There are various "Drawing Tabs" add-ons for AutoCAD available, I created a quick review of some popular ones last January.

Autodesk released one themselves back in October 2006, for AutoCAD 2007. It was OK for a first effort, but not the greatest.

Now in AutoCAD 2009, you will find the "Quick View Drawings" feature. This is "drawing tabs" on steroids (no offense to current MLB players....)

Essentially, it's a button in the status bar that when you pick it, a display appears in the lower part of your drawing area that shows you a preview of each currently open drawing. As you move the mouse to hover over a drawing preview, the drawings shrink and you then get a preview of the layouts in that particular drawing. All this is done with a smooth effect. (See the animated GIF below.)

If you are hovering on a drawing file preview, you can pick it to switch to that drawing. You can also Save or Close that drawing by picking the appropriate icon. You can also right-click on the preview and choose from other options including "Close All", "Save All", and "Close other files".

If you are hovering on a layout preview, you can click to switch to that drawing and set that layout current, and there are plot and publish icons available. You can also right-click on a layout preview to get the standard layout tab context menu, including "New Layout", "Page Setup Manager", and the new command "Export Layout to Model".

Labels: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2009, New Features

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