How to Manage Workspaces in BricsCAD

Quick answer: WORKSPACE sets the current workspace and lets you create, modify, and save one; WSSAVE saves the current workspace under a new name, creating a copy; WSSETTINGS opens the Customize dialog directly to the Workspaces tab. The current workspace’s name is stored in WSCURRENT, part of the current user profile, the same profile system covered elsewhere in this hub.

The Available Workspaces and License Requirements

Eight workspaces ship with BricsCAD: 2D Drafting, 2D Drafting (Modern), Modeling, BIM, Mechanical, Civil Survey, Ultimate, and Toolbars (Classic). If GETSTARTED is on, you can pick one directly from the BricsCAD Launcher dialog at startup, though availability depends on your license level:

Setting the Current Workspace

Click the Current Workspace field in the Status Bar and select one from the context menu, choose one from the Workspaces toolbar, or type WSCURRENT at the Command line and enter the name of the workspace you want.

With WSAUTOSAVE on (the default), switching workspaces automatically saves the current workspace’s toolbar positions to the CUI file. It’s not recommended to switch workspaces if your user profile’s name itself refers to a specific workspace.

The Six Components of a Workspace

Every workspace definition includes:

• Menus: which menus are available.
• Toolbars: which toolbars display by default.
• Panels: the visibility of dockable panels, set per panel to Show, Hide, or Don’t change.
• Ribbon: which ribbon tabs are available.
• Quad Tabs: the order and availability of Quad tabs.
• On Switch: system variables, user preferences, and commands that run automatically when you switch to this workspace.

Creating a Workspace

1. In the Customize dialog, click the Workspaces tab.
2. Either select Workspaces, right-click, and choose Append workspace (adds it below the last existing one), or select an existing workspace, right-click, and choose Insert workspace (adds it above the selected one). The Add workspace dialog opens.
3. Type a name and press Enter or click OK.

A newly created workspace starts with a standard menu set, a standard toolbar set, every panel set to Don’t change, an empty ribbon, a default set of Quad tabs, and an empty On Switch sequence. These same defaults are also available in the Settings dialog under Program Options/Workspace.

Editing a Workspace

1. In the Customize dialog, click the Workspaces tab and expand the workspace.
2. Menu set: drag to reorder, right-click and choose Remove to delete one, or right-click and choose Insert menu (the File menu inserts by default) or select the ID field in the Workspace Menu grid to insert one.
3. Toolbar set: the same pattern, drag to reorder, Remove to delete, Insert toolbar (Standard toolbar by default) or the ID field in the grid to add one.
4. Panels: set each one’s On Switch behaviour to Show, Hide, or Don’t change, and edit further properties in the property grid.
5. Ribbon: right-click an existing tab and choose Insert tab to add one via the Select Ribbon Tab dialog, right-click and choose Remove to delete one, or drag to reposition.
6. Quad Tabs: drag a command group to reorder it, right-click and choose Delete to remove one from the Quad, or right-click and choose Insert to add one from the list.
7. On Switch: drag a command from the available commands pane onto the On Switch node to add it to the sequence.

Deleting a Workspace

1. In the Customize dialog, click the Workspaces tab.
2. Right-click the workspace and choose Delete; a confirmation dialog appears.
3. Click Yes.

Don’t delete the default workspace, since the BricsCAD Launcher relies on it. If it does get deleted, restore it using the Importing a Workspace procedure below, pulling from the default.cui file in the ../UserDataCache\Support\en_US subfolder of the BricsCAD installation folder, the same UserDataCache folder covered on this hub’s user files page.

Importing a Workspace

1. In the Customize dialog, choose Import workspaces… from the File menu; the Choose a Customization File dialog opens.
2. Browse to the folder containing the source CUI file (BricsCAD saves CUI files in the Support folder of the Roamable Root folder by default, the same location covered on the user files page).
3. Select the CUI file; a dialog lists every workspace it contains.
4. Select the workspace(s) to import (hold Ctrl for multiple) and click OK.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the Ultimate workspace with a Pro license? No, it requires the Ultimate license level specifically.

What happens to my toolbar positions when I switch workspaces? With WSAUTOSAVE on (the default), the current workspace’s toolbar positions save to the CUI file automatically before you switch.

How do I recover a workspace I accidentally deleted? Import it back from the default.cui file in the UserDataCache folder of the BricsCAD installation, using the Importing a Workspace procedure.

Can I automatically run commands whenever I switch to a particular workspace? Yes, drag commands onto that workspace’s On Switch node to have them run automatically on switching.