Create and Use Tools from Objects and Images (Concept)

You can create a tool by dragging objects from your drawing onto a tool palette. You can then use the new tool to create objects with the same properties as the object you dragged onto the tool palette.

Tool palettes are tabbed areas within the Tool Palettes window. The items you add to a tool palette are called tools. You can create a tool by dragging any of the following, one at a time, onto your tool palette:

You can then use the new tool to create objects in your drawing with the same properties as the object you dragged to the tool palette. For example, if you drag a red circle with a lineweight of .05 mm from your drawing to your tool palette, the new tool creates a red circle with a lineweight of .05 mm. If you drag a block or xref to a tool palette, the new tool inserts the block or xref with the same properties into your drawing.

When you drag a geometric object or a dimension onto a tool palette, the new tool is automatically created with an appropriate flyout. Dimension tool flyouts, for example, provide an assortment of dimension styles. Click the arrow on the right side of the tool icon on the tool palette to display the flyout. When you use a tool on a flyout, the object in the drawing has the same properties as the original tool on the tool palette.

Insert Blocks and Attach References

You can choose to be prompted for a rotation angle (starting from 0) when you click and place a block or xref. This option ignores the angle specified under Rotation in the Tool Properties dialog box. The rotation angle prompt does not display if you drag the block or xref, or if you enter rotate at the initial insertion Command prompt.

Blocks that are placed by dragging from a tool palette must often be rotated or scaled after placement. You can use object snaps when dragging blocks from a tool palette; however, grid snap is suppressed during dragging. You can set an auxiliary scale for a block or a hatch tool to override the regular scale setting when you use the tool. (An auxiliary scale multiplies your current scale setting by the plot scale or the dimension scale.)

Blocks dragged from a tool palette are automatically scaled according to the ratio of units in both the block and the current drawing. For example, if the current drawing uses meters as units and a block uses centimeters, the unit ratio is 1 m/100 cm. When you drag the block into the drawing, it is inserted at 1/100 scale.

NoteIn the Options dialog box, User Preferences tab, the Source Content Units and Target Drawing Units settings are used when Drag-and-Drop Scale is set to Unitless, either in the source block or target drawing.

Update Block Definitions on Tool Palettes

A block definition in your current drawing does not update automatically when you modify the block in the source drawing. To update a block definition in the current drawing, right-click the block tool on the tool palette and click Redefine on the shortcut menu.

If the Redefine option is unavailable, then the block definition source is a drawing file rather than a block within a drawing file. To update a block definition that was created by inserting a drawing file, use DesignCenter. For more information, see Add Content with DesignCenter.

NoteIf you move the source drawing file for a block tool to a different folder, then modify the tool that references it by right-clicking the tool and, in the Tool Properties dialog box, specifying the new source file folder.