ADT - Mass Tool Palette Generation

In past releases of ADT (2004/5) the creation of tool palettes containing ADT styles was always one of the most time consuming tasks. Fortunately in ADT 2006 this process has become much easier, unfortunately little has been mentioned about this useful topic.

Brief Overview:

To create a new tool catalog from styles located in one or more drawings try using the Tool Catalog Generator found in the Cad Manager pulldown (if the Cad Manager pulldown is not visible in the menu bar, click the Window pulldown and choose the Pulldowns>>Cad Manager pulldown).

The Tool Catalog Generator has numerous options which are subdivided into three main categories: Catalog, Content Source, Tool Organization and then finally a listing of 22 object types within ADT. The following will help to clarify what each section/option does.

Catalog:

In this location you have two radio buttons; the first allows you to create a new catalog by first providing a Catalog name then browsing to define the location of this catalog (with the opportunity to provide the Catalog name) the second to add to an existing catalog with the option to append an existing catalog (optional choice to ignore duplicate style) or overwrite the existing catalog.

Content Source:

In this location you have two radio buttons which allow you to specify whether you want the new catalog to be created from multiple drawings located in a folder or from a single drawing and enter a path to the respective folder or file location. When choosing the Create from drawings in folder option, any sub-folders are included in the new catalog.

Tool Organization:

In this location you have 2 check boxes and 2 radio buttons that allow you to organize your soon to be created tools. If the "Group tools by source drawing" is selected your tools will be organized by the source drawing (quite useful when used in combination with the drawings in folder option of the Content Source section). If the "Group tools by object type" is selected your tools will be organized by the object type (ex. useful for organizing your content from among multiple drawings to keep them grouped similar to the following: Doors, Windows, Walls, etc...).

From the help file:
1. If both options above are enabled, the catalog is first grouped by the drawings and then by the object type, generating categories from the drawings, and palettes from the object types. This is implemented because palettes cannot be nested. In this case the radio buttons for categories and palettes are disabled, and the Create tools in palettes option is selected for the catalog.

2. If neither of the two options is enabled, all new tools will be generated in the top category of the catalog.

3. To organize the new tools in categories, select Create Tools in Categories. If you selected Group tools by source drawing, a category will be created for each source drawing. If you selected Group tools by object type, a category will be created for each object type.

4. To organize the new tools in palettes, select Create Tools in Palettes. If you selected Group tools by source drawing, a palette will be created for each source drawing. If you selected Group tools by object type, a palette will be created for each object type.

The next step is to specify the object styles you would like to appear as tools in the new catalog. Using a combination of the Select All/Clear All, one at a time selection or windowing across multiple objects and selecting the check boxes to get the right mix of object styles as needed.

Finally choose the OK button and a progress bar in the status bar area informs you of the progress of the catalog generation. NOTE: For large catalogs this may take time to generate.

This process is much easier than dragging your styles one at a time and provides a quick way for you to generate standard palettes for use in your office.

happy cadding...