The AutoCAD Professional's Handbook

• A handbook for improving efficiency, accuracy and workflows in AutoCAD
• Tailored for experienced users and students preparing for professional CAD work
• Focuses on standards customization and real-world best practices
• Teaches automation using AutoLISP and other high value productivity techniques
• Includes access to 150 companion videos with nearly 50 hours of expert instruction
• Applies to any release of AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, and similar CAD software packages
• Includes AutoCAD puzzlers based on real world problems professionals encounter

What separates an average AutoCAD user from a truly valuable professional is not simply knowing more commands. It is the ability to work efficiently, maintain accuracy, and deliver consistent results under real-world conditions.

The AutoCAD Professional’s Handbook is a comprehensive text and video course created for experienced users and aspiring professionals who want to take control of AutoCAD and significantly improve the way they work. Written by renowned author and professor Dan Abbott, this book reflects nearly four decades of industry experience, teaching, consulting, and problem-solving across a wide range of disciplines.

AutoCAD is often used inefficiently, even by experienced users. Small inefficiencies add up over time, leading to lost productivity, inconsistent drawings, and unnecessary errors. This book addresses those issues directly by showing you how to streamline workflows, enforce standards, and automate repetitive processes.

The increases in efficiency and productivity that are possible when applying the methods presented in this book are potentially enormous, in some cases shifting weeks of tedious work to simple automated processes. Applying the concepts in this book helps professionals become invaluable leaders within their organizations by enabling them to solve problems quickly and work more effectively under pressure.

The final chapter, AutoCAD Puzzlers, brings a fun and highly practical close to the book by challenging readers with real problems drawn from professional AutoCAD use. Based on actual questions and strange behaviors encountered by users in the field, these puzzlers reflect the kinds of issues that can derail projects at the worst possible moment. Readers are invited to test their knowledge, think through each scenario, and then check the solutions at the end, making this chapter both an engaging challenge and a valuable problem-solving resource for serious AutoCAD users.

This is not an introductory text. It is a professional handbook designed for those who already understand the fundamentals of AutoCAD and want to develop the skills, habits, and workflows that define expert users.

Companion Videos

What truly sets the Handbook apart is the inclusion of 150 in-depth instructional videos, totaling nearly 50 hours of premium bonus content. Paralleling the text, Abbott personally guides you through the entire book, offering exclusive insights, real-world context, and detailed demonstrations derived from his decades in the field.

Together, the book and videos create a powerful system for both learning and long-term reference. Readers can move through the material sequentially or return to specific topics whenever challenges arise in their work.

What You’ll Learn

This book focuses on practical skills that directly impact productivity and professional performance:

• Improve efficiency while maintaining accuracy in every drawing
• Apply technical drawing standards consistently across projects
• Customize the AutoCAD interface to match your workflow
• Manage files, system settings, and environments for reliability and speed
• Work effectively with blocks, external references, fields, and annotative objects
• Control layouts, plotting, and output with confidence
• Automate repetitive tasks using scripts and AutoLISP
• Update hundreds or thousands of drawings automatically
• Solve real-world problems that commonly arise in professional settings

Built for Real-World Work

Unlike traditional textbooks that focus heavily on commands and features, this handbook is organized around the challenges that professionals actually face. It addresses productivity, system management, customization, standards, plotting, and automation in a way that reflects how AutoCAD is used in practice.

The content draws from years of classroom instruction, industry consulting, and presentations at Autodesk University. It also reflects the kinds of questions and problems encountered by professionals working under deadlines, where efficiency and accuracy are critical. Many of the techniques presented in the book apply not only to AutoCAD, but also to AutoCAD LT, DraftSight and other CAD applications that follow similar workflows.

Who This Book Is For

This handbook is intended for intermediate and advanced AutoCAD users, as well as students preparing for professional roles in fields such as architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing. It is also valuable for CAD managers and experienced users who want to standardize workflows or introduce automation into their processes.

Readers should already be comfortable with basic 2D drafting in AutoCAD. This book builds on that foundation and is designed to take users beyond entry-level skills into professional-level performance.

A Long-Term Professional Reference

This is not a book that is read once and set aside. It is designed to be used repeatedly as a reference throughout your career. Whether you are refining your workflow, troubleshooting a problem, or looking to automate a time-consuming task, this handbook provides practical guidance that can be applied immediately.

For anyone serious about working with AutoCAD at a professional level, The AutoCAD Professional’s Handbook offers a clear path to greater efficiency, consistency, and control.

Praise

"As someone who has written about AutoCAD for 40 years, I found out things about AutoCAD that I never knew by reading this book. Dan Abbott has put his own decades of on-the-job experience into tips that is going to make AutoCAD work so much better in your workplace."

— Ralph Grabowski, Author of over 240 CAD books and Industry Veteran