- [Instructor] Welcome to another AutoCAD Tip and Trick.
Now, what we're going to look at now is a lovely method
of customizing your Quick Access Toolbar.
Now, I'm working in AutoCAD 2018
for this particular Tip and Trick.
And I've upgraded to AutoCAD 2018 recently,
and it's the latest version,
and it's got some really nice new little features
that just make your workflow that little bit quicker,
that little bit slicker
when you're working in the CAD office.
Now, I've got a nice new drawing for you.
You can see there it's called CustomizingQAT.wg.
QAT, Quick Access Toolbar for short.
So you can download this from the website as usual,
and obviously follow along
with this Tips and Tricks video for AutoCAD.
Now, the Quick Access Toolbar resides top left
to the AutoCAD screen, as it always does.
And you can see there various icons that you can use.
You've got things like Save, Save As, and so on.
But how many of you knew
that you can customize that toolbar?
Now, that toolbar stays there all the time.
So if I went to something like, let's say, my Annotate tab,
I now cannot change the layer that I'm on.
I can.
I can type layer and all that kind of stuff
and bring up the layer properties manager that way,
but most of the time what you'll find
is you end up jumping to the Home tab,
changing your layer here
where there are some different layers, circle and rectangle,
and you have to go back in,
select the layer you want to use,
and then go back to your Annotate tab.
Now, obviously when you're dimensioning,
there is an override here where you can change the layer,
but only if you're dimensioning.
What if you're drawing?
What if you want to draw something?
Now, here's the trick.
If I go up here, there's a little symbol that looks a bit
like an eject symbol for a CD or DVD player,
or, if you're up to speed, a Blu-Ray player perhaps.
So if I click there,
I can customize my Quick Access Toolbar
and I can add any of those commands in the list
by clicking on them to get a little tick next to them.
I can actually go and find more commands.
I can also show the good old-fashioned menu bar
if I want to.
And I can also show the Quick Access Toolbar
below the ribbon if I wish.
I don't think I've ever put it below the ribbon.
I've always liked it top left
next to the big red A of the Application menu.
But that's up to you.
I just want to show you one quick little bit of customization
that will it make it that little bit quicker
with your layer control.
So if I click on Layer,
you'll see now that I've got a Layer pull-down up here.
How cool is that?
Hit Escape to lose the layer pull-down, like so.
Now what I can do is I can go to any tab in the ribbon
and change the layers of my objects at will.
So it doesn't matter which tab I'm in.
I could be doing parametric constraints.
I could be doing a bit of output
and setting up my page setup manager.
And I can easily change a layer at any time.
So I can go and select my circle.
Make sure it's on the layer Circle there
by using the Quick Access Toolbar.
So that's now on the Circle layer.
His Escape to deselect.
Select the rectangle.
Again, click on the little menu there.
Rectangle.
Hit Escape again.
My objects are now on the correct layers
and my workflow has not been interrupted
because I'm staying in the same tab in the AutoCAD ribbon
without having to go back to that Home tab
into the layer properties manager.
It's just a little tweak of your Quick Access Toolbar
that will just make you that little bit faster.
Don't tell anybody either.
Just kind of have it sitting there,
and then when somebody asks, "Oh, didn't you know
"that you can customize the Quick Access Toolbar?",
you suddenly become the AutoCAD guru in the office
with one simple little exercise.