Easy Access to Favorite Tools
Depending upon your role and projects, you may have developed your own set of favorite or frequently used tools that are not always available from AutoCAD® software’s user interface. To access these tools from a single place you can add them to the Quick Access Toolbar or you can create a new tab if the toolbar runs out of space.
This article explains methods of customizing your interface to make your very own toolbars, tabs, and panels. You’ll also learn how to export these customizations to an external file and carry them to your new workstation.
Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar
Quick Access Toolbar has some of the most common and frequently used tools such save, save as, and plot. To add your own tools, right-click on Tool from the ribbon interface and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar from the contextual menu.
If you are unable to find your command on tabs, then right-click on Quick Access Toolbar and select Customize Quick Access Toolbar from the Contextual menu. A CUI window will pop up with a list of all AutoCAD commands, then you can directly drag and drop the required command from the CUI window to the Quick Access Toolbar. You can also press and hold the CTRL key to select multiple commands from the CUI window.
To remove a tool from the Quick Access Toolbar, simply right-click on it and select Remove from Quick Access Toolbar from the contextual menu.
Figure 1
If the default Quick Access Toolbar runs out of space, then you can add a new drop-down menu to the Quick Access Toolbar and place your tools there. To make a new drop-down, type CUI on the command line and press Enter to open the Customize User Interface window.
Click on the plus sign (+) next to Quick Access Toolbars from the Customization in all Files panel to reveal all toolbars and select the default toolbar, then right-click and select New Drop-Down from the contextual menu.
Figure 2
The new drop-down will be added to your Quick Access Toolbar. You can rename it by selecting Rename from the contextual menu. To add commands to this toolbar, go to the command list panel below the customization panel, locate your command, then right-click on it and select copy from the contextual menu. Then go to the new drop-down you created earlier, right-click on it and select paste from the contextual menu. In this case, too, you can select multiple commands for copying by pressing and holding the CTRL key. Once all customizations are made, click OK to accept the changes and close the CUI window.
Customizing Tabs and Panels
Just as with customization of the Quick Access Toolbar, you can also customize any tab to hold your commands, but it is often better to create your own tab and place your favorite tools on it.
To make a new tab, open the command user interface for that, type CUI on the command line, and press Enter. From the CUI window, expand the ribbon by clicking the plus sign (+) icon next to it in customizations in the All Files panel. Now right-click on Tabs and select New Tab from the contextual menu. Give your tab a name and press the Enter key to accept the changes. Your tab is now ready for new panels.
Figure 3
Now expand panels by pressing the plus sign (+) icon next to it in the ribbon tree and select the panels you want to add. Then right-click on panel and select copy from the contextual menu; you can also press and hold the CTRL key to select multiple panels. Once all panels are copied, go to your custom tab you added in the previous steps, right-click on it and select paste from the contextual menu. Your selected panels will be added to the custom toolbar.
You can also create your own panel and add it to the custom tab. To create your panel, right-click on panels under the ribbon tree and select New Panel from the contextual menu. Give your panel a new name and press Enter to accept the changes. To add your commands to this new panel, go to the command list panel and copy all commands that you want to add to the panel, then paste those commands on your custom panel by selecting paste from the contextual menu.
Now copy this new panel and paste it on your custom tab using the method we have used so far and click OK in the CUI window to accept changes and close it.
Adding Tab to Current Workspace
Although you have made plenty of customizations in your new tab so far, it will still not appear in your workspace until you add it to the workspace. You can add this new tab to any existing workspace, but I suggest you create a new workspace and add these customizations to that workspace. With the following method, it becomes easy to migrate your customizations across different workstations.
To create a new workspace, click on the Workspace drop-down menu and select Save Current As from the menu. A Save Workspace panel will appear, prompting you to enter name of the new workspace. Let’s name it my workspace and click OK to save and close it.
Figure 4
Again, type CUI on the command line and press Enter to open the Customize User Interface window. In this window you will notice that a new workspace is added; select that workspace and click on the Customize Workspace button in the workspace contents panel as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5
My Workspace tree in the Workspace Contents panel will turn blue, indicating that it is ready for making changes. Now expand the ribbon and tabs by pressing the plus sign (+) icon from the Customizations in All Files panel at the left of the CUI window and click on the radio button next to your custom panel in the list of panels. Once you have marked your tab, click on the Done button in the Workspace Contents panel at the right of the CUI window.
Your tab will now be added to your custom workspace. You might need to refresh your workspace by selecting it again from Workspace Drop to apply the changes.
Exporting your Customizations to an External File
Now it’s time to save all your changes to a file that can be transferred to another workstation, because it’s simply unproductive if you have to make all of these changes to every PC you use. The best method to save these settings is by saving your workspace as a CUIx file.
Type CUI to open the Customize User Interface window, select the Transfer tab, and select Save As from in the main file drop-down menu as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6
Now specify the location where you want to save your file, give it a name, then click on the Save button. Your customizations will be saved as a CUIx file in the specified location.
Jaiprakash Pandey is CAD Corporate trainer and designer currently working with the engineering design consulting company Ramboll. He is an Autodesk AutoCAD certified professional, Autodesk Expert Elite, and mechanical engineer. He also develops video courses for many online tutoring platforms and occasionally writes for online and print publications and magazines. You can reach him on his blog at thesourcecad.com
