142 — Program Options in AutoCAD¶

Program Options is ConstructiVision’s front desk in AutoCAD. It is one small dialog of twelve buttons for the jobs that sit above a single panel: starting a drawing, opening another one, starting a project, running a batch, showing or printing layers, and printing the materials list or the revision history.

It is not a panel editor. Nothing on it changes the panel you have open. When you want to edit a panel, that is Main Panel Details (Tutorial 2); when you want to work on a site, that is Site Drawing Options. Program Options is where you go to get to the next drawing or the next job.

Where it is¶

Toolbar: the Program Options button on the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar, between Color Theme and Account. Its tooltip reads Program Options.
No command of its own. The button runs ConstructiVision’s main command and tells it to show Program Options.

The button opens Program Options whatever is open. On a panel drawing (AAA039, and the sample building’s CSB001) and on a site drawing (AAAsite1), it opened the same dialog — not Main Panel Details and not Site Drawing Options.

Three ways in, and where each one goes¶

Two other routes start the same main command, and they do not always land on Program Options. They open the editor for the drawing you have open, and fall back to Program Options only when there is nothing to edit:

you use	panel drawing open	site drawing open	no ConstructiVision drawing
Program Options button	Program Options	Program Options	—
ConstructiVision → Edit Current Drawing	Main Panel Details	the menu’s help line says the site editor	Program Options
typing `CSV` at the command line	Main Panel Details	Site Drawing Options	—

So if you want the hub while a panel is open, use the button. Edit Current Drawing and CSV take you straight into that panel’s Main Panel Details.

Try it on AAA039¶

AAA039 is a panel in the Arlington Airport A project.

Open AAA039.
Click Program Options on the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar.
ConstructiVision - Program Options opens on top of the panel. Main Panel Details does not open, even though a panel drawing is the one in front of you.
Read the line across the top: ConstructiVision Tilt-Up and PreCast Software Version followed by the version you have installed – Version 12.20.167 when this lesson was checked. Under it are twelve buttons in two columns, and Cancel and Help at the bottom right.
Click Cancel. The dialog closes and you are back in AAA039.

That is the whole round trip. The next two sections use the hub for what it is for: getting to another drawing.

Open another drawing: Edit Existing Drawing¶

With AAA039 open, click Program Options.
Click Edit Existing Drawing.
A file picker titled Choose a Drawing to edit. opens on the folder that holds AAA039.
Pick AAA040.dwg and click Open.
AAA040 opens in its own tab, and its Main Panel Details opens straight away, on Panel No. 40. Click Cancel if you only came to look.
AAA039 is still open in its own tab. It is not saved for you — if you had unsaved changes in it, they are still there, still unsaved, waiting for you to save or discard them yourself.

The drawing’s own record decides which editor you get, not its file name. Pick a site drawing and you land in ConstructiVision – Site Drawing Options instead of Main Panel Details — even when the file is named like something else. A copy of AAAsite1 saved as “Arlington A yard.dwg” still opened as a site; a copy of AAA039 saved as “AAA039-site.dwg” still opened as a panel.

Cancelling Main Panel Details here does not spend a panel token.

Start a new drawing: Create New Drawing¶

With AAA039 open, click Program Options.
Click Create New Drawing.
A file picker titled Choose a Drawing to use as a template, or click CANCEL to start from scratch. opens on the Arlington Airport A folder, showing Drawing (*.dwg) files. As its title says, pick a drawing to use as a template, or press Cancel to start from scratch.

This is not the same first step as the New Drawing toolbar button, which asks What kind of drawing is this? (Panel or Site) before it shows a template picker. From Program Options the template picker comes first.

Reading the dialog¶

ConstructiVision - Program Options, as it opens:

left column	right column
Create New Drawing	Edit Existing Drawing
Create New Project	Batch Utilities
View All Layers	Print All Layers
View Selected Layers	Print Selected Layers
Change 3D Viewpoint	Print Materials List
Change Project Search Path	Print Revision History

Cancel and Help sit together at the bottom right. Create New Drawing is the default button.

The dialog is the same on a panel and on a site. The same twelve buttons, in the same places, all available, whether AAA039, CSB001 or AAAsite1 was open.

The version line is your installed version. It shows the update you have, so it is the quick way to check after installing one. (Updates released before 11 October 2026 showed Version 11.00 2/4/2013 there, whatever was installed; update 12.20.167 is the first that shows the real version.)

Several of these jobs also have their own buttons on the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar, under slightly different names — Batch Utilities, View All Layers, View Select Layers, Print All Layers, Print Select Layouts, Materials List, Revision History and 3D Viewpoint. Those buttons are taught in their own lessons: Tutorial 13 (materials and printing), Tutorial 15 (revisions) and Tutorial 19 (3D viewpoint).

What this lesson does not cover¶

What the other ten buttons and Help open from this dialog. This lesson walks only the two that take you to a drawing.
The browser’s Program Options. In ConstructiVision on the web (lesson 410), Program Options is a grid of every feature one panel can carry, each opening that feature’s editor. The AutoCAD dialog in this lesson has no feature entries at all — in AutoCAD the features are reached from Main Panel Details (Tutorial 2) and from the feature buttons on the ConstructiVision toolbar.

Watch the lesson¶

The video does Try it on AAA039 (the round trip) and Open another drawing: Edit Existing Drawing as far as AAA040’s Main Panel Details on Panel No. 40, then Cancel. Installed for the recording: Version 12.21.197.