Getting Started with AutoStyle Pro

This guide walks through a first sheet end to end: installing, exporting a layout from AutoCAD, styling it in Studio, and exporting a presentation image. Follow it in order and you will finish with a colored plan you can hand to a client.

1 Install

Download the installer from bezaleldesignlab.com and run it. Two things are installed:

• AutoStyle Studio is always installed. It is self-contained, so no .NET runtime is needed. Start Menu and (optionally) desktop shortcuts are created, and .asp files are associated with it.
• The AutoCAD plugin is an optional task in the installer, for AutoCAD or Civil 3D 2025 and newer. Leave it checked if the machine has CAD on it.

The installer can run per-machine or for the current user only. A per-user install needs no administrator rights and puts the CAD plugin under your own Autodesk ApplicationPlugins folder.

2 Prepare the Layout in AutoCAD

AutoStyle Pro exports a layout, not model space. Set the sheet up the way you would plot it before exporting:

• Switch to the layout tab you want to render. The export refuses to run from model space.
• Set the viewport scale and view. Rotated (twisted) viewports export correctly, so a rotated site plan is fine.
• Turn off or freeze the layers you do not want. Layers that are off, frozen, or set not to plot are skipped entirely.
• Confirm the layout's page setup. The sheet size in Studio comes from the layout's plot paper size, and the units follow the drawing's INSUNITS setting (metric drawings export in millimeters, everything else in inches).
• Save the drawing.

3 Export to Studio

On the BDL ribbon tab, in the AutoStyle Pro panel, click Export to Studio (or type EXPORT_TO_STUDIO at the command line). The Export to Studio dialog lists every visible layer that actually has geometry on it, grouped by the main drawing and by xref.

• Clear the checkbox on any layer you do not want in the presentation.
• Click a color swatch to change the color a layer exports with.
• Drag a transparency slider to fade a layer.
• Open Block Treatment to decide, per block name, whether blocks explode into their linework or come across as symbols that Studio can swap for library artwork.
• Check Capture paper space as background image to bring the title block and sheet border over as a background image.

Click Export and choose where to save the .asp project. See Export to Studio for the full detail.

4 Open the Project in Studio

Double-click the .asp file, or start Studio and use FILE ▸ Open Project (Ctrl+O). The sheet appears on the canvas at its real paper size, with a scene tree of layers and objects on the right.

Two prompts may appear as the drawing loads. Both are worth saying yes to:

• Layer Style Database. Studio recognized layer names it has styled before and offers to apply the remembered styles. See Presets & Layer Memory.
• CAD Auto-Mapping. Studio recognized hatch pattern names, linetype names and block names from the drawing, and offers to apply the matching materials, stroke styles and plan symbols. See CAD Auto-Mapping.

5 Tag Surfaces with Materials

A material says what a surface is: turf, concrete, planting bed, water, building. Every look then decides how to draw it. Select a layer or a shape, open the Fill and Stroke tab, and choose from the Material list at the top of the Fill sub-tab. You can also right-click a layer or object in the scene tree and use the Material submenu.

Tagging the half-dozen big surfaces on a sheet is usually all the setup a plan needs. Auto-mapping will already have tagged any area whose CAD hatch name was recognizable.

6 Pick a Look

On the VIEW tab, choose from the Look list. The document starts on CAD Line, which renders exactly like the CAD sheet. Switching to Ink Sketch, Marker, Colored Pencil, Watercolor, Illustrative or Realistic restyles the whole drawing at once: line treatment, material fills, symbol artwork, shadows, lettering and paper.

Not sure which one suits the sheet? FILE ▸ Style Gallery renders the drawing in every look onto one labeled PNG. See Style Gallery.

7 Refine the Styling

Select a layer in the scene tree and work through the Fill and Stroke tab: fill color and opacity, gradient, texture, stroke color and thickness, stroke style, shadow. Selecting a single object instead of a layer creates an override for that object only, marked in the tree. See Fill & Stroke.

A layer that must stay looking like CAD, such as a title block, a survey legend or a dimension layer, can opt out entirely with Render as plain CAD.

8 Add Symbols and Annotation

The Library panel at the bottom of the Layers and Objects tab holds the plan symbol library: trees, planting, site furniture, utilities, parking and ADA, vehicles, people and north arrows. Pick a category, then drag a tile onto the canvas to place it.

The DRAW tab adds text, leaders, paths, rectangles, circles, images, a north arrow and a scale bar. See Drawing Tools and Text & Leaders.

9 Export the Sheet

On the FILE tab, set Export Resolution (72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI) and click Export File. Choose PNG, JPEG or PDF. The output is the full sheet at its real paper size, so a 24×36 layout at 300 DPI comes out as a 24×36 image. See Images & PDF.

10 When the Drawing Changes

Re-run Export to Studio in AutoCAD and save over the same .asp file. The geometry is updated in place and the styling is kept, so a plan revision does not cost the rendering work. Layer styling survives because it is keyed to layer names, which is also why the Layer Style Database can carry styling from one project to the next.