Revision Clouds in AutoCAD

During a project lifecycle, there may be times when you need to change some areas in a drawing. To bring your notice to those changes or to the modified areas in a drawing, AutoCAD provides you with Revision Clouds. Revision clouds are cloud-shaped objects that can be used to designate areas that you need to draw attention to in the drawing. The revision cloud creation options are located in the Annotate tab>Markup panel. The revision cloud creation options are Rectangular, Polygonal, Freehand, and you can also convert an object into a revision cloud. 
 
   
 
 
The following are the steps to create a revision cloud from an object: 

1. In the Annotate tab>Markup panel, click  (Revision Cloud).
2. Select Object from the <Down arrow> menu or in the Command line.
   
   
   
3. In the drawing, select the closed object. A preview of the revision cloud is displayed.
4. Select Yes or No to the set direction of the revision cloud arcs and end the command. The revision cloud is created. 
       
    

   Revcloud Properties 

   When you hover your cursor over a revision cloud object, Quick Properties now displays Revcloud object type.  
     
    
   
   - Revision clouds are created using an approximate single value for the length of the arc chord. It is also called the Arc Length and is the distance between the two endpoints of a single arc segment. 
    
     
   - You can change the arc length of the arcs in the revision cloud. The arc length can be changed either from the Properties palette or by using the REVCLOUDPROPERTIES command. 
   - When you select a revision cloud, the Revcloud object type is displayed in the Properties palette. 
      
     
    
   - REVCLOUDARCVARIANCE (system variable): It controls whether the revcloud arcs are created with varying or uniform chord lengths. This system variable can be set to On/Off. Off creates revision clouds with less vertexes, whereas On results in a more hand-drawn appearance with more vertexes. 
    
   I hope you found this tip helpful! More information about this topic is covered in our AutoCAD 2025 Advanced learning guide. 

About the Author

Learning Content Developer<br><br>Renu is a learning content developer for AutoCAD and AutoCAD Toolsets, Autodesk 3ds Max, and other Autodesk products. She has over 25 years of experience working with Autodesk products and specializes in AutoCAD and design visualization software. She enjoys sharing her knowledge via blogs and webcasts and uses her instructional design expertise to create effective learning content for Autodesk software users. Renu holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering.

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