Did you know you can drag and drop many different file types into AutoCAD? There are many drag and drop features in AutoCAD and it’s verticals that are not documented. Not only can we drag and drop drawing (.dwg) files you can also do the same with lisp, script, images, pdf, and even text files. Let’s explore how you can develop it, drag it, and finally drop it in AutoCAD.
DRAWING FILES
It only makes sense that you can drag and drop drawing files into your current drawing since this is the primary type of file used in AutoCAD. You can drag drawing files right onto the application menu (big red A) or the start tab and you will open that drawing up in a new window as shown in Figure 1. This method proves effective when you have windows explorer open and you are browsing through files to locate the one you would like to open.
Figure 1: Open Drawings by dragging
You can also drag files into the active drawing area (AutoCAD Screen Area) area as shown in Figure 2 and they are inserted into the drawing as a block. Follow the sequence of commands for insertion point, scale, and rotation of block and it will be placed into your current drawing session.
Figure 2: Drag and Drop drawings as blocks
DRAWING TEMPLATES
A drawing template is a file that already contains some standards or objects in place for the user to begin a new drawing. A drawing template in AutoCAD ends with the extension .dwt. Let’s say you have a client title block you want to put in your drawing or start a new drawing file with that title block. Just as you have done in Figure 1, you are going to drag and drop the template into AutoCAD. This can be done in the following four ways and illustrated in Figure 3.
- The Application Menu
- The Open Drawing Tab
- The + Tab to create a new drawing
- The Active Drawing areas
Once you drop the template in AutoCAD will begin a new drawing using the settings from the template.
Figure 3: Four ways to drop a template into AutoCAD
LISP FILES
AutoLISP is the main programming language used in AutoCAD and is based on the LISP programming language. Because AutoCAD has a built-in LISP interpreter, you can enter AutoLISP code at the Command prompt or load AutoLISP code from external files, even just dragging into your drawing environment. Within AutoCAD help it states that AutoLISP provides three file formats for applications:
- Reading an LSP file (.lsp)—an ASCII text file that contains AutoLISP program code.
- Reading an FAS file (.fas)—a binary, compiled version of a single LSP program file.
- Reading a VLX file (.vlx)—a compiled set of one or more LSP and/or dialog control language (DCL) files. (VLX and DCL files are not supported in AutoCAD for Mac.)
Figure 4: Sample Lisp File
Loading a lisp routing is a simple as shown in Figure 2. Simply drag the file into AutoCAD and your commands will now be available for use. HINT: If you have lisp files that you continually load during many sessions consider adding to the startup suite to load each and every time you launch AutoCAD. With AutoCAD 2016 you may get a warning that it is not in the trusted location, simply hit yes to continue loading the file. Consider keeping all your lisp files in one location then adding that folder to the trusted locations path to avoid the warning.
SCRIPT FILES
A script is a text file with a .scr file extension. Each line of the script file contains a command that can be completed at the Command prompt in AutoCAD. Consider each line input at the command prompt with the user pressing an enter at the return. Let’s examine a script file to change dimensions settings and create a dimension style Figure 7 shows the My Dimensions.scr file as it is in text form. The highlighted portion of the image shows the same commands as they are entered in AutoCAD.Script files can be loaded exactly the same as in Figure 2. Drag the file into the command area and the commands will run in AutoCAD. In this example the last line of the script file is ddim which runs the dialog box for dimensions to show that the new dimstyle has been created. Since I launched the dialog box of ddim via the script you will not be able to run any additional commands, script files cannot pause for user input.
Figure 6: Script Files
TEXT FILES
AutoCAD can import word and excel files by cutting and pasting or even creating a link to the file. Text files (.txt) extension can be dragged and dropped into AutoCAD creating an mtext object. Drag the text file into AutoCAD and the MTEXT window will open up. You will need to adjust the width and margins of the text file but all of the original content will remain intact for you to edit as shown in Figure 7 below.
Figure 7: Text files into AutoCAD
EXTERNAL REFERENCES
The reason for the topic of Xref is that when you drag an image or pdf file into AutoCAD it becomes an external reference and is attached to the current drawing. Use the same technique as in Figure 1 and drag the image or pdf into the drawing area and the file will be attached as shown below in Figure 8.
Figure 8: PDF and Images into AutoCAD
AutoCAD provides many drag and drop features that can be very helpful while drafting and designing in AutoCAD. So next time if you just want to test out some new lisp files, attach a block, or even start a new drawing just develop them, drag them and drop them in AutoCAD.
Please see the attached video showing you how to Develop, Drag, and Drop that file into AutoCAD.
Source: Autodesk
