Modify Your Tool Palette to Match Custom System Definitions and More

If you have created your own ABS System Definitions in the style manager, you may want to access those systems more quickly by selecting a duct, pipe, conduit, wire, cable tray, etc by a system, rather than selecting the system after opening the Add Duct dialog box. You can modify your Tool Palette for any workspace by right-clicking on the tool and go to the properties. Once you are in the properties, you can change the name from the ABS system to your system name. Then click on the Command, which will allow you to edit the command. The macro you will see in there will look like this.

^C^C(command "_AecbDuctAdd" "SY" "Outdoor Air")

Change the "Outdoor Air" to "Your Custom System Definition Name" . You can do the same for pipe and conduit and cable tray. Not only can you specify the system definition in the command edit box, but also the pipe routing preference as well. You can do this by adding "R" and the name of your routing preference.

^C^C(command "_AecbPipeAdd" "R" "Grooved and Threaded" "sy" "Domestic Cold Water - Supply")

If you want to your pipe tool to automatically specify a specific pipe size, add "si" and the size to the command edit box.

^C^C(command "_AecbPipeAdd" "R" "Standard" "si" "2")

Electrical Panels have additional variables to specify a specific Panel Style and the number of slots in the command edit box. "st" will pick a panel style, and "sl" will pick the number of slots your panel will have.

^C^C(command "_AecbPanelAdd" "st" "Recessed 1 (12 Slots)" "sl" "12")

Devices have these shortcuts also to automatically go directly to the device category. Just use the "li" in the command editor and specify the device drawing category that you want to choose from.

^C^C(command "_AecbDeviceAdd" "li" "Receptacles")

Users or CAD Managers can create all kinds of various tools to automatically pick systems, sizes, devices, etc for the user to lesson the amount of picking in ABS, and speed up production.