Last updated July 28, 2026
AutoWeld places welding symbols from a library of ready-made blocks. The archive holds 55 drawing files — one for every combination of weld type, side and hand — plus an icon menu to pick them from and a slide library for the pictures in it.
It is credited to B. Carlson, and the documentation dates the LISP and its icon menus to April 1990.
The other approach to weld symbols
This is the package that AWELD defines itself against — its listing says, in as many words, that unlike AutoWeld it does not use a collection of blocks. So the two on this site are a genuine choice rather than duplicates, and it is worth knowing which way each falls.
- Blocks, as here. Each symbol is a drawing file inserted at the size you ask for. Consistent by construction, easy to inspect and edit — open the DWG and change it and every future insertion follows. But 55 files have to travel with the drawing set, and a missing one means a missing symbol.
- Drawn geometry, as AWELD does it. Nothing to install beyond the program, nothing to lose when the drawing is sent out, and the size follows DIMSCALE automatically. But changing the way a symbol looks means editing code rather than a drawing.
Neither is wrong. If your office already keeps a block library and knows how to manage one, this fits that habit. If you would rather send a drawing out without worrying whether the recipient has your blocks, the other one fits better.
The block naming is systematic
The documentation includes a table explaining how the 55 file names are built, and once you see it the folder stops looking like alphabet soup. Every name starts with W to mark it as a weld symbol, then encodes the weld type, which side of the reference line it sits on, which hand it faces, and whether it is a centre-to-centre or staggered intermittent weld.
So the fillet symbols are the WFIL group, the bevel symbols WBEV, the vee symbols WVEE, the square groove symbols WSQR, the plug symbols WPLG, and the flare variants WFLV and WFLB. A trailing A, O or B marks arrow side, other side or both sides; L or R gives the hand; a C or S on the end marks the intermittent variants.
That is worth understanding for two reasons. It means you can insert a symbol directly by name if you know what you want, without going through the menu. And it means that if you need a symbol the set does not cover, you can build it and name it to match.
The set also includes the finish symbols — flush, convex and concave — along with a weld-all-round marker, a field weld marker and an arrow.
The menu is the dated part
The package’s front end is an icon menu built in the old MNU format, with a slide library supplying the pictures. That was how you built a graphical picker before dialog boxes, and AutoCAD replaced the whole mechanism with CUI a long time ago.
The blocks themselves are unaffected — a DWG from 1990 still opens fine, and inserting one by name still works. It is only the picker that has aged out. Treat the menu file as historical, use the naming table to insert what you want, or build your own tool palette from the blocks, which is the modern equivalent and a better fit for a symbol library anyway.
Command reference
The LISP file defines a single command, WELD1. Most of the package’s function lives in the blocks and the menu rather than in code.
How to load it
Unzip Autoweld.zip into its own folder and put that folder on AutoCAD’s support file search path — all 55 drawings need to be findable, not just the LISP. Read WELD.DOC first for the naming table. Our AutoLISP guide covers loading and the search path, and our guide to welding symbols covers what the symbols themselves mean.
Compatibility notes
1990, so written-for rather than tested-on. The blocks will outlast the code: a DWG of that age opens in current AutoCAD without trouble, so even if the LISP and the menu give you difficulty, the symbol library itself remains usable.
The LISP is plain AutoLISP with no dialog boxes and no Express Tools calls, so nothing requires the full product; LT users on LT 2024 or later, the release that brought AutoLISP to LT, could try it, though the icon menu will not help them. See what runs on AutoCAD LT. Check the symbols against the standard you work to before using them — American and Australian conventions differ in places.
Download
| Name: | AutoWeld |
| Description: | An autolisp routine complete with menu and toolbar for all your welding detailing needs. |
| Type: | AutoCAD AutoLISP Routine |
| Author: | B. Carlson |
| File Size: | 78 Kb |
| Cost: | Free |
| Worked on: | AutoCAD |
| Download File: | Autoweld.zip |
Related routines
- AWELD — the same job without a block library.
- Welding symbols explained — what the symbols mean and which standard governs them.
- BOLTS — metric fasteners for the same detail drawings.