Inserting Symbols with Drag-and-Drop

If you prefer to manage your symbol library by using Windows Explorer or to use another third- party file manager for locating and managing your symbols, you'll appreciate AutoCAD's support for drag-and-drop. With this feature, you can click and drag a file from Windows Explorer into the AutoCAD window. You can also drag and drop from the Windows Search tool. AutoCAD automatically starts the Insert command to insert the file. Drag-and-drop also works with a variety of other AutoCAD support files.

AutoCAD supports drag-and-drop for other types of data from applications that support Microsoft's ActiveX technology. Table 4.2 lists the files that you can drag and drop and the functions associated with them.

Table 4.2: AutoCAD Support for Drag-and-Drop

File Type	Command Issued	Function Performed When File Is Dropped
.dxf	Dxfin	Imports .dxf files
.dwg	Insert	Imports or plots drawing files
.txt	Dtext	Imports texts via Dtext
.lin	Linetype	Loads line types
.mnu, .mns, .mnc	Menu	Loads menus
.psb, .shp, .shx	Style	Loads fonts or shapes
.scr	Script	Runs script
.lsp	(Load)	Loads AutoLISP routine
.exe, .exp	(Xload)	Loads ADS application

Tip  

You can also drag and drop from folder shortcuts placed on your Desktop or even from a website.