AutoCAD 2025 - Cannot use ALT + TAB to switch between drawings anymore

[destructeurdesmondes]

Hello Autodesk community, I have recently tried AutoCAD 2025 and found out that it is not possible to use ALT + TAB to switch between open drawings anymore. This is an essential part of my workflow to the point where I prefer to stick with the previous version to preserve this functionality. I am wondering if this change was done on purpose, and if there's any way to get around it. I have also attached screenshots which demonstrate the old and current behavior. Thank you very much for your time!

P.S: I am aware of CTRL + TAB, however it switches between the current drawing and the drawing that comes after in the File Tab, not the drawing I was viewing prior to the current one. I am also aware of setting SDI to 1, which opens each drawing in a separate window, however this is a legacy command and significantly increase the time it takes for a drawing to open, disables the file tab and interferes with the Publish command.

[paullimapa]

Alt+Tab is a standard Windows keyboard combination since ver 2 to switch between opened applications. So it was never used by AutoCAD to toggle between opened dwgs within its program window. Perhaps you are running some other customization that caused something similar to occur in previous AutoCAD versions ?

[destructeurdesmondes]

Hello Paul, thank you for looking into this issue. I am almost certain that the behavior is associated with vanilla AutoCAD, since I have verified that both the new and old behaviors occur on different systems and Windows versions. Additionally, it used to be possible to prevent/allow ALT+TAB from switching between drawings by altering the TASKBAR system variable, as documented in the following help article (please note that TASKBAR 0 and 1 do not have an effect on ALT TAB in AutoCAD 2025) https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/ALT-TAB-to-switch-...

[paullimapa]

I'm able to repeat your issue on my system as well. Time to contact Autodesk:

Contact Customer Support | Autodesk Support

[destructeurdesmondes]

Thank you for taking the time to verify this issue, I will proceed to contact support, hope  this wasn't an intentional change as i'm really interested in the new smart blocks features and this is the only issue preventing me from upgrading.

[TomBeauford]

Does Ctrl+Tab Switch to next Drawing & Ctrl+Shift+Tab Switch to previous drawing as described at:

https://www.autodesk.com/shortcuts/autocad ?

The keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab switches between open windows or applications on a computer without using the mouse. It's been a feature of Microsoft Windows since Windows 2.0 and is also available on macOS.

[destructeurdesmondes]

Ctrl+Tab & Ctrl+Shift+Tab are working as intended, they cycle through drawings in the order they are sorted in the File Tab above. However Alt + Tab used to cycle to the last drawing you had on your screen, or the last window you had open. For example if I have 10 drawings open, named Drawing1 to 10, and an excel sheet i'm filling information into, which requires me to frequently use Drawings 5 and 8, and sometimes the other drawings, I could switch to Drawing 5 and 8 and the excel sheet, then Alt Tab easily between them. With Ctrl Tab, I have to reorder the tabs in the file tab, so that Drawing 5 and Drawing 8 are next to each other, and then get even more confused whether to press Ctrl Tab to switch to the next drawing, or Ctrl Shift Tab to switch to the previous, or Alt Tab to switch back to Excel... This used to be simpler since only Alt + Tab was necessary to switch between everything, now I'm looking at 3 different combinations. However it seems like this has always been unintended behavior, and was "fixed" in 2025... It just so happens that I was used to the old behavior.

[TomBeauford]

The AutoCAD 2016 version only had two Alt+ shortcuts by default ALT+F8 & ALT+F11. More recent versions also have one for ALT+F4.

Maybe you're using a newer version or update of Windows (Alt + Tab - Switch between open apps while pressing Tab multiple times.) which controls most keyboard shortcuts.

[cadffm]

>>" (Alt + Tab - Switch between open apps while pressing Tab multiple times.) "

Right,

But a simple [ALT]+[TAB] AND RELEASE switchs back to the last used window,

so you can toggle between drawing1 and drawing2 (if drawing2 was the previous active window),

doesn't matter howe many windows/programs are open.

[destructeurdesmondes]

Exactly! This used to be the case prior to AutoCAD 2025, now all drawings are combined under one window in the ALT + TAB switcher, which wasn't the case for at least the 3 previous years.

[TomBeauford]

Retired without access to AutoCAD anymore but I added "Switch Windows" to my "Quick Access Toolbar" many years ago as a much better option. By default it's on the "Interface" panel of the "View" tab in the Ribbon.

Without using any screen space all open drawings with their full paths shown are always available to set current as a drop-down selection. When you have multiple versions with the same drawing name in different folders it makes switching to the right one simple. Screen space matters!

https://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?169046-AutoCAD-file-tabs-are-too-large&p=1325837&viewfull=1#p...

[2557003216]

Try Ctrl+ Tab?

[wes.sheffer]

I'm with the OP; this change is irritating in that there's no way to revert to legacy behavior.  I may have Outlook, Excel, Bluebeam and other apps open at the same time as multiple AutoCAD drawings, and before I could swiftly switch between them all with Alt-Tab, and a thumbnail board would appear if you keep Alt pressed after releasing Tab.  If I was switching from Bluebeam back to AutoCAD using Alt-Tab, I could quickly cycle through the thumbnail board to choose a particular drawing.  Now I must first switch to AutoCAD and then switch between AutoCAD drawings. 

ChatGPT tells me this is a change to AutoCAD's Document Window Manager and there is no native support for reverting to the old behavior.  Boo on AutoDesk for this.

When they screwed up Ctrl-Pick, I could use the LegacyCtrlPick command to fix it.

When Insert started invoking that atrociously slow and bloated Blocks panel, I could point the "i" shortcut to ClassicInsert with the Command Alias Editor.

If they're going to knowingly change the way AutoCAD responds to the Windows Task Switcher, they should similarly give us an option to opt out.

[destructeurdesmondes]

I took a shot at writing an AutoHotKey script to imitate the old behavior, the drawings do appear in alt tab now, however the windows do not reorder when you focus on them, along with some other bugs… The end result is so bad that I ended up ditching it and just accepting the new behavior. I’m getting kinda used to it, however I sometimes really miss the way it used to be. If someone is interested in looking into the code and fixing it please let me know. I would share it here but I strongly believe that sharing such a script in public is frowned upon.

[pendean]

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@destructeurdesmondes wrote:

...I would share it here but I strongly believe that sharing such a script in public is frowned upon.

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Says who? Asking for others to send you PMs would be fishy for most of us 🙂