AutoCAD 2009... A closer look at the Ribbon!

[AutoCAD Insider]

The AutoCAD Ribbon (as well as the Menu Browser and Quick Access Toolbar) present a user interface similar to Microsoft Office 2007. The ribbon provides easy access to tools through a collection of tabs and panels. Each tab contains multiple panels and each panel contains multiple tools. Some panels can be expanded to access additional tools.

For some tools, the ribbon automatically updates to display context sensitive information. For example, when you create or edit an mtext object, the ribbon automatically displays the multiline text ribbon. When you close the mtext editor, the ribbon returns to its previous state.

By default, the ribbon is docked at the top of the AutoCAD window. However, a right-click menu enables you to control the display and behavior of the ribbon. You can reduce the amount of space the ribbon consumes by disabling the option to Show Panel Titles or by minimizing to tabs or to panel titles.

The ribbon replaces the previous dashboard functionality (if you enter the DASHBOARD command, AutoCAD automatically launches the RIBBON command). You may not notice the similarity between the ribbon and dashboard at first glance. But, if you undock the ribbon, you’ll see that it looks and behaves very much like the dashboard. When the ribbon is undocked, you can right-click on the title-bar to access familiar dashboard-type options such as anchoring and auto-hide.

Whether the ribbon is docked or undocked, you can control the display of specific tabs and panels by turning them on and off in the right-click menu.

You can drag and drop ribbon tabs, or panels within the tabs, to reorganize them. And, you can even drag panels off the ribbon to create separate, floating panels.

To further customize the ribbon, you can use the Customize User Interface dialog box, where you’ll find the new Ribbon Tabs and Ribbon Panels nodes.


You can create new panels and tabs, add tools to panels, and add panels to tabs, using the familiar process of dragging and dropping.

View Demo


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[drwhite]

Like a lot of others, at first I didn't like the ribbon. But after doing what is right (reading, studying) I discovered it is really nice. Not because it looks like Microsoft or that, but because you can customize your menu on the fly. No more leaving ACAD, re-writing the menu, opening ACAD, yes I want another .mnu confirmation, blah, blah, blah. Need a new command. Make one. Bingo, there it is. After nearly 25 years of drawing with AutoCAD I too need my custom commands. Not that hard to customize or "Manage".

[Tommy78]

Dr white, are the vertical tabs a 2010 feature?
I like it very much but i don't find how i can do this in 2009.

Ps:Why is your crosshair so frickin huge?! :p

[drwhite]

Tommy, if you are referring to the "vertical" look of the ribbon, all I did was dock it on the left side. After 4 or 5 hours of organizing my commands (actually over several days) I went back and shortened all the names of the commands such that I would know what they are. Shortening the names lets the vertical ribbon be narrower.
I have 2010, never had 2009. I am sure you can undock the ribbon and put on the side.

Ps: Cause I ain't got many hairs anyway, naw, it's just something I have gotten used to. It makes it more obvious in highly congested drawings that its the cross hair I'm looking at, not some small intersection. I do Tool & Die, and special machine design.

[Tommy78]

Yes you can do it in 2009 but it doesn't look half as good and practical as the 2010 implementation (see screenshot), the tabs are reduced to small icons at the top and the panels are below.

I was joking about the crosshair obviously, to each his own style .
I mostly draw electricity in buildings.

[drwhite]

Good morning, Saturday morning that is. I will get back to you on Monday with some ideas. Do you just use generic Autocad commands? Most of mine are ones I've written. Oh, I keep the line, circle, and stuff like that. I like to see words rather than icons. Wish I could do away with all the icons. They don't prove anything except take up space, both in the program and on the screen. I redid the ribbon into a simpler arrangement. None of the LARGE icons. I grouped the panels into 3 rows each, under one main row. Of course,
your drawing looks complicated to me, but I know you see from a different perspective. But maybe you could write routines to draw the different type panels indicated on the drawing. Probably do already.

[Tommy78]

Hello drwhite, back at work and ready to waste some time on the forums! :p

The way i have my acad setup now is, i have the ribbon minimized at the top and a custom locked toolbar, for most commands i use the keyboard shortcuts, don't like using buttons .
Mostly is use the generic commands but i also have a toolbox of usefull lisp scripts .
The drawing you see on the screenshot is not that complcated, it's an underground parking lot, my job was to place the lighting fixtures (the green blocks) and the cable ducts.
I made dynamic blocks for them and mostly placed the lighting using the array command, the adresses (numbers) are added using a lisp.

have a nice day!

[drwhite]

Have a good one too.