Search Text, Tags and Block Names Across Multiple DWG Files at Once

Open DwgSearch and click Choose Folder… to pick the project's root folder. DwgSearch reads every DWG in it and in all of its subfolders and builds a local index — the drawings themselves are only read, never changed.

The first visit to a folder builds the full index, which takes a while on a large project. After that, reopening the same folder only re-reads drawings whose size or modified time changed, so the index is current again in seconds. Refresh Index re-checks on demand, which is useful right after someone has saved changes.

The summary line under the folder path shows how many files and entries are in the index and when it was last verified, so it's always clear whether a search is running against a fresh index.

Type a keyword and press Enter or click Search. Results come back instantly because they're read from the index, not the drawings: each row shows the File, Layout, Block, Kind and matched Content, with the keyword highlighted. A keyword as short as one letter can match more than fits on screen; the status line then says so — narrow the keyword, or export, which always includes every hit.

Everything a drawing displays as text is covered: single-line and multiline text in model space and every layout, table cells, multileaders, dimension text, block attribute values, text inside block definitions and the names of blocks themselves. Letter case and full-width/half-width differences are ignored, and a * in the keyword matches anything in between — PUMP*101 finds PUMP-101 as well as PUMP 101.

As you type, a dropdown suggests values that actually exist in the index, which helps with tag formats you don't remember exactly. The Search in checkboxes under the box narrow a search to certain kinds — only block attributes, for example, when a tag number also appears in general notes you don't care about.

Type a block name — a title block, a standard symbol, a detail that's about to be replaced — and every reference to it shows up with the Kind Block reference: which file, which layout, and where. Blocks without any attributes are found too; to see only block names, leave just Block names checked under Search in.

A block that's only used nested inside another block — a north arrow inside the title block, say — is listed with the containing block's name in the Block column, so the drawing still turns up even though the block was never inserted on its own. Dynamic blocks are listed under their own name, not the anonymous *U names AutoCAD uses internally.

Unlike Design Center, this lists blocks that are actually placed: a drawing that only has the definition sitting unused in it doesn't show up.

Click Attributes on a block attribute or block reference result to see every attribute tag and value on that block instance — all captured at index time, so there's no need to open the drawing to check the rest of a title block or a tag.

Copy value copies a single value; Copy All copies the whole list as tag/value pairs, ready to paste into Excel or an email.

Click Locate on any result. DwgSearch copies a short command to the clipboard; switch to AutoCAD and paste it into the command line, and it runs straight away. AutoCAD opens the drawing if it isn't already open, switches to the right layout, then selects and zooms to the matched object.

Text that lives inside a block definition, and a block nested inside another one, have no single object of their own to select — for those, Locate selects every reference of the containing block instead.

Click Export to Excel to save the full result set to a workbook — including any hits beyond the first page shown on screen.

The workbook isn't a generic report: block results are written in BlockSync's own sheet layout, one row per block instance with all of its attributes, and text results in TextSync's. That means a search can go straight into an edit — find every drawing with an old part number, export, fix the values in Excel, and write them back with BlockSync or TextSync.

Table cells, multileaders, dimension text and text inside block definitions stay searchable and locatable, but aren't exported, since neither tool can write them back.