Thursday, November 13, 2014

How to disable Layout Tools Ribbon tab when switching to Layout


AutoCAD offers a set of tools available on a Contextual Ribbon Tab called Layout Tools. When you select a Layout (paperspace) tab below the drawing, the Layout Tools Ribbon Tab automatically turns on and becomes active. What if you don't like this behavior?



Rather than delete the tab from the CUI, let's make it so that it still becomes available, but AutoCAD does not switch to that tab automatically. Sounds like a good compromise, right?

Step 1: Open the CUI editor by typing CUI at the command line.




Step 2: In the upper left box, find and expand Partial Customization Files

 
 
 
Step 3: Find and expand ACAD, then find and expand Ribbon, and, finally, find and expand Contextual Tab States.
 
 
 
 
 
Step 4: Scroll down until you find Layout Tools. Expand that and click on Contextual Layout Tools.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Step 5: Look on the right side of the dialog, find and drop down the list that is titled Contextual Display Type. Change it to Full without Focus.
 
 
 
 
 
Step 6: Hit OK.
 
Now, when you move from the Model tab to a Layout tab, the Layout Tools Ribbon Tab will appear at the end of the Ribbon, but it will not be active. If you want to use it, click it, otherwise AutoCAD will remain on whichever tab was active when you moved to the Layout.