Like most 2010 Autodesk products, Electrical went the way of the Ribbon which in my mind was a nice improvement over the existing toolbars and palettes. But depending on how you learned the initial environment of previous versions of Electrical you may be missing one crucial part of the workspace. When 2010 was developed with the Ribbon it created a very nice interface with the Ribbon that mimicked in a lot of ways the old tool palettes in previous versions. I have been asked by many users that switch to the classic interface how they can bring back their old friends the tool palettes.
When you toggle on the Tool Palettes in 2010 you only get the standard AutoCAD default palettes and not the unique Electrical ones anymore. The tool palettes themselves only contain lisp routine and macros so there are no blocks to manage here. In order to perform these steps you must have 2009 or older installed. In case you already blew that install away I will have a zip file below that contains what you need. That just how much I care.
Open a previous version of Electrical and toggle on Tool Palettes (CTRL+3)
Right click in open space on the Tool Palette and select Customize Palettes.
Right click on the desired palette and select Export.
Save the .xtp file out somewhere you can find it later. In fact put it in a support directory of 2010 so that you do not lose it accidently.
Open 2010 and toggle on Tool Palettes (CTRL+3), select the Customize Palettes again and this time right click in the left side and select import.
Once you have imported all your palettes you can reorganize them in this window so they appear closer to the top of the tool palette.
Now you have your 2009 palettes coexisting in the ribbon of 2010. I do suggest you try the ribbon before reverting back to Classic and using this tip, but if you really don't like it this will get you productive. Keep in mind that the ribbon will encompass your life not only in Electrical but also Microsoft office and that one you cannot customize.
Zip file of legacy XTP Electrical Palettes
Until next time, may your palettes be plentiful
