Claude Desktop & Claude Code

The autocad-dt tool server is not a standalone app — it reads the drawing through AutoCAD, so AutoCAD must be running first.

Every time, in this order

1. Open AutoCAD with the permit .dwg you want to inspect. The local assistant the MCP server bridges to starts automatically with the plugin (default config).
2. In Claude Desktop / Claude Code, connect (or reconnect) the autocad-dt server.

If Claude says the server isn't available, AutoCAD probably isn't running — or the assistant didn't start (auto-start can be disabled, or a launch can fail). Run LLMCHAT to start it (or RECONNECT_DT to restart a stuck one), then reconnect.

One-time setup

If the installer's "Set up Claude Desktop / Claude Code integration (stdio MCP)" option was checked (it's on by default), the autocad-dt server is already in your Claude config. For best results also install the orientation skill (the installer's "Install the Claude Code guide skill" option, or copy it manually from the plugin bundle's Contents\skills\autocad-dt-mcp\ to %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\autocad-dt-mcp\) — it teaches Claude the efficient tool patterns and the attribute-rename contract.

What Claude can do over MCP

Read the drawing (blocks, attributes, layers, layouts, tables), run the discover → query → show-me entity tools, run validation audits, pull session/project/bundle data, and place or delete equipment blocks. The heavier writes — stamping, saving, visibility changes — are not exposed over MCP at all; they stay behind the in-AutoCAD chat's confirm flow.

The full, always-current operation list lives at Tool reference.

Extras in Claude Desktop / Code

The server also publishes attachable resources (current drawing export, block/layer lists, current session, active bundle, and an on-demand sheet render image) and menu-pickable prompts for common workflows — audit missing attributes, explain a sheet, assess an attribute-rename's impact, preview a stamp.

Sign-in

You do not need to be signed in to JobEngine just to inspect a drawing (blocks, attributes, layers, layouts, validation). Sign-in is only needed for session, project, and bundle data.

Renaming an attribute? Ask first, change elsewhere

Attribute tags (the DWG_* names) aren't just labels — each one maps to a data field, and that mapping is how the plugin fills the drawing in. Renaming a tag in the template without updating the mapping silently breaks that field's auto-fill.

Use the assistant to survey a rename's blast radius: which blocks carry the tag, how many instances, which data field it maps to. The rename itself is a template + mapping change made elsewhere — the assistant assesses, it doesn't execute.