Many advanced users of the popular AutoCAD-family products extend the functions of their CAD system by new useful tools. These tools help them streamline repeated tasks. Tens of such tools are available for free on the XANADU web site.

”We sell and support Autodesk CAD and GIS technologies for already eighteen years. Experience we have drawn during these years allows us to respond to very specific customer requirements in different industries.” adds Vladimir MICHL, business development manager at XANADU. ”Our own software add-ons – in combination with tips and advices from our web portal CADforum.cz – enable users to find the right solutions and workarounds to technical problems they might face in the CAD and GIS fields.”

Some of the most popular free CAD add-on tools:

• GeoRefImg: Automatically places raster images (maps) according to date from their georeference files (e.g. TFW for TIFF files). So you can easily reposition a set of tiled maps in a DWG drawing in AutoCAD or AutoCAD Architecture.
• Xls2Curve: Creates AutoCAD points or curves from a list of coordinates loaded (or calculated) in an Excel sheet. It allows to select columns with XY or XYZ coordinates and import them as 2D/3D points, blocks, polylines or splines.
• srxTEXT: A very popular application – can be used to find and replace drawing texts using a command-line function with many options. Can be used as a batch command, in scripts, to perform advanced replacements with regular expressions or replacements of word-pairs defined in an Excel table.
• DOBT: Sets drawing order of objects by the object type (e.g. texts always above hatches) and by layers. It supports also AEC objects from AutoCAD Architecture.
• AutoDWF/AutoPDF: A reactor which automatically saves a DWF- or PDF-copy of your drawing on every save of the DWG file. You can setup many parameters for the publishing, including the publishing folder, layouts, FTP upload, etc.
• LinOut: Generates definitions of complex linetypes (utilities, border-lines, etc.) from an existing drawing. The resulting .LIN file can be then used in other drawings.
• SurfacePoints: This tool creates and labels terrain elevation points on any surface model in AutoCAD Civil 3D.
• FLay (Force Layer): A useful and highly customizable tool (reactor). It ensures that all hatches you draw will go to the layer HATCH, all texts will go to the layer ANNOTATIONS, all dimensions to DIMS, etc. This function is fully automatic, you can use standard AutoCAD commands.
• DBX utility: The family of DBX applications performs batch operations on a multiple DWG drawings (e.g. processes a whole folder or project).
  • DBXremSL: Locates drawings containing excessive annotation scales brought from xrefs (these scales can slow down your drawing). Creates a report of the located drawings and you can batch-remove the scales.
  • DBXscanAEC: Locates all DWG drawings containing objects from AEC applications (Architecture, MEP, Civil3D). So you can pre-identify files, which may report proxy objects when opened in base AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT.
  • DBXscanMech: Similar to DBXscanAEC – scans DWG files created in AutoCAD Mechanical.
  • DBXscanVBA: Locates all DWG drawings containing VBA macros. Optionally you can batch-remove these macros.
  • DBXscanXref: Locates all DWG drawings containing links to external references.
  You can find more information about the DBX tools family on www.cadstudio.cz/en/apps/DBX
• InsertC+BlockC: These two tools can insert, resp. renumber, drawing blocks in the current DWG drawing as a sequentially numbered series (incremental numbering).
• GRP: A simple “single-click” tool for easy grouping and ungrouping of drawing objects in AutoCAD.
• SPRx: Renumbers sample lines and sample line groups in river-flow alignments (from the river estuary) in AutoCAD Civil 3D.
• DelProxy: If you want to get rid of the proxy objects in a DWG drawing, you can use DelProxy. It removes both the individual proxy entities and most of the non-graphical proxy objects on drawing tables and blocks.

All these CAD tools (and many others) are available for download on www.cadstudio.cz/download. You can find a more detailed description of their usage in the Tips and tricks section of the portal www.cadforum.cz.

About XANADU
XANADU Inc. is leading supplier of solutions and services in the areas of CAD, GIS, IT infrastructure and software development in the Czech Republic. XANADU is an Autodesk Premier Solutions Provider (PSP), Microsoft Gold Partner and HP Preferred Gold Partner, active on the Czech and Slovak markets already for 18 years.

More information: www.xanadu.cz
Company blog: budweiser.xanadu.cz