Ribbon Tabs

Ribbons provide tabs that organize application feature categories, such as drafting and modification (on the Home tab), inserting and referencing, dimensioning and annotations, formatting, and viewing.

Each ribbon tab is composed of panels, which are a labeled set of closely related commands that you need to complete a task.

Each panel relates to a type of activity, such as the Components panel on the Insert ribbon tab, which includes commands to edit Blocks in-place.

When you start the program, the Home ribbon tab is active by default in Drafting and Annotation workspace.

You can minimize the ribbon.

Contextual Ribbon Tabs

Contextual ribbon tabs are special types of tabs that appear only in specific contexts, such as an active command or a specified entity. The displayed contextual ribbon contains commands related to the active command or the specified entity.

For example, when you hatch an area, the Hatch Creation tab appears on the ribbon. All options from the Hatch dialog box are available on the contextual tab.

The contextual tab appears at the end of the ribbon and closes when you end the command.

You can use contextual tabs for the following functionalities. A contextual ribbon tab is displayed instead of a toolbar or dialog box.

• Hatch creation and editing

• DGN Underlay Selection

• PDF Underlay Selection

• Image selection

• Reference Selection

• Dimension Selection

• Leader Selection

• MultiLeader Selection

• Table

• Tolerance

To display a contextual tab for hatch:

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the menu, select Draw > Hatch/Fill.

   • On the ribbon, select Home > Draw > Hatch.

   • Type Hatch.

   The Hatch Creation tab appears on the ribbon.

To invoke a command from a ribbon tab:

1. In the ribbon, click a tab label.

2. From a tab group, click a command icon.

   Some commands or options are selectable from drop-down lists.

To minimize the ribbon:

• At the top right corner of the ribbon, click Minimize the Ribbon.

  Note: To use the ribbon while it is minimized, click the tab you want to use, then click the command you want to use.

To restore the ribbon:

• At the top right corner of the ribbon, click Maximize the Ribbon.

To keep the ribbon minimized a short time:

• Double-click the name of the active tab. Double-click a tab again to restore the ribbon.

Keyboard shortcut: To minimize or restore the ribbon, press Ctrl + F1.

Related Topics

Quick Access Toolbar

Parent Topic

Customizing