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Smart Leader

A>V>C>

Smart Leader

A>V>C>

Multileaders look for an object under the arrow and fill in the text for themselves.

Trial

Normal multileader (MLeader) will be much smarter when you turn on this program. The multileader will be able to search the objects in the drawing under the place where their arrow points. In order to make a smart leader, enough to create the normal multileader and to leave the text blank. Or enter a question mark ‘?’. Or you can type a special code word (substitution) instead of a multileader text. And if under the multileader arrow it will find something valuable, the multileader text was miraculously replaced by a description of the found object. You can avoid a lot of mistakes, and your work will be reduced to a couple of clicks! Automatic filling of the leader text will drastically reduce the time for drawing up assembly drawings and floor plans, electrical schemes, and any other schemes.

The leader will be able to find

  • The blocks with names. If the block has a normal name (not A$...), then the leader will show the block name.

  • Any attribute of the block. You can specify an attribute to look for. Or write the attribute name right when you enter the leader and surround it with characters ‘%’. You can use hidden and constant attributes.

  • Any parameter of a dynamic block. Like the attributes, just specify the name of the parameter between the % characters.

  • Solids. Program measure solid and write information about it. For example, the dimensions of the part.

  • Surfaces of solids. The leader can display information about the specified part face: color, material, area, and perimeter.

  • For all other objects, the Smart Leader can show the standard properties (color, layer, material, length), as well as properties added by the plug-in A>V>C> Properties Palette (Name, Kind, Info)

  • The leader will find model space objects through a viewport, and the leader is in paper space.

  • The leader can look for the most deeply buried objects within blocks and external references. This feature can be disabled in preferences.

Smart Leader features

  • With the ALD command, you can quickly place multiple leaders, making only 2 clicks on each leader and not using the keyboard.

  • The Smart Leader will change the text if you move the arrow to another object of the drawing or if you move the entire leader using commands to _Move, _Copy, etc.

  • The Smart Leader can themselves create Autodesk® AutoCAD® Fields that link to an object under the arrow. The Fields are updated when the properties of the object are changed.

  • The program works with different styles of multileader. For each style of setting, their own. Do not forget about the _MLEADERSTYLE command.

  • You can make a smart leader with text or with a block at the end (text/block content) if the block has attributes.

  • To avoid errors, the program can highlight found objects.

  • The Smart Leaders easily turn off if they at some point interfere with work.

  • You can disable automatic Smart Leader updating when moving it to a different location in the drawing.

  • In the AVC Properties Palette, you can edit the leader substitution format, turning a regular MLeader into a Smart one, and vice versa.

  • You can create new Smart Leaders with an opaque text background.

  • Flexible settings allow you to optimize the program for your needs.

All the Smart Leaders can be updated by one click, without suffering the search for changes. And the leaders remember not the object to which they originally pointed, but the search settings. And when you update the leader, it looks for the object under the arrow again (if it's left there), and maybe the leader will find another object and replace itself with the text. This makes it possible to exclude heavy cases when the arrow of the leader shows one detail, and the text describes a completely different one.

The program interacts well with the plugins A>V>C> Properties Palette, Lay, and Sawing Table. Once entering the part names in the properties of the solids, you can quickly place leaders on the Assembly Drawing, and exploded drawings and Sawing Table. Measurement of the solid follows the same rules as in the Sawing Table, regardless of the rotation of parts in space.

And if you need to place all the leaders from all the parts and blocks of an assembly drawing at once, then there is a more powerful program for you: Place Leaders.

Regardless of the AutoCAD localization language, you can switch the plugin to English, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese (PRC), Spanish, French, or Turkish localization.

Details

Operating system

win32_64-platform-icon

Release date

Feb 17, 2016


Last updated

Apr 28, 2026


Version

2026.03.05


Language

English

Compatible with

ACD-icon

ACD

2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027

Capabilities

Facility management

Mechanical design

Tags

Scheduling

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Native search method There is a built-in search function for drawing objects below the point that the user clicked in AutoCAD. Emulating clicks is very strange and so I wrote my own version of the object search. But I'm not sure about its stable operation, so I left AutoCAD users with the option to switch to the native search mode. Native search has a number of features:
  • Always ignores annotations, but not annotative blocks.
  • Finds only 1 topmost object and can not find all objects below the point.
  • It is impossible to select surfaces of solids.
  • In the 2D Wareframe mode (visual style) it is obligatory to indicate part contour lines. In the center of the circle will fail. Use EndPoint snap. But in mode, you can make a leader from internal (unseen) parts.
  • In the shadow modes (any except 2D Wireframe) you can find solid, poking it in the midst of the faces. However, it is impossible to find the invisible objects and will not work for any 2D objects.
  • Emulating a click requires switching the sheet and displaying all the objects on the screen, so updating all leaders will switch all the sheets and will overwhelm the current view.
  • Switch to the native search globally for all leader styles. You can not set one style to normal search, and another to native.
Use the native search only if the main method causes problems.
  • If you copy smart leader by _Copy command then automatically update only the first copy. Other copies can be updated by the command LeaderUpdate 
  • I recommend disabling the AutoCAD option "Make new dimensions associative" (system variable DIMASSOC should put 1 instead of 2) because when it is enabled, leaders behave unpredictably. It has nothing to do with the work of my plugin. 
  • When you display the sizes of objects inside the blocks, the block scale is NOT taken into account. If you call _Scale for a block or change the ScaleX property of the block, all the dimensions of the parts inside the block will remain old! Unit Factor is also not taken into account.
  • There are features and limitations to the use of fields in leadres. 
  • Notes and symbols AutoCAD Mechanical knows how to disable their visibility and therefore tightly close the objects. (The problem occurs when using the native search method).
  • One user encountered damage to DWG files by using Smart Leaders in Mechanical 2017. I strongly do not recommend using my plug-in with the AutoCAD Mechanical add-in.

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