Comments on: AutoCAD 2010 – Putting things back to “normal”

By: jc

jc — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:13:36 +0000

Hi I have worked at a company divided over the incumbant versions of AutoCAD so we as users all decided to put it to a test our company has probably 75 yrs ocmbined experience with autodesk products and even has a few rogue Bently users. Anyway back to the test we took an old 2D handrawn parts assmbly from our manuscript locker
and basically had a informal race to see which group of users could duplicate it more quickly and accurately.
we ensured that no one had an adavntage of pre exitsing blocks as the part had been out of production for a long time. also we allowed the users of the newer porduct time to learn it properly and feel that they where comfortable with the interface ribbons etc. most of the technically savy users who do not oppose change worked very hard to prove that they where on the path forward. OK so now the test Bang goes the gun and guess what
the “old timers” clobbered the ribbon users in both speed and efficiency! Also one thing that the judges noticed was that the traditionalists was the fact that both hands where working on solving the problem
hot keys for line working in conjuction with te snaps. instead of contant moving of the mouse to a new command.
lessons learned: it is way more important that the product is user focused-shame on autodesk for moving away form this simple trueism. I love alot of the feautres of later generation autocad especially the ease with dealing with text from word and tables to xls and I am not sure I could have grasped the the huge gains in 3d Modeling with out the flexible & dynamic UCS but the ribbon idea was proven to be a step backward not forward
only one user who happens to be th IT guy uses the ribbon based commands anymore and he seldom does any produciton work…

By: deep

deep — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:08:04 +0000

it works..

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:41:59 +0000

It’s at times like this you need a dealer or tame support person. I’ll take a guess at something you can try at your own risk but if it doesn’t work out you’re on your own. It looks like AutoCAD 2007 can’t find its Main CUI file, which by default is acad.cui. Try entering the MENU command and selecting the acad.cui file. Afterwards, you may need to load the Express menu using the EXPRESSMENU command, and there may be other partial menus you will need to load in manually.

By: Tikataake

Tikataake — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:07:01 +0000

Hi,

Could you help me putting back all of my icons as they are all disappear, I’m using AutoCaD 2007 and my problem is My Menu bar is not available “only File,View,windows,Help appears and the rest are not likewise with my toolbars.

By: ganesh

ganesh — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:10:32 +0000

hi guys i’m using autocad2010, my properties windows doesnt show up…any ideas to bring it back to normal…

By: Jesse (aka CadDog)

Jesse (aka CadDog) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:19:27 +0000

Thanks for you this post Steve,

I have been working with AutoCAD 2008 all this time and just this past week made the jump. I try for two days to keep an open mind and work with the ribbon but a lot small things were missing. One, when I selected an object to see what layer or file it was on the ribbon would change, thinking it knew what I wanted. Two, Layer being left open is cooling but going to model and paper space is slow and switching from one drawing to the next is a paid. Thanks for helping me take a few steps back…

I also, didn’t like not being able to select the tools I use all time to display. This reminds me of 2007 (F12) command which places your inputs on the end for your mouse. Hey.??? Where is my mouse this time. O, there it is… All the users in this office turned that feature off right away…

Today since I changed out the ribbon back to working menu (classic), I’m working fast again. I hope there are hidden new tools I have yet to find.

Great job Steve and please keep the tips coming…

By: Flo

Flo — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:00:15 +0000

Thanks for this Steve. Helped a lot!

By: Rentu Philipose

Rentu Philipose — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:52:29 +0000

Hi, I am a beginner in autocad 2010.
I want to know about how to include the symbols like inverted deltas quickly. Also i am not able to locate my curson on the circles when it is zoomed.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:39:52 +0000

Words can’t describe my anger towards Autodesk, Microsoft and all these other companies with wife-beating, child molesting programmers and their sick jokes.

Let’s hide all the tools during a depression. Let’s just make DAMNED SURE they can’t eat!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:02:52 +0000

Great post. Thank you.

It’s not the Ribbon that I mind so much as the frustrating colour scheme that AutoCad adopted for all their icons.

Tiny grey and pale blue icons: could they have made them any more difficult to recognize and select quickly?

I’m trying to learn AutoCad Architecture and working through a lot of books and tutorial – which all use the Ribbon of course. So the command line is of limited help right now.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:30:25 +0000

Amanda, thank you for the kind words.

By: Amanda B.

Amanda B. — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:44:14 +0000

Just wanted to drop a line to let you know people are still finding this site, and finding it useful. I was tearing my hair out over the cream-colored background among other things. Thank you so much!

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:46:27 +0000

Steve H, have a look at the VTOPTIONS command, it’s all in there.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:42:10 +0000

If you mess up in the CUI command, you can undo that if you go back into CUI, right-click on where it says ACAD, then use Restore ACAD.CUI. That takes you back to the backup version that AutoCAD automatically makes when you modify the CUI. If that doesn’t take you far enough back to repair the damage, you can use the Revert ACAD.CUI option to go right back to the original version.

If you’re doing more than casual customisation, it’s always a good idea to make manual safe copies of your CUI files before taking the plunge.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 26 May 2011 21:25:15 +0000

OK, Now I have done it. I tried to add an icon in the new Release 2011 that I use all the time, called Snapang. Where I can put in the angle I want to run the curser on. Only when I created it, I lost the entire snap family that you get to by hitting the shift bar and right mouse button.
That one is goinfg to cause me some real greif. Anyone know how to undo what I have created? I will go back to typing Snapang if required. But I have to have mny snap settings and choices.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:45:40 +0000

In Options > Display, turn on the toggle near the bottom left called Display Layout and Model tabs.

By: archt

archt — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:52:37 +0000

for some reason I open up a dwg from an earlier version in “ribbon” mode and the layout tabs do not show up in paper space- only the coversheet, and I have had no luck in finding the layout tabs and/or how to turn them “on”

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:19:42 +0000

See “Graphic Background” above.

By: hind

hind — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:02:21 +0000

hello, I need a black screen in autocad 2010 whow I can do that,please

By: Serge

Serge — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:01:30 +0000

Im using acad2007, can any1 explain how to:
everytime i swith between 3dworkspace and classics, all my shortcut icon bars dissapear and have to turn them again each time, previous versions always stored these and didnt had any problems but now…its frustraing….
appreciate it!