Every project has a project tool palette group associated with it. If you are using project standards, the tools should point to standard styles from a project standards drawing. To make working with project tools easier, a project-specific library can be created in Content Browser.
Setting up standard tool palettes is usually a task for a CAD manager or project owner. Depending on the requirements of the project, different steps can be taken to achieve the desired results. The main considerations for creating the project tool palettes are the following:
The CAD manager can decide whether to create a group of tools and palettes that are shared by all users of a project and accessed from a single location, or to define a project catalog and Content Browser library, and maybe create a starter set of palettes for copying to individual users’ computers.
AutoCAD Architecture 2022 toolset loads the tool palettes found in the paths specified in the Files tab of the Options dialog box. Projects allow you to specify an additional location path for a tool palettes file that contains project-specific tool palettes. This path is appended to the current profile when the project is made current, and removed when the project is closed or when another project is set current.
Projects support two workflows for working with project palettes:
Per user workspace catalog: This the recommended option. Use the Per user workspace catalog option in conjunction with project tool catalogs in Content Browser. In this mode, users can access the tools and tool palettes they need for the job from tool catalogs in Content Browser on a per-user basis. By utilizing the refresh/linking behavior of Content Browser, you can make changes to the original tools and tool palettes in project catalogs, and your team can refresh their tools and palettes to get the latest versions. Thus, each user’s workspace is maintained by the application uniquely, but linked palettes allow for global updates.
You can optionally provide your project team with a starter set of tool palettes, including the initial layout and tool ordering. To do this, you would create the project palettes in your own workspace, and then use File Explorer to copy the files to the location specified for the tool palette file location in the project properties. For detailed instructions, see the workflow examples below.
Shared workspace catalog: This option is recommended if you wish to mandate a set collection of project tool palettes for everyone on the project. In this case you do not want users going to Content Browser to customize project tools or tool palettes. To create a shared workspace, you specify a shared network location and assign it to the tool palette file location of the project. As this path will be appended to every project team member’s profile when the project is set current, the path should be read-only. Otherwise changes made by one user would affect every user, and the last change would be the final form of the tool.
You can create standard catalogs in Content Browser and define a standard Content Browser library for a project. You can use the catalog and library to drag tools and palettes to the workspace or to the project tool palettes. This would likely be the case if you set up the project using the Per user workspace catalog option. If you do not want to give users access to a Content Browser library with standard tools, do not set a library for the project. In that case, you need to build the project tool palettes from standard styles in Style Manager. You would typically do this if you are using the Shared workspace catalog option.
When you build your project palettes from a project catalog in Content Browser, you can either link the palettes and tools from Content Browser, or create an unlinked copy in the project palettes. If you want to be able to make frequent updates in Content Browser, linking tools and palettes is recommended.
Following are two suggested workflows for setting up standard tools. The first one is based on a per user workspace catalog, giving more freedom to the individual users of the project. The second one is based on a shared workspace catalog, and puts greater emphasis on adhering to a given structure.