AutoCAD 2024 – Missing entities in drawings? Reference to Object Enablers?

By Dennis Collin

I recently had a question from a user working on a pipe network drawing, where a file was being viewed but rather than seeing a collection of pipes, just some lines and cross section shapes displayed on screen.

AutoCAD has native CAD entities that can be created, such as lines, polylines, arcs, circles, splines, text, Mtext, etc, but within vanilla AutoCAD, there is no such entity type as a door, pipe, valve, or topographic surface. You can however create those objects using one of the AutoCAD “vertical” applications such as Civil 3D, AutoCAD MEP, or with a 3rd party add-on application such as CADWorx.

However, should a user receive a file with entities created in these products, plain AutoCAD just shows them in a skeletal form or bounding boxes. Running a command like list or properties will display information like the following.

To overcome the limited display problem, identify the authoring program and then visit the appropriate vendor and install the appropriate Object Enabler add-in. Once installed the add-in will sit silently in the background and translate any bespoke elements to more suitable a representation.

Object enablers for Autodesk authored elements AutoCAD MEP and Civil 3D etc. can be installed from the Autodesk Account, under the appropriate AutoCAD version Plug-ins download area.

https://accounts.autodesk.com/

For CADWorx entities the enabler can be downloaded and installed from Hexagon’s support site here.

https://hexagon.com/products/cadworx-plant-professional