About Adding Content With DesignCenter

The right pane of the DesignCenter window operates on the content displayed.

Double-clicking an item in the content area displays successive levels of detail. For example, double-clicking a drawing image displays several icons, including an icon for blocks. Double-clicking the Blocks icon displays images of each block in the drawing.

Add DesignCenter Content to a Drawing

You can add content from the DesignCenter content area into your current drawing using several methods:

• Drag an item to the graphics area of a drawing to add it using default settings, if any.
• Right-click an item in the content area to display a shortcut menu with several options.
• Double-click a block to display the Insert dialog box
• Double-click a hatch to display the Boundary Hatch and Fill dialog box.

You can preview graphical content such as a drawing, xref, or block in the content area, and you can display a text description if available.

Update Block Definitions with DesignCenter

When the source file of a block definition is changed, block definitions in the drawings that contain that block are not automatically updated. With DesignCenter, you decide whether a block definition should be updated in the current drawing. The source file of a block definition can be a drawing file or a nested block in a symbol library drawing.

Open Drawings with DesignCenter

With DesignCenter, you can open a drawing from the content area using the shortcut menu, pressing Ctrl while dragging a drawing, or dragging a drawing icon to any location outside the graphics area of a drawing area. The drawing name is added to the DesignCenter history list for quick access in future sessions.

Add Items from DesignCenter to a Tool Palette

You can add drawings, blocks, and hatches from DesignCenter to the current tool palette.

• From the DesignCenter content area, you can drag one or more items to the current tool palette.
• From the DesignCenter tree view, you can right-click and, from the shortcut menu, create a new tool palette from the current folder, drawing file, or block icon.

When you add drawings to a tool palette, they are inserted as blocks when you drag them into the current drawing.

Note: You can select multiple blocks or hatches from the content area to add them to a tool palette.