Introduction to 3D Design - Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design - page 8

Ribbon environment
Since the 2009 version, AutoCAD also allows for a ribbon-based environment.
Normally, this environment uses neither toolbars nor the menu bar. AutoCAD comes
with two ribbon workspaces, namely, 3D Basics and 3D Modeling; the first being less
useful than the second.
The advantages are that we have consistency with other software, commands are
divided into panels and tabs, the ribbon can be collapsed to a single line, and it in-
cludes some commands not available on the toolbars. The disadvantage is that as
it's a dynamic environment, we frequently have to activate other panels to access
commands and some important commands and functions are not always visible:
Note
When modeling in 3D, the layers list visibility is almost mandatory. We may add
this list to the Quick Access Toolbar by applying the CUI command or by right-
clicking above the command icon we want to add. Another way is to pull the Lay-
ers panel to the drawing area, thus making it permanently visible.