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For many the AutoCAD® screen menu has not been visible since release 13.
Below is how to get it to show for each of the supported AutoCAD releases. Scroll down to your
AutoCAD version or select your version here:
2005, 2004, 2002, 2000i, 2000,
14, 13
On the "Tools" pull down select "Options" or type "Options" at the command
prompt. The "Options" dialog will appear.
Select the "Display" tab and check the box next to "Display screen menu".
Press  and
the screen menu will appear.
Type "Preferences" at the command prompt. The "Preferences" dialog will appear:
Select the "Display" tab and check the box next to "Display AutoCAD screen
menu in drawing window". Press
and the
screen menu will appear.
Type "Preferences" at the command prompt. The "Preferences" dialog will
appear:
Select the "System" tab (if it isn't already) and check the box next to
"Screen Menu". Press
and the
screen menu will appear.
 Selecting any one of the layers from the screen menu will make the layer
current. You may also configure it to start the line command. (See the
Layer scheme control
settings portion of the Layer
Control section of the
APS-CONFIG command) For many the screen menu replaces the line
command. It is a great way to make sure that you are using the correct layer
when drawing lines. Just select the layer you would like to draw lines on from
the screen menu and start drawing.
Any of the APS-2008 commands
that require the selection of a single layer may have the layer selected from
the screen menu. To give you an example we will use the
CHLAYR command to change the layer of some
objects.
 
Select "CH-LAYER" from the screen menu. This will start the
CHLAYR command.
Select objects:
Select the objects you would like to change the layer of.
Select objects:
When done selecting objects press <Enter> or <Space>.
Type layer, select from the screen menu, pick on an object, or <Enter> to CHANGE to
current Layer <A-WALL-INTR-01>:
Select the layer that you would like the objects selected to go on from the
screen menu. The objects will be changed to the layer selected.
When you have more layers than will fit on the
screen
Sometimes layer schemes have more layers than will fit on the screen
menu. To allow you to get to all the layers in your scheme the bottom separator
bar changes to  . When clicked this
brings up a dialog (shown at the right) that allows you to select any of the
layers in the current layer scheme.
When this dialog first comes up it is scrolled all the way to the bottom of
the list of layers (since that is where the ones are that won't fit on the
screen). Scroll up or down as needed and select the layer that you want. The
objects will be changed to the layer selected.
Any of the APS-2008 commands
that allow the selection of multiple layers may have the layers selected from
the screen menu (along with the other layer selection methods). To give you an
example we will use the LAYRON command.
Select "LAYR-ON" from the screen menu to start the
LAYRON command. You will see the following
prompt:
Select layers from the screen menu or type layers to turn ON:
<Enter/Space> when done:
You may notice that the screen menu changes, it is now in "layer selection
mode". The commands at the top no longer appear and "V"s appear above each layer
group (if you group layers). This change is to visually let you know that you
are in the "layer selection mode" and will return to normal once the current
command is finished.
Select the first layer that you would like to turn on. In this example it is
the layer for text.
When a layer is selected from the screen menu the layer name will appear at
the command line to give you a running record of what layers have been selected.
Also notice that there is an entry that begins with the characters " *| " along
with the normal layer name. This is so that all of the objects in XREFerences
that are on the chosen layer are also selected.
<Enter/Space> when done:
Select the next layer you would like to turn on from the screen menu. For
this example it will be the layer for dimensions.
Once again the layer name added is shown at the command line.
<Enter/Space> when done:
Now let us assume that we want to select all of the layers in one of the
groups on the screen menu (obviously this only applies if you are grouping your
layers on the screen menu). To add a group of layers select the "V" above the
group that you would like. In the image to the left selecting the "V" shown
would be the same as selecting "RMNM", "EXT-WALL", "INT-WALL", "1/2-WALL",
& "WALLPATT" individually.
All of the layer names in the layer group immediatly below the "V" selected
are added to the list of layers.
Note: When selecting a group just the
standard layer names are shown at the command line (as shown above) but the
actual list passed to the command also includes the layer names with the " *| "
in front for the selected layers in XREFerences.
Select as many of the layers in this manner as you would like. Sure beats
typing them in! Although you can do that too.
 When you have more
layers than will fit on the screen
Sometimes layer schemes have more layers than will fit on the screen
menu. To allow you to get to all the layers in your scheme the bottom separator
bar changes to . When clicked this
brings up a dialog (shown at the left) that allows you to select any of the
layers in the current layer scheme.
When this dialog first comes up it is scrolled all the way to the bottom of
the list of layers (since that is where the ones are that won't fit on the
screen). You may select as many of the layers as you like. Use the <Ctrl> and
<Shift> keys to select layers.
<Shift>
Select a layer and then hold down the <Shift> key and select another layer and
the layers selected plus all the layers in between will all be selected.
<Ctrl>
When you hold down the <Ctrl> key you may select or unselect any single layer
(selecting an already selected layer unselects it)
When you are done selecting layers from this dialog press "OK" and the layers
selected will be added to the list selected so far. The dialog closes but you
remain in layer selection mode so you may select more layer names by other
means.
Pressing "Cancel" will simply close the dialog without any layers added.
Note: Sometimes if you cancel a command
in the middle of layer selection the screen menu
will get "stuck" in the "layer selection mode" (with the commands at the top
missing). To fix this select the layer scheme name at the top of the screen menu
("1 F-Plan" in the images above) and the screen menu will go back to it's normal
state.
When done selecting layers press <Enter> or <Space> and the layers selected
will be turned on.
Any of the APS-2008 commands
that allow the selection of multiple layers may have the layers selected from
the screen menu (along with the other layer selection methods). We gave you an
example above "Selecting
multiple layer names from the screen menu" that showed how to select the
layers from the current layer scheme. Now we would like to show you that you are
not limited to just the layers currently shown on your screen when selecting
layers. Let us do this by once again using the
LAYRON command (but any
APS-2008 command that allows the
selection of multiple layers will also do this).
Select "LAYR-ON" from the screen menu to start the
LAYRON command. You will see the following
prompt:
Select layers from the screen menu or type layers to turn ON:
<Enter/Space> when done:
You may notice that the screen menu changes, it is now in "layer selection
mode". The commands at the top no longer appear and "V"s appear above each layer
group (if you group layers). This change is to visually let you know that you
are in the "layer selection mode" and will return to normal once the current
command is finished.
As shown above (in
Selecting
multiple layer names from the screen menu) you may select any of the layers
from the current layer scheme that you want. So for this example we will select
the text layer from the current scheme.
<Enter/Space> when done:
The next layers that we want to select in this example are not a part of the
current layers scheme. We would like to select some layers from the electrical
layer scheme.
To do this select the layer scheme from either the bottom of the screen menu
or from the "Layer Schemes" pull-down (depending on where you configured them to
show).
The layers from the scheme selected (in this case electrical) will show on the screen menu where you
may select all the layers that you need (in the image above we are selecting the
"V" above a group of layers so the layers in the group immediately below the "V"
will be selected see
Selecting
multiple layer names from the screen menu above for more on selecting groups
of layers).
If you need layers from yet another layer scheme
select the other layer scheme just like you did the electrical scheme above. You
may select any or all of the layer schemes in the current layer scheme file and
select as many layers from each scheme as is needed.
To isolate the current layer scheme's layers in a drawing press the layer
scheme's name at the top of the screen menu.
When the scheme's name is selected all of the layers in the drawing are
turned off and then the layers from just the current layer scheme are turned
back on.
Note: Any layers designated as "non plot"
layers (set in the Plot
Prep Config portion of the General
section of the
APS-CONFIG command) will not be turned back on.
To change between layer schemes select the layer scheme from either the
bottom of the screen menu or from the "Layer Schemes" pull-down (depending on
where you configured them to show).
The new layer scheme will show in the screen menu, all the layers will be
turned off, and just the new layer scheme's layers will be turned back on.
Note: Any layers designated as "non plot"
layers (set in the Plot
Prep Config portion of the General
section of the
APS-CONFIG command) will not be turned back on.
To load a new layer scheme file select "<NewSchm" immediatly above the list
of schemes on the screen menu or select "Load new scheme file" from the "Layer
Schemes" pull-down (depending on where you configured the layer schemes to
show).
The following dialog will appear (or something very similar depending on your
AutoCAD version):
Select the layer scheme file that you would like to load. Once you have
selected the file the layer schemes from the file selected will be loaded and
the first layer scheme from the file will be made current.
There are five possible commands that can be shown at the top of the screen
menu. Whether they show on the screen menu or not is set in the
Layer scheme control
settings portion of the Layer
Control section of the
APS-CONFIG command. These commands are: All On,
All Off, Change
Layer, Layer On, and Layer Off. They will be described below:
Selecting "ALL-ON" from the screen menu will turn all the layers in the
drawing on.
This is a transparent command so it may be used in the middle of other
commands.
Selecting "ALL-OFF" from the screen menu will turn off all the layers in the
drawing except the current layer effectively isolating the current layer. One
nice trick is to select one of the layers from the screen menu to make it
current and then select this command and the layer selected will be isolated in
the drawing.
This is a transparent command so it may be used in the middle of other
commands.
Selecting "CH-LAYER" from the screen menu runs the
CHLAYR command to change the layer of
objects in the drawing.
This command is not transparent so selecting this command will cancel any
currently running command.
Selecting "LAYR-ON" from the screen menu runs the
LAYRON command to turn layers on in the drawing.
For an example of one way to use this command see above under Selecting
multiple layer names from the screen menu.
This command is not transparent so selecting this command will cancel any
currently running command.
Selecting "LAYR-OFF" from the screen menu runs the
LAYROFF command to turn layers off in the drawing.
This command is not transparent so selecting this command will cancel any
currently running command.
 The abbreviation for
the current layer scheme's name (1-F-Plan here), when selected, will turn all of the layers in
the drawing off and then turn on just the layers for this layer scheme.
Don't forget that
the layer names shown on the screen menu are the abbreviations for the layer
names and are not necessarily the actual layer names.
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