The Power of DesignCenter in AutoCAD

April 15, 2023

DesignCenter in AutoCAD can help you organize and access drawings, blocks, hatches, and other drawing content. Many people I speak with have not used or forgotten about the power behind DesignCenter in AutoCAD. DesignCenter can be used to capture objects from the template and drawing files and quickly drag them into your current drawing file. The key is setting the home button to the location of your standards and templates.

DesignCenter can be found on the View tab of the Ribbon under the palettes panel, as shown. You can also type ADC or ADCENTER at the command prompt.

Many other capabilities are listed below and can be found in Autodesk Help.

With Designcenter, you can

Browse for drawing content such as drawings or symbol libraries on your computer, networked drive, and web page.
View definition tables for blocks and layers in any drawing file, then insert, attach, or copy and paste the definitions into the current drawing.
Update (redefine) a block definition
Create shortcuts to drawings, folders, and Internet locations that you access frequently.
Add content such as xrefs, blocks, and hatches to a drawing
Open drawing files in a new window
Drag drawings, blocks, and hatches to a tool palette for convenient access
Copy and paste content, such as layer definitions, layouts, and text styles, between open drawings

One important thing is to set your HOME status on Designcenter to where your templates are or the files you need to locate.

To do this, open designcenter (ADC), look at the toolbar on the top and notice the home button. First, navigate to your standards folder and follow these 3 steps.