The Toolbars

The Toolbars
The menu bar and Dashboard offer the most frequently used tools, but you’ll eventually find that
you need to use a set of tools geared toward a specific task. AutoCAD offers a number of toolbars
that contain tools for specific types of drawing functions. For example, the View toolbar offers a set
of tools that quickly give you a 3D view. The Inquiry toolbar contains tools that display information
about your drawing.
AutoCAD displays the Workspaces and Standard Annotation toolbars in its default 2D Drafting
& Annotation workspace. As you work though this book, occasionally you’ll be asked to open other
toolbars. To get familiar with the process, try opening a one now.
1. Right-click the Workspaces or Standard Annotation toolbar. A shortcut menu of toolbars
appears, displaying a long list of toolbars, as shown in Figure 1.9.
2. Locate and select View in the shortcut menu (see Figure 1.9). The View toolbar appears.





3. You won’t need the View toolbar right now, so go ahead and close it by clicking the X in the
upper-right corner of the toolbar.
You may have noticed that the shortcut menu displays a check mark next to the name of a toolbar
that is currently open (see Figure 1.9). You can click a checked toolbar name to close the toolbar.
AutoCAD remembers your toolbar arrangement between sessions. When you exit and then
reopen AutoCAD later, the AutoCAD window appears just as you left it.
NOTE If your drawing becomes too cluttered with toolbars, you can drag a toolbar to the border of
the AutoCAD window, and it will automatically merge with the border. This is called its docked position.
If you don’t want the toolbar to dock but instead want it to appear floating near the border of
the AutoCAD window, you can do the following: First, change the shape of the toolbar to conform
to the orientation of the border. Do this by clicking and dragging the toolbar’s border. Next, press
and hold the Ctrl key as you click and drag the toolbar into position near the border. This prevents
the toolbar from automatically falling into a docked position.





Saving Your Preferred Workspace
You may find that you prefer a specific arrangement of toolbars that you’d like to be able to recall
at will. You can rearrange the toolbars and then save the arrangement as a named workspace. Doing
so can be useful if you must share your AutoCAD workstation with someone else who prefers their
own AutoCAD window layout or if you want to set up different arrangements for different types
of work. For example, you might want to save the current AutoCAD window layout with the Tool
palettes out of the way, while someone else prefers the default AutoCAD setup. To save the current
setup under a new name, do the following:
1. In the Workspaces toolbar, click in the drop-down list, and select Save Current As to open
the Save Workspace dialog box.



2. Enter My Custom Layout in the text box, and click Save. The current arrangement of
AutoCAD components is saved under the name My Custom Layout.
3. To recall a workspace, select the name of the saved workspace from the drop-down list in the
Workspaces toolbar.
You may have noticed a house icon in the Workspaces toolbar. This is the My Workspace tool,
which offers a quick way to restore your favorite workspace. You can customize the My Workspace
tool to recall any AutoCAD window layout you like. You’ll learn more about creating and customizing
workspaces in Chapter 26.