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How to Import AutoCAD Drawings Directly into Word Documents 1
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
HOW TO IMPORT AUTOCAD DRAWINGS
DIRECTLY
INTO WORD DOCUMENTS
Jeffrey DonnellThe George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Georgia Institute of TechnologyAtlanta, GA 30332
SummaryThis document reviews the steps that a beginner should take in order to import an AutoCAD drawing file directlyinto a Word or PowerPoint file. Specifically, this document explains:
1) How to adjust the drawings background color.
2) How to use Words tools to import the AutoCAD drawing.
3) How to adjust the Word display of the imported drawing.
4) How to use Words tools to insert a figure number and caption.
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How to Import AutoCAD Drawings Directly into Word Documents 2
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Other presentations here show you how to 1) export drawings as bitmaps or metafiles for later import into Word
and 2) insert AutoCAD drawings using familiar copy-and-paste procedures. When you export your drawings as
bitmaps or metafiles, you have a simple and effective method of transporting drawings, but you must convert
your files in a way that limits flexibility. When you insert drawings through a copy-and-paste operation, you use
a reasonably quick and simple method for moving drawings, and you maintain some flexibility for making
adjustments to your drawings. A third method of transporting drawings is available--importing AutoCAD draw
ings directly into Word. This method for obtaining drawings offers maximum flexibility, but you it can cost you
some time in tweaking your Word and AutoCAD settings in order to get various versions of the two programs to
cooperate. With this caution about the problems associated with importing CAD drawings into Word, we will
demonstrate how you might do so.
You have made this drawing in AutoCAD, and you need to insert it into a report that is prepared in Word:
To obtain an adequate display, you must first adjust the background color to white for the hardcopy presentation.
Second you must size and save the image. Third, you must invoke Words import functions and locate the draw
ing file. After the drawing appears in your Word document, you may elect to adjust the display. Finally you will
apply a caption to the drawing. This document will walk you through these steps.
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How to Import AutoCAD Drawings Directly into Word Documents 3
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
1: Adjusting the background for display
To change the background color, you first open AutoCADs Optionsdialog:
Select the Display tab, and select Colorsunder Window Elements. A Color Optionsdialog box will open, as
shown at the right of this screen. Here the pull-down members give you access to a number of areas in CADs
display; Here we set the Model Tab background to White. We will then select the Apply and Closebutton.
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How to Import AutoCAD Drawings Directly into Word Documents 4
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
After selecting Apply and Close, we are returned to the OptionsDialog:
Here we have applied the light background to the drawing, and the display behind the dialog box obviously
reflects the change. We now select OKto exit the options box. We will next save the file and then we will
import that saved file into Word.
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How to Import AutoCAD Drawings Directly into Word Documents 5
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
2) Import the Drawing
Open your word Word document and place the cursor at the location where the drawing should appear in the
report. Pull down Words Insertmenu and select Object, as indicated below:
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Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
When Object is selected, Word will present the Insert Objectdialog box. Here, you can notify Word of the file
type that you intend to access, and from the Create Newtab, you have the opportunity to create new graphic ele-
ments by calling up the programs themselves. The AutoCAD file that we want to import has already been cre-
ated, so we notify Word that an AutoCAD drawing file will be used, and we select the Create from Filetab in
order to locate that file.
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How to Import AutoCAD Drawings Directly into Word Documents 9
Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
We are returned to theInsert Objectdialog box, and we see that our files path is shown in the file name window.
We accept this file by selecting OK:
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Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The drawing is displayed in the Word file:
Here the image appears to be poorly sized. Its best not to greatly re-size AutoCAD drawings using Words
tools, but it is possible to crop images without creating problems. We will demonstrate this next.
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Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
3: Adjusting Display size
To crop this image, open Words Formatmenu and select Object:
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The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Format Objectdialog displays, the picture tab is selected and the object is cropped from the left and the top
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Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
4: Inserting a caption
To insert a caption, open the Insertmenu, highlight Referencesand then select Captionin the submenus.
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Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
The Captiondialog box will display:
In the Caption dialog, you are allowed to type your descriptive caption, to characterize the graphic for Word, and
to select the position of the caption. For large documents, you can ask Word to manage the numbering of your
figures and tables. Should your instructor dislike boldface captions, you can adjust the captions appearance as
you would adjust any chunk of text. This drawing is treated as a Figure, and its caption is placed below the dis-
play:
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Jeffrey Donnell
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
With the caption information filled out and verified, select OK, and you will be returned to your document page.
It should look something like this: