AutoCAD 2010 Contextual Tab States 101

In a previous post, I described contextual ribbon tabs and I listed the default editing modes for which context-sensitive ribbon tabs are displayed including blocks, text, meshes, in-place references, section planes, and tables. The context-sensitive behavior is controlled by contextual tab states, which you can view and modify in the Customize User Interface (CUI) dialog box.

1. Use the CUI command to access the Customize User Interface dialog box
2. Expand the Ribbon node
3. Expand the Contextual Tab States node

A long list of contextual tab states is displayed. Most of them relate to object selection (Arc selected, Attribute selected, Block selected). Others relate to editing modes (Block Editor Mode, Reference Editing Mode). The contextual tab states that are already defined can be expanded to show which tabs will display in those modes.

 
For example, the Block Editor Contextual Tab and the Block Editor – Close Contextual Merged Tab automatically displays when you enter the Block Editor.

The DGN Underlay Contextual Tab automatically displays when you select a DGN underlay.

While the contextual tab states indicate which tabs to display under what conditions, they do not define the tabs themselves. The tabs are defined, just as they’ve always been, under the Ribbon>Tabs node in the CUI editor.