The Palette

The palette is the AVstackr window inside AutoCAD, with the drawing's link in a band at the top and five tabs below it.

AVSTACKR opens the palette. The palette follows the drawing you switch to, and each open drawing keeps its own link and its own review. The palette has five tabs: Units, Drawings, Review, Blocks and Settings. While no drawing is open, the names of Units, Review and Blocks are dimmed, and the tabs still open.

The Top Band

The top line shows the open drawing's file name and a badge that says how the drawing stands with AVstackr:

• Linked, followed by the drawing's view. Under a linked drawing, a second line reads "Linked to …" with its project's name.
• This drawing is not linked to AVstackr: no link yet. Placing units in it, or syncing it, opens the window that links it.
• Link removed in AVstackr: someone removed the drawing in AVstackr.
• Linked to another server / company: the drawing was linked while signed in to another AVstackr server or company.
• No drawing open: AutoCAD has no drawing open, for example while it shows its Start tab.

This badge, like every badge and tile in the palette, has a mark and a colour. ● green means all is well. ⚠ amber means something needs attention. ✕ red means something is broken until you act. ⟳ blue is for news, such as a newer plugin. ○ grey means there is nothing to report.

The Drawing link… button beside the badge links, renames, relinks or unlinks the drawing, as Working in Drawings describes.

When the palette cannot change the drawing or the project, a notice below the top line says why. It is the notice about a drawing linked to another server or company, the notice about a company without a paid AVstackr plan, or the read-only notice. Troubleshooting explains all three. When a newer version of the plugin exists, a notice with an Update plugin button appears there too, as Install and Update describes.

The status line, at the bottom of the palette, reports the last action. Working… shows beside it while an action runs.

Units Tab

• Project: type part of a project's name, job number or creator, press Enter or click Search, and pick the project in the list below. A linked drawing decides the project, so the palette switches to the drawing's own.
• Room shows one room or All rooms. View is the kind of drawing, Plan, Ceiling, Elevation or Schematic, and decides the block each unit gets. A linked drawing's view is fixed.
• The grid lists each unit's Tag, Make, Model, Room and Block. The Block column names the library block the unit gets. It shows generic for a box drawn from the product's dimensions, or generic (estimated size) when the product has no usable size and a 24-inch placeholder is used. Select several rows with Ctrl or Shift.
• Drawn is ● when this drawing places the unit, ◐ when another drawing does, and ○ when no drawing does. Hover the mark: "Placed in this drawing" for ●, "Placed on: 2027 test plan" for ◐, with the names of the drawings that place the unit. Changed is ● when the unit changed in AVstackr since this drawing last sent it.
• The footer counts the units, such as "12 units · 3 placed here · 2 lines without units". Assign tags beside it creates and tags the units of the lines that have none.
• Units of categories that are not drawable, such as cables and labor, are left out unless this drawing already places them.
• Place, Place next, Sync, Update from AVstackr and Unplace here are described in Working in Drawings. Refresh is in the table below.

What Each Way of Updating Does

Five controls move information between the drawing and AVstackr. They differ in what they read, what they send, and when they run.

Drawings Tab

The Drawings tab lists the linked drawings of the project picked in the Units tab, whether or not the open drawing is linked. It works on the project, not on the open drawing, so its name is not dimmed while no drawing is open. Until a project is picked, the tab says "Pick a project in the Units tab." A project without a linked drawing shows "No drawings are linked yet."

• Here shows ● on the row of the open drawing.
• Name and View are the drawing's name and view in AVstackr. Placed units counts the units it places.
• Last sync is when the plugin last sent the drawing to AVstackr, in this computer's time, or never.
• Hover a row for the file the drawing was linked or last sent from, or "never saved" for a drawing that was never saved.

Click a drawing to list its placements in the grid below: each unit's Tag, Unit number, Make, Model and Room, the Block that draws it, and when the plugin last saw it (Last seen). A drawing without placements says "No units are placed on this drawing."

Five buttons sit above the grids:

• Refresh reads the project's drawings from AVstackr and lists them again. The list also reloads by itself each time the Units tab reads the project's units, for example after a sync or a place.
• Open opens the selected drawing's file in AutoCAD, or switches to it when it is already open, and the palette follows it. It needs the file where the drawing was last saved to exist, on this computer or on a network share this computer can reach. It stays off for the open drawing's own row, and until the plugin has checked that the file is there.
• Rename…, Remove link… and Unplace… change the project's drawings, as Other Drawings of the Project in Working in Drawings describes.

Signing out, or signing in to another company, empties the tab at once. It fills again when the Units tab next reads a project.

Review Tab

The Review tab lists what the last sync needs you to decide. A pill beside the tab's name counts the entries, and it is hidden while there are none. With nothing to decide, the tab says "Nothing to review. Sync lists here what needs a decision." Sync and Review in Working in Drawings explains each kind of entry and its answers.

Blocks Tab

The Blocks tab lists your company's library blocks for the Units tab's view. Its columns are:

• Name is the name the library shows.
• Block is the block name inside the DWG.
• Views lists the views the block suits.
• States lists the block's visibility states.
• Tags says how many of the block's attribute tags are supported and how many are unmapped.
• Cached shows ● when the block file is already on this computer.

Download all fetches every listed block that is not cached yet. Upload from drawing… and Replace file… are described in Working in Drawings.

Settings Tab

Three tiles open the tab, below the restart banner when there is one. They give the plugin's state in a word or two each. Five sections below them, Server, Sign-in, Sync, Plugin and Folders, say more.

The Tiles

• Server says Connected when AVstackr answered the plugin's last request, even to refuse it. It says Unreachable when the last request could not reach AVstackr, got no answer in time, or got an answer that AVstackr is unavailable. That means AVstackr is down or out of reach. It says Unknown until the plugin's first request of the session, for example when AutoCAD starts while you are signed out. The plugin does not test the connection on its own. The tile therefore changes only when the plugin sends a request, such as a search, a sync, a refresh or the update check.
• Account says Signed in or Signed out. It says Key rejected when AVstackr refused a request made with the stored API key. It says Sign-in expired when AVstackr refused a request made with a browser sign-in, or would not renew that sign-in.
• Sync says Live while your edits are sent as you make them, and Off while the Live sync switch is off. It says Paused while the switch is on but nothing can be sent, because you are signed out or the palette is read-only.

Server

The Server section holds the server's address and Change server, which Install and Update describes. Its badge repeats the tile's word. Once AVstackr has answered, the section says how long ago it last did, such as "Last contact 12 s ago", "Last contact 3 min ago" or "Last contact 2 h ago". That time is read again every 5 seconds while the palette is shown.

While the server is unreachable, a red box says "Can't reach the server" and "Last tried 12 s ago. Check the address and that the server is running.", with Retry, which runs the Units tab's project search again. Retry is off while you are signed out, because the search needs a sign-in.

Sign-in

The Sign-in section signs you in and out, and its badge says how you are signed in. Install and Update describes each button.

Sync

• Live sync is a switch that sends your edits of placed blocks as you make them, as Live Edits in Working in Drawings describes. The badge above it says Live, Off, "Paused · not signed in" or "Paused · read-only".
• Refresh every sets how often, in seconds, the palette updates the drawing from AVstackr while it is open. The default is 60. With 0, the palette does not update on a timer.

Plugin

The plugin's version shows as "Plugin … (AutoCAD 2025/2026)" or "Plugin … (AutoCAD 2027)". Below it, a badge says where the plugin's update stands:

• Not checked: no check has run in this AutoCAD session yet, for example because AutoCAD started while you were signed out. Click Check for updates to run one.
• Checking…, Up to date, Update available, Downloading…, Restart needed and Reinstall needed follow the steps that Install and Update describes.
• Updates off: this copy was not installed from the zip, so it cannot update itself. Install it from the zip to get updates.
• Check failed: the last check failed. Click Check for updates to see the reason on the status line.

Check for updates beside the badge asks AVstackr for a newer version.

Folders

Cache and Log show the folders for downloaded blocks and for the log. Open cache folder and Open log open them.

Commands

A command that cannot run now says why on the command line, such as "AVstackr is busy; run AVS_SYNC again when the current action ends." or "Sign in to AVstackr first (AVS_SIGNIN), then run AVS_LINK again."