Opening Drawings

To open an existing AutoCAD drawing, you can use Open on the File menu to display the Select File dialog box.

You can also open drawings by dragging them from Windows Explorer into AutoCAD. If you drop one or more drawings anywhere outside the drawing area—for example, the command line or the blank space next to the toolbars—AutoCAD opens the drawings. However, if you drag a single drawing into the drawing area of an open drawing, the new drawing is not opened but inserted as a block reference.

You can double-click a drawing in Windows Explorer to launch AutoCAD and open the drawing. If AutoCAD is already running, the drawing opens in the current session rather than in a second session.

If you organize drawings using the sheet set feature, you can use the Sheet Set Manager to locate and open the drawings in the sheet set.