Do I need LISP to replace a title block or logo in every drawing?

No. You pick the new block, the old block and the drawings in BlockCopy, and it does the swap in one run, so there is no routine to write or debug.

Is there a preview, and how do I undo it?

There is no preview step, so the backup is your safety net. With Automatic backup ticked, each drawing is copied to the backup folder before it is changed. Rollback puts one drawing back exactly as it was, and Restore Backup does the same for drawings from any earlier run, even after the program has been closed. If one drawing fails, the rest of the batch carries on.

What happens to the old block definition?

It is not deleted. Only its references are swapped, so the definition stays in the drawing with no references until you PURGE it.

What do I need to run this?

A Windows 10 or 11 PC and the drawings. AutoCAD does not have to be running. CADXChange Toolkit includes a 30-day full trial; after it, reading, scanning and comparing keep working, and writing changed drawings needs a licence.

Guides/Drawing standards

Replace an Old Block with a New One in Multiple Drawings — Swap a Title Block, Logo or Symbol in Every DWG

Updated November 5, 2026

Made with BlockCopy

BlockCopy's results after upgrading the title block in six drawings, every file listed as done

The company gets a new title block, a new logo, or a new version of a standard symbol, and it has to replace the old one in every drawing of a project. In one drawing that is easy. Across fifty drawings it becomes the chore people keep asking forums to script: open a file, insert the new block at the old one's position, copy the attribute values over by hand, delete the old one, save, repeat.

AutoCAD's own tools don't cover it. Redefining a block (BLOCK with the same name, or INSERT with the Redefine option) only works when the new block has the same name as the old one, and only in the drawing that is open. Renaming can't merge two different blocks, and pasting the new block over the old one loses the values the old one carried.

This guide uses the Upgrade Version tab of BlockCopy, part of CADXChange Toolkit, to swap a block for a different one across a batch of drawings. Each old reference is replaced in place, keeping its position, rotation, scale and layer, and its attribute values move to the new block. The example replaces TITLEBLOCK with TITLEBLOCK_V2 in six drawings.

1. Put the new block in one source drawing

The new block has to exist as a definition in a drawing the tool can read: the source. It can be a drawing that already uses the block (here Source-TitleBlockV2 has TITLEBLOCK_V2 on its sheet) or a template or symbol library where the block is defined. It does not need to be in the target drawings beforehand; BlockCopy brings the definition in.

Check that the new block carries the attribute tags you want to keep. A value survives only if the new block has an attribute with the same tag. A tag that exists only in the new block starts at its own default, and a tag missing from the new block is dropped.

2. Choose the new block, the old block and the drawings

Open BlockCopy and switch to Upgrade Version. Browse to the source drawing and select the new block (v2) in the list; the reference counts and the View link to its attribute list help you pick the right one.

Click Add files and add the drawings to update. Under Old blocks to replace (v1), BlockCopy lists the block definitions found in those drawings. Select the one to retire, here TITLEBLOCK.

Leave Automatic backup ticked. Each drawing is copied to the backup folder before it is changed.

3. Upgrade

Click Upgrade Now. There is no preview step, so the backup is your safety net. For each drawing BlockCopy swaps every reference of the old block for the new one and saves the file. The list shows the result per drawing, for example Replaced 1 instance(s) of TITLEBLOCK with TITLEBLOCK_V2.

Each new reference's attributes are laid out the way the new definition places them and filled with the old values, so an attribute someone had nudged by hand goes back to its position in the definition. To keep hand-placed attributes on a block that keeps its name, use Sync Update instead.

If one drawing fails, the rest of the batch carries on. Open Details for a drawing to see where its backup went; Rollback puts that one drawing back exactly as it was, and Restore Backup does the same for drawings from any earlier run.

4. Check that nothing was lost

The quickest check is to read the drawings back. Add them to BlockSync's Blocks → Excel tab: the block list now shows TITLEBLOCK with 0 references and TITLEBLOCK_V2 with 7 references in 7 files, the six upgraded drawings plus the source. Tick TITLEBLOCK_V2 and extract to Excel to get one row per sheet with its number, revision and title.

In this example we extracted the six drawings before and after. Sheet numbers, revisions, titles, insertion points and rotations came out identical; only the block name and each reference's handle differed.

The old definition is not deleted, only its references were swapped, so it stays in the drawing with no references. PURGE removes it when you are ready, or LayerSync can clean a whole folder in one go.

Two things to know afterwards. The replacement references are new objects with new handles, so an Excel export made before the upgrade can no longer be written back; extract again first. And an attribute value that only existed on the old block is not carried over, so compare the two attribute lists before you start.

If the block keeps its name and only its definition changed, use Sync Update instead of Upgrade Version. Toolkit comes with a 30-day full trial, so you can run this on a copy of a real project before deciding anything.

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

Can AutoCAD replace a block with a differently named block in many drawings?: Not on its own. Redefining a block only works when the new block has the same name as the old one, and only in the drawing that is open. Renaming can't merge two different blocks, and pasting the new block over the old one loses the values the old one carried. BlockCopy's Upgrade Version swaps one block for another across a whole batch of drawings.
Do I need LISP to replace a title block or logo in every drawing?: No. You pick the new block, the old block and the drawings in BlockCopy, and it does the swap in one run, so there is no routine to write or debug.
Are position, scale and attribute values kept?: Each old reference is replaced in place, keeping its position, rotation, scale and layer. Attribute values move to the new block by tag: a value survives only if the new block has an attribute with the same tag, a tag that exists only in the new block starts at its own default, and a tag missing from the new block is dropped. Attributes are laid out the way the new definition places them.
Is there a preview, and how do I undo it?: There is no preview step, so the backup is your safety net. With Automatic backup ticked, each drawing is copied to the backup folder before it is changed. Rollback puts one drawing back exactly as it was, and Restore Backup does the same for drawings from any earlier run, even after the program has been closed. If one drawing fails, the rest of the batch carries on.
What happens to the old block definition?: It is not deleted. Only its references are swapped, so the definition stays in the drawing with no references until you PURGE it.
What do I need to run this?: A Windows 10 or 11 PC and the drawings. AutoCAD does not have to be running. CADXChange Toolkit includes a 30-day full trial; after it, reading, scanning and comparing keep working, and writing changed drawings needs a licence.