AutoCAD's Property Inspector is a COM-based module that examines properties of objects and provides an interface for editing the properties it discovers. The Property Inspector exposes an extensive COM API that allows AutoCAD dialog boxes—the Properties palette, Tool Palettes, Visualization Styles, and others—to adapt it to specific purposes. ObjectARX applications can likewise embed the Property Inspector in their dialog boxes and customize its functionality by implementing the appropriate COM interfaces.
AutoCAD’s Properties palette feature is an example of a Property Inspector application. It hosts a Property Inspector instance and uses it to provide a common user interface for editing all types of drawing entities. The Properties Palette also provides APIs that let you customize its user interface and behavior. By implementing Property Inspector and Properties palette interfaces, you can display your custom properties for both native and custom objects and enhance their appearance in the Properties palette. You can also display the properties of a custom command, and add custom tabs to the Properties palette.