Tech Previews, also referred to as technical or technology previews, offer you the opportunity to access new features in AutoCAD before they’re officially released. By participating in Tech Previews, you can explore and test out the functionality of these new features and provide valuable feedback to the AutoCAD product team.
During a Tech Preview, the preview features are fully functional and ready to be used. Since these features are still under development, additional capabilities and improvements may be available for testing. This provides you a chance to evaluate how these features can benefit your workflows and projects.
Unlike Beta programs, Tech Previews are open to everyone, allowing active participation and contribution to the ongoing improvement of the feature’s capabilities. Your feedback is important in shaping the final version of the feature.
AutoCAD is dedicated to continuously improve and evolve the preview feature until it reaches a stage where it’s ready to be released as a regular feature, thereby transitioning out of the Tech Preview phase.
AutoCAD 2025 includes a technology preview that uses machine learning to scan your drawing for objects that can be converted into blocks.
When you start Object Detection, the drawing’s geometry is sent to the AutoCAD machine learning service for recognition. Once the service has analyzed the drawing, the palette will notify you if any objects have been detected that can be converted to blocks. To further inspect and assess the identified instances, click Review Objects.
In review mode, the Detection toolbar is displayed at the top of the drawing window. This toolbar provides various options for navigating and managing detection results. The detection results are grouped into sets of similar objects. A set represents a group of similar detected objects that can be converted into instances of a single block.
Within each set, the primary instance (outlined by a blue border) serves as the block definition when converting into a new block. Alternatively, if you choose to convert into an existing block, the primary instance is used to define the insertion scale and rotation.
You may encounter incorrect sets or instances during detection review. In the following example, a similar object is not detected and included in the set. You can report this error using the Detection toolbar. By reporting errors, you contribute to improving the overall performance and accuracy of the machine learning service.
Key Considerations
Object Detection is a technology preview, which means that the detection capability and functionality will be further enhanced and improved over time.
It’s important to note that Object Detection is optimized for plan-view drawings. The types of objects that AutoCAD can detect are continuously expanding. Currently, Object Detection is best at recognizing the following objects:
- Single-swing doors
- Double-swing doors
- Toilets
- Bathtubs
- Urinals
- Generic lighting symbols
To optimize detection accuracy as we continue to improve the machine learning algorithm, it’s recommended to set your drawing to real-world units before you start the detection.
While in review mode, the following commands are temporarily blocked:
- BEDIT
- COMPARE
- COUNT
- COUNTLIST
- PLOT
- PUBLISH
- REFEDIT
- TRACE
- XCOMPARE
