every time I go to use or create a dimension then.
And then I can use external files as well. Maybe I have blocks, title block, I have customer standards, and that's where some of these things come into play as well. Maybe you have customer standards that you need to adhere to, and there's different symbology, or whatever it happens to be. You can create different tool palettes, then, for each different customer. If customer ABC needs whatever type of symbology versus 1-2-3, you can create those. And then you can manage which tool palette sets are actually displayed as part of the AutoCAD profile as well.
And then you can group similar tools together, maybe all my door tools, or window tools, or whatever it happens to be. And AutoCAD actually ships with a number of different examples of the different types of tools that you can actually create and place on a tool palette itself then.
So creating palette is very visual. You can actually just take stuff from your drawing itself, and just drag and drop it right on top of a tool palette. It's going to generate a tool. You don't need a different type of work environment. It's just simply use what's already available to me inside of AutoCAD itself. Natural selection, just drag and drop it then, and it's going to create a tool.
I can drag and drop files from Windows Explorer onto the top of the tool palette, and it's going to go, I'm a-- you're a drawing, create this type of tool. And then at that point in time, I can decide, can it be inserted? Or does it need to be xref at that point in time? So I can change a tool to be xref or insert then as well. As I mentioned, hatch patterns. It's like when you use design center, or maybe there's actually a hatch pattern set up inside of my drawing. I can just simply select it, and drag and drop it onto my tool palette, and it's going to create a tool for itself.
And then commands in the CUI editor. As I mentioned, we're going to take a look at a lot closer once when it gets to the QAT and the ribbon. But it allows me to create a custom command that has an icon and executes a specific sequence of options in itself. Once when a tool is created, right-clicking on a tool allows you to edit its properties. So it accesses which layer that tool will utilize from that standpoint of view, and organize them.
The tool palette set-up, very similar to other palettes. There's tab so you can switch between different tool groupings. Scrollbar for those that have a longer list. I would try to minimize the scrolling, if possible. And you can make pages, on top of pages, on top of pages. But the minute you make it harder for somebody to use it, the less likely that they're going to use it anyways. So the easier that you can make them find what they're looking for, the better.
So, as I mentioned, tool palettes, simply just going to work inside of the AutoCAD environment with the tool palette window itself then. So once when you use the tool palettes command, or TP for the command alias, it will bring up the palettes window, and from there, that's pretty much where you're going to be working from then, as well as inside of the drawing environment itself then.
So I switch over to my AutoCAD. View Tool Palettes. Now, don't get this confused. Now there's Tool Palettes here, and there's a Manage Tool Palettes here. They are not the same thing. From here, it allows me to create tool palette groupings, or to export tool palettes out and share them with other people. I can do some creating of a tool palette here, but I can't actually customize which tools happen to be on here.
So if I right-click on a tab, I can just simply say, new palette, my tools. Go to my data sets. Open my drawing. So this has some dimensions in it. So if I drag and drop this here, it creates a dimension tool. If I drag and drop my hatch on here, I get a hatch tool. Then I can actually come in here and say properties. Notice that it automatically has the properties that are on it. So it's actually assigned to the hatch layer.
Now if I go to a drawing that doesn't have the hatch layer, AutoCAD will actually create the hatch layer for me, and actually use the same property settings in this case. So I can now, basically, any time I use this hatch tool then, it's going to make sure that it's on the hatch layer itself, no matter what the current layer happens to be. So if I go to my Home tab-- because I'm in 3D, it's way out here. My revision numbers is my current layer.
So if I drag and I drop the hatch, notice it's on the hatch layer itself. I don't have to remember to go change it. Same thing could happen to dimensions as well then, as I added one. Properties. It will automatically go on the dimensions layer. And notice, at the bottom, I can specify which style this particular tool should do, or use.
So this is where I can get into client standards as well. Like I said, I can create different palettes to make sure that different things are affected. So now, if I started dimensioning from this place, it's going to use the arc dimension style any place on the dimensions layer. Hopefully you have a more specific layer that you use for dimensions, but it will always be on that layer, though, when you use this particular tool. So if I went and started the standard dimensions command itself, it's just going to use whatever the current layer is.
So this is where you can actually enforce standards, and remove different types of steps and roadblocks out of the way of your drafters or yourself, based on how you work. And, as I mentioned, you can drag and drop files from Explorer itself, and create tools as well. And then I can come in here and specify which particular layer it's going to use, or color. Notice in this case, it's always going to use whatever is current. So if that's what you want, that's fine. You can do that as well. You can set scales and stuff like that. If you want to prompt for rotation, you want it always to explode, those are types of options that are built in here.
Based on your workflow, you can change the way that you work and reduce or remove some of those clicks and picks inside of the UI of AutoCAD to become a little bit more productive. And then focus on more of the design aspects versus the mechanics of using AutoCAD, or the mechanics of your particular existing workflows.
All right, so in exercise number three, you're going to create a tool palette. You're going to add some new tools to the tool palette, very similar to what I've showed, and then you're going to modify some of the properties of the tools as well. One of the things I didn't show is that you're going to actually create a command inside of the CIU editor, or add an existing one from the CIU editor itself using drag and drop. So on page nine, get started with exercise number three then.
Cool? Different? How many people have not used tool palettes before? Some of you? OK. It is often one of those things that people looked at a while ago and said, yeah, I'll get to it next week when I have time. And years go by and people go, I didn't know that was in there. There's a lot of those things inside of AutoCAD that people tend to simply forget about. Or it's like it's introduced in one release and it's, I'm in a project. I need to get the work done. I'll look at it when I have time. The time typically doesn't happen until you get away from the project, get away from work, obviously, and then look at it from a different perspective.
All right, so Quick Access toolbar. Chances are, if you have been using AutoCAD for-- I don't remember when it was introduced, 2009, 2010-- quite awhile now, there is a small little toolbar at the very top of AutoCAD that allows you to create a drawing, open a drawing, save a drawing, plot a drawing, undo, redo. And there might be one or two other things that have appeared on there and disappeared on their at times as well.
So, for the most part, it deals with file management operations, things that are independent of any one of the specific tasks that are outlined on the ribbon, other than, hey, there's a print icon up there, but we have an output tab on the ribbon to have a few more options available for outputting a drawing to PD up DW up, whatever it happens to be.
But, for the most part, the out-of-box behavior happens to be simply just file management tasks, other than redo and undo, or undo and redo. But what's kind of nice is that this bar persists no matter which tab you happen to be on, as far as the ribbon is concerned. So there are a few things that you can do to make things a little bit easier for you. You saw that I might have turned the layers dropdown list on. And that was one of the things that was added inside of 2008 as far as a quick way to do it.
Now you could do it for a number of years. That was one of the cool things that I taught in this class was, hey, you can add the layers dropdown list to the QAT, and you have access to it, no matter which ribbon tab you have active. I don't have to go back to the Home tab, which is great, because if I'm dimensioning, I might be on the Annotation tab. I don't want to go back to the Home tab, set the layer, go back to the Annotation tab. I just don't. That's more clicks than what I want to deal with. It makes sense that it's on the Home tab, but functionally, and from a productivity standpoint of view, I want to see my layer all the time, because I want to make sure I'm placing the object on the correct layer.
Otherwise I'm going to get-- somebody is going to come down to my desk at some point in time, and go, why did you draw everything on layer zero? It just went there. Why'd you put everything on the door layer? It just went there. I thought it was on the correct layer. Yeah, right, OK. But one of the things, too, is that you can actually create multiple QATs, but you can only have one displayed at one point in time. This is where that workspace comes into play. Maybe I want a different QAT for 2D drafting versus 3D modeling. You can do it if you want to.
QAT can be customized from the AutoCAD user interface. There's a little customization arrow all the way on the right hand side. When picked, there's some predefined options in there that might make sense for you to choose from, might make sense from your user's perspective to choose from, but you're not limited to just those options, though. If you want something other than those defaults, that's where you're going to use the CUI, or the customize user interface, dialog box, which you saw in the previous one to add the revision cloud command to your tool palette itself.
So I can add stuff to the QAT, and remove stuff from the QAT, and decide, hey, I want my QAT to be assigned to the workspace instead of the default one. I tend to try to keep things as stock as possible. For those that might want to use the standard out-of-box behavior, it's still there. But they have an option to go and use something that's more customized to the company or to myself then in that case.
So to create the QAT, you simply just open up the customize user interface. There's a little quick access toolbar node. Right-click on that. Say new. Creates a new option. It populates that one with some default options, pretty much the defaults that you see inside of AutoCAD. And you can choose to say, hey, I don't want the plot. I want to remove the plot, and go and add Publish. I can then remove plots, and I publish all the time, so I add the Publish option to the QAT instead. Or maybe I'm using cheat sets. Whatever it happens to be, I can add that up there as well.
And then one of the things, too, is after you create a new one, you need to tell AutoCAD, hey, I want this displayed. So this is where we get into a little bit of the workspace customization then. We use the same dialog box, the CUI, customize interface, the editor itself. Over on the right hand side, when we select a workspace, there's a workspace panel that opens up. We can then say customize, and to control which elements are displayed, and in which order we want them to be displayed as well then.
So if I switch over to my machine, go to my Manage tab in user interface. I have my quick access toolbars node. So here's the default one. If I right-click, I can say new quick access toolbar. Say my QAT. And if I expand it, here's what I have by default. Maybe I don't want the plot, so I want to remove it. Now when you go to remove stuff, there's no undo inside of here. It's not like the plot is magically gone forever or anything like that. It can be restored. But if you do a custom command, and based on where you right-click and remove it-- now if I come down the bottom down here and say Remove. There is no remove here. If I do certain things in different areas, it gets a little murky as far as what is it really going to do.
So I go to Publish. I can then just drag and drop that. Add it to my QAT. If I click on Apply, and then now that I've created it, I want to make sure that it uses that one. So if I click on my workspace up on top, which workspace do I want to assign the quick access toolbar to? Then I'd customize the workspace. And then notice here's what I can assign to my workspace. Here's my QAT. I don't need to worry about clearing this one. I just click my QAT, because I can only have one quick access toolbar assigned. I click on Apply, and then, clicked undone.
Make sure that it's current. If the workspace that you're trying to modify isn't the current one, just right-click on it, and say Set Current. In this case, we're just going to work with the 3-D basics one because it's current, and click OK. And my OK is kind of hidden by the status bar. There it is. OK. So plot's gone. I now have Publish. I can still click on here and say, hey, I want to Save As. I want Plot. I have access to the standard options as well. And then there's that layer dropdown list as well. So if I wanted to add that as well.
OK, since we're getting close on time, I'm going to show how to customize the ribbon quickly. And then I'll let you guys just go through the rest of the exercises to save some time for questions at the end. Inside the CUI editor as well, there is a ribbon node. There is a Panels, a Tabs. There is a Contextual Tab States as well. Now these are things like when you click on certain things, like for instance, a table, a different ribbon tab shows up. That's considered a contextual state. So if you wanted different tools available when you select a table, or a layout is active, there's different things that are inside of AutoCAD. That's where you would customize some of that stuff then.
So I'm going to create a new tab, just like creating a new quick access toolbar. Right-click and say New Tab and then My Tab. I'm going to create a panel and say My Panel. Very original. And then from here, just like adding commands to the quick access toolbar, I just simply drag up. And this is one of those wonky things that I'll explain a little bit here.
One of the fun things that is in the CUI editor is it wants to scroll. If I come in from the side, it's going to be less likely to scroll than if I go up into the target area, if you have any questions about that behavior, But it's here to explain how that works, and how they introduce that fun feature. But if you go and select the command in and you drag around the side to where it happens to be.
So you're going to typically add something to a row. And a row can be, if you looked at the ribbon, there's stacks of commands. And inside of there-- which isn't explained in the handout, because it gets into really different types of things-- you use like what's known as a subpanel to create those different stacking commands then.
So once that a command is added, I can then customize in the Properties pane how it looks then. So I can change its size to being a larger icon with horizontal or vertical text. Maybe the text is too big in this case. This is part of the exercise then. You can actually change the name of how it's displayed as well. So the text is a little abbreviated, or whatever it happens to be then.
Once when you create a panel, you need to assign it to a tab then. So that's why I created that My Tab first. Right-click on the panel. Say copy, because what we're doing is we're going to actually just join these two through association. So we want to associate My Panel and My Tab together then. So copy-paste. So I'm not creating a copy of My Panel. I'm just saying, hey, My Tab, you need to know I want My Panel displayed on you, when you're displayed inside of the AutoCAD user interface itself then.
So then, just like the QAT I go to Customize Workspace. Here's My Tab. You're not displaying a panel. You're displaying the tab then. So that's assigned. I click on Apply. I click OK. And there's My Tab then with My Commands.
Now, what's nice, too, is, like I mentioned, if you don't want something, you can actually right-click on something and say Show Panels, Show Tabs. I can actually say, I don't want to see this particular tab in this workspace. I can actually just hide it and it's hidden. Maybe I want, because it's just the way that I work-- I'm going to switch back to the Drafting And Annotation tab.
Maybe I deal with more dimensions than anything else. I can actually grab a panel. Getting too crazy here for what's going on. Grab the panel, and I can actually relocate it inside of the ribbon. So I don't need to always be inside of that CUI editor as well. Oh, that's a tooltip. Wow, that's a big tooltip.
STUDENT 3: [INAUDIBLE]?
LEE AMBROSIUS: You can add toolbars as well. Yes, so if you're one of those people that-- so the question was, can I add toolbars? If you go to the Show menu, you can actually access the old dropdown menu list itself. So for those that are more familiar, and want to use the classic AutoCAD workspace, you can actually restore the dropdown menus. And then you can go to the toolbars on the Tools menu. And I can actually say, hey, I want the layers toolbar to be always displayed. Maybe I don't want it to be up on top. So as I switch panel tabs, the toolbar is always displayed.
So I have a second monitor, or whatever it happens to be, I can get it off the screen out of my drawing environment.
STUDENT 3: I meant on My Tab. You have to pull down My Tab. Can you make it a toolbar? The My Tab, you know it has two commands. My Tab, create My Tab. Can you make it as toolbar?
LEE AMBROSIUS: You can go the other way. So the question was can, you take My Tab or My Panel and turn it into a toolbar? You can go from a toolbar to a panel. You can't go from a panel to a toolbar.
STUDENT 3: So can you create a toolbar?
LEE AMBROSIUS: Yeah, you could create a legacy toolbar, if you want to yet, with the CUI editor. There is a toolbar's node as well. OK, so we have roughly 12 minutes. So I'll let you guys kind of play with the next few exercises. And then I'll open up for questions.
All right, so we have about eight minutes, and if you want to continue working, that's fine. I'm not going to kick you out or anything like that, until we're asked to leave. So continue working on whatever you have. If you have any questions then, I'll take those in just a few minutes here. So, as I mentioned, customization while some of the things we looked at were rather basic and a very introductory level, obviously you can see that there's things that can be done without needing to know how to program in AutoCAD itself.
So it is a virtually endless realm as far as customization goes. So now, for those that might have questions, can we please be a little quiet? Does anybody have any questions? If there's no questions, then I did a great job. Or I did a very horrible job and you're just trying to get out here in a hurry. Yes?
STUDENT 4: How do you save these to export to other users?
LEE AMBROSIUS: How do you save these to export them to other users? Like as in your CUI file?
STUDENT 4: All of these customized tool palettes.
LEE AMBROSIUS: The customized tool palettes actually go to a specific file. Inside of the Options dialog box, you can actually specify your tool palette locations. And you can actually create them in a specific location and have everybody point to that location. Or on the Manage tab, using the tool palettes, you can actually export them out individually, and they would be imported.
It's easier to create them in a network location, and have people point to that location, than it is to have everybody individually import a specific tool palette. But if you want only share a tool palette with certain individuals, you can export them out, and then import them. Does that make sense? OK. So the question was how to share-- and, please, this is how to do tool palettes. The CUI file is also listed inside of the Options dialog box as well.
So inside the Options dialog box, there's Customize Files. There's a main CUI file and an enterprise one. And then also, if you notice that there's different add-ins and stuff, one of the things inside the file itself based on which one is loaded, you can load things as partials. So you could actually create a new customize CUI file using the Transfer tab. Add your customization to that. And then you would essentially load that CUI file with the AutoCAD CUI file itself.
There's a level of complexity once you get to that point. It makes things like upgrading easier. But, obviously, there's a layer of, I need to do this before this, and stuff like that. So sharing stuff is typically just copying-- at the very basic level, it's just copying the existing CUI file, PGP file, to a network location, or from machine to machine. And it's making sure AutoCAD loads stuff.
At the end of the day, that's a lot of how these files are done. Most people will create them or place them on a network, and then through the Options dialog box, point AutoCAD to where those files happen to be using a profile then. So then, that's where I would share a profile with somebody else that has all these paths set up to point to it. And it's a little more complicated, but if you have any specific questions, I have an email address, and you can just let me know specifically once when it gets down there. Because it gets to be a little bit more complicated based on what your needs happen to be. So, yes?
STUDENT 5: If you update the version you have, do you have to do all these customizations?
LEE AMBROSIUS: If you update the version you have?
STUDENT 5: Yeah, 2008 to 2009.
LEE AMBROSIUS: If you create the files on a network, or use the migration tool that comes with it, the migration tool will do its best to copy certain sections of the CUI file, as well as PGP files, to the new release. But if you create the files on a network, it's just simply point AutoCAD to those files. For the most part, a lot of those are release inspecific, or they're always forward compatible. They're not always backwards compatible. Like, I wouldn't go and create files for 2018 and try to use them on 2012. For the most part, they should work. But backwards is a lot more painful than going forward.
So if you create them on a network someplace, then you just tell AutoCAD my files are here. Then that's all you have to do when you upgrade then, at that point in time. So it's typically a few path locations, and then you have your customization back, though. Unless you've built something or used something that was really specific, obviously, the command gets deprecated or something like that then. The new release will go, I don't know what this is, when you go to try to use it.
So copying stuff and using and deploying stuff on a network is the best way to share, as well as to move forward from release to release, though. Any other questions?
STUDENT 6: QAT. When you're updating QAT and you put [INAUDIBLE] in it, does that work if you make a template? Would the QAT go over with the template?
LEE AMBROSIUS: If I create a QAT, will it come over with a template? No, because the template is drawing, and the other one is the application. So you would need to create either a custom CUI file, and load that as a partial, and then connect them via workspace at that point in time.
Any other questions? No? I believe this year they're doing what's known as office hours. It's 5:30 to 6:30 tonight. I will be back here for that. So if you have any questions throughout the day, if you have any questions tonight, tomorrow, three years from now, as long as it works-- I need to switch back-- I'm more than happy, if my email address works, I'll respond in three years from now. I have had people that have taken my classes five years ago, and they sent me a question, and I'll respond as I have time.
So I'm more than welcome to take any type of questions at any point in time when you leave here. So don't feel like if you don't get everything today that you're stuck, or you feel abandoned or anything like that. That's the last thing I want you to feel, is frustrated or abandoned at some point in time. So lee.ambrosius@autodesk.com is my current email address, as long as I'm still employed, which counting down the days to make at least my 10 year, I don't think anything's going to change after that. But, hey, who knows what happens day to day at any type of company.
And then one of the things to do, customization itself is a journey, like anything in life. There is a beginning and end. If you come out here and say, this is not for me, I don't feel offended. Don't feel like you have to try to do something that you won't feel comfortable with. But what I do ask is, if you found that this might not be for you, maybe there's somebody else back at the office that might be interested in this.
This stuff can help save you time. I'm not going to say it's hours, days, weeks, or whatever it happens to be. There's no set specific. When I first started, it was simple, just command macros and a few other things. And then that spun up into AutoLISP and everything else. We were getting done with projects at that point in time based on the work that I was involved with. Something that normally took 8 to 12 hours, we were down to about an hour and a half. And that's reduce and review cycle and everything else, because stuff was forced to be on specific layers. So there were things that were happening the drafters did not need to worry about, as far as a review cycle goes, things that worked.
If I couldn't do it, the drawing knew I couldn't do it, because that information and logic was built through customization. This block cannot be here because of some type of compliancy issue. So there's things that a drafter could not do anymore. And I'm not saying that everybody is going to get that path, but that is a path, and everybody's path is different.
So if you can shave off 10, 15, 20 minutes a day out of an entire week or something, for x number of drafters, and make sure that everybody's doing something consistently the same, it can be huge. And it's a starting point to show return of investment of your time to do some customization. And that's often where it starts. Boss says, hey, you're supposed to be working on a project. That's what you're supposed to be working on. But customization can save me time. And it becomes a battle.
But I want to do the customization, because it's going to save us time. I don't have to worry about layers and dimensions being all over the place and set on the wrong styles anymore. And that's one of the things. Everybody in this room, they're on a similar journey, and they're here for similar information, whether or not everybody pursues this as a start. It's a start and an end automatically. They leave the room and go, this is not my cup of tea. My boss or I wanted to know what it was. At least you looked at it. And customization program, as I mentioned, it can be a huge time saver, when you go down that road.
So thank you for coming today. I believe we are out of time. Make sure that you do fill out the evaluation online through the app or the AU website. I think in a week they're going to send out an email reminder, whatever it happens to be. Fill it out. You liked class, you liked class, didn't like the class. At this point in time, that's what's important to us.
We obviously want you to feel like it was a good class, but if you thought otherwise, that's your opinion and you're entitled to that. Thank you, everyone, and enjoy the rest of your week then.