Calming AutoCAD 2019’s randomly jumping status bar

By Dennis Collin 

In AutoCAD, when the status bar reaches the model and layout tabs section, sometimes a second row for the status bar appears and disappears. The screen appears to jump back and forth as the row appears and disappears repeatedly, even if none of the status bar icons wrap to the second row. This most often happens when moving the cursor in a file (thereby changing the coordinate read-out) or panning and zooming.

Fig 1. Extra icons cause potential autowrapping which causes the ‘jumping’ screen

This is caused by the status bar width being at the exact threshold between the single row configuration and where it needs to wrap to a second row.

To resolve this issue, set the variable; STATUSBARAUTOWRAP to off (or zero). This will then stop the 'bouncing' behaviour and will force AutoCAD to keep everything on a single line OR a double row as appropriate. Alternatively remove icons or the coordinates readout from the status bar until it can display all the options on a single line. Increasing the screen resolution and maximising the AutoCAD window can also cure this somewhat annoying behaviour.

Fig 2. Removing icons or setting the autowrap variable removes the screen jump behaviour!