As more importance is being placed on Building Information Modeling (BIM) models and 3D deliverables and the lifecycle management of project data, there is still the need to present the 2D representations of the model in a clear and concise format that utilizes time-tested effective practices for drawing and drafting standards. In most cases our deliverables are still the 2D plan sets. How many of your engineers, designers, and architects utilize software design packages but have not been instructed in effective drafting practices that help to tell the story on the construction documents that are going to the contractor? In this round-table session we will discuss what organizations are doing to preserve the craft of drafting, and we'll cover how to handle moving between the 3D models to a 2D plan set deliverable.

Take your drafting skills to the next level with the sixth installment of the multi-award-winning AutoCAD tips'n'tricks course that's supercharged the productivity of thousands of design professionals like you. Learn from Autodesk Expert Elite member and Official AutoCAD Blog author Donnie "The CAD Geek" Gladfelter as he entertains, informs, and inspires you with the most-dynamic drafting techniques acquired from nearly 20 years spent blogging, gaining millions of YouTube views, and acting as the senior technical staff development manager at Bowman, a national engineering firm with 2,000+ professionals. From simple to advanced, you'll learn how to apply today's most innovative AutoCAD tools and discover new ways to maximize existing tools. WARNING: Attending this class may result in increased productivity, which may lead to finishing work early and having to find new ways to kill time at the office.

If your hatches don’t have rhythm and your linework’s got the blues, it’s time to find your high note with the most stage-ready drafting techniques. In this toe-tappin’, line-snappin’, award-winning session, Autodesk Expert Elite Member and AutoCAD Blog author Donnie “The CAD Geek” Gladfelter will deliver techniques as smooth as a steel guitar and as sharp as a sheet set on deadline. With Smart Blocks that take the spotlight at just the right time and Connected Support Files that keep your drawings and setlist in perfect sync, this session will tune your workflow with chart-topping productivity secrets—sure to leave the AI-driven Autodesk Assistant asking for an encore. Whether you’re riding the neon rainbow of the latest AutoCAD features or digging into deep-cut tips only experts know, your drafting skills will shine like a Rhinestone Cowboy on tour.

Sit down, buckle up, and keep your hands on your keyboard for the fifth installment of the multi-award-winning AutoCAD Tips and Tricks class that’s supercharged the productivity of thousands. Throw the caution of “that’s how we’ve always done it” to the wind, and learn innovative ways to make AutoCAD work for you (not the other way around). Autodesk Expert Elite Member and Official AutoCAD Blog Author Donnie “The CAD Geek” Gladfelter will entertain, inform, and inspire you with the most dapper drafting techniques acquired from more than 15 years of blogging, garnering millions of YouTube views, and working as the design technology manager for a civil engineering firm of nearly 900 professionals. From simple to advanced, you’ll learn the latest techniques AutoCAD has to offer and discover new ways to use existing tools. Disclaimer: Hourly employees need not attend as this session will only include techniques proven to improve productivity.

Sit down, buckle up, and keep your hands on your keyboard as Autodesk Expert Elite member Donnie “The CAD Geek” Gladfelter takes you through a dazzling collection of drafting techniques guaranteed to improve your productivity—one click at a time. Join Donnie as he shares techniques acquired from authoring six books on AutoCAD, blogging for more than a decade, and serving as the design technology manager of a roughly 700-person civil engineering firm. From simple to advanced, you’re sure to discover new ways to remove tedium and boost your ability to meet project deadlines. Hourly employees need not attend as this session will only include techniques proven to improve productivity.

If you want to master AutoCAD software, join Autodesk Expert Elite member Donnie “The CAD Geek” Gladfelter as he shares a plethora of power-user tips acquired from writing 6 books on AutoCAD and blogging for more than a decade. Mr. Gladfelter will take you through a powerful collection of proven productivity techniques that are certain to improve your everyday drawing life. From simple to advanced, you’re sure to discover new ways to remove tedium and boost your ability to meet project deadlines.

Presenting the next step of the AutoCAD 360 evolution - Enabling accurate drafting, with a brand new feature set: New drafting tools, snap types, canvas utilities, and in general, new ways for modifying your drawings and floor plans on the go. This session will include an overview of all the ways you can use AutoCAD 360 to maximize your out-of-the-office workflows. Whether you’re an architect, drafter, specialty engineer, construction expert, etc., in this session you will learn how to replace your old pen and paper, and save time and money by utilizing mobile tools. We’ll give a live demo explaining how to set up your project, from connecting to your existing library of drawings, to viewing, measuring, and of course - making accurate modifications on the go. This session is relevant for all mobile users - iOS, Android and Windows-Surface.

Tablets and smartphones are no longer futuristic concepts. These devices are ubiquitous and extremely powerful, in both in our daily lives and our professional workflows. But how can we use them in our CAD lives? The AutoCAD mobile app lets us use the copious amounts of data we include in our DWG™ files anywhere we are. Whether in the coffee shop, on the factory floor, or in the middle of a field (cell signal notwithstanding), you can get to your DWG files in the cloud, make changes to the native geometry, and share your changes with others. Other apps can help you complete your workflow, from marking up prints to sharing designs. This class will go through the basics of adding cloud access to AutoCAD mobile, drawing new geometry, and modifying existing work, as well as pulling information such as dimensions and areas from your drawings. We will also cover best practices and access for non-AutoCAD users, as well as some additional apps that can be useful in the field.

Drafting in VDC programs takes a combination of industry knowledge and software knowledge. In order to be proficient, a drafter has to pull from both knowledge sets and the best VDC personnel have some level of field experience in order to know how systems should be built correctly and efficiently. This session will moderate a discussion on ways to train union labor, both from the field and through the apprenticeship. In both cases, there is a need for some level of proficiency. For apprentices, more jobsites are incorporating coordination software in the field. They need to be able to use the software tools to read, interpret and build. For journeymen using their experience to become draftsmen, they need training on how to use software to design, coordinate and fabricate. The discussion will talk about how contractors around the country are approaching this training, what content should be taught to each set of people and how they approach bringing in labor to the office.

Imagine your lines crisper than a freshly ironed suit and your hatches more elegant than a glass of aged Bordeaux. If you love AutoCAD, CADDy CAD CAD, then this class is for you! During the seventh installment of this multi-award-winning session, you'll step into a glass case of efficiency with Autodesk Expert Elite Member, AU Speaker Mentor, and Official AutoCAD Blog author Donnie "The CAD Geek" Gladfelter as he delivers today's top tips'n'tricks with perfectly coiffed coordinates—no teleprompter required. This session will dive into the deep end of today's most-efficient AutoCAD workflows, where the AI currents are strong, and the stakes are higher than a news anchor's hair in a hurricane. So, stay classy, AutoCAD users! The tips you'll learn in this class are the kind of big deal that will make it impossible for your co-workers to act like they're not impressed.

Join us to learn about AutoCAD software's AI features that make your drafting more efficient than ever: Smart Blocks, Markup Import, and Markup Assist. We'll start by covering Markup Import and Markup Assist, the workflow that uses AI to interpret and apply feedback from marked-up PDFs directly into your AutoCAD drawings. You'll learn how Markup Import and Markup Assist can enhance collaboration, drastically reduce the time it takes to incorporate feedback, and reduce errors in your design workflow. Then we'll review Smart Blocks, a suite of AI tools designed to streamline your drafting and drawing cleanup processes. We'll cover Block Placement, Block Replacement, Block Search and Convert, and Object Detection—all of which use AI to help you find, create, and use your blocks. We'll end the session with an opportunity to share ideas on how else AutoCAD might use AI to increase productivity, enhance collaboration, and improve your drafting and documentation workflows.

If you want to master AutoCAD software, join Autodesk Expert Elite member Donnie “The CAD Geek” Gladfelter as he shares a plethora of power-user tips acquired from writing six books on AutoCAD and blogging for more than a decade. He’ll take you through a powerful collection of proven productivity techniques that are certain to improve your everyday drawing life. From simple to advanced, you’re sure to discover new ways to remove tedium and boost your ability to meet project deadlines.

Training a diverse group of users requires more than a little bit of strategizing. From new users to seasoned veterans, everyone has something they can discover about the software they use. But how do you engage them all and keep them all growing? Explore various methods of engagement and find the approach that works best for you and your trainees. Join our discussion of learning styles, presentation styles, training tools, on-demand content development, and ways of testing progress and identifying topics relevant to your users.

You have succeeded with producing great models with Autodesk Revit software. You have built well coordinated plans, elevations, sections, and schedules. How do you move to the next level and take full advantage of the model for even greater efficiency in your design and documentation process? This class will review the concepts, processes, and tools in Revit 2013 to efficiently design and document building enclosures and curtain walls. These techniques apply to similar parts throughout your project. Topics will include 2D drafting in drafting views, 2D detail components overlaid on plan and section details of the live model, and embedding 2D detail in curtain wall panels. Building enclosure details from large-scale projects will be used to illustrate the concepts and process.

AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP Schedules provide an exceptional opportunity to elevate your drawings, enabling effortless creation of tables that highlight essential information about selected objects within your building model. Boost productivity and transform construction documentation workflows with ease, requiring only a minimal time investment. Unlock long-term success as the return on investment steadily grows over time. This proposal advocates for replacing outdated manual methods, such as relying on spreadsheets, with AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP scheduling capabilities. This transition enables the Automation, Integration, & Customization of tags and tables, ensuring they remain consistently synchronized with the building model. By removing the need for separate updates to drawings and spreadsheets, this streamlined approach unifies a fragmented, error-prone workflow into a seamless and automated system. Alongside exploring the schedules feature, take a moment to discover the latest updates in AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP 2026.

We all realize that the world has changed incredibly since 2019. Industries where crowded conference room and noisy drafting bullpens were once the norm are now dealing with remote work as the norm. Even with the "return to the office" more and more staff wish to work from home. So how does a design firm survive when the new world is so very different. I will discuss my own experience as a IT manager and how we made the "overnight" change to remote work. More importantly I will share how our firm is not only surviving, but thriving, with remote work as the pandemic continues cycles. Join me for a specific recipe of tools, practices, and patience that has proven successful in the real world.

We’ve found that 99% of AutoCAD users spend time drafting based on markups. Even worse, half of users surveyed reported spending more than 20 hours per week responding to changes. AutoCAD software is innovating and building new methods to automate workflows and decrease this time. Join this class to learn how to increase your efficiency and improve collaboration on markups and feedback.

Mechanical designers face challenges in a project's early stages. They need precise answers with limited information while navigating numerous changes. Revit software offers comprehensive tools for effective massing and systems analysis. This interactive lab will enhance Revit proficiency, focusing on agile workflows for shell and core geometry aligned with EnergyPlus requirements. Attendees will learn to create massing models using the Revit drafting tools, and incorporate details like curtain walls and windows. They'll explore the systems analysis UI, integrate EnergyPlus for insights, and navigate analytical energy model data. This course will teach mechanical designers and engineers how to use Revit effectively in schematic design phases. Attendees will learn to adapt to digital transformation, address stakeholder inquiries, and collaborate effectively. By the end of the course, participants will bridge the gap between early project uncertainty and efficient design strategies.

Once a drafting standard and drawing management system has been established, a drawing validation process must exist to ensure compliance with corporate standards. Oftentimes this consists of one or more drafters or checkers performing drawing audits from within AutoCAD® software using various tools like Check Standards, LayWalk, and so on. This process can be time-consuming and costly especially when a large amount of drawings must be processed within a short time period. Several third-party applications exist to assist with this process but most require an extensive setup and an external database. The simplest approach may be to use a product prominent in most GIS environments to extract, transfer, or manipulate data within varying file formats. This class illustrates how the Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) can be used to audit an AutoCAD file to ensure compliance with corporate drafting standards, thus reducing or eliminating the cost for drawing validation prior to project closure.