AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I’m going to show you how to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar.

This technique is very useful when you want to have easy access to a favorite AutoCAD Civil 3D menu item but don’t want the hassle of switching Ribbon Panels (particularly if you use that menu item often but don’t use or have its Ribbon Panel open for much else).

I must have discovered before how to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar and forgot about it, because I apparently did this to place Copy With Base Point on my Quick Access Toolbar sometime in the past. However, I “rediscovered” how to do this recently from another CAD blog. Unfortunately I don’t remember which one. I thought I had bookmarked the site, or added it to my Twitter Favorites, but when I started to put this Quick Tips and Tricks post together I couldn’t find or remember the source.

So, if it was you who recently blogged about the Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar, where I got the inspiration for this post, please let us know in the comments or contact me so I can give you the credit you deserve!

Now on to the AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar:

1. First, what is the Quick Access Toolbar? The Quick Access Toolbar is that small “Microsofty” customizable menu bar typically found at the top left of your AutoCAD Civil 3D screen (it can be moved to below the Ribbon). See the image below to locate it.

   

2. Select Menu Item, Right Click and Choose “Add To Quick Access Toolbar”: In my example, I want to add the “Layer Properties” menu item from the Home Ribbon Panel to my Quick Access Toolbar. This was also the example used in the unknown blog noted above (I will take more care saving my finds in the future) as the writer felt this command is often used and time would be saved by not having to constantly switch back to the Home Ribbon Panel. Note that you won’t have as much functionality as the Layer Properties command has on the Ribbon Panel, but you will be able to pull up the Layer Properties Manager dialog easily. Near the end of this article I explain how I like to add the “Add Labels” menu item to the Quick Access Toolbar, which is perhaps a better example (no loss in functionality). So, now right click while hovering over the menu item and select “Add To Quick Access Toolbar”. The menu item is now placed on your Quick Access Toolbar.

   

   

I think this technique can be very helpful in making your workflow go more smoothly when working with AutoCAD Civil 3D. I do like adding the Layer Properties to my Quick Access Toolbar because I find myself using it so often when not wanting to switch back to the Home Ribbon Panel. Another menu item I like to add to the Quick Access Toolbar, as I said above, is the “Add Labels” command.

I find that I use the “Add Labels” as much as any other command, if not more so, and switching back to the Annotate Ribbon Panel, selecting the Add Labels menu, and then switching back to wherever the rabbit hole journey began is a real time waster. Yes, you can always leave the command dialog box open and move it to an open piece of real estate on your AutoCAD Civil 3D screen or your second monitor, if you wish, as an alternative.

This AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks is brought to you by the Professional Land Surveyor Source, showing you how to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar in your AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 drawing.