AutoCAD Tip - Creating a button for commands only accessible via the command line – Part 1

By Dennis Collin

AutoCAD has many useful commands within its environment. Many of the more common examples are prominently visible on the default Ribbon environment. A few exceptions exist however, which is a shame as they can prove useful in certain situations.

A notable example is the Rotated Dimension command (DIMROTATED) which is useful in mechanical drawings, or where the risk of selecting an incorrect object snap in a busy drawing is quite likely to result with incorrect dimensions being placed. For a full description of this command go to a colleague’s post here:

Whilst this command can always be typed in, many users prefer a more graphical environment. An easy solution is to create a custom tool palette containing a suite of useful commands.

To create a custom palette, simply right mouse click and create a new tab, naming it appropriately.

Create a dimension and drag it onto the palette, (or copy and paste) creating a shortcut icon.

Right clicking the new dimension icon and choosing properties will provide several options, but switching off the flyout option and changing the command line string to:

^C^C_DIMROTATED

will then add the Rotated Dimension command to the Tool palette.

Other commands which also lack icons can be added in the same way such as REGEN, OOPS and DIMASSOC. Of course, these commands can also be added to the ribbon menu. In addition, some of these commands may also lack icons, but these issues will be covered in a future post. If you want to prevent accidental changes to the palette, check my recent post regarding the Locking of Tool Palettes.