An AutoCAD drawing may contain lots of external data in the form of X-ref, font styles, images, excel tables, textures, materials for 3D drawings and other components. Once you have finished working on a project you need to ensure that you transmit all of these external files to make it easy for end user to work on the project without searching for the missing components.

But selecting external files manually is a time consuming and error prone task, AutoCAD has a tool called eTransmit which makes this task very fast and easy. It creates a package of all drawing dependent elements in the form of a ZIP file or folders.

To use eTransmit make sure you have saved your drawing. After saving click on application button on the top left of your AutoCAD window and click on Publish and then eTransmit option as shown in the image above.

Create Transmittal window will pop up with a tree view of all attachments in your drawings, if you want to view it in list view you can switch to Files Table tab.

In the tree view, you will find current drawings panel where all attachments will be visible. You can add multiple files in the eTransmit package by clicking the Add File button on the bottom of Current Drawings panel as shown in the image below.

Below you will find Enter Notes panel where you can add notes to the package for the recipient. Once your eTransmittal file is created a report will be generated and it will be transmitted as TXT file along with complete package you can view that report using View Report button on the bottom left of the window.

On the right of create transmittal window, you will find Transmittal Setups button click on it and a new window will pop up where you can modify settings for transmittal package and save it for further use.

Click on New button and name your setup then click on Continue, now you can customize settings of the eTransmittal package using Modify Transmittal Setup window. Let's have a look at some of the useful options of the window.

Transmittal type and location:

From Transmittal package type drop down menu of this panel, you can select the type of package to create, like a zip or a simple folder.

transmittal type and location

If your recipient uses an older version of AutoCAD then you can save drawings in an older version also using File format drop down menu.

Specify the location where you want to save the transmittal file using ellipses next to Transmittal file folder field.

Path Options:

Here you will find three radio buttons as shown in the image below.

eTransmit in AutoCAD

The first radio button will make the eTransmittal package with each component in a separate folder. Place all files in one folder option will place all attached components inside a single folder.

The third option will create a structured folder such that each component will maintain its path inside transmittal package. For example, if an X-ref is placed inside folder B which is inside folder A then this transmittal will create a folder A inside folder B and then place the Xref inside folder B.

Actions:

Here you will again find multiple radio buttons but most of them are self-explanatory.

eTransmit in AutoCAD

The Bind external references radio button will bind your Xref inside current drawing i.e. it will convert Xref into a block and place it in the drawing.

Purge drawings radio button will clean your drawing of all unused components like layers, blocks, and linetypes and create the eTransmit package with those cleaned drawings.

So finally…

Once you have made all required settings click on OK and close Modify Transmittal Setup window box and click OK again. Your complete package will be published at the specified location with all settings you made so far.

Do you have questions related to this tip? Let me know in the comments below.