Custom AutoCAD plugins that automate the work your engineers do by hand.
AutoCAD plugin development is a niche most software teams will not touch, because it needs real command of the Autodesk APIs, not a passing familiarity. We build native AutoCAD plugins on ObjectARX, the Managed .NET API, and AutoLISP: custom commands, palettes, drawing automation, and integrations that connect AutoCAD to the rest of your business. Built and tested across the AutoCAD versions you actually run, and packaged the way you want to ship them.
Most teams cannot help you here, and the ones that try make it worse.
- Skilled drafters spending hours on repetitive tasks that a plugin should be doing in seconds.
- Plugins that break every single year the moment a new AutoCAD version ships, because they were built against one API version.
- A LISP or VBA routine holding a critical workflow together, written by someone who left, that nobody can safely touch.
- AutoCAD sitting on an island, with no connection to your database, ERP, or project data, so the same information gets keyed in twice.
- Generalist developers who have never opened ObjectARX or the Managed .NET API and treat AutoCAD as a black box they cannot get into.
Native AutoCAD plugins, built on the right API and made to last.
- The correct API for the job: the Managed .NET API in C# for most commercial work, ObjectARX in C++ when performance demands it, AutoLISP for fast automation.
- Compiled and tested across the AutoCAD versions you run, including the .NET 8 shift in AutoCAD 2025 and 2026, so upgrades stop breaking your tools.
- Real integration between your drawings and your systems, so block and attribute data flows to and from your database, ERP, or a REST layer.
- Cloud and headless processing through Autodesk Platform Services when you need batch jobs at scale without desktop installs.
- Clean, documented, source-owned code, packaged as a proper installer and ready for the Autodesk App Store if you plan to sell it.
What AutoCAD plugin development with us covers
Custom Commands and Ribbon UI
New AutoCAD commands, ribbon tabs, dockable palettes with PaletteSet, and context menus that fit naturally into how your team already works.
Drawing Automation and Batch Processing
Bulk edits across hundreds of DWGs, title block and attribute automation, layer and drawing standards enforcement, and automated plotting.
Interactive Tools: Jigs and Overrules
Real-time drawing jigs for guided input, custom entity behavior with Overrule, and reactors that respond to what happens in the drawing.
Data Extraction and System Integration
Read and write blocks, attributes, and entity data to SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or your ERP. Automated bills of materials and quantity takeoff.
Cloud and Headless Automation
Autodesk Platform Services Design Automation to run AutoCAD in the cloud for large batch jobs or on-demand drawing generation, with no desktop AutoCAD needed.
Packaging, Deployment, and App Store
Signed .bundle installers, autoload setup or NETLOAD workflow, and full Autodesk App Store submission if you want to publish or sell the plugin.
How we run an AutoCAD plugin project
Workflow Audit
We watch the actual drafting workflow and find the repetitive, error-prone steps worth automating. Automating the wrong thing is wasted money.
API Selection and Prototype
We choose between ObjectARX, the Managed .NET API, and AutoLISP, then build a working proof of concept against your AutoCAD version before committing to the full build.
Build and Cross-Version Testing
The full plugin, tested across every AutoCAD version you run. We catch version-specific API breakage before it reaches your team, not after.
Deploy and Handover
Installer, documentation, source code, and a walkthrough for your team. Optional App Store submission and a support window after launch.
The AutoCAD stack we work in every day
AutoCAD customization is not one API. Knowing which one fits the problem is most of the job, and it is the part generalists get wrong.
AutoCAD Managed .NET API (C#)
Our default for commercial plugins. Custom commands, PaletteSets, ribbon UI, jigs, and overrules, with maintainable code your team can keep.
ObjectARX (C++)
The native SDK. Full access to the object model and top performance for heavy operations that the managed API cannot handle efficiently.
AutoLISP and Visual LISP
Fast automation and glue for shop-floor routines. Ideal for smaller workflow fixes and for modernizing legacy LISP nobody can maintain.
Autodesk Platform Services (APS, formerly Forge)
The Design Automation API runs AutoCAD headless in the cloud for batch processing, data extraction, and drawing generation at scale.
Vertical APIs: Civil 3D, Map 3D, Plant 3D
When the work is not vanilla AutoCAD. We build against the vertical object models rather than fighting them from the outside.
SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and REST
The bridge between your drawings and the rest of the business, so drawing data and project data stop living in two separate worlds.
AutoCAD is one corner of the Autodesk and CAD world we work in.
AutoCAD plugin questions we get asked
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Learn moreHave an AutoCAD workflow that is eating your team's time?
Tell us what your drafters do by hand every day. We will tell you honestly what can be automated, which API fits, and roughly what it takes. Fourteen years of shipping software other firms turn down, including the AutoCAD work most of them will not.