Create your own magic button to restore AutoCAD layers and styles

AutoCAD template is very helpful if you want to start your drawing with predefined setup. You can have all the layers, blocks, layout and all necessary setup right when you create your drawing. It’s not only make you more productive. It helps you to maintain drawing standards as well.

But using template sometimes make your drawings a bit complex. You can have hundreds of layers. And maybe several styles. We don’t use many of them. During the drawing process, we tend to purge the unused objects.

This however, can cause another problem. What if we want to use the layer or styles that has been purged?

The fastest way to restore object from template

There are several ways you can do to restore layers and styles. However, the fastest way is to insert a drawing as block to your current drawing.

Here is the details:

1. Copy your template. Rename the new template, change the DWT extension to DWG. As we know already, DWT is actually just an AutoCAD drawing.
2. Activate insert block. Browse and find the DWG drawing. Click OK to insert block.
3. AutoCAD will insert all defined objects in DWG file (that are the same with in your template).
4. When AutoCAD ask you for insertion point, just press ESC to cancel. We don’t need to actually insert the block, we just want AutoCAD to insert all objects within the drawing.

That’s it!

The magic button

Now that you know how to restore the objects easily, we’ll try to make it even easier. We’ll create a magic button to restore the object.

You need to create a custom command. If you are not familiar with CUI yet, you can learn how to create a custom command here.

The macro is simple:

^C^C-insert;"your_file_name.dwg";^C^C

Replace file name with your drawing file name. Very simple, right?

Now one thing you should remember: Place the drawing file name in a folder that’s defined as AutoCAD support File Search Path. If you want to place it in custom location, define the location in support file search path.

It doesn’t have to be complicated

Many great tips are actually very simple, but we never thought about it. Many times we think customization is a difficult and complex task. It doesn’t have to. Do you have a simple customization tip to share? You can write for CADnotes and share your tips to the community!

This tip was mentioned to me by Hai Le (@ThatCADguy) on twitter. Thank you for the great tip Hai Le!

About Edwin Prakoso

I work as a Sr. Technical Consultant in Tech Data Advanced Solutions Indonesia. I've been using AutoCAD since R14 and Revit since Revit Building 9. I occasionally write for AUGIWorld magazine and also active in Autodesk discussion forum.
I'm an Autodesk Certified Professional (ACP) for Revit Architecture and AutoCAD. I'm also a member of Autodesk Expert Elite, appreciation for individuals who give contribution to Autodesk community.
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