About Contents in a Tool Catalog

Tool catalogs can contain tools, tool palettes, and tool packages, which may be organized into categories.

Categorizing the Items in a Tool Catalog

You can define categories and subcategories in a tool catalog to organize a large number of items. For example, the Stock Tool catalog contains dozens of tools. If these tools were not grouped into categories, you would have to scroll through page after page to find a particular tool. To make it easier to find tools, the Stock Tool catalog is organized into categories and subcategories, as shown in the following diagram:

Category Name	Contents
Architectural Object Tools	Wall, Curtain Wall, and Curtain Wall Unit Opening, Door, Window, and Door/Window Assembly Roof, Roof Slab and Slab Ceiling Grid Stair, Stair Tower, and Railing Space and Space Boundary Structural Members and Column Grid
Drafting Tools	AEC Dimensions Callouts and Title Mark Text, Leaders, Keynotes, Legend Masking Block Hatching and Gradient Chamfer and Fillet Shrink Wrap Tool Welding Symbols
Helper Tools	AEC Entity Reference AEC Polygon Camera Horizontal and Vertical Design Sections Hidden Line Removal Tool and Napkin Sketch
Measurement Tools	Area, Distance, and Point ID
Modeling Tools	Mass Element Tools: Box, Arch, Pyramid, Extrusion, and so on Mass Group Convert to Mass Elements 3D Solids Tools: 3D Solid Box, Cylinder, Convert to 3D Solids
Parametric Layout and Anchoring Tools	Layout Curve Layout Grid (2D and 3D) Object Anchor, Node Anchor, Cell Anchor, Volume Anchor
Scheduling and Reporting Tools	Space Evaluation Display Theme Tag Tool Schedule Table Property Data Browse and Renumber Tools

About Tool Palettes

A tool palette is a collection of tools used to support a task. For example, a palette might contain tools to create the different types of doors (single-hinged, double-hinged, revolving, and so on) used in a building project. Storing a tool palette in a tool catalog makes the palette available to multiple users.

The date and time at which the tool palette was created and last modified are identified in the Tool Palette Properties dialog box. To view the dialog box, right-click the tool palette, and click Properties.

About Tool Packages

A tool package is a group of tools stored together for distribution. For example, a package might contain a set of productivity tools and utilities.

The date and time at which the tool package was created and last modified are identified in the Tool Package Properties dialog box. To view the dialog box, right-click the tool package, and click Properties.

Customizing Tools

You customize a tool by copying it to a palette in the AutoCAD Architecture 2021 toolset palette, modifying the tool’s properties, and then copying it back to its original location in the tool catalog.