Reorganizing the AutoCAD or F/X CAD Ribbons

• Ribbons, Panels, and Buttons
• The Customize User Interface (CUI) Feature
• Adding a Button to a Ribbon Panel
• Deleting a Button from a Ribbon Panel

The collection of ribbons in AutoCAD and F/X CAD is an extremely handy feature that consolidates and organizes the most commonly used CAD tools. However, you might have a different idea of how the ribbons should be organized. Your CAD installation allows you to reorganize the ribbons to meet your needs by adding buttons to the ribbon panels, as well as deleting others.

Ribbons, Panels, and Buttons

Like the CAD pull-down menus you may have used in the past, each of the ribbons allows you to view and access several CAD tools. A ribbon is a horizontally oriented collection of panels, each of which is made up of several buttons. Each button opens a different CAD tool.

Here's an example showing the Manage ribbon. This ribbon is made of three panels – Customization, CAD Standards, and Styles. The image below highlights the Customization panel, which consists of several tool buttons. (For example, if you were to click the Options button, you'd open the CAD Options dialog box, where you can configure a number of important CAD settings.

If you want, you can reorganize each ribbon panel by adding or deleting tool buttons.

The Customize User Interface (CUI) Feature

Whether you want to add a button to a ribbon panel or delete a button from a panel, you'll do so using the Customize User Interface (CUI) feature.

Open the CUI feature:

Manage ribbon, User Interface button

or type CUI in the Command line

The Customize User Interface dialog box will open.

 

In the top left panel, scroll to the Ribbon folder and expand it by clicking the plus (+) sign next to it.

 

 

 

Then expand the Panels subfolder in the same way.

You're now ready to either:

• Add a button to a ribbon panel
• Delete a button from a ribbon panel

Adding a Button to a Ribbon Panel

Depending on your particular method of working with CAD, you may find yourself wishing a certain tool were available from a particular ribbon. You can add any CAD tool to any ribbon panel by adding a button for that tool to the panel.

In this example, we'll show you how to add the Save tool to the Manage ribbon, Customization panel.

This ribbon / panel may not seem like the most logical location to include a button for the Save tool, but far be it from us to judge. The main point is that your method of reorganizing the tools on your ribbons is completely up to you.

Open the Customize User Interface (CUI) feature, and expand the Windows and Panels folders as described above.

In the Panels subfolder, scroll down to the folder and panel where you want to add the button.

 

 

 

In our example, we'll be adding a button to the Manage ribbon, Customization panel, so we'll scroll to the Manage - Customization subfolder.

 

 

 

Expand the panel subfolder by clicking the plus (+) sign.

 

 

 

You may also need to expand a subfolder for a particular row in the panel. In our case, we'll expand Row 1.

 

 

 

In the Command List field, type the name or partial name of the tool whose button you want to add to the panel. In our case, we'll type Save.

You'll now see the new tool (in our case, Save) in the panel subfolder.

 

 

 

1. Click Apply to apply the change.

 

 

 

2. Click OK to close the CUI dialog box.

The panel you edited will now include a button for the tool you added. Note that, because we added the Save tool just below Options in the CUI dialog box, the Save button appears just to the right of the Options button in the panel.

You can now access the tool directly from the ribbon panel where you added its button.

Deleting a Button from a Ribbon Panel

Deleting a button from a panel is a somewhat similar process to adding a button.

Open the Customize User Interface (CUI) feature, and expand the Windows and Panels folders as described above.

Scroll down to the folder and panel where you want to delete the button.

 

 

In our example, we will be deleting the Save button from the Manage ribbon, Customization panel, so we'll scroll to the Manage - Customization subfolder.

 

 

Expand the panel subfolder by clicking the plus (+) sign.

 

 

You may also need to expand a subfolder for a particular row in the panel. In our case, we'll expand Row 1.

 

 

Right-click the entry for the button you want to delete from the panel. (In our example, we'll right-click the entry for the Save button.)

The menu pictured below will open.

 

Select the Remove option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You'll now see the dialog box pictured below.

 

Click Yes to delete the tool from the ribbon.

 

The entry for the button you deleted will now be removed from the list of available buttons in the Panels folder.

1. Click Apply to apply the change.

 

 

 

2. Click OK to close the CUI dialog box.

The button will now be removed from the panel. (In our example, the Save button will be removed from the Customization panel of the Manage ribbon.)