Disabling the Multiple Document Environment (MDE) *Applies to: AutoCAD 2000, 2000i, 2002, 2004 and 2005*
With the introduction of AutoCAD R2000 came lots of new ways to
complete our design work faster and more efficient. One of these ways was
for allowing more than one drawing to be opened in a single session of
AutoCAD at any given point. With this ability came many new
things to worry about, like remembering to close a drawing once you
are done with it. Because hey this was new to AutoCAD so we were
all use to AutoCAD doing this for us. Well there is still hope
for the ones of us that just have a tough time to change... I can say
I am one of them... and it goes like this Open, Open, Open, Open and
why is my computer running so slow... Open, Open and then you remember
Opps got to know close all my drawings... Close, Close, Close...
Enough of that... there is a way to restore the Single Drawing
Interface and it is controlled through a system variable called SDI.
Simply change the SDI value to 1 (one) and your back to Single Drawing
mode and then back to 0 (zero) Multiple Drawing Environment
mode. There are also times when you have written your own script
programs that open multiple files that this comes in handy for
also. Below you will also find additional values that you may
encounter in the SDI system variable.
Related Commands: OPTIONS and PREFERENCES
0 (OFF) -
Enables the Multiple
Document Environment.
1 (ON) -
Disables the Multiple
Document Environment.
2 (ON) -
ultiple Document Environment
is disabled because an application that does not support
multiple drawings loaded at a single time was loaded in AutoCAD.
(Original setting was zero and this setting will not be
saved).
3 (ON) -
Multiple Document Environment
is disabled because an application that does not support
multiple drawings loaded at a single time was loaded in AutoCAD.
(Original setting was one and this setting will not be saved).
Command Line:
Command: sdi
Enter new value for SDI <0>: 1
