AutoCAD Plugin

The AVstackr plugin for AutoCAD draws a project's devices as blocks filled with their AVstackr values, and it carries changes between the drawing and the project from a palette inside AutoCAD.

How It Works

The plugin connects an AutoCAD drawing to an AVstackr project. It works with these parts:

• A unit is one physical device on a project. A line on a room's equipment list stands for one or more units, so a line with Qty 3 is three units.
• A device tag is a short, permanent name for one unit, such as DISP-003. AVstackr builds it from a pattern your company sets. The plugin uses the tag to match blocks to units.
• A CAD block is the AutoCAD symbol a unit is drawn with. Your company keeps one library of blocks in AVstackr, and a product or its category names the block it uses on each kind of drawing. A unit without a block is drawn as a generic box, sized from the product's dimensions.
• A linked drawing belongs to one project and has one view. The view is the kind of drawing it is: Plan, Ceiling, Elevation or Schematic. It decides which block each unit gets. The link is saved inside the DWG file.
• Placing a unit inserts its block in the drawing and fills the block's attributes with the unit's values. AVstackr then records that this drawing shows the unit. That record is called a placement.
• A sync sends the drawing's AVstackr blocks to AVstackr and compares them with the project. It settles what it can on its own, and it lists what needs your decision in the palette's Review tab. Every save of a linked drawing runs a sync.
• While Live sync is on, your edits to placed blocks reach AVstackr without a sync, about a second after each command ends.
• The palette is the AVstackr window inside AutoCAD. It shows the project's units, what needs a decision, your block library and the plugin's settings.

What You Need

• AutoCAD 2025, AutoCAD 2026 or AutoCAD 2027 on Windows. The download holds two builds of the plugin: one for AutoCAD 2025 and 2026, and one for AutoCAD 2027. AutoCAD 2027 is not compatible with the build for the two earlier releases, so it has a build of its own. AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD for Mac and AutoCAD 2024 or earlier are not supported.
• An AVstackr account to download the plugin. Any account can download it. An account can sign in only after its email address is confirmed.
• A paid AVstackr plan or a live free 30-day trial for your company, so that the plugin can work. A paid plan's trial counts as a paid plan, and the free 30-day trial counts too, for as long as it runs. AVstackr refuses the plugin's requests for projects, blocks and drawings from a company with neither. During the free trial, sign in with the browser: an API key needs a paid plan.
• A user role other than Read-only to make changes. A Read-only user can browse projects and blocks in the palette, and every change is refused.
• A project whose units are tagged. Assign Device Tags on the project page tags them, and the palette's Assign tags does the same.

Get Started

Your company sets up AVstackr once, and then each drafter installs the plugin. Where a step needs more detail, it links to the page that has it.

1. Check your company's plan. While your company is on the free trial, AVstackr's top bar shows the days that are left, such as "12 days left in trial". The plugin works during the trial when you sign in with the browser. Once the trial ends, it works again when your company chooses a paid plan, which the Upgrade button beside the count opens.
2. In AVstackr, open Global Config, which is under Admin in the navigation menu. Set your company's tag pattern on the Device Tags card, as Device Tags describes. Settle the pattern before you tag your first projects, because AVstackr never changes a tag once it is given.
3. On the same card, check the categories. A category's Drawable box says that its units are drawn as devices, such as displays and cameras. The palette leaves out the units of the other categories, such as cables and labor. Give each product a category, because a unit whose product has no category stays untagged. Device Tags explains both lists.
4. Install the plugin, as Install and Update describes.
5. Sign in to AVstackr from the palette, as Install and Update describes.
6. Upload your company's blocks from AutoCAD, as Working in Drawings describes. Then choose each product's or category's block in AVstackr, as Device Tags describes. You can skip this step at first, because a unit without a block is drawn as a generic box.
7. Run Assign Device Tags on the project page to give the project's units their tags, as Device Tags describes.
8. Open the drawing in AutoCAD, type AVSTACKR to open the palette, and pick the project in the Units tab, as The Palette describes. When the Units tab's footer counts lines without units, Assign tags beside it creates and tags their units.
9. Link the drawing to the project, as Working in Drawings describes.
10. Place the units in the drawing, as Working in Drawings describes.
11. Sync the drawing, and answer what the Review tab lists, as Working in Drawings describes.

In This Guide

• Install and Update covers the download, the installation, signing in, updating the plugin and removing it.
• The Palette explains each tab, button, tile and badge of the palette, and lists the plugin's commands.
• Working in Drawings covers linking a drawing, placing units, syncing and reviewing, live edits, and uploading blocks.
• Troubleshooting explains each message, says where the plugin keeps its files, and holds the notes for IT administrators.

For developers: the endpoints the plugin uses are in the CAD Blocks API and the CAD Drawings API.