Trying to get Network Tool Palettes to work

[tbarrett]

I am attmepting to create some custom tool palettes and store them on a network shared folder, L:\Acad2011\ToolPalette\. I added this network path as one of the support paths for tool palettes and moved this path to the top above the default toolpalette path from C:\User....etc.. By placing it in the top location (and thus at the beggining of the support file path registry key), subsequent edits like adding a new palette, are supoosed to be written to the network location, but any modification I make is still to the local User path. I want to leave the local tool palettes path intact and add tool palettes to a network location so they are shared with my users and locked down with my other support files. If I move the palettes from the local path I created to the network location, then add commands to the palettes, it re-creates them in the local path. It's totally ignoring the network path.....very frustrating. Am I missing something, or I wonder if this is a bug. Using WIN7 on 64bit AutoCAD 2011. Thanks for your help! Tod

[tbarrett]

Never mind all!  I read another post and realized that I needed to also copy the AcTpCatalog file to the Toolpalette network folder.

-TB

[tbarrett]

haha...I'm still having the problem after copying the AcTpCatalog file to the network location.  If the netowrk path is the top most tool palette support path, then the network tool palettes display properly and the local tool palettes are all blank.  If I move the local path to the top, the network tool palettes don't display their commands and once AutoCAD is closed, the network tool palettes are now written to the local file path.....totally messed up.

Not sure how to handle this now.  Nayone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

TB

[RBriggs_ITS]

Hello there, I recommend removing the path of the original Tool Palettes on your local drive. Here is the thing, the support list order does not affect what is flagged for editing... It just affects what order AutoCAD uses for where it looks for the Tool Palettes. Once it only has one place listed for searching it will edit the files in that place. Below is a short description of how I set up Tool Palettes at my office:

1) Locate where the Tool Palette currently is

2) Copy the entire folder (ToolPalette) & it's contents to the AutoCAD support folder I set up on my network.

3) Use OPTIONS and change the support path FROM where it's listed on your local drive TO where you placed the ToolPalette directory on your network.

4) Now you can edit/configure the Tool Palette however you wish. If you want to keep the defult stuff that comes with AutoCAD just don't delete the corresponding Palette tabs

Hope this helps

[tbarrett]

Hi....thanks for your advice, but I already realize that I could move the entire palettes folders and place them on the network and then just have that one network path for the toolpalette directory, but I don't want to do that.

I only want the company tool palettes that I'm developing to reside on the network, leaving the local tool palettes in their place.  This functionality is supposed to be workable.

My understanding now is that there has to be an empty catalog file in the network location in order to develop the tool palettes there once you move the network path to the top of the list.  If it didn't find one on the network at the time the tool palettes were created, it automatically added the catalog data to the one it found locally, which also forced the tool palettes to be written locally.

I'll post when I have time to verify that this works, because this will be a huge benefit to our AutoCAD structure.

-TB