AutoCAD 2010… a closer look at the Application Menu

AutoCAD 2010 includes a new Application Menu, which is accessible from the big “A” in the upper left corner of the AutoCAD display. At first glance, you might think the Application Menu is just a minor variation of the Menu Browser, which was introduced in AutoCAD 2009. There are many similarities, but there are plenty of differences as well. Let’s take a look at them side-by-side.

The most noticeable difference is the menu list on the left side. In AutoCAD 2009, all of the former drop-down menus (File, Edit, Draw, etc) are listed vertically. None of those menus are listed in the AutoCAD 2010 Application Menu. Instead, the AutoCAD 2010 Application Menu includes tools that are common across software applications.

For example, compare the application menus from Microsoft Office Word 2007 (left) and AutoCAD 2010 (right). A notable difference between these two menus is the Recent/Open documents toggle at the top of the AutoCAD 2010 Application Menu.

Using the Recent/Open Documents toggle you can display a list of recently accessed documents (left) or open documents (right).