AutoCAD Count and Count Table

Let’s have a look at count and count tables in AutoCAD, a tool that have been around from a few versions back.

If you’ve ever needed to count blocks, symbols or objects in your AutoCAD drawings manually, you know how time consuming that can be. Thankfully, AutoCAD’s COUNT function automates this task, saving you time, improving accuracy and helping you create quick quantity reports.

• Open a DWG that has geometry and blocks included. I have opened a sample DWG.

There are several ways to count the objects in the model space of the current drawing.

• Count the instances of a single object.
• Count the instances of all blocks.
• Count objects and blocks within the area.

Let’s look at this in more detail:

Count the Instances of a Single Objects

• Right-click a single block or object and choose Count Selection.

• AutoCAD will select and highlight all those blocks.

• Selecting multiple blocks or geometric objects (line, circle, arcs and so on) to count is considered as a combination and counted as one.
• The Count feature would look for the same entities in the same shape and same spatial relationship to count as an instance.
• When we select the ‘i’ in the blue circle (information):

• You will see the below Count Palette, where you can add further search criteria.

Count the Instances of All Blocks

• Use the Count Palette to display and manage all counted blocks in the current drawing. Place a selecting window around all the geometry in the DWG.

• Right-click and select Count Selection.
• On the pop-up dialog box select < Back to List.

• Here you will see the count value for all blocks identified.

• If you see a yellow warning sign as the above by DR-36 and select the warning sign. It will list and identify the error.

• When you select the error, it will zoom in over this area and you can decide if this is an error in the DWG and decide what needs to be done to correct this error (delete the duplicate objects as in this example).

• In the count pop-up dialog box, select Create Table.

• Select the block you want to create a table for and select Insert.

• Once you insert the table, you may have to scale it to fit the DWG.

• Should you modify the DWG, for example add more blocks or delete blocks listed in the table, you will need to save the DWG and update the table to see the count value updated: UPDATEFIELD.

Count Objects and Blocks within an Area

• Right-click the drawing and choose Count. Specify a series of points, by selecting the polyline option or select a valid boundary to define the count area. A valid boundary object must be a closed polyline that consists of line segments and does not intersect with itself.

The COUNT function in AutoCAD is a game changer for quantity tracking and project documentation. Whether you’re an architect, engineer or drafter, this tool helps ensure your drawing data stays consistent, accurate and up to date.

If you haven’t tried it yet, run the command in your next project and see how much time you save!