I am currently using AutoCAD Map 3D 2014. When working with several drawings side-by-side in the same session of AutoCAD, it is difficult to keep the windows in the needed order (which drawing is on top of the other drawings). The windows stay locked in the order they were opened, or they stay locked in the order that the file tabs are arranged at the top of the screen. I would prefer that the window order would change based on the last window that was selected, as in previous versions of AutoCAD.
Here is an example of how this is working in 2014:
I have drawing "1" on the left side of the screen. I have drawings "2" through "6" on the right side of the screen, with "2" on top and all others beneath it. If I start to work on drawing "1", drawing "2" still shows on the right side of the screen because it was opened after drawing "1". Now I bring up drawing "4" on the right side of the screen. If I start working on drawing "1" on the left side of the screen, drawing "2" pops back up on top on the right side of the screen, covering drawing "4" that I was referencing, because "2" was opened immediately after "1". So, if I want to work on drawing "1" while looking at "4", I must reorder the file tabs at the top so that "4" follows "1" (sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't, I haven't figured out why).
In this example, reordering the tabs for 6 drawings wouldn't be that big of a deal, but it is still aggravating. When working with several more drawings, it's nearly impossible . . . making you close all the drawings but the 2 you're working on.
This has caused me to make mistakes, also, because I missed the window change and updated the wrong, but similar looking drawing (that may sound funny, but believe me, it is not).
Is there a way to change this? If not, please consider making this an option in future versions.
it would be nice to be able to control the order of the drawings. Why when opeing drawings 1-5 5 is the current one and after switching to drawing 1 you get taken back to drawing 5 all the time can drive you nuts. Why cant you have the drawing order go 1, 2, 3.....instead of 5, 4, 3........
Hi,
>> Why when opeing drawings 1-5 5 is the current one
Maybe I'm not understanding the request, but when I have opened 4 drawing and then I open the 5th one ... why should AutoCAD make then DWG1 to the active drawing? If I open the next drawing I want to have that drawing active, because when I open it I need it now, so I want to have this one focused and not any other one.
>> and after switching to drawing 1 you get taken back to drawing 5
How do you try to switch to DWG1? And do you say when you switch to DWG1 you can't access it as AutoCAD "takes you back to DWG5"?
It would be great to describe your steps more detailed, so we can follow to what you do and what happens on your screen/system.
- alfred -
Hi,
[EDIT] sorry, wrong content [/EDIT}
- alfred -
i have drawings that may take more than 30 seconds to open. So when I am getting ready to work on these i will try to open 5 at a time. So from windows explorer I will select the drawings and drag them over to acad. Then I grab my coffie cup and go get a cup of coffie. When I get back drawing 5 is the active one. I would like to work on drawing 1. So i get drawing 1 active do what i need to do update it and then close it and drawing 5 is now the active drawing again when you would think that drawing 2 would be active since it would be the next one in line. Also i have found that it does not matter what order you open the drawings in. you can be in drawing 3 and open drawing 10 to copy something from and when you close drawing 3 drawing 10 will be the next active drawing.
I was hoping that there was a swithch somewhere in the program that I do not know about that would flip this behavior.
Hi,
I never thought about things like "having issues about which drawing is active after I close one", so I tried now to play with that.
>> Why when opeing drawings 1-5 5 is the current one and
>> after switching to drawing 1 you get taken back to drawing 5 all the time can drive you nuts.
And I can't reproduce that wrong focused dwg you describe here.
So look to my video, try to follow the steps that I do and let's see if that works for you ... AND let us know what you are doing differently that makes that happen what you describe, maybe I missed something.
- alfred -
My map3d 2015 behaves like Alfreds video.
You can drag the tabs to change the order if it's needed
and ctrl & tab moves through the tabs as quick as you can push the buttons
dave
Looks like it is time for a upgrade.......we are still on 2013. 2015 looks like it became more user friendly for a mutiple drawing invierment.