Guides/Drawing standards
Find and Replace Text Across Multiple AutoCAD Drawings — Without LISP, With a Preview
Updated November 5, 2026
Made with TextSync
A cable specification changes, a part number is superseded, a client renames itself, a standard note gets reworded, and the old wording is spread across every sheet in the set. AutoCAD's FIND only works on the drawing that is open, so the change means opening, replacing, saving and closing each file in turn.
The usual way around that is a LISP routine for batch find and replace. It does the job, but you type the search string and let it run: there is no list of the matches to look over first, and the way back from a bad replacement is whatever backup you made yourself.
This guide uses TextSync, part of CADXChange Toolkit. It exports every single-line and multiline text from a batch of drawings into one Excel sheet. You replace there, with Excel's own Find & Replace, where every match is visible and can be filtered by drawing, layer or text type. Then you see a preview of every change and write back only the text that changed. The example changes Cu XLPE to Cu LSZH in the cable labels of six drawings.
1. Export every text to Excel
Open TextSync on the Text → Excel tab and add the drawings: Add Files for a hand-picked set, or Add Folder for a whole project folder. Click Export to Excel.
Every single-line and multiline text, in model space and on the layouts, becomes one row of one workbook, across all the drawings. In the example that is 41 texts from 6 drawings: a board label, five or six cable labels and one general note in each.
2. Filter, then replace with Excel's Find & Replace
The Text sheet has one row per text. Next to the Text column are the drawing (_File), the type (_Kind: DBText or MText), the layer, the position and the height. Do not change _File or _Handle: that is how each row finds its text again.
Use the filter arrows to limit the replacement: one drawing, one layer, one text type. In the example we filter Layer to E-CABLE, because the general note on E-NOTE is a sentence that has to be reworded by hand, not just swapped.
Click the first Text cell and press Ctrl+Shift+Down to select the column, then Alt+; so only the visible cells stay selected, and rows hidden by the filter are left out. Press Ctrl+H, type Cu XLPE and Cu LSZH, and click Replace All. Excel reports how many cells changed (29 here).
Under Options, tick Match case when capitalization matters, and Match entire cell contents when the whole text has to equal the search term, which suits tags and short labels. Excel treats * and ? as wildcards; put a tilde in front (~* or ~?) to search for the characters themselves. Save the workbook.
3. Preview every change
Switch to the Excel → Text tab. Pick the edited workbook and the folder with the drawings; files are matched to the workbook by file name, and each text by its handle, so filtering or sorting the sheet never sends a value to the wrong place.
Leave Automatic backup ticked. The Diff preview lists every text that is about to change, with the current and the new wording. Here it reports 6 files and 29 text changes, 0 blocked. The board labels and the notes are not in the list, because their text did not change.
4. Write back only what changed
Click Write Back and confirm. Only text whose value differs from the drawing is written, and a drawing with nothing changed is not saved at all.
The report lists each drawing with its number of changes. Compare shows a drawing before and after side by side in the viewer, without AutoCAD. If the replacement turns out to be wrong, Rollback All restores every drawing from its backup.
5. Check the result with TextCompare
Excel shows what changed in the workbook; TextCompare shows what changed in the drawings. Put the backup folder TextSync made in Folder A and the project folder in Folder B. Every text the replacement touched is listed with its old and new wording, and nothing else should show up.
In the example it reports 6 pairs compared, 29 modified, 0 added, 0 removed, and two unchanged texts in each drawing: the board label and the note. We also exported the texts of the written drawings again: 29 now read LSZH and the six notes still read XLPE.
What this does not reach: block attribute values, such as title block fields and tags, go through BlockSync, which has the same Excel round trip. To find out which drawings still contain the old wording afterwards, search the folder with DwgSearch, which is free.
CADXChange Toolkit comes with a 30-day full trial, so you can run this on a copy of a real set first. Close the drawings in AutoCAD before you write, because a file that is open elsewhere can be locked.
Try it on your own drawings
CADXChange Toolkit does this for a whole folder of drawings, with a preview and a backup first. The 30-day trial has every feature.
Start the free trial →Before you start — common questions
- How do I find and replace text across multiple AutoCAD drawings?
- AutoCAD's FIND only works on the drawing that is open. TextSync exports every single-line and multiline text from a batch of drawings into one Excel sheet, you replace there with Excel's own Find & Replace, you check the preview and TextSync writes back only the text that changed.
- Do I need LISP, such as a batch find and replace routine?
- No. A LISP routine runs on the search string you set, with no list of the matches to look over first. In the Excel sheet every match is visible and can be filtered by drawing, layer or text type before you replace, the preview lists every change, and with Automatic backup ticked every file is copied first, which is the way back from a bad replacement.
- Can I limit the replacement to certain drawings, layers or text types?
- Yes. Use the filter arrows on the _File, _Kind or Layer columns, select the Text cells and press Alt+; so only the visible cells stay selected, then press Ctrl+H. Tick Match case so replacing PUMP does not also change Pump, and Match entire cell contents when the whole text must equal the search term.
- Are untouched texts left alone?
- Yes. Only text whose value differs from the drawing is written, and a drawing with nothing changed is not saved at all. In the example the board labels and the notes were not in the preview, and TextCompare showed them as unchanged.
- What does this not cover?
- Block attribute values, such as title block fields and tags, go through BlockSync, which has the same Excel round trip. To see which drawings still contain the old wording afterwards, search the folder with DwgSearch, which is free.
- How do I check the result, and undo it if it is wrong?
- Compare in the write report shows each drawing before and after side by side. TextCompare lists every text that differs between the backup and the project folder. Rollback All restores every drawing in the run from its backup.
- What do I need to run this?
- A Windows 10 or 11 PC, Excel for the replacing step, and the drawings in a folder you can reach. AutoCAD does not have to be running. CADXChange Toolkit includes a 30-day full trial; after it, reading, scanning and previewing keep working, and writing to drawings or exporting needs a licence.