How-To Guide

How to Update Title Blocks Across 1,000+ AutoCAD Drawings Automatically

Published June 2026 | 74mph Solutions

Company rebrand. Client name change. New project number. New engineer of record. Whatever the reason, manually opening hundreds of AutoCAD drawings to update the title block is one of the most painful tasks in CAD management. If you have 300 drawings, that's hours - or days - of mind-numbing work with a high error rate.

Hurricane's Title-Block Update Wizard automates this entirely. You tell it which attribute to change and what to change it to, and it updates every drawing in your set without you opening a single file.

How AutoCAD Title Block Attributes Work

Most AutoCAD title blocks are inserted as attributed blocks. Each field - Project Name, Client, Drawing Number, Revision, Engineer - is an attribute with a tag name (like PROJ_NAME or CLIENT) and a value. To update these, you normally have to open each drawing, double-click the title block, edit the attributes in the dialog, save, and close.

For one drawing, that takes about 30 seconds. For 400 drawings, that's more than three hours - assuming you don't make any mistakes.

The Hurricane Title-Block Update Wizard

Hurricane's wizard generates the AutoCAD script that makes the changes - you just provide the details. No scripting knowledge required.

Step 1

Open Hurricane and add the drawings you want to update. Drag in a folder or use the file browser. Hurricane can recursively scan subfolders.

Step 2

Go to Wizards → Title-Block Update Wizard. Enter the block name (e.g., TITLEBLOCK), the attribute tag to change (e.g., PROJ_NAME), and the new value.

Step 3

Hurricane generates the script. Click Create and Run. AutoCAD opens each drawing, updates the attribute, saves, and closes - automatically.

The wizard creates a standard AutoCAD .scr script file, so the process is completely transparent. You can review the script before running it, save it for reuse on future projects, or modify it for edge cases.

Common Title Block Update Scenarios

Company Rebrand or Name Change

When your company renames or merges, every drawing with the old company name needs updating. Hurricane handles all 2,000 of them overnight - including drawings stored in subfolders across multiple projects.

Client Name Change

If a client changes their name or is acquired, updating the client field across an entire project archive is a one-wizard operation in Hurricane.

Revision Block Updates

Adding a new revision to all drawings in a set - same revision letter, same description, same date - can be automated in a single run.

Stamping with Drawing Number or Filename

Hurricane supports Dynamic Tags, which let you insert the drawing filename, current date, or a sequential number into any title block field automatically. This is ideal when each drawing needs a unique value derived from its filename.

Engineer / Checker Name Rotation

When project responsibility changes hands, Hurricane can update the "Drawn By," "Checked By," or "Approved By" fields across an entire project set in minutes.

From a Hurricane user at a major engineering firm:

"A project required the drawing borders to be removed and replaced with an updated border on 8,000 drawings. A script was written with help from Hurricane support to automate the process and all the drawings were processed successfully." - Simon R. Halmshaw

Updating Multiple Attributes at Once

If you need to update several attributes in one pass - say, the project name, the client name, and the revision - Hurricane can handle multiple attribute changes in a single batch run. Each wizard step adds another ATTEDIT command to the script, so all changes are applied when AutoCAD opens each file.

What If My Title Block Isn't a Standard Block?

Some older title blocks are drawn as plain text rather than attributed blocks. In that case, Hurricane's Search and Replace Text Wizard handles the update - it finds any text string in the drawing and replaces it with a new value across all files in your set.

Layout Tabs (Paper Space)

Title blocks on layout tabs work the same way - Hurricane's scripts run in all layouts, not just model space. If your title block lives on a layout tab, the wizard finds and updates it there.

Verifying the Changes

After a batch run, open a sample drawing to confirm the changes are correct. Hurricane processes files non-destructively (you can keep backups), and the standard undo history is preserved if you need to roll back a specific file.

Stop Updating Title Blocks One at a Time

Try Hurricane free - no time limit. Works with AutoCAD 2026 and all prior versions. Note: title block attribute updates require full AutoCAD (not LT).

Download Free Trial Buy Now - $149/seat