You count blocks in AutoCAD every time you take off quantities or check a schedule against the drawing. Since the 2022 release AutoCAD has done the job with the COUNT command, which Autodesk sums up in one line — "Counts and highlights the instances of the selected object in the drawing". See the COUNT page.
This article also covers the half that few guides mention: what the command leaves out. That is why the tally so often disagrees with the drawing and looks like a bug. If the groundwork on blocks is still missing, read blocks in AutoCAD first. For the whole drafting and documentation workflow, see the AutoCAD for Construction course.
Three ways to count, and which to choose
All three return a number. They differ in whether they ship with the program, and in whether the result can become a table.
| Method | Available in | Result |
|---|---|---|
COUNT | The 2022 release onward, built in | Highlights in the drawing, a Count palette, and a table you can insert |
BCOUNT | Express Tools; absent from AutoCAD LT | Plain text on the command line |
QSELECT | Every release | The number of objects selected, with no table |
The first is the one worth making automatic. The other two have their own uses, covered below.
The count command in AutoCAD and the Count palette
Type COUNT and press Enter. The command asks two questions, quoted exactly below.
```
Specify first corner point of the count area or [Current area/Entire model space/Object/Polygonal] <Current area>:
Select target objects or [List all blocks] <List all blocks>:
```
The first asks for the count area. The second asks which block, and pressing Enter lists every block inside that area. The Count palette then opens beside the drawing area.
Each row is a block name with its tally. One detail in that image is worth pausing on. A name beginning with A and a dollar sign is an anonymous block, created when somebody explodes a block and regroups it. These can be counted but never scheduled, because nobody can read what the name means.
The palette does three more things. Search filters the list as soon as you type the first few letters of a name. Right-clicking a block and choosing Expand By splits the tally by property, such as layer, scale, or mirror state. Every control is described on the Count Palette page.
Close it with COUNTLISTCLOSE, or click End Count on the toolbar above the drawing area. That toolbar also carries back and forward arrows that zoom to each counted object in turn, which is handy when checking.
Why the number does not match the drawing
This is the part almost no guide covers, and it is the commonest reason a tally looks wrong.
Autodesk states on the Count Palette page that "Objects from external references or on paper space are filtered out from the count". So blocks inside an xref, and anything sitting on paper space, never reach the tally. The same page adds that "Counting objects from an area in a specified viewport is not supported".
The Count Feature Limitations page then lists fourteen object types that cannot be counted at all. The ones that bite most often are text, hatches, 3D solids and meshes, images, point clouds, and attribute definitions.
One more short line carries large consequences — "Only visible objects in the model space are displayed in the Count palette". A block on a layer that is off or frozen simply is not in the palette. Managing layer states is covered in layers in AutoCAD.
The palette reports three kinds of count error separately as well. Autodesk names them as "overlapping, exploded, or renamed objects". Click an error and the drawing zooms straight to it.
How to count blocks in AutoCAD floor by floor
Counting the whole drawing at once is fast, but a multi-storey set needs a figure per floor. The Polygonal option handles that: draw a polygon around the floor plan you want, and the palette counts only inside it.
The Object option instead uses existing geometry as the boundary, which suits a set where each floor already has a frame around it. Autodesk states the condition on the To Work with Counting Objects page — "A valid boundary object must be a closed polyline that consists of line segments and does not intersect with itself". Closed, straight segments only, and never crossing itself.
To change the area mid-count, type COUNTAREA or click Count in a Specified Area on the palette.
Putting the result into the drawing: a table or a field
Reading the number off the screen and typing it by hand wastes what the command just did. AutoCAD offers two ways to place it directly.
The first is the Create Table button on the Count palette. Tick the blocks you want, click Insert, and place the table. Clicking a grid line lets you resize rows and columns.
The second is Insert Count Field on the toolbar, which Autodesk describes as "Inserts a field that's set to the current count value". A field can sit inside the wording of a note, so a sentence like "the building has 48 door sets" keeps its number current on its own.
Both share one habit, and Autodesk repeats it twice on the same page: "Use REGEN to update the count field". Edit the drawing without running REGEN and the old number stays put, looking entirely genuine. This is how a drawing set goes out carrying a wrong figure that nobody spots.
Count objects in AutoCAD that COUNT skips
COUNT handles blocks and some geometry. Counting text, loose lines, or anything filtered by a property calls for a different route.
QSELECT is the shortest one. Run the command, choose the object type, set the filter, and click OK. Everything matching is selected and the number appears on the status bar. It reaches what COUNT will not touch, at the cost of producing no table.
FILTER does much the same but saves the filter set for reuse. SELECTSIMILAR is quicker than both: click one object, run the command, and every object of the same type on the same layer joins the selection.
BCOUNT in AutoCAD, and LISP routines
Before COUNT existed, drafters used BCOUNT. It still works, with two things worth knowing.
First, BCOUNT belongs to Express Tools, not to the core program. AutoCAD LT ships without Express Tools, so the command is simply not there. Autodesk has recommended COUNT in its place since the 2022 release. The reference page is BCOUNT.
Second, its result is only text printed to the command line. No highlighting, no palette, and nothing that can be placed in the drawing.
LISP routines are the other habit. Most of the block-counting routines circulating today were written before COUNT existed. They still run, but carry three practical risks. A routine downloaded from an unknown source can carry unknown code. One written for an older release can return the wrong figure on a newer one. And none of them produces the count error report that the palette gives for free.
The order that works for a drawing set
The first three steps are housekeeping, and skipping them makes the tally meaningless.
Step one turns loose geometry into blocks. An old hand-drafted set often holds hundreds of doors drawn as separate lines, and none of them can be counted. The 2027 release has a Detect and Convert button that scans for repeated clusters and offers to convert them. Review its list before agreeing, because it guesses from shape and can merge two components that merely look alike.
Step two gives every block a sensible name, so the palette can report something readable.
Step three cleans the drawing. PURGE drops definitions never used, and you run it repeatedly until nothing more goes. AUDIT then checks the file structure and fixes what it finds. One trap lives in the command-line form: do not run -PURGE with the LAyers option and an asterisk on a drawing still in progress, because it clears every empty layer, including the office standard layers nobody has drawn on yet.
Step four is the count itself. After redefining a block by the methods in editing a block in AutoCAD, count again to confirm the figure still holds.
Frequently asked questions
The count is lower than what I see on screen. Why?
Three causes, in the order worth checking: a layer is off or frozen so its blocks never reach the palette; some blocks live inside an external reference and are filtered out; or you are working in paper space.
My AutoCAD has no COUNT command. What now?
COUNT arrived in the 2022 release. On anything older, use BCOUNT if Express Tools is installed, and QSELECT if it is not.
What are the odd names beginning with A and a dollar sign?
Anonymous blocks, created when a block is exploded and regrouped. They can be counted but not scheduled, so give every block a proper name before a drawing goes out.
The number in my count table did not change after I edited the drawing.
Run REGEN. Autodesk states this for both the count table and the count field, and it is a common way for a wrong figure to reach a client.
How do I count text or loose geometry?
COUNT covers neither. Use QSELECT or FILTER, set the filter, and read the number of selected objects on the status bar.