What's New in AutoCAD 2025

Learn about new features in this release of AutoCAD 2025. For technical details, see the release notes.

Updates

2025.1 Highlights

Share a link to an Autodesk Docs drawing: For drawing files saved in Autodesk Docs, Share URL (SHARE command) now creates a link that allows recipients to make changes to the actual drawing file, instead of creating a new copy of the drawing. Anyone with access to the Autodesk Docs project can open the link using AutoCAD on the web (web.autocad.com) or AutoCAD on mobile. For more information, see the Share a link (URL) to an Autodesk Docs drawing topic in Cross Platform.

Activity Insights: The palette has a new refresh button, as well as improved search capability. Xrefs are now linked in the palette, and Shared activities also appear in the palette.

Multileaders: The new MLEADERLAYER system variable assigns new multileaders to the specified layer, overriding the current layer.

Block convert: BCONVERT command now zooms to selected objects. The Convert dialog box also includes the option to assign blocks to layers. Additionally, the new BCONVERTINCLUDEEXISTINGBLOCKS system variable determines whether existing block instances are selected by the BCONVERT command by default.

Sheet Set Manager for Web: The following are recent enhancements to the Sheet Set Manager for Web.

Configuration of the page setup overrides file and publishing with these overrides.
Supports publishing using custom linetypes that reference SHP and SHX files.
Displays detailed publish information including job errors and warnings.
Allows multi-selection for moving and removing sheets.
Prevents importing of sheets from locked drawing files.
Removal of sheets does not unlock initially locked drawing files to avoid conflict.

Accelerated font display: A new option in the Graphics Performance dialog box now provides improved control over the display of TrueType fonts in drawings while leveraging GPU acceleration.

2025 Highlights

New Features Overview (Video)

This video shows the key enhancements in this release.

Activity Insights

Track the evolution of your drawings and compare drawing history using Activity Insights.

Import Markup from Autodesk Docs

Adding to the capabilities of Markup Import, PDF markup files can now connect from Autodesk Docs to AutoCAD, helping drafters view and incorporate revisions.

Smart Blocks: Search and Convert

Convert repetitive geometry into blocks for improved efficiency and organization.

Smart Blocks: Object Detection Tech Preview

Scan your drawing for objects that can be converted into blocks.

Hatch Improvements

The HATCH command now makes drawing hatches easier and more convenient with new and improved options.

Esri Maps

There are five new Esri maps available to assign geographic location information to drawings.

Trace Updates

Updates to Trace include an improved toolbar and editing xrefs while in Edit Drawing mode.

Markup Import and Markup Assist

Markup Import and Markup Assist continue to improve, making it easier to bring drawing revisions from a markup file into a drawing.

Additional enhancements

2D Graphics:

Font display improvements.
The Graphics Performance dialog box includes a new "Diagnosis" tab specifically designed to diagnose common graphics card issues.

3D Graphics: The Wireframe visual style has been added to the cross platform 3D graphics system. See the Fast shaded mode option in the Graphics Performance dialog box for more information.

Autodesk Assistant: Using generative AI technology, Autodesk Assistant now provides summarized responses and smart search results to your questions. This enhancement is currently available in English AutoCAD only.

File Open Performance: Improvements have been made to reduce the amount of time it takes to open 2D drawing files.

New and Changed File Formats: The ACTM and DXE file formats have been replaced by the new ACTMX and DXEX file formats.

ACTM files must be migrated to the ACTMX file format before they can be played back. New action macros recorded are stored in the ACTMX file format and are not compatible with AutoCAD 2024 and earlier releases.
DXE files can continue to be used to extract data from a drawing, but changes can't be saved back these files. Changes can only be saved to the new DXEX file format which is not compatible with AutoCAD 2024 and earlier releases.