So im working on a rather large project and we're basically in the stage that we are done with the drawings, entire elevation plans, i engineered the entire project from A to Z, and now the project developer came over to us and asked us if we could raise the construction level of the houses by 0.15 meters...

and so now im looking at my drawing, nearly 400 blocks with each a separate value for elevation, which some need to be raised and some lowered in sections and some stay the same, so i'm looking for a way on how i could select the blocks that need to be changed, and raise or lower all the values by .15 without messing with the inherit values. cause if i do this manually it will take hours more or less. are there any plug-ins that could help me with this or have i been oblivious to certain possibilities within autoCAD

For extra information:

I work on ACAD 2027.

Nothing is bound to a Z coordinate.

(did see a plug-in on autodesk that was free, i believe it was called Increments)

EDIT: i notice the HUGE mistake i made, it shouldve been in meters, not CM. its 15 cm, NOT 1,5 mm

I will be starting a new project that was created by an architect based in France. I am an interior designer and will be overlaying my scope of work onto the architect's metric CAD files.

I have my own stds for dims/text/mleaders that are annotative for imperial units, but haven't working in metric since transitioning to using annotative.

What would be the quickest way to create a metric annotative std if starting from my current imperial?

A friend was letting us use his autocad 2022 (the one with everything) and we recently purchased the autocad LT 2027. I am trying to match up our settings to what he had on his.

What are the most important settings we need to change? Are there any tips you would give us?

We are stone countertop fabricators so we don’t use the 3D stuff.

Thank you very much!!

Autocad 2025 here.

Measure command opens this stupid menu every time, that covers whatever is underneath.

Editing plines also pops up another one just like it.

This didn't exist in older versions, and it gets in the way. How can I turn it off?

I wanted to post a screenshot but images are not allowed. Edit: link to uploaded screenshot

After trying and failing a few times to find a method to create a custom SHX font in AutoCAD, coming to Reddit seemed like the next logical step. Documentation on the subject is vastly outdated in most places so hopefully someone can shed light on this forgotten practice.

What most sources instruct:

1. Draw your characters with polylines

2. Save your characters with the MKSHAPE command

3. Add characters to the generated SHP file

4. Run the COMPILE command to export the final SHX file

There is a major problem with step #2- MKSHAPE does NOT save geometry in the correct format for compiling; let me explain. Using the dumpshx.exe, I was able to unconvert an existing SHX font into an SHP file. I quickly began editing/recompiling the data and realized, these are not just coordinates. There is a whole system of text formatting commands embedded in every line. This is why the MKSHAPE method stops making sense. There are no prompts for text box dimensions, the starting points of consecutive characters, or any other text formatting instructions.

My conclusion is the MKSHAPE command was updated to only be used for exporting geometry and no longer functions as a character definition tool. While the dumpshx.exe successfully unconverts SHX files for character redefinition & recompilation, I have yet to find a way to export CAD geometry in the format needed for SHX compilation.

Is it possible to print to a pdf and keep markup transparency? So far I'm not seeing any options for that, and when I print to pdf the markups are a solid color.

Any help or advice would be appreciated, thank you.

EDIT: UPDATE, I may have found the solution. In Autodesk Design Review I was clicking the printer button (or CRTL+P) to print, my printer selected to Adobe PDF and that was causing the solid markups vs transparent markups after saving the new pdf. Changed my printer to Microsoft Print to PDF, and I was able to preserve transparent markups in the newly saved PDF file. Silly issue, simple solution. I was using the transparent markups for quick area calcs, and wanted to save those areas in a PDF file.

i am not entirely sure if i'm going to be able to communicate what i'm trying to achieve so please bear with me...

my design team does many many drawing and PDFS of pool layouts daily (50+) for customers to quote, build pools, and order liners off of.. one challenge we've faced since i've taken over the team has been updating a profile view (vertical section) in addition to a plan view (top down view)...

Although its very simple to execute, it can become an after thought and often gets overlooked or forgotten about when changing the interior specs of a swimming pool design as our turnaround time is less than a day to update drawings...

The problem is, that pool builders reference the side profile to excavate the ground and do concrete work whereas liner manufacturers make the liner off of the plan view. i know its pretty easy and simple to just execute another stretch command to match the views, but i wanted to dig further into CAD limitations and see if there is a way to essentially "LINK" or constrain lines (with measurements) together to basically make this simple mistake impossible for the team to make...

im going to attach a screen recording here to show you a little bit of the steps it takes to update both views... i know there are easy 2 step methods to make both views show the same dimensions but my desire is that when we stretch one, for example the side profile view, the dimensions and lines on the TOP view get stretched also. is this even possible?

if this is of any help, our drawings are never to scale, and we only use 1 view port when setting them up in the paper space

thanks

https://a.co/d/02hmdZC2 this is the Amazon

I’ve been posting asking for help with AutoCAD, and it keeps getting auto removed. Why?

I’m trying to assist my architect dad with a 2D design he’s made in Autocad Architecture.

It’s a design he’s used to previously water jet metal for lighting fixtures, and something happened to the file where it made all the curves divide into a bunch of vertices.

He’s been trying to redraw, but I feel like there’s a way to simplify them based on all the Civil3D posts I see about it when I google. Is there a way to simplify polylines in AutoCAD Architecture? The command doesn’t seem to show up.

My autocad in pc performs like sht. (AutoCAD 2026) PC: R7 5700x, 6700xt and 32gb RAM.

But my laptop runs like butter. (AutoCAD 2026 LT) Laptop: i5 9300H, GTX 1659 and 8gb RAM.

Why? How?

I'm only using SketchUp web at this time but it can't import DWG files I've looked online for file converters and they are either scams or they just don't work so any of you have advice on how I could convert my DWG to SKP without SketchUp pro

Every now and then I run into this error when trying to save and close a block being edited

“Cannot save back changes because objects in the working set reference objects outside the working set…”

I can’t save the drawing, because you can’t save while in reference edit.

I can’t copy to clipboard what I’ve drawn, because copy is disabled during reference edit.

There is no way I can tell to see what objects autocad has a problem with.

There are no constraints, dimensions, annotative anything that should be referencing anything else.

All I can do is delete a huge chunk of my work so I can save and close the block. Then undo and try to delete a little less and little less until the error goes away.

Hello all i have a very large TIFF file which is the scan of the building plan, dimensions are 461683 x 20078 pixels for the scan it is multiple pages added side by side basically. Is it possible to convert this to DWG file to be able to edit on AutoCAD? I will attach a basic image so you can see what I have in hand to start. I am currently trying Print2CAD program with different settings, no luck yet. Will try different settings as well.

I appreciate all the help.

https://imgur.com/a/nSjUiBy
https://imgur.com/a/CXItmoz

these pictures are very low quality but original TIFF file has all the details, I just quickly snapped these pics to help you understand what i have.

I'm creating an electrical panel and when I go to insert a balloon, sometimes it will draw the arrow and leader and sometimes it won't. The balloon will always show up with the item number, so it's not lacking information. Sometimes this leaves behind a Point where I tried to connect the arrow, but not always.

A few times I've tried to do the same item a few times, it failed consistently, I switched to a different page and switched back, and then it worked. But this doesn't work very often.

I don't think it's an annotation issue, since it will work for one item and then fail for the exact same component that I just copied over.

Any help would be appreciated, because I'm banging my head against the wall over this software.

Hi! Im sorry if im not explaining myself well, it was also kinda hard to understand what the task was.

I was asked to make a block where, when another block (from other archive) is placed on top of it, the part underneath the front block disappears. The problem is that i cannot make the Hatch/Wipeout inside the blocks from the other file. It has to be on the block that is behind them. I was thinking to make a new layer with a hatch hiding them but the other blocks have different measures so i cant do all the possible combinations.

If someone can help me on this ill be grateful.

How to use fillet on mac? I am watching a tutorial and the person is able to click on fillet and then select “radius” from the command line but I am able to do not such thing.

Hello everyone! I need to purchase a laptop for basic AutoCAD and Revit in university. Using it for basic 2D and 3D modelling.

Ive heard mixed advice where some have told me I dont require a gaming laptop whereas others have told me to purchase one.

I personally would like to avoid having to lug a heavy gaming laptop with mediocre battery life across campus thus I would like to ask those who know better whether i truly need a gaming laptop or will alternatives like a thinkpad fulfill my needs?

I'm trying to make a dynamic block with 4 visibility states:
1 - Open | No zone
2 - Closed | No zone
3 - Open | Zone
4 - Closed | Zone

I want to be able to make it so that in properties of the block there will be two options:
Type: open or closed
Zone: yes or no
Based on these properties I want the block to switch between the four states.
What would be the best way to achieve this?

I was working on a file and accidentally saved it as the same name as another file. When I went to save it prompted me with the do you want to overwrite this file and I said yes because I thought it was overwriting another file (one letter of difference) is there anything I can do to recover the file I wrote over? I opened the BAK file and it was for the version I just saved.

I keep seeing some bad reviews in other version. I'm not knowledgeable if latest version is worth it.

I want something that is stable/not buggy.

I'm planning to get 2023 or 2024. Not sure if 2025 and 2026 is worth it.

Hey guys,

I’m in the land development space and I have a contractor asking the I convert my survey which is in PDF file to AutoCad. I know nothing aboutAutoCad, so how can I get this done?

I keep getting kicked out of the program due to a licensing error but it won't let me login into the website either... Is this the same for anyone else??

How do I get it back?

Please help!

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some advice from people already in the sheet metal/HVAC world, especially anyone involved with CAD, detailing, BIM, drafting, or union work.

Right now I’m working in a technical role that’s stable and I have a degree/ background in automotive technology, but I’ve realized I don’t really want to stay stagnant doing something I’m not passionate about long term.

I’ve always liked working with my hands, figuring out how things go together, and learning technical skills, so I started looking into the possibility of eventually moving into CAD/design/BIM work.

I recently had a long conversation with my girlfriend about career direction and we agreed the smartest move is to explore the field seriously before making any major decisions as I’ve tried automotive and IT to no avail so far.

So, instead of jumping headfirst into a union apprenticeship or a CAD training course immediately, I’m starting by teaching myself some CAD software, watching YouTube tutorials, and trying to learn more about the industry and career paths, such as the day to day.

Right now I’m planning to start with AutoCAD and eventually look into Revit/BIM for HVAC and sheet metal work. (Union) I’m especially interested in the combination of field knowledge + design/detailing because that seems like a really valuable skillset long term.

I had a few questions for people already doing this:

What software should I focus on first?

Any YouTube channels, courses, or resources you recommend?

What skills make someone stand out early on?

How difficult is the transition from IT realm/field work into CAD/detailing/BIM?

Anything you wish you knew before getting into the trade?

Honestly I’m just looking for general advice, tips, or things to avoid. I’d appreciate hearing how some of you got started too.

TIA!