Explore the various user interface functions of AutoCAD, from showing hidden tabs and panels to engaging layer properties and managing settings. This article guides you through the process to enhance your experience with AutoCAD and to ensure you're not missing any vital tools or features.
Key Insights
- The article provides a comprehensive guide to revealing hidden tabs and panels in AutoCAD, ensuring users can access all the necessary tools for their designs. Not all tabs and panels are displayed by default, but can be revealed by right-clicking and selecting 'show'.
- Layer properties is another essential function in AutoCAD explored in the article. This feature allows users to read and manage layers in their designs more effectively, and can be docked or undocked to suit the user's preference.
- The article also discusses how to manage settings in AutoCAD, such as turning off new layer notifications and activating the auto hide feature for layer properties and XREFs. This allows for a more streamlined and efficient user interface, tailored to the individual's needs and preferences.
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I would like for us to spend a few minutes working on a few more user interface functions. You can see at the very top, I have my home ribbon and the draw panel, the modify panel, annotate, and so on and so forth. If I hover over where the word says draw, and if I do a right button, you can see that not all of the tabs are displayed by default.
So I'm going to say show the 3D tools, and I'm also going to say show the visualization panels. So you can see that my visualization panels are up here, and things have happened. So I'm showing all these tabs, show the panels, they're all showing right there.
If I go to insert, again, go on top of the label, show tabs, everything is showing here, show panels, they're all there. Annotate, show tabs, they're all on. Show panels, they're all on.
Parametric, right button, show tabs, they're all on. The panels are all on. 3D tools, right button, show tabs, they're all on.
Show panels, they're all on. So what's happening is I'm just trying to make it so that when the people are using the program, that they're not missing any of the tabs or the panels. Again, not everything shows by default.
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When I'm with AutoCAD, I'm going to turn on the views here, see it pop up. Turn on visual styles. Turn on coordinates.
Turn on navigate. So again, things are showing up over here. I'm going to go to manage, right button, show tabs, they're all showing.
Show panels, they're all showing. Output, right button, show tabs, they're all showing. Panels, everything's showing.
Add-ins, you can see we can import SketchUp files. All the tabs and panels are showing. Autodesk 360, which is again cloud-based applications.
Express tools, which are a lot of fun to explore. Show tabs, show panels. BIM 360, all tabs and panels are showing.
Featured apps, and everything, show panels, show tabs. Go back to the home tab, and we're there. And I'm going to say Control-S to save.
Now again, these functions were saved in the CUIX file, the custom user interface file. Another one I'd like to show you are the layer properties. So I'm going to go and engage layer properties.
And when we first introduce AutoCAD, you can see that it's hard to read everything. Now, if any of your users ever drag and dock it on the left, you can see it has been docked. If I want to undock it, I pull down Control, go onto the gray bar, and I can pick and lift.
So it's no longer docked. If I want to see more of these, I simply stretch the bar over here. I'd like to read the word on.
I'd like to read freeze. I'd like to read lock, color, line type, line weight. Transparency, plot style.
And many of these are commands that we use in AutoCAD 301 and 302. And the new viewport, freeze and thaw. So this way it's easier for the people.
You can see that I have layer 0 that's already in here. Def points is a layer that does not initially ship with AutoCAD. If I, for example, do a linear dimension, if I say from here to here and place it here, when I zoom in to the bottom, you can see this little dot that's showing up.
That's essentially the definition point. Definition points never plot. And so since they don't plot, a lot of us tend to use that for our no plot.
I'm just trying to zoom previous. So I've brought my zoom back. Now, over here are the settings dialog.
I'm going to click on the settings dialog. I'm going to turn off new layer notification. New layer notification.
I think you remember from way back when in CAD 201 that we created user workspace environments and we created the settings to restore the foundation plan configuration for layers, electrical plan configuration layers, and so on and so forth, the layer manager settings. But you might have noticed that when you would go on and XREF one drawing into another, you'd always get that notification on the bottom right corner that's saying, hey, there are layers that are not reconciled. Do you want to reconcile them? And what that pretty much means is mapping the layers to layout configuration, to layer manager settings, layer configurations.
So I'm just going to turn that one off. And so I'm going to make that go okay. And then I can close this guy right here.
Now, what some people will do for layer properties and XREFs is that they will go into the settings bar here and they will say auto hide. And what auto hide does, as soon as I move off of it, it collapses and it's always there. If, for example, I went to insert reference attach, that the XREF manager will show up, and I can also auto hide that.
So, again, it's going to disappear in a second. What a lot of people will do is that they'll have these on the left, and you can see it's starting to expand. So I'm going to hold down control, drag it to the left, and lift up.
Now it will auto hide. And so, again, some people prefer having some of their pop-up menus just over here in the auto hide mode. So that's, again, something else that some people like to have for their CUIX file.
I will once again save the drawing. What we're going to do in a second when we come back is we're going to start working on the status bar options, which are these fellows that are down here on the bottom right.
