A reader of my book, AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT Bible (the 2010 version) wrote me the following:
“Whenever the mouse crosshairs land on a line in a drawing, a small ‘window’ appears, listing
Line.
Color. By layer
Layer. Plan
Linetype. Continuous
This is extremely annoying and I can’t see how I can prevent this entirely superfluous ‘window’ from appearing whenever the mouse lands on a line, or is left parked on a line. You can imagine my frustration when working on a graph, with a grid as a background. This was never the case with previous versions of AutoCAD, and in my opinion, is not an ‘upgrade’ but a retrograde move.”
As you can see, he is quite annoyed. Frankly, I hardly even notice this and at first I thought he was talking about the Quick Properties window that opens when you select an object. But he was talking about hovering over an object.
The solution is to change the value of the ROLLOVERTIPS system variable. The default, 1, shows information about an object when you roll the mouse over it. Change the default to 0 to make it go away. This system variable is saved in the Registry, so once you change it, you won’t see that tooltip in any of your drawings.
It’s just 2 steps:
- Type rollovertips on the command line and press Enter.
- Type 0 and press Enter again.
By the way, to make the Quick Properties box go away, just click the Quick Properties button on the status bar to deselect it.
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Will this work for Version 2008 or is there another way?
I don’t have 2008, so I can’t test it, and I don’t know when this feature was added. My guess is that the rollovertips system variable will work in any release. Let me know what you find out.
I don’t mind when it pops up with information about an object. I find that useful. Sort of a quicker Quick Properties (although I understand why some find it annoying).
What bothers me is when tool tips pop up over whatever I’m trying to interact with in a dialog box and I can’t see what I’m trying to select. Is there any way to differentiate between the two? ON in drawings, OFF in dialogs / menus?
Bill,
I’m not aware of any way to turn tooltips off in dialog boxes. It’s bad interface design, IMHO, when the tooltip interferes with seeing the options you need to select.
If ROLLOVERTIPS doesn’t help, you may need to go into Windows settings. If you do a search for “turn off tooltips in windows” (without the quotes), you’ll find some results. The one I looked at involved editing the Registry, so do it at your own risk. Of course, this would nuke all tooltips in all Windows programs!
I actually find that function usefull, especially when working with blocks created with Detail Components. It will list all of the items listed component information. BUT I can see how it could get in the way when you’re not looking for it. To combat this, I created a simple shortcut for ROLLOVERTIPS, “RT”. Not really a toggle, but I’m not much of a typist, so shortcuts are my friends!
Ellen, ROLLOVERTIPS was added in 2009. http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en has a listing of all commands and system variables with the dates they appeared in AutoCAD.
Thanks for the info, I did find this annoying, got used to it and never checked it out until now. Works great. Again thanks Autocad 2011 LT
for dialog boxes and toolbars/ribbon:
tools>options>display>window elements>show tooltips
TOOLTIPS=0
for entity rollover tips:
tools>options>display>window elements>show rollover tooltips
ROLLOVERTIPS=0
THANK YOU FOR THIS TIP! You’ve saved my sanity!
In 2013 version, you can turn this on and off by simply checking or un-checking specific boxes. Go to Options / Display and it’s right there for you to set what you want. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much !!! I almost go crazy
Thanks ffor sharing your thoughts on AutoCAD tips. Regards