Understanding BricsCAD’s Status Bar
Last updated: July 20, 2026. Verified against Octave’s official V26 documentation.
Quick answer: The Status Bar sits at the bottom of the window and gives quick access to drawing settings, current layer/colour/style, and layout switching. Show or hide it by right-clicking a docked toolbar, ribbon, or panel and choosing Status Bar, or with Shift+F3. The new Status Bar is on by default; most of its tools follow the same pattern, click to toggle a setting on or off, right-click or use the drop-down arrow for more options and settings.
Managing Layouts from the Status Bar
The Model and Layout tabs sit alongside the Status Bar. A dedicated menu lets you manage layouts directly:
- Search: filter down to a specific layout by name, useful once a drawing has many.
- Publish: opens the Publish dialog.
- Add / copy / delete: manage layouts directly from the list.
- Move up / down: reorder layouts in the list.
- Page Setup: opens the Page Setup dialog.
- Dock inline with status bar: choose whether the Model/Layout tabs sit inline with the Status Bar, saving vertical space, or in their own row above it.
Right-clicking a layout name in this list gives Rename, Copy, Publish, and Delete; the current layout is marked with a blue dot; double-click a name to rename it inline.
Right-clicking a layout tab directly (rather than the list) gives a slightly different set instead: New Layout, From template, Delete, Rename, Copy, Move left/right, Page setup, Print, and Export.
The LAYOUTMANAGER command opens a dedicated dialog for the same create, copy, and delete actions.
Status Bar Tools
| Tool | What it shows or controls |
|---|---|
| Cursor Coordinate Values | Current cursor position (per COORDS); click to change units or coordinate settings |
| GIS Coordinate System | Current GIS coordinate system; click to open the Geographic Location dialog |
| Paper/Model | Switches between model space, paper space, and floating or tiled viewports; the label changes to reflect your current context |
| Current Layer | Active layer; click for a list of all layers, with buttons to toggle layer properties |
| Current Color | Active colour; click for a colour list or the full Color dialog |
| Current Linetype | Active linetype; click for a list, or to load new linetypes or view linetype properties |
| Current Text Style | Active text style; click for a list or to view text style properties |
| Current Dimension Style | Active dimension style; click for a list or to view dimension style properties |
| Grid | Status of GRIDMODE; click to toggle grid display, right-click for Snap and Grid settings |
| Snap | Status of SNAPMODE; click to toggle, drop-down to change snap type or open settings |
| Dynamic Input (DYN) | Status of DYNMODE; click to toggle dynamic dimensions |
| Ortho | Status of ORTHOMODE; click to toggle. Turning Ortho on automatically turns Polar off |
| Polar | Polar Tracking status; click to toggle. Turning Polar on automatically turns Ortho off; drop-down sets the tracking angle or opens settings |
| STrack | Entity Snap Tracking status; click to toggle, right-click for settings |
| ESnap | Entity Snap status; click to toggle, drop-down to pick which snaps are active or open settings |
| Lineweight (LWT) | Status of LWDISPLAY; click to toggle line weight display |
| Selection Cycling | Status of SELECTIONCYCLING; click to toggle, drop-down for options or settings |
| Selection Modes | Status of SELECTIONMODES; click to toggle, drop-down for options or settings |
| Dynamic UCS (DUCS) | Status of UCSDETECT; click to toggle, drop-down to choose which entity types it applies to |
| AutoScale | Status of ANNOAUTOSCALE; click to toggle whether annotative entities sync to the current annotation scale |
| Annotation Scale | Current value of CANNOSCALE; drop-down to pick a scale, edit the scale list, or hide Xref scales |
| Annotation Monitor | Status of ANNOMONITOR; click to toggle, right-click for settings |
| Viewport Lock (VPLOCK) | Display-locked status of the current or selected viewport(s); only appears when relevant, click to toggle |
| Viewport Standard Scale | Sets a selected layout viewport’s scale relative to paper space |
| Tablet | Initialises a drawing tablet; right-click for settings |
| Quad | Status of QUADDISPLAY; click to toggle, drop-down controls when the Quad appears (hover, select, right-click) and lets you customise its items |
| Rollover tips (RT) | Status of ROLLOVERTIPS; click to toggle, drop-down picks what triggers a tip and lets you customise which properties show |
| Hide/Isolate Entities | Highlighted only when hidden objects exist in the drawing; click for Isolate, Hide, or Show All |
| Hotkey Assistant (HKA) | Status of HOTKEYASSISTANT; click to toggle, right-click to configure which commands show it |
| Current Workspace | Active workspace name; click to switch, or open workspace customisation |
| Lock User Interface (LOCKUI) | Locks toolbar and panel position and size; click to toggle, drop-down to choose what’s locked |
| Publish Monitor | Manages an in-progress publish job; drop-down to cancel, publish, or view the log |
| Show Notifications | Toggles whether notifications display |
Which tools actually show on your Status Bar is configurable: click the Status Bar’s own menu button to open the Configure Status Bar list, and toggle items on or off from there. Their order in that list matches their order on the Status Bar itself.
The Old Status Bar
Set USENEWSTATUSBAR to Off to switch back to the older, simpler version: a single status field (showing tool descriptions on hover, or command prompts when the command line is closed; double-click it to open or close the command line) plus a Field List button for toggling which fields display. Right-click a field for more options.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I show or hide the Status Bar entirely? Right-click a docked toolbar, the ribbon, or a panel icon and choose Status Bar, or press Shift+F3.
Can I choose which tools appear on the Status Bar? Yes. Its own menu button opens the Configure Status Bar list, where you can toggle individual tools on or off.
Why did turning on Ortho also turn off Polar? They’re mutually exclusive. Turning either one on automatically turns the other off.
How do I switch back to the older, simpler Status Bar? Set the USENEWSTATUSBAR system variable to Off.