Help with Tool Palettes

[ahparrish]

I did not have any luck with the previous post so I will try again...

I know there are many discussions about tool palettes (I have searched them all) but I have not found a definitive answer to my problem.

I have been sent some tool palettes (*.xtp files) from a vendor which they created using standard AutoCAD. We use ABS 2006 and MEP 2008.

I want to be able to use the tool palettes but cannot import them since the import functionality does not work in ABS/MEP (I know, there are certain reasons for this).

Is there any way for me to get these tool palettes into ABS/MEP? Or, failing that, is there any way for the vendor to create tool catalogs in standard AutoCAD that can be sent to us? Please help!

Alex Parrish, E.I.
TLC Engineering
Orlando, FL

[jbaker]

I've never attempted it but one idea to try is: from autocad see if you can drag and drop the tools into content browser. You could then import them into MEP from content browser.
I would assume that the file formats are the same as the MEP palettes. You might be able to trick MEP to use them by renaming them to .ATC, and editing the xml (AcTpCatalog.atc) files to make this work.
Even then I'm not sure that it would work. Be sure to back everything up, because you could end up doing more harm than good.
You might also be able to use the Autocad Profile with MEP to use the tools they provided, then switch back to your regular MEP profile to do everything else.
Thats my 2 cents.

[ahparrish]

But does standard AutoCAD have a Content Browser? If so, can you drag the tool palettes into it and export a tool catalog? Because if it does and if you can then this will solve my problems.

[jbaker]

Well Autocad does not have content browser. I was thinking if you had both installed, you could launch content browser from MEP then you could try to drag the palettes from Autocad into content browser.
If you don't have both installed, MEP should have a regular Autocad profile that you could use to do this.
I'm really not sure if this will work, but i think it would be worth a try.