Customize the content on the status bar

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The status bar displays tools that affect your drawing environment.

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It allows you to toggle settings such as grid snap, polar tracking and object snap,

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learn how to customize the tools that appear in the status bar.

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After this video,

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you will learn to

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recognize the visual prompt of a tool, status,

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access individual tool menus,

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open the customization menu to turn tools on or off.

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Apply the status bar differences in model space and paper space

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for this video, we'll be using a blank new drawing.

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Of course,

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the changes we'll make here can be done at any time from your open drawings.

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Autocad status bar is an integral part of your drafting workflow.

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It's where you get drawing info toggle settings or access their menus.

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Its design is intended to give you a quick visual of what's on or off.

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Quite simply if a status bar icon is displayed with a light blue background,

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it's considered to be turned on.

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For instance, if you click on the iso draft icon a few times,

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you'll see the cursor change into its isometric

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shape and then back again,

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it seems simple, but it is also highly efficient.

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Some of the status bar tools have settings that you can adjust but not all of them do

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find the grid toggle on the far left.

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A right click on the icon will get you a small

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window that will give you a link to the grid settings.

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Dialog.

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Others such as Ortho, which is a couple of icons down, have no further settings.

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So there's no link to display.

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Some icons also have a small arrow down GLYPH

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that will display a menu with standard selections,

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move a little further down the status bar

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and click on the down arrow next to the O snap icon.

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You'll see all the available object snaps and quickly know which are on or off.

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There's also a link at the bottom that lets you open the O snap settings box,

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like many user interface elements in autocad.

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The default tools on the status bar may not suit your needs.

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Some you may never use and others you may not even be aware of,

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but they might be just what you need

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to add or remove items in the status bar.

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Find the three line customization menu button at the right end of the status bar.

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Click on it to display all the options currently available to you.

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Check to add a tool or uncheck to remove it.

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Let's click on coordinates to add it

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and then annotation monitor to have it removed.

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Notice I said it displays the tools currently available to you.

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The reason I phrased it that way is that the list of

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tools differs depending on whether you're in model space or paper space.

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Let's look at the model space list again and also focus

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on the number of tools of the status bar itself.

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Activate either of the two layouts.

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First,

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you should notice that the status bar is somewhat shorter with fewer items in it.

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Click on the three bar customization menu here in paper space.

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You'll immediately notice that the list isn't as long as it is in model space.

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In fact, there are 29 items in model space but only 22 in paper space.

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In fact, you'll get a different list from within an active viewport.

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Also, there are 32 in that list. Why is that

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some things just don't make sense in the

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context of paper space or an active viewport,

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for instance,

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grid and snap aren't intended for paper space

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and the 3D tools aren't useful there either.

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So don't be surprised if you have a tool displaying in the model space status bar,

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but it doesn't show up when you're in paper space.

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It's also important to know that the list of

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displayed tools isn't exclusive to the two spaces.

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In other words, if a tool can appear in both spaces,

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clicking it on or off in one space will also apply to the other to demonstrate this,

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let's turn off Ortho polar tracking and isometric

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while you're here in paper space

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these three appear in both spaces.

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Now

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go back to the model tab and look at the customization menu.

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Notice that all three are unchecked here. Also

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both the visibility states of your tools and their enabled disabled state on

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the status bar are part of your profile and are not part of workspace

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as you change them, they are automatically updated in your computer's registry.