In addition to a tool's custom properties, each tool displayed in the Tool Palettes window assumes standard display properties. These properties include
A special interface, IAcadToolProperties, provides access to these properties at runtime. This interface is defined by the framework. After instantiating a tool's COM object, the framework passes an IAcadToolProperties pointer to the object through its IAcadTool::SetToolProperties() method. The object can cache this pointer and use it later to modify or query the properties. For instance, when your tool creates a new version of itself with the IAcadTool::New() method, you can set the new tool's properties with this pointer.
The framework uses this interface to manage basic settings for shapes, flyouts, and overlay images as well. IAcadToolProperties supports properties for determining if flyouts are enabled, and for identifying shapes and shape packages. This interface also manages pointers to the current shape object, as well as to a tool's overlay image.