AutoCAD 2018: Use Design Center as a Palette

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By Justin Doughty

pic1.pngAfter a recent AutoCAD conversation with Martin Phelps, I thought I would explore an idea I had about creating an interactive tool palette using Design Center. I’ve always used Design Center for re-using content, but know palettes also have some great features. 

The concept to make this work is to utilise the favourites in the Design Center and to make sure each drawing only contains certain blocks, and is named to match these. For example, Furniture, Windows, Doors etc. in the same way you would name the tabs of palettes. 

So, the first step to use this is to launch Design Center, either from the Ribbon under View, or use the ADCENTER command. Turn off the file tree and detail icons and turn on favourites. Then just dock the Design Center: pic2.gifOne of the biggest benefits of this is that you can then update a drawing with new blocks just by pressing F5 to refresh in Design Center. This means we can keep up to date with any changes without any long setup of palettes, groups or associated files:pic3.gifAlso if any blocks get updated, you can right click the new block in Design Center and “Redefine Only” instantly updating all blocks within your drawing with the latest version.pic4.png

Using this method you could keep a library of drawings with blocks on your server/network and everyone could have access to the latest versions.

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