MULTI-VIEW BLOCKS
If you are working alone, you can save the source file anywhere that is accessible to you. Choose a place where you will keep it "permanently", as the tools will have paths pointing to that location. Move (or even rename) the file, and the tools will not work (unless the referenced style is already in your current drawing).
I would still make a tool catalog as a way to make it easy to back up your palettes. If you are saving your source files and palettes on your local hard drive, be sure to back them up frequently (after every change), to avoid losing them in the event of a drive failure. (If you save them to a network location that is not backed up, back them up yourself, too.)
Start a new drawing from your template file. Copy all of the Multi-View Block Definitions that you have acquired into that one file. (You could have a separate file for each, but, for me, that is just more files to manage.) One way to do that: Use the Style Manager to copy them from the individual files to your new file.
Save your new file to its permanent location.
Open the file from that location (if you closed it).
If you use the Drawing Management system (Project Browser and Project Navigator), and you have a project open, close all related files and then close the project itself.
Start a new palette in your workspace, by right-clicking on the Tool Palette title spine and choosing New Palette from the context menu. Give the palette a meaningful name. Make certain that the Tool Palettes are open (either docked or, if floating, turn off auto-hide). Bonus points for right clicking on the tool palette tab, choosing Properties from the context menu and providing a Description of the palette so that you will remember what is on this palette. This description will show in the Content Browser.
Open the Style Manager. In the left pane, expand the Multi-Purpose Objects node under your source file drawing. Then select the Multi-View Block Definitions node.
In the right pane of the Style Manager, you will see a listing of the Multi-View Block Definitions in the source file.
For each Multi-View Block Definition for which you want a tool:
- Position the cursor over the name of the Multi-View Block Definition (Style column).
- Press and hold the left mouse button down.
- With the left mouse button still held down, drag the cursor from the Style Manager to a position over the newly created Tool Palette.
- Release the left mouse button to "drop" the Multi-View Block Definition on the palette. This will create a tool.
After all of the tools are created, right click on each tool in turn, and choose Properties from the context menu. Provide a description for the tool, if it does not already have one (inherited from the description of the Multi-View Block Definition). Examine the other properties that are available. Set the appropriate Layer Key and any default values that make sense for that content.
When you are done editing the tools, open Content Browser. Create a new catalog if you do not already have one for this palette. Open the desired catalog. Right click on the top title bar of Content Browser and choose Always on Top. This will make it easier to drag the palette into the catalog.
Position the cursor over the title tab of your tool palette, press and hold the left mouse button down and drag the cursor from the palette tab to the right side of the Content Browser (with your catalog open), and drop it into the catalog.
If you plan to store a number of different palettes in one catalog, you may want to create categories to organize the palettes into groups of similar palettes. The categories will appear in the left pane of the Content Browser; you can create (sub-)categories within parent categories, if that works with how you want to organize things. (Think folders in File/Windows Explorer.) Or you can keep all the palettes at the "top level" of the catalog and not have any categories at all - whatever works for you.