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3.The w then specifies the Width option. The space following it is like pressing Enter. The PEDIT command then displays the Specify new width for all segments: prompt.

4.The macro then specifies 0.1. The space after it is like pressing Enter again. The PEDIT command then issues the Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/ Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Undo]: prompt.

5.The macro then uses a semicolon, which is used to specify pressing Enter at the end of a menu macro. This ends the command.

Customizing Tool Palettes

Tool palettes give you quick access to blocks, hatches, and commands. I cover tool palettes in Chapter 26. You can perform some customization directly on the tool palettes themselves. Here I explain the procedure for customizing the tool palettes using the Customize dialog box.

To customize tool palettes, choose Tools Customize Tool Palettes to display the Customize dialog box, shown in Figure 29-11. The current tool palettes are listed. Remember that each tab on the Tool Palette window is considered a separate tool palette.

Figure 29-11: The Tool Palettes tab of the Customize dialog box.

Use the Customize dialog box to customize tool palettes as follows:

Change the order of the tool palette tabs: Select one of the tabs in the Tool Palettes list and drag it up or down. You can also move the tabs directly on the Tool Palette by right-clicking the tab name and choosing Move Up or Move Down.

Create a new tool palette: Right-click and choose New Tool Palette. Enter a name and press Enter. To create a new tool palette on the palette itself, right-click anywhere on the palette and choose New Tool Palette.

Rename a tool palette: Click the palette’s name to select it, and then click it again so that you see a border around the name. Enter a new name and press Enter. To rename a tool palette on the palette itself, right-click on the tab’s name and choose Rename Tool Palette.

Delete a tool palette: Select the tool palette, right-click and choose Delete. In the Confirm Tool Palette Deletion dialog box, which warns you that deletion is permanent unless you first export the tool palette, click OK to delete the tool palette. You can also right-click any tool palette and choose Delete Tool Palette.

Import a tool palette or group: Right-click a palette or group and choose Import. In the Import Palette dialog box, locate the XTP file and click Open.

Export a tool palette group: Right-click a palette or group and choose Export. In the Export Palette dialog box, choose the location for the file. You can change the name if you want. The tool palette is saved as an XTP file. Click Save.

Organize tool palettes into groups: In the Palette Groups area, right-click and choose New Group. Enter a name for the group and press Enter. From the Tool Palettes list on the left side of the dialog box, drag one or more tool palettes under the group name on the right, as you see in Figure 29-11. Note that the tool palettes now come with a large number of dynamic blocks.

Summary

In this chapter, I covered the basics of customizing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. You started to customize by:

Creating command shortcuts (aliases) in the acad.pgp or aclt.pgp file

Creating your own toolbars that can contain any command sequence that you need

Customizing tool palettes, including importing, exporting, and creating groups

In the next chapter, you read about how to create macros with script files.

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If you use any dialog boxes that ask for files, set the system variable FILEDIA to zero (off) before experimenting with the commands that you’ll use in the script file. This setting lets you practice the keystrokes without opening dialog boxes. You can also practice using the version of the command with the hyphen in front of it (such as -layer); however, in most cases, you don’t need the hyphen in the actual script file.

For commands that require inputting text such as layer names or file names, enclose the names in quotation marks. Then, for the next use of Enter, press Enter and go to the next line in the script instead of using a space. Otherwise, AutoCAD may misinterpret a space as a space in the layer name or file name, rather than an Enter.

Place comments in your script file to explain what you’re doing. A comment is any line that starts with a semicolon.

Keep Notepad open as you work. When you’ve completed a set of keystrokes that you want, open the AutoCAD Text Window (press F2), select the command string that you want, right-click, choose Copy, switch back to Notepad, and paste. Then cut out all of the prompts, leaving only the keyboard entry. You’ll probably have to readjust the spaces between the words.

You can press End to check for blank spaces at the end of a line. Pressing Ctrl+End moves the cursor to the end of the document; this is useful for checking for extra spaces and lines at the end of a script.

Remember, you can open Notepad from within AutoCAD by typing Notepad at the command line. At the File to edit: prompt, press Enter to open a new file. (In AutoCAD LT, you need to start Notepad from Windows.)

Another option is to write down what you type at the command line. As you write, use an underscore to represent each space. It’s very hard to remember that you left three spaces between two words unless you see three underscores. Of course, when you create the script file, you must use spaces, not underscores.

As soon as you complete the script file, save it with any name that is meaningful to you, plus an extension of .scr.

Here’s an example of a script file that draws a series of circles:

circle 2,2 1.5 circle 6,2 1.5 circle 10,2 1.5 circle 14,2 1.5

This script file starts the CIRCLE command, specifies a center point, and specifies a radius, four times. The results are shown in Figure 30-1.

Figure 30-1: Running a script file created this drawing.

Running a script file

You can run a script file from within a drawing. Use this technique when you want the script to apply only to that drawing. However, you can also start a script within a drawing, then close the drawing and continue on to open and run the same script for other drawings.

You can also run a script file when loading AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. You would do this when you want the script file to apply to more than one drawing. For example, you could use script files in the following situations:

You want to use a script file to set up every drawing that you open. Although the script file applies to only one drawing at a time, you use it on a different drawing each time.

You want to use a script file to clean up a list of drawings in one batch, such as thawing all layers on all of the drawings in a folder.

Running a script file from within a drawing

If you want the script to apply only to the current drawing, then start the script from within your drawing. To run a script from within a drawing, follow these steps:

1.Choose Tools Run Script. This opens the Select Script File dialog box.

2.Choose the script file that you want.

3.Click Open. AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT runs the script file.

Running a script when loading AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT

To run a script when loading AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, change the target expression that Windows uses to open AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. The easiest way to do this is to use the shortcut to AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT on your desktop and modify the target there. Right-click the AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab, shown in Figure 30-2.

Figure 30-2: The Shortcut tab of the AutoCAD 2006 Properties dialog box.

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The Target text box displays the command expression that Windows uses to open AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. Don’t make any change to the current expression — just add to it. If you’re using AutoCAD LT, substitute aclt.exe for acad.exe and your AutoCAD LT program location in the following examples. The format for starting a script file is:

drive:\path\acad.exe drive:\path\drawingname.dwg /b script_file

For example, if your current target reads C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2006\acad.exe and you want to open a drawing named ba-349.dwg in c:\drawings and run a script file named pre-plot.scr, your target should read:

“C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2006\acad.exe” c:\drawings\ba-349.dwg /b pre-plot

You don’t need to add the .scr extension after the script file name. Long file and folder names that contain spaces must be enclosed in quotation marks, both in the target and in the actual script file. You need to include the full path of the drawing. If the script file is not in the support file search path, include the entire path. For example:

“C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2006\acad.exe” “c:\aec\drc\Dobbs Ferry Apts.dwg” /b c:\aec\drc\cleanup

If you want to start a new drawing, you might want to specify a template. In the preceding format, replace the drawing file name with:

/t template_name

When you’ve finished typing your additions in the Target text box, click OK. Now, when you start AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, the drawing or template opens, and the script starts.

From within a script file, you can open (and close) other drawings. In this way, you can run a script file on as many drawings as you want. Figure 30-3 shows a script file, multi-cleanup. scr, that you could use when loading AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. The target is set to Apt 1A.dwg.

Figure 30-3: A script file that cleans up three drawings.

Note Don’t forget that you can open multiple drawings within the same session of AutoCAD. You may need to set the SDI (single document interface) system variable to 1, if you plan to use older script files. Otherwise, use the CLOSE command to close each drawing after your script file has finished working on it. Without one of these methods, you may end up with 100 drawings open at once, and probably a major computer crash as well!

Here’s how multi-cleanup.scr works:

1.The CHPROP command selects all objects and sets their color to BYLAYER.

2.The LAYER command freezes the layer named no-plot.

3.The script file saves the drawing.

4.The script file closes the drawing and opens the next drawing.

5.This process is repeated until the last drawing is edited and saved. The last drawing is left open.

Notice the quotation marks around the file names in the script file. These are necessary because the drawing file names include spaces.

In the following exercise, you practice creating and using a script file similar to the multicleanup script file used in the previous example, but for only one drawing.

STEPS: Creating and Using a Script File

1.Open ab30-a.dwg from the CD-ROM.

2.Save the file as ab30-01.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder.

3.In Windows, choose Start Run. Type notepad and click OK.

4.Type the following, replacing the underscores with spaces. Note that there should be two spaces between all and c. Press Enter after the qsave line.

chprop_all__c_bylayer -layer_f_no-plot qsave

5.Save the file as cleanup.scr in your AutoCAD Bible folder. Close Notepad. The script file changes the color property of all objects to ByLayer and freezes the no-plot layer. Notice that the drawing has some text that has been set to a blue color (maybe to make it more readable). The title block is on the no-plot layer.

6.Choose Tools Run Script.

7.In the Select Script File dialog box, find cleanup.scr in your AutoCAD Bible folder and click Open. The script runs, changing the text’s color to ByLayer (green) and freezing the no-plot layer. It also saves the drawing.

If the script file doesn’t work, press F2 to open the Text Window and see where the file got hung up. This will help you see where to correct the script file. Reopen it and make the correction. Save the file, close it, and try again.

8.Save your drawing.