Drawings are now in Windowed Mode

[MarkMASON4239]

 I am in the middle of several urgent projects at the moment and have a few other people helping with them. One person was working in AutoCAD 2018 MEP (Yes, I know this is a AutoCAD forum, but the question is for AutoCAD in general) and hit a button or something that now opens drawings in their own separate window with borders around them. Hitting the Maximize button doesn't do anything, the windows can be manually resized, and they will stay at the new size. 

 Anyway, CLEANSCREEN and all of that doesn't fix the issue. Even though it gets rid of the windows, I need the Ribbon bar at the top. I am sure this is a simple answer, but I just don't have time at the moment to spend much time on it. My guess is that it has been answered before but I am not searching for the correct phrase. Any help would be much appreciated!

[pendean]

Friend, are you saying clicking on the maximize buttons do not work (see arrows) like the program window (see circle)?

[gotphish001]

It appears it might be tiling the windows. Try hitting the Minus button next to 2d wireframe then in the drop down "restore viewport" or maybe "single". 

[MarkMASON4239]

Pendean,

 Thank you for your quick response.

 The button you circled (AutoCAD window) works fine but the 2 you drew arrows to (drawing file windows) do not work at all. My other versions of AutoCAD show the drawing files as a "full screen" inside the AutoCAD program, I can only see 1 drawing at a time and there is NO FRAME around the drawing file display. In MEP for some reason (and just starting 2 days ago) the drawing files are displayed in tiled windows with borders.

[MarkMASON4239]

gotphish001,

 Thank you for the quick response. I tried using the (-) button as you mentioned. I clicked on several of the options (Restore, Top, Single, etc)  but it didn't affect the drawing window. It seemed to be geared more toward viewports. I'm sure this is a simple thing, it's probably a case of me not searching correctly for than a complicated answer!

[gotphish001]

I only looked at the picture Dean posted had at first. Later I viewed your original picture so I saw the whole screen I realized it was actually 2 drawings tiled as opposed to 1 just windowed like a suggested. 

I can make the drawings tile like you have with these commands, but my maximize buttons make them go back to full. Maybe it's glitched. Try making the tiles horizontal or vertical and then try to maximize one.

https://books.google.com/books?id=g1goDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=autocad+2018+tiled+drawings&sourc... 

The link is where I was reading about it. In the working with multiple drawings heading starting on page 15.

[MarkMASON4239]

gotphish001,

 Thanks again for the response. Oddly enough, the number of drawings open has no bearing on the way the windows are displayed. In the screenshot there is actually only 1 "drawing" open, the window behind it is the standard "Start" window (which can't be closed). If I close all drawings and only have the Start window up, it is still in tiled form and cannot be maximized. Also, the drawing windows remember their position, so if I close a drawing, and reopen it, the window will be exactly like it was (manually resized) when I closed the drawing (or AutoCAD for that matter) down.

 I tried your suggestion with the Windows menu under the View tab and the windows still act the same way.

[pendean]

The maximize buttons on the individual dwg files as Windows features and work just fine here. These are WIndows OS features, ot unique to AutoCAD at all.

If they are not maximizing when you click on them you probably have other issues going on. Is this a sudden a recent change? As it it used to work before hand? Does simply restarting Windows then MEP2018 and maximizing them fix the problem?

[MarkMASON4239]

 pendean,

 Thanks again for your comments and assistance. The maximize button works everywhere else except for AutoCAD MEP. It would like it is supposed to in AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architectural. I realize these are standard Windows OS program elements, but there is some disconnect specific to AutoCAD MEP. This is a recent change (Perhaps 2-3 days old. We have several major urgent projects going on and had several people working at this machine and at some point something happened to switch it over.

 The PC has been restarted several times (at least once a day), and MEP has been closed down and restarted multiple times through daily usage. 

[RobDraw]

I've not seen this before but if you can't find the exact cause, resetting to default settings might fix it. Just make sure to save your profile/workspace to make it easy to get your settings back.

[pendean]

I don't have MEP2018, but I do have ARCH2018 and it's not repeating your problem at all with 4-files that I just tested.

>>>... had several people working at this machine...<<<
Do you all use the same exact Windows log-in?

Read through this old post, seems to be about as close a description to your problem as I could find https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/windows-in-autocad-won-t-maximize/td-p/6018559

I don't think it's this but who knows https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCA...

[MarkMASON4239]

Robdraw & Pendean
Thank you so much for your input.
I have AutoCAD & AutoCAD Arch. I can open them up and there are no window borders, each drawing (if multiple are open) is accessable via the tabs. This is how MEP used to be.
The users were working on the same login and the same drawings, just at different times.
The issues described in you links are mainly how to get the Maximize button to work. I really dont care about the Maximize button, I want a single drawing in the screen with no window borders, like MEP used to be, and like Acad and Arch are now.
I will try to restore default settings tomorrow and see if that helps.

[BeKirra]

Is the "Display File Tabs" box selected in "Window Elements" section under "Display" tab in "Options"?

HTH

[MarkMASON4239]

Yes, i have tried it with tabs on and off, unfortunately, it doesn't effect the window(s).

[BeKirra]

What if change the value of "taskbar" or "SDI"?

[MarkMASON4239]

Tried those also, to no avail.

[BeKirra]

Then try "NewTabMode".

[MarkMASON4239]

Thats one I haven't tried, I will give it a go tomorrow!

[gotphish001]

Not a solution, but just a comment. You said you don't care about the maximize button because you don't want the window frame. Just to clarify there's only a window frame when you have multiple windows open. When you hit maximize it obviously maximizes 1 drawing, but it also gets rid of the window frame as it isn't needed for 1 drawing. Also just curious, does the minimize button work? 

[pendean]

It's probably time to reinstall MEP2018 and fully patch/update it if a reset does not fix it: here are reset instructions https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to...