pyACAD tools guide

Every button on the pyACAD tab

What each tool does, how to use it, what it will not do, and the other jobs it turns out to be good for. One page per tool, grouped the way the ribbon is.

pyACAD#

The tool itself: settings, shortcuts, the console, Reload.

The first panel is pyACAD itself: the things you set once, and the two developer tools that stay useful long after setup. Nothing here touches a drawing. Each button is also an AutoCAD command, so you can type it at the command line or put it in a macro.

SettingsOne window over the parts of pyACAD you are meant to change: theme, ribbon hints, where extensions load from, the engine paths, the AI assistant and updates. ShortcutsThe shortcuts and aliases editor: every pyACAD tool that can carry a chord or an alias, what it has now, and fields to change both. ConsoleAn interactive Python console inside AutoCAD, with the same pyacad library every tool uses. ReloadRescan every extension folder and rebuild the pyACAD ribbon, without restarting AutoCAD.

Data#

Block attributes out to Excel and back, schedules, and find and replace across attributes.

The Data panel is for block attributes: the title block fields, equipment tags, room names and door numbers that live inside block references. Take them out to Excel, edit them there and put them back; count blocks into a schedule; or find and replace text across every attribute at once. Every tool here works on the drawing that is open, and its button is greyed until one is.

Blocks to ExcelExports block references to an Excel workbook: one row per block with its handle, layer, position, rotation and scale, and one column per attribute tag. Excel to BlocksReads a workbook made by Blocks to Excel and writes the attribute values and layers you edited back to the blocks, matched by handle. Block ScheduleCounts block references by name, or by name and layer, in the selection or the whole drawing, and places the schedule as a table or saves it to Excel. Find and Replace AttributesReplaces text inside block attribute values across the drawing, the selection or blocks you pick, in every tag or just one, with or without matching case.

Layers#

A layer palette, bulk renames and merges from a mapping, and snapshots you can restore.

The Layers panel keeps layers in hand: a palette that lists them with the everyday actions one click away, a mapper that brings a drawing's layers into line with a standard from a CSV, and snapshots of which layers are on, frozen and locked that you can put back later.

Layer ManagerA docked list of the drawing's layers with a filter box. Pick layers to isolate, freeze, turn off, lock, make current, merge or delete them without opening the Layer Properties Manager. Layer MapperApplies a layer standard from a CSV with the columns old, new and optionally color and linetype: matching layers are renamed, or merged when the new name already exists, and you tick what to apply. Layer SnapshotSaves which layers are on, frozen and locked under a name for this drawing, and puts a saved state back later.

Xrefs#

Every reference in one list, and broken paths fixed in bulk.

Two tools for the drawing's external references. Xref Manager does what the External References palette does one row at a time (reload, unload, detach, bind) to as many xrefs as you tick. Xref Repath rewrites the saved paths of every xref in one pass and shows you each old and new path before it touches anything. Both work on the top-level xrefs only: a nested xref follows the xref that holds it.

Xref ManagerReload, unload, detach or bind several xrefs at once, picked from a list that shows each one's status and saved path. Xref RepathChange every xref's saved path in one go: relative, absolute, find and replace, or point them all at one folder, with a preview of each old and new path first.

Cleanup#

Purge, audit and tidy a drawing in one pass, and find the fonts and proxies that break it.

Two tools for drawing hygiene. Drawing Cleanup runs the usual tidy-up (purge, audit, zero-length and duplicate geometry, ByLayer colour, zoom extents) from one checklist. Font and Proxy Report finds what makes a drawing look wrong on someone else's machine: objects from software this AutoCAD does not have, and text styles whose font files are missing.

Drawing CleanupPurge, audit, delete zero-length and duplicate geometry and zoom extents in one run, from a checklist that remembers your last choice. Font and Proxy ReportLists the proxy objects in the drawing and the fonts its text styles name that AutoCAD cannot find, then exports the list to Excel or remaps the missing fonts.

Output#

Plot many layouts to PDF at once, and manage paper space tabs in bulk.

Two tools for paper space. Batch Plot turns the layouts you tick into PDFs, one file per layout, named the way you choose. Layout Manager does the tab housekeeping AutoCAD makes you do one right-click at a time: rename, reorder, copy, delete, and one page setup applied to many layouts at once.

Batch PlotPlots the layouts you pick to PDF, one file per layout, in a folder you choose, and remembers the folder, the naming and the page setup for next time. Layout ManagerRenames, reorders, copies or deletes paper space layouts, or applies one named page setup to many layouts at once.

Takeoff#

Measure lengths by layer and check that every tag is where it should be.

Two checks for building services drawings. Length Takeoff totals run lengths per layer, so a duct, pipe or cable layer reads as one figure. Tag Audit checks one attribute across your blocks and finds the values used twice, the blanks and the blocks that lack it. Both work on what you selected first, or on the whole drawing when nothing is selected, and both can hand the result to Excel.

Length TakeoffTotals the length of lines, arcs, polylines and splines per layer, in the selection or else all of model space, in the drawing's units, with an Excel export. Tag AuditChecks one attribute, TAG by default, across the block references in the selection or the drawing, and lists the values used twice, the blanks and the blocks without it.

AI (beta)#

A chat that writes pyACAD tools for you, and the setup behind it.

The AI panel is a beta. It puts a chat inside AutoCAD that writes pyACAD tools for you: describe the button you want, read what the model proposes, click Create, and the button appears on its own AI tab. The two small buttons beside it hold the setup and the folder the tools land in. It is new and lightly tested, and it is not the only way to do this: the same authoring guide the panel gives the model can be copied into any assistant you already use.

Ask AIBeta. A chat palette that turns a plain-words request into a working pyACAD tool on the ribbon, and revises it when you ask. AI SettingsThe provider, endpoint, model and API key Ask AI uses: the Settings window opened on its AI section. Open AI FolderExplorer on the folder where Ask AI writes its tools.