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You can make your own title block in AutoCAD for your drawings and save it as a template or
use any preexisting template available with AutoCAD or you can even download drawing
templates online. It completely depends on your preference.
In this article, I have explained methods of creating your own title block right from scratch and I
have also explained the method of using any preexisting title block template and using it in your
drawings. Let’s start with creating your own title block in AutoCAD.
In this section, we’ll cover choosing title block templates and also how to set up fields. Fields are
variables such as your name or a drawing scale. Sometimes these variables change, and when
they do your title blocks will automatically update if you have used fields.
Click the AutoCAD logo in the top left corner of your screen. A drop-down menu will open.
Click on New.
Figure 1
After clicking New, a box will open in the center of the screen titled Select Template.
Figure 2
For this example, I will be opening the SheetSets Sub-folder and selecting the Architectural
Imperial.dwt template. You can also use Architectural Metric if you so wish.
To give some perspective to this tutorial I’m going to create a quick, simple drawing in the
Model Tab.
If you want to work on your own drawing, go over to the Model Tab by clicking the Model tab
at the bottom left corner of the screen.
Figure 4
Figure 5 shows what I created. Nothing special but it’s all we’ll need for this article.
Figure 5
If you are creating your own drawing, once you’ve finished making your drawing in model tab
go to your Layout view and open the Layout Tab in the Ribbon, and in the Layout
Viewports Panel, click Rectangular.
Figure 7
Click and drag to create a Viewport. Having done that, you should see something like Figure 8.
Pan and Zoom your Model as necessary.
Figure 8
Getting rid of the grid is easy, simply press F7 key on your keyboard.
We now have our model and our title block so we’re ready to get started.
For fields to work, certain properties have to be pre-established, such as your name. To establish
these variables, click the AutoCAD logo at the top-left of your screen, then Drawing Utilities,
and finally, Drawing Properties.
Figure 9
You now need to complete the properties that are relevant to you and your drawing.
Figure 10
You’ll notice there is a Custom Tab, which is great. There is a whole host of options in there.
We’ll get to that later.
When everything from the Summary Tab is how you want it, click OK to exit the Drawing
Properties window.
In the bottom left corner of your Title Block, you will notice 4 grey dashes. In the Command
Line, type REAand hit ENTER. The 4 dashes will be replaced with your name.
Figure 11
A little above your name, you will notice a date. This will not show the current date.
To rectify this, double-click the date. A new Tab called Text Editor will open in the Ribbon.
Click on the Fieldicon in the Insert panel to open the Field Window.
Figure 12
Under Field names, click SystemVariable. Next click date from the options showing in the
middle column and finally select the date format that you would like from the right-hand column.
Finally, click OK.
Figure 13
This won’t remove the incorrect date. To remove that highlight it and hit backspace key to delete
it.
Leave the text dialogue. You may have to use the REA command for the new date to show, but
from now on, anytime you run the REA command, that Date field we have created will update to
show the correct date.
Figure 14
You will notice the Date on the bottom right of the Title Block is just 4 dashes. Double-clicking
on that will cause a window called the Enhanced Attribute Editor to appear. Don’t worry about
that. Double-click the two blocks circled in red in Figure 15 and the Field Window will open
again. Now you can insert the date field using the same technique as we used above.
Figure 15
Leave the dialogue, and you will have the date there.
For the Scale Field to update, we have to designate a Viewport Scale. So click on your Viewport
Boundary, and in the Properties Box, designate a Viewport Scale. I’m choosing 1:30.
Figure 16
Now, using MTEXT, choose where you want your Scale to be shown (It should be near but
outside the Viewport), type “SCALE=” and click the FIELD icon. The Field window will open
up, but it will look a little different this time. Click the icon circled in red in Figure 17, and then
click the border of the Viewport.
Figure 17
Now there are options under Property. Click Standard Scale, choose your Format preference
and then click OK.
Figure 18
You now have a Scale Field that will also be updated automatically with the REA command.
Figure 19
You will notice the grey boxes that highlight fields. Don’t worry they do not appear when your
drawing is printed.
For multipage plans, we would use sheet set manager for page numbers. However, since we are
only dealing with one sheet we will insert the Sheet Number manually.
NB: The next few instructions need to be followed very carefully to avoid the numbers looking
very strange.
Click ONCE on the 2 octothorps (##) underneath the word “Sheet” in the title block.
Next, double-click the borderline where it is circled in Figure 20 below. Be as precise as you can.
The click needs to be on the right edge of the borderline.
Figure 20
The box shown in Figure 21 will appear. You can alter the Sheet Number. You can also alter
other variables here as well if you would like.
Figure 21
Figure 22
Now, what if you want to create a field not identified in the Field window?
Remember the Custom Tab we talked about in the beginning of the tutorial? Well, let’s go back
in there.
Open up the Drawing Properties window, click the Custom tab, click Add, and type as shown
in Figure 23.
Figure 23
Now go back to the bottom left of the Title Block, where we’ve edited our name and today’s
date. Above those 2 fields, there is a Field with the File Name of the drawing.
For this example, we want this to show the Drawing Number instead. All you have to do is
double-click that text, erase it, type Drawing No. and click Field. Select the options in the Field
window that are shown in Figure 24, click OK, and then leave the text dialogue box.
Figure 24
Now you have a custom property (Drawing No.) that you can use across future drawings as well.
You might be thinking that typing in fields manually is faster than using fields. It is in the very
short-term, however, as time passes things like the room area, scale, date etc will all change. This
way you don’t need to do that manually as it will automatically update if added using fields
instead of simple text.
1. With every new drawing, the Drawing Properties starts blank. Save a template with your
name set up in Drawing Properties so you do not need to go in and type it in every time
you start a new drawing.
2. Remember you can create MTEXT or DTEXT pretty much anywhere in your drawing
and assign fields within that text.
3. If the fields aren’t updating, or you’re seeing four dashes, try the REA or REGEN
command. Bear in mind commands such as REGENALL and UPDATEFIELD as well.
4. There are dozens of free Title Block templates online that may suit your needs. A good
place to start is: http://www.yourspreadsheets.co.uk/title-blocks-for-cad.html
5. If you are using a Preset Title Block but finding one or two of them frustrating to
remember then you can click on the fields and explode them with
the EXPLODE command. You can then alter them individually.
There we have it, a good introduction to Creating Title blocks with Fields. If you have questions
related to this article let me know in the comments below.