Tool Pallette
This blog article explains one way to do so. (The article is on the "old" side, but the process is the same - substitute "AutoCAD Architecture" for "ADT".)
You don't "substitute' AutoCAD2016 for any other version of AUtoCAD2016: do you actually have AutoCAD Architecture 2016 installed on your PC?
Or are you just looking for this TP samples tab in plain AutoCAD2016
Start ABOUT command and read the line that describes your autocad version and post it here.
My earlier screenshot was from plain AutoCAD since i was a plain AutoCAD question that I was asking.
I no longer run an old version of ARCH2016, so I do not recall what was on the Ribbon, nor what you think should be there. Here is a screenshot from my ARCH2020 version, compare to yours and let us know if you see what is missing here vs what you have on your screen in 2016
@Anonymous
The article was written in November of 2005, for Architectural Desktop 2006 (ADT 2006). Architectural Desktop was the name of the program through the 2007 release. In 2008, it was renamed AutoCAD Architecture. You will not have an AecCB47.exe file; that was specific to the 2006 release. You do not need it, either; that was part of an aside indicating that I did things the hard way before I figured out the easy way.
For AutoCAD Architecture 2016, if you have installed things using the out-of-the-box settings, your local Tool Palette File Location for US Imperial content will be:
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2016\enu\Support\WorkspaceCatalog (Imperial)
where you will substitute your Windows user name for YOURUSERNAMEHERE.
The Support folder may also have additional Tool Palette folders, depending upon what content you installed. The "vanilla" AutoCAD tool palettes are in a folder called ToolPalette:
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2016\enu\Support\ToolPalette
So, with the desired AutoCAD Profile set current, if you open the Options dialog, go to the Files tab and expand the Tool Palettes File Locations node, you can select that Node, press the Add button and then either browse to the ToolPalette folder noted above or copy/paste the folder and path. That will make the vanilla AutoCAD Tool Palettes available in your Workspace. If you have a specific Tool Palette Group set current, they will not appear, however. Right click on the Tool Palettes title spine, and select All Palettes to be able to see all of the palettes, including the vanilla AutoCAD palettes.
You may have more palettes that can be shown on screen at one time. If so, right click on the "stack of tabs" at the bottom corner - below the tabs that do show - to get a context menu listing all of the palettes. Select one of the vanilla AutoCAD palettes to make that one current. You will probably want to create a new Tool Palette Group to hold the vanilla AutoCAD tool palettes and then set that current, if you intend to make frequent use of them.
Just to be absolutely clear, my instructions apply to Tool Palettes, not Ribbon Tabs.
I do not have access to AutoCAD Architecture 2016 at home, but the interface in AutoCAD Architecture 2017 is nearly identical, and the Tool Palettes are the same. In any folder paths you see here, you will want to change 2017 to 2016. In the image below, you can see where I added the ToolPalette folder to my Tool Palettes File Locations search path, so that the AutoCAD Tool Palettes would be available.
And here is the result - with the Tool Palette Group set to All Palettes, the AutoCAD Tool Palettes show up on the context menu when you right (or left) click on the three stacked palette tabs at the bottom of the visible palette tabs.
If you are asking about Ribbon tabs, not Tool Palettes, let us know; if you are looking for vanilla AutoCAD Ribbon tabs, tell us which ones and we can explain how to get those into your Workspace.
You want the last folder in the path in the Options dialog to be the ToolPalette folder. That folder should have the AcTpCatalog.atc file that AutoCAD Architecture will read to see what Palettes are defined therein. Does your C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2016\enu\Support\ToolPalette folder have an AcTpCatalog.atc file in it? (Again, images here from 2017, but 2016 folder structure and files should be similar.)
The AcTpCatalog.atc file is an XML file (a structured plain text file) that, in this case, defines the out-of-the-box vanilla AutoCAD Tool Palettes. This file identifies the name and location of the ATC files that define each Tool Palette, which, in this case, are located in a subfolder called Palettes.
The Palettes subfolder contains the ATC files that define each Tool Palette, including the Tools on each palette. Does your C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2016\enu\Support\ToolPalette\Palettes folder have files similar to what is shown below?
Accepted solution
You can add multiple paths under the Tool Palettes File Locations. Of the paths you list, you will want to add
C:\Users\Wood\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2016\enu\Support\ToolPalette\
and
C:\Users\Wood\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2016\enu\Support\WorkspaceCatalog (Imperial)\
That will get the main catalog files in which the palette files are referenced. If you do not have your own personal workspace catalog, I would put the Workspace Catalog (Imperial) at the top of the list. That is where any new palettes you add in the interface will go.
@Anonymous wrote:
Now how do I get the tool pallette to disappear and reappear when I need it every time I open the drawing and close it and draw on the drawing.
I am not certain what you are asking here. Are you trying to get the entire Tool Palettes palette to open and close? The ToolPalettes command will open the Tool Palettes palette if it is closed and the ToolPalettesClose command will close it. Clicking on the "X" at the top of the Tool Palettes title spine will also close it. Or, press CTRL+3 to toggle the Tool Palettes palette on or off.
If you want the Tool Palettes palette to always be available, but take up less screen real estate:
- If you have the Tool Palettes palette floating, you can activate Auto-hide. Just the title spine will display, until you mouse over the title spine.
- If you want to dock the Tool Palettes palette, you can anchor it to one side or the other, and, like Auto-hide, the palettes will be hidden until you mouse over them. This works with most (all?) modeless palettes, so you can stack them along one or both sides, and have them easily available when needed, but tucked away otherwise. You allow docking and specify a side for anchoring by right clicking on the title spine of a palette
