DocBar

If I had to choose one third-party software for AutoCAD that I couldn’t live without, it would be DocBar (by CADwerx). DocBar adds a bar that gets docked along one of the edges of your Autocad window (hence the name). Inside this bar is a live thumbnail of whatever drawings you currently have open. So you can easily and quickly switch between drawings by clicking on the thumbnails there. The picture below shows what DocBar looks like:

Why is this so great? Suppose you have 10 drawings open. Without DocBar, to switch back and forth between all the drawings is a major pain in the ass. You have to use the Window menu item and pick between the open files shown there. You have to choose based on the filename. With Docbar, you can choose based on the thumbnail, which is visual, and therefore much easier. It’s also much faster because it’s just one-click rather than opening the menu and scrolling to the filename. See the pic below (ewww!):

This may not sound like a big deal, but you designers know how often you have to switch around drawings, and how annoyingly tedious that Window menu method is. One of the built-in AutoCAD workarounds is to set the system variable Taskbar to “1″ in Autocad. But that is lame because all that does is shows multiple AutoCAD items on the Windows taskbar. It saves some clicks, but visually doesn’t help and adds a lot of clutter to your taskbar. See below:

Let me tell a short story that highlights how great DocBar is. At my previous company, most of the people roll their eyes at me because I’m so into all these add-ons and productivity tools. Most designers just do whatever works and don’t think twice about it. Well, when Docbar was freeware, I installed it on several people’s computers as a favor. They didn’t thank me or anything, it was like no big deal. Well, when DocBar became commercial, the people couldn’t use it anymore. One by one, they approached me asking how they could make it work. It was the only time that people asked me about a third-party plugin independently, without my prodding. This led me to conclude that Docbar is one of the only third-party plugins that once you experience, you can’t live without it anymore. I know I can’t. See the right-click options below:

As a sidenote, DocBar also has several other cool tools like a one-click way to save and close all the open drawings at once. In a way, it’s a competitor to AutoCAD’s own Sheet Set Manager. But I never liked Sheet Set Manager. It’s slow, unnecessarily complicated, and just not as nice as it could have been. I think it was a great idea, just not implemented well. Also, I’m aware that the latest AutoCAD versions (2009, 2010) now have new features for document switching and previewing, but I don’t have the new versions yet. And I doubt it’s as simple and practical as DocBar.