The Mighty Ribbon NOT

When I click on an object to see what layer it is on and quickly change it AutoCAD 2016 selects a different ribbon tab depending on what type of object I have selected rendering it unusable. I do not want to use the properties pain as it takes up too much screen space and Computer resources.

Can I turn off ribbon tab selection based on selection so the home ribbon is selected at all times so I can use commands following object selection?

PS. anybody managed to break the ribbon yet or created a single tab ribbon with all the old toolbar commands in the old usual place?

It wouldn't be that difficult to create a custom Ribbon and populate it with the commands you use the most often.

Note that the Properties palette, like other palettes, has an AutoHide feature and in the scheme of things the bells and whistles that came with your OS eat up far more resources than the Properties palette does.

My $.02

The ribbon doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. My suggestion is customize and learn to use the ribbon as well as you can or you'll be fighting it the whole way.

"I bang my head against the wall because it feels really good when I stop."

The properties box is one of the most versatile tools available in AutoCAD. I'd suggest you learn it and use it. There is absolutely no reason not to. If you don't like to have it open all the time, Ctrl+1 toggles it or use auto-hide as ReMark suggested. There is also quick properties which can be customized.

Edit the CUI to the way you prefer, the Ribbon can be customized.

Example: Hatch

Open CUI, expand Ribbon section, expand Contextual Tab States

Navigate down to Hatch Selected, expand that

click on Hatch Editor Contextual Tab, look to the right for the second choice under General named Contextual Display Type,

over on the far right pick on the text, a drop down arrow will show, pick on that, change to Full without focus.

Try that setting to see if that works, continue from there.

Don't break the Ribbon, embrace it and customize it so it works for you.

Deano

I don't want to encourage you to drop the ribbon, but if you feel more comfortable with the old toolbars, try this:

1) RIBBONCLOSE

2) MENUBAR -> 1

3) -TOOLBAR -> ALL

Note the "-" sign in front of toolbar command.

Deano

 

I don't want to encourage you to drop the ribbon, but if you feel more comfortable with the old toolbars, try this:

 

1) RIBBONCLOSE

2) MENUBAR -> 1

3) -TOOLBAR -> ALL

 

Note the "-" sign in front of toolbar command.

And don't forget to save your new workspace.

When I click on an object to see what layer it is on and quickly change it AutoCAD 2016 selects a different ribbon tab depending on what type of object I have selected rendering it unusable. I do not want to use the properties pain as it takes up too much screen space and Computer resources.

 

 

Can I turn off ribbon tab selection based on selection so the home ribbon is selected at all times so I can use commands following object selection?

 

 

PS. anybody managed to break the ribbon yet or created a single tab ribbon with all the old toolbar commands in the old usual place?

I agree with the sentament ' get used to the tool bar'... at the same time i also understand likeing things the way you want them.

As mentioned you can pretty much do just about anything you want with the CUI. play with it and trim it out to your liking.

Specific to your example i have moved the layer drop down to my quick access tool bar and haven't looked back. I saw this some where and have been loving it ever since. and for giggles i added a icon to open properties next to it in the attached pic to show you can get both up there. to get the layer drop down up there just right click on it and select add to quick access. he other i added through the CUI.

I too dislike using the regular Properties, as it forces me to look through a wealth of properties which are likely of no interest to me, in my usual work, and it does take up a lot of space, when open.

It slows me down by muddying the waters with information overload. There are certain properties which I frequently want to check, and loads which I NEVER need to.

I always keep my QP turned on, and do most property changes on the fly, therein.

QUICK PROPERTIES is the way to go, specify as few or as many properties as you want, defined by object type.

Right click on the quick properties list, and choose CUSTOMIZE, you will be taken into the CUI to set up your personal preference.

It takes a few minutes to work through the list of object types, and define properties for different types of objects, but once you have done that, good to go, and fast.

Displaying exactly the information that you typically might want, and nothing more.

Set it to self collapse or not, position it in a fixed floating or docked location, or cursor dependent.

If you only want it to display for certain types of objects (for which you have set properties to be displayed), that is another available option.

Right click on the QUICK PROPERTIES icon, and explore the SETTINGS.

It's quite amazing, really, how few know how to properly leverage the Ribbon's contextual capabilities after so many years of being part of the UI - it actually is one of the best designed, implemented parts of AutoCAD that's been made available in the past +/- 10 releases.

While a lot of folks enjoy the benefits of using Quick Properties (and rightfully so), I know of only a small handful that understand what it does under the hood, to truly appreciate just how well the product design team did when they developed QP.

As a fan of AutoCAD development, it's really quite impressive - CUI generally, Ribbon specifically, as well as Quick Properties - I only wish Autodesk were still churning out such worthy 'improvements'.

Cheers

It's obvious here that one size does not fit all and I bet we all wear different sizes depending on what we are doing. Terrible analogy but I hope it gets my point across. There are plenty of options available. I'd say be able to use them all so that when one seems to be getting phased out, or at least not readily available, you can still work productively.

It's obvious here that one size does not fit all and I bet we all wear different sizes depending on what we are doing. Terrible analogy but I hope it gets my point across. There are plenty of options available. I'd say be able to use them all so that when one seems to be getting phased out, or at least not readily available, you can still work productively.

In deed, Rob - I would simply add, that to know if something fits or not, one might actually have to understand how to use it properly, which so far, this thread would indicate only Kent is suited to determine (myself excluded).

Never been a fan of progress for the sake of progress, and there are always trade offs that might inherently preclude something from being a good fit.

The point here should be, and I'd like to believe that you'd agree, is that one should ideally make an informed decision.

Cheers

You can turn off Contextual Tabs in Options>Selection>Contextual Tab States (button on lower left). There is also an option to double-click for activation, maybe you will find that a better option.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see a lot of problem in clicking a tab when the contextual one doesn't have a button i want. The ribbon has been around for eight years now, and the contextual shifting for at least the last three or four releases.

EDIT: But, the OP is using 2012, so RIBBONCONTEXTSELECT should work for them.

EDIT: The following only applies to 2015 and newer.

Anyway, here is a little bit of HELP from AutoCad HELP. At least it tells you why you can't completely fix it, but you can almost get there.

You want to know how to disable contextual ribbons in AutoCAD 2015, now that the RIBBONCONTEXTSELECT system variable is no longer available.

 

Example: When you select an object, a contextual ribbon tab is displayed. In AutoCAD 2014, you could choose to stay on the current ribbon tab by setting the system variable RIBBONCONTEXTSELECT to 2. However, in AutoCAD 2015, the system variable is no longer available.

 

Causes:

The system variable RIBBONCONTEXTSELECT was removed in the 2015 version due to a new implementation in the user interface.

 

Solution:

Option 1

Avoid displaying the context ribbon when multiple objects are selected by adjusting the maximum number of objects selected for contextual tab display:

Enter OPTIONS at the command line.

In the Options dialog box, click the Selection tab.

Under "Ribbon Options" section, click the "Contextual Tab States" button.

In the Ribbon Contextual Tab State Options Dialog Box, reduce the value for "Object selection maximum for contextual tab display" to 1.

Contextual tabs will still display when only 1 object is selected.

You can turn off Contextual Tabs in Options>Selection>Contextual Tab States (button on lower left). There is also an option to double-click for activation, maybe you will find that a better option.

EDIT: But, the OP is using 2012, so it should work for them.

It's quite amazing, really, how few know how to properly leverage the Ribbon's contextual capabilities after so many years of being part of the UI - it actually is one of the best designed, implemented parts of AutoCAD that's been made available in the past +/- 10 releases.

 

While a lot of folks enjoy the benefits of using Quick Properties (and rightfully so), I know of only a small handful that understand what it does under the hood, to truly appreciate just how well the product design team did when they developed QP.

 

As a fan of AutoCAD development, it's really quite impressive - CUI generally, Ribbon specifically, as well as Quick Properties - I only wish Autodesk were still churning out such worthy 'improvements'.

 

Cheers

I wholeheartedly agree with you, and I am one who hated the ribbon at birth, avoided it until 2009, but learned to love it. Especially once it started showing me buttons (commands) I never new even existed.

I do wish they'd not removed that useful sysvar; it's so unlike them too, to remove a sysvar at all.

It is admittedly cumbersome to go through each-and-every-single CUI element to configure the context functionality as desired. I'll add this to the formal wish list in the beta forums.

Separately, Dana - most of the apps I develop are inspired by adding contextual functionality (small tasks that are repeated); I'd be interested to know what you'd like to change to 'completely fix it'?

I may not be able to accomplish what you're after, but I'd be happy to help where I can.

Cheers

I do wish they'd not removed that useful sysvar; it's so unlike them too, to remove a sysvar at all.

 

It is admittedly cumbersome to go through each-and-every-single CUI element to configure the context functionality as desired. I'll add this to the formal wish list in the beta forums.

 

 

 

Separately, Dana - most of the apps I develop are inspired by adding contextual functionality (small tasks that are repeated); I'd be interested to know what you'd like to change to 'completely fix it'?

 

I may not be able to accomplish what you're after, but I'd be happy to help where I can.

 

Cheers

Well, right now I'd just like to see a layers button, and a matchprop button in the block editor primary contextual ribbon. I spend a lot of time in there. I could probably do it myself with the customizations, and I will try it when I have a few hours free to recover from the complete hose-up I might create, but I think they should be there right out of the can. There's plenty of room.

I still have the feeling the block editor was written, and recently re-written by whoever was making those little conspiracy inspiring, flickering specks on the Apollo Astronauts video's between the Earth and the Moon, but it is light years ahead of the hammer and chisel mess in the pre-2007 versions where I started.

Thanks for all your replies guys. Some really helpful tips here. I do use the properties a lot but does slow my machine down a lot when working on large architectural plans. However I can now customise the ribbon easily and was doing it correctly in the first place.

Problem is we have to many empty heads involved in our it department and they have set something up or windows isto locking all my custom programme files. Each time I go back to change any customisation files I cannot update the files. Unfortunately Autocad wasn't giving me any clue to what was happening. I will move my custom files away from programme files directory so they do not get locked. Had similar problem with hevacomp last year and think it must be the same thing.

Any case got some simple old school buttons up now. One simple click per command without any hoops to jump. . The experience has got me back to using the keyboard commands more which is not a bad thing after all.

Maybe your problem on large drawings isn't so much AutoCAD as it is hardware. Had that ever crossed your mind? Maybe you need to add more RAM or make other hardware related upgrades.