In this blog, our Principal Consultant, Geoff Alder, continues his long-standing tradition of tracking the latest updates in AutoCAD and sharing insights here at Symetri. With the release of AutoCAD 2026, the focus shifts toward refining the user experience and boosting productivity. Key highlights include enhanced learning tools through AutoCAD Foundations, improved collaboration via Connected Support files, and smarter workflows with updates to Activity Insights, Markup Import, and Markup Assist. Smart Blocks get a boost with new Search and Convert, and Detect and Convert features. Plus, a noteworthy addition in this release is the new Layer Option for CENTRELINE and CENTREMARK.
As a technical trainer of AutoCAD, I get asked many questions in our training, mostly as new users are getting to understand AutoCAD.
Now that we have AutoCAD Foundation, new users have the opportunity to look at features in a conceptual manner and then during our training expand on that workflow. This dynamic allows learner to think and devise their own workflows that suit their processes.
The movement to collaboration is becoming more and more respected in AutoCAD, particularly when an Autodesk Docs project is used to host the drawings.
Connected Support Files allows dependent data like Templates, Text Fonts, and Plot Styles, Hatch Patterns, Lisp files, etc. to be shared on the Autodesk Docs platform. This can be either by individual projects or as company wide settings. A hybrid of the two can also be used.
If you are moving to project aware support files with the project stored on Autodesk Docs. Go into Options> Files and you see the setup icon ready to set up the connected Support on Autodesk Docs.
Over the last few versions of AutoCAD, and certainly on 2024 and 2025 I have seen development on Activity insights. I have been including this feature in my training and many learners are seeing that collaboration is extremely important in a technical drawing workflow.
The What’s Changed Insight is bound to the drawing and not the user so that all involved in the collaboration will see the progressive insights.
For me, I see a lot of revisions and updates in the drawings monitored by the new search and filter features. It is very quick to see activity filtered by user, time, and activity.
I have demonstrated the markup features in AutoCAD 2024 and 2025 version upon their release and have seen a really good, progressive improvement in each subsequent version. Now we have AutoCAD 2026 that improvement continues. One significant feature being the collaboration through markups from Autodesk Docs to AutoCAD is much improved for viewing drafting changes.
One welcome change I have found is that Markup Assist can now recognise markups on a PDF that were not created in Autodesk Docs. In addition we can now view markups published on a pdf in Autodesk Docs direct in AutoCAD.
Smart Blocks.
The Smart Block features were introduced in AutoCAD 2024 and has seen continual improvement since.. They are also something I have made a point of including in my training sessions.
The Search and Convert tool (BCONVERT) finds all instances of the same geometry in the drawing that can be converted to a block. In 2026 this now gives text recognition and the option to convert the text to block attributes.
Below shows the convert to block settings and you can see the preview thumbnail and the text variation option selected.
Attribute tags can then be assigned to each piece of text by selecting the Define attribute tab.
It is now much easier to run the Detect and Convert tool from the ribbon, with the detect Pallet showing the detected sets in the drawings and the count of each set.
Now in the AutoCAD 2026 version of Block Detect and Convert we have the option to edit and change the primary instance of the block.
Smart blocks are becoming a great way to simplify and streamline the use of blocks in AutoCAD. During my training sessions, I see learners are adopting this process into their principle workflows. As they edit existing CAD drawings, clean up the blocks and the “Cut and Paste” processes commonly used in old drawings. This is proving to streamline the drawing process and lead to much better efficiency in drawing production.
AutoCAD has had the ability to specify Hatch and Dimension layers for some time. This allows the current layer to be overridden to a preselected layer when adding dimensions and hatching into the drawing. In 2026 this functionality has now been extended to the Centermark and Centerline tools too. Recently working with Engineers the option to set the layer on which centre lines are placed has assisted their general workflow. This shows up with the dropdown below the Center mark and Centerline panel on the annotation ribbon.
As I mentioned I spend a lot of time training new and existing users in AutoCAD.
Focusing on collaboration and monitoring drawing progression is more important now than at any time in the past. I do believe that the tools we see in our evolving AutoCAD greatly increase the support for collaboration across teams, much more so than a few versions back.
Having seen the evolution of Activity insights, Markups and Traces, and now Smart Blocks I believe including them as part of a comprehensive understanding within AutoCAD training is essential to make the most of our investment in AutoCAD. With AutoCAD 2026 we are seeing collaborative and intelligent tools become part of the essential workflow in many disciplines using AutoCAD leading to greater efficiency throughout drawing production.
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