AutoCAD® - The TASKBAR System Variable

When I first started using AutoCAD®, I was never a fan of having more than one drawing open at a time, because flipping between them was cumbersome. I'd have to go to the menu bar and select the Window drop-down, and then pick the drawing I want to activate. I'd have much preferred them to all be accessible directly from windows in the taskbar. So, I was overjoyed when I discovered the TASKBAR system variable!

If you've not encountered this before, you'll love it - it makes working with multiple drawings so much easier. Set TASKBAR to 1 and all of your drawings will earn their own little button on the windows taskbar. You can identify and switch to any drawing you have open by simply clicking it on the taskbar. Additionally, you can immediately see at a glance how many drawings you have open, which is sometimes a useful way to be reminded to close them to conserve PC resources.

Try it out - if you're anything like me you'll like it.

Will

Comments

Daniel
2011-06-28 12:28:44

I'm a fan of Ctrl-TAB to switch between drawings. The quickview drawings button is also neat but I've not made a habit of using it.

The reason I don't like the TASKBAR option is that I am an engineer/cad manager/drafter/etc. so I often have a lot of emails, word docs, excel spreadsheets, etc. open so it gets too confusing.

Windows 7 does a good job organizing the windows, I think.