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Shoegnome Work Environment Bonus Video: creating the Tools Toolbar

This article is a follow up to my post and video about my Shoegnome Work Environment for ARCHICAD 20. If you want to download and use my Work Environment (or learn more about it), click on that previous link.

Tools Toolbar > Toolbox

Back in ARCHICAD 19, I became very interested in maximizing my screen space: Maximized Work Environments in ARCHICAD. One of the major changes I made to my Work Environment at that time was to access my Tools (Wall Tool, Window Tool, Label Tool, etc.) via a custom drop down menu toolbar rather than the Toolbox. The Toolbox I realized was a waste of space. Did I really need to see the Tools the entire time I was using ARCHICAD? Absolutely not. When I rebuilt my ARCHICAD 20 Work Environment, I immediately rebuilt my Tools drop down menu toolbar and once again got rid of the Toolbox. Here’s how I did it:

There are two caveats to getting rid of your Toolbox:

  1. If you don’t have the Toolbox visible, you can’t use the Favorites Pop-up that appears when you hover next to a Tool. But that’s okay. The same Pop-up appears when you click on the > button in the Info Box. I actually prefer that location because it’s always in the same spot on the screen. I happily use the Info Box to reach favorites, along with having a keyboard shortcut for when I need to access the full Favorites Palette. My KBS for the Favorites Palette is SHIFT+~ and I have the Favorites Palette set to open just to the right of my Info Box on the left hand side of the screen. It’s a great workflow.
  2. Without the Toolbox visible, you’ll need to learn that you can right click on an element and selection the option Select & Activate Tool. This option is necessary when you’re doing things like adding nodes to an existing Mesh or some other Tool specific actions which I can not think of at the moment.Select & Activate Tool
  3. This is totally unrelated, but since I have your attention: the hammer icon for Edit Selection Set has been removed from the Info Box. Don’t forget that feature exists. The Keyboard Shortcut is CMD+OPT+T. Memorize that.

Which Would You Rather Have?

toolbar

OR

toolbox

 And would you rather sometimes see this:

tools toolbar

Or always see this (even if it’s one column high):

toolbox 2 columns

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Comments

  • July 29, 2016
    reply

    eduardo

    I surrender, I have missed the dropdown. Rebuilding mine during the weekend.

  • July 29, 2016
    reply

    I’m very tempted to convert… but we’ll see. I’m pretty stuck in my ways on some things; I don’t think the tool box will be one of them.

  • July 30, 2016
    reply

    TIMOTHY MCCARTHY

    thanks for this

  • July 31, 2016
    reply

    jack robinson

    Best way to save screen space is to use keyboard shortcuts for any tool you might need.

  • August 1, 2016
    reply

    Walter Gentile

    excellent….

  • August 10, 2016
    reply

    Marc Corney

    I’ll give it a go.
    Any thoughts on loosing the Navigator Palette and relying solely on the Pop-up Navigator?
    Would work for me, if only they had included Publisher Sets.

  • August 24, 2016
    reply

    Joe Archibald

    Thanks Jared. I’ve enjoyed your posts for a while now and there’s always great information.
    Questions –
    Have you figured out how to get the ‘Status Bar’ to be placed elsewhere other than at the bottom of the screen?
    Do you know if it’s possible to move the location of the Pop-up Navigator? I like it, just want it on the left-hand side. (I skew everything that direction and have the right side all drawing land.)
    Thanks.
    joe

  • August 31, 2016
    reply

    Daniel Lawrence

    I just finished a legend of abbreviations on the right side of my plan. I finished all of my notes on plan but I can not publish because I can not find Legend.
    I opened all layers and all phases of work and the Legend is nowhere to be found.
    Occasionally I will see it but it is like a shadow in the background and disappears.
    Any suggestions?

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