A drawing that leaves your office with errors is a drawing that comes back. And when it comes back, it costs you double -- double the time to fix it, double the awkwardness of explaining it to the client or the shop, and double the risk that your next submittal gets scrutinized more heavily.
I have reviewed a lot of drawings over the years, both my own and other people's. The mistakes that slip through are rarely dramatic. Nobody submits a drawing with obviously missing geometry. The things that get through are subtle: a couple of entities on the wrong layer, a micro-gap that breaks a CNC toolpath, a dimension that references an edge that was moved after the dimension was placed. Small issues that are easy to miss individually but painful collectively.
This checklist is what I use before any drawing leaves my desk. It covers the five areas where I see the most problems: geometry integrity, layer compliance, annotations, model space vs. paper space issues, and file hygiene. For each area, I will cover what to check manually and where automated tools can save significant time.
1. Geometry Integrity
Geometry problems are the most consequential because they affect downstream processes -- CNC toolpaths, fabrication, 3D modeling from 2D profiles. A layer naming issue might annoy the CAD manager. A gap in your cutting profile scraps a part.
Gap detection
Check every closed boundary for gaps. This includes part profiles, cutouts, holes, and any geometry that needs to form a continuous loop. As I have written about extensively, gaps as small as 0.001 units can break hatches, prevent polyline closure, and cause CNC toolpath interruptions.
Manual check: Select the boundary entities, use PEDIT > Multiple > Join with tolerance 0. If all segments join into a closed polyline, there are no gaps. If some segments fail to join, there is a gap somewhere.
Automated check: GapDetector scans all entities and reports every gap with exact coordinates and size, including micro-gaps below visual threshold. This is especially valuable on complex profiles where manual PEDIT testing does not tell you where the gap is -- just that one exists.
Overlapping entities
Duplicate or overlapping geometry is surprisingly common. It happens when you copy geometry on top of itself, when you undo and redo and lose track, or when you import from another file and do not realize entities were duplicated.
Manual check: Use OVERKILL to find and remove duplicate entities. Be careful with the tolerance setting -- too aggressive and it removes entities that are similar but intentionally different.
Overlapping entities cause double cuts on CNC machines, confuse area and perimeter calculations, and create unexpected hatch behavior. Always check for them.
Open polylines
If your design intent requires a closed polyline (for extrusion, hatching, or toolpath generation), verify that every polyline that should be closed actually is closed. Select a polyline, open Properties, and check the Closed property.
Manual check: Select all polylines with QSELECT (object type = Polyline), then check the Closed property in the Properties palette. Any polyline that should be closed but is not needs investigation.
Stray geometry
Tiny line segments, zero-length entities, and geometry far from the main drawing area. These often come from failed trim operations, aborted commands, or imports from other CAD systems.
Manual check: Zoom extents (ZE). If the view zooms way out to show the drawing as a tiny speck in the corner, there is stray geometry far from your work area. Also run AUDIT to check for database errors.
2. Layer Compliance
Layer issues do not break CNC machines (usually), but they do break workflows. When a downstream user receives a drawing and cannot find geometry because it is on the wrong layer, or cannot freeze annotation layers because the dimensions are on the geometry layer, that drawing comes back for rework.
Correct layer assignments
Every entity should be on the layer that matches its purpose. Cutting profiles on the cutting layer. Dimensions on the dimension layer. Centerlines on the centerline layer. Text on the text layer. Whatever your organization's standard is, every entity should comply.
Manual check: Freeze all layers except the one you are checking. For instance, freeze everything except the cutting geometry layer and visually verify that only cutting geometry is visible. Then do the same for dimensions, text, and so on. This is tedious but effective.
Automated check: LayerGuard audits every entity's layer assignment against your defined standards and reports violations. It catches things like dimensions on Layer 0, geometry on text layers, and other misplacements that are hard to spot in a dense drawing.
No stray entities on Layer 0
Layer 0 should generally contain only block definitions. Actual drawing geometry, dimensions, and annotations should be on named layers. If you find geometry on Layer 0, it usually means someone forgot to set the correct layer before drawing, or pasted content from another drawing without checking layers.
Manual check: Set Layer 0 as current, freeze all other layers. Anything still visible should not be there (unless it is an intentional block definition). Move stray entities to their correct layers.
Proper colors and linetypes
Entities should use ByLayer color and linetype assignments unless there is a specific reason for an override. ByLayer means the entity inherits its visual properties from its layer, so when you change a layer's color, all entities on that layer update. When entities have explicit color overrides, they ignore layer settings and become much harder to manage.
Manual check: Use QSELECT to find entities where color is not ByLayer, or where linetype is not ByLayer. Review each one and determine if the override is intentional.
Layer naming consistency
Check that layer names follow your organization's naming convention. Mixed conventions (some layers named "CUT" and others named "Cutting-Profile-Outline") make drawings harder to work with and can break scripts or templates that expect specific layer names.
3. Annotation Checks
Annotation errors are the ones that make you look unprofessional. A dimension that shows 4.500 when the actual measurement is 4.497 because someone moved the geometry after placing the dimension is the kind of mistake that erodes trust.
Dimension accuracy
Verify that every dimension reflects the actual geometry. This seems obvious, but dimensions can become inaccurate in several ways:
- Moved geometry. The dimension was placed correctly, then someone moved the edge it references. The dimension text may or may not update depending on how the move was performed.
- Overridden text. Someone manually typed a dimension value instead of letting AutoCAD measure it. The dimension shows 4.500 because someone typed 4.500, not because the geometry actually measures 4.500. Check for this by looking at the dimension's text override property.
- Wrong precision. The dimension style might show fewer decimal places than needed for the tolerance. A dimension showing 4.50 on a part that requires four decimal places of precision is misleading.
Manual check: Select all dimensions and use the DIMREASSOCIATE command to check if any dimensions have lost their association with the geometry they reference. Disassociated dimensions are the ones most likely to be inaccurate.
Text readability
Check that all text is the correct height for the intended plot scale. Text that looks fine on screen can be too small or too large when plotted. Also check for text that extends beyond the title block boundary or overlaps with geometry.
Manual check: Preview the plot at the intended scale and verify text readability. Check for any text that is truncated or overlapping.
Leader and callout attachments
Leaders (arrows pointing from a note to a feature) can become detached from their target when geometry moves. A leader pointing to empty space is confusing and unprofessional.
Manual check: Visually trace each leader to confirm it points to the correct feature. Check that the arrowhead touches the feature, not a point nearby.
Tolerances and GD&T symbols
If your drawing uses geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, verify that all feature control frames are complete, correctly formatted, and reference the right datums. GD&T errors can change the manufacturing interpretation of a feature entirely.
4. Model Space and Paper Space
Mixing up what goes in model space versus paper space is a surprisingly common issue, especially on drawings that were started by one person and finished by another.
Geometry in model space, annotations in the right place
The actual part geometry should be in model space, drawn at 1:1 scale. Title blocks, borders, and sometimes annotations go in paper space (layout tabs). Check that no actual geometry was accidentally drawn in paper space, and no paper-space elements are in model space.
Viewport scale and lock
Every viewport in your layouts should be set to the correct scale and locked. An unlocked viewport is one zoom-wheel scroll away from displaying the geometry at the wrong scale. Check each viewport's scale and make sure the viewport lock is enabled.
Correct layout for printing
Verify that the active layout matches the intended sheet size and orientation. A drawing set up for a D-size (24x36) sheet that accidentally gets plotted on A-size (8.5x11) will have unreadable text and tiny geometry.
5. File Hygiene
File hygiene does not affect what the drawing looks like, but it affects file size, performance, and long-term maintainability.
PURGE
Run PURGE to remove unused layers, blocks, dimension styles, text styles, linetypes, and other named objects. Over time, drawings accumulate unused definitions from imported blocks, copied geometry, and template remnants. A drawing with 200 layers where only 15 are used is harder to work with and larger than it needs to be.
Run PURGE multiple times -- it only removes one level of nesting per pass. A block that contains a reference to an unused layer will prevent that layer from being purged until the block itself is purged first.
AUDIT
Run AUDIT with the "fix errors" option to check for and repair database corruption. Drawing files can accumulate corruption over time, especially files that have been worked on by multiple people, opened in different AutoCAD versions, or recovered from crashes.
AUDIT checks the internal database structure, not the geometry itself. It fixes things like broken object references, invalid dictionary entries, and orphaned objects. These issues may not be visible but can cause unpredictable behavior down the line.
File size check
If the file size seems unusually large for the drawing content, something is bloating it. Common culprits: embedded images or OLE objects, excessive undo history (use WBLOCK to reset it), proxy objects from third-party applications, or massive numbers of unused block definitions.
A simple mechanical part drawing should not be 50 MB. If it is, investigate before submitting.
Xref management
If the drawing uses external references (xrefs), verify that all xrefs are resolved (not showing "not found"), that the xref paths are relative rather than absolute (so they work on other computers), and that no xrefs reference files outside the project directory.
For submittal, consider binding xrefs into the drawing so the recipient does not need the separate reference files. Use XREF > Bind (not Insert) to maintain layer name prefixes that identify which entities came from which xref.
6. Automating the QA Process
The checklist above has maybe 20 individual checks. On a simple drawing, running through them all manually takes 15-20 minutes. On a complex drawing with multiple sheets, it can take an hour or more.
The geometry and layer checks are where automation provides the most value, because they are the most tedious to perform manually and the most consequential if missed.
For geometry integrity, GapDetector handles gap detection, micro-gap identification, and overlap checking in a single scan. It reports issues with exact locations rather than just a pass/fail result, so you know exactly what to fix. This replaces the manual PEDIT-test-and-zoom-around workflow with a scan that takes seconds.
For layer compliance, LayerGuard audits every entity against your layer standards. It catches entities on wrong layers, ByLayer property violations, and stray geometry on Layer 0. The audit report tells you what is wrong and where, without the freeze-every-layer-and-look manual process.
Both tools generate reports without modifying the drawing. They are read-only checks -- they tell you what is wrong but leave the fixing to you. This is important for a QA workflow because you want to review and understand each issue before changing anything, especially on a drawing that is about to be submitted.
Quick-Reference Checklist
Here is the condensed version you can print and keep at your desk:
Geometry Integrity
- All closed boundaries verified gap-free
- No overlapping or duplicate entities
- All polylines that should be closed are closed
- No stray geometry outside the drawing area
- AUDIT run and errors fixed
Layer Compliance
- Every entity on its correct layer
- No stray entities on Layer 0
- All colors and linetypes set to ByLayer (unless intentional override)
- Layer names follow company standard
Annotations
- All dimensions associated and accurate
- No overridden dimension text (unless intentional)
- Text heights correct for plot scale
- Leaders attached to correct features
- GD&T symbols complete and correct
Model/Paper Space
- Geometry in model space at 1:1
- Viewports set to correct scale and locked
- Layout sheet size and orientation correct
File Hygiene
- PURGE run (multiple passes)
- AUDIT run with fix
- File size reasonable
- Xrefs resolved and paths relative
- Saved in correct DWG version for recipient
Making It a Habit
The hardest part of any checklist is actually using it. When you are rushed -- and in my experience, you are always rushed -- it is tempting to skip the QA step and just send the drawing. It looks fine. It is probably fine.
But "probably fine" is how drawings come back. It is how a CNC programmer spends 30 minutes troubleshooting a toolpath break that traces back to your gap. It is how a fabricator calls to ask why the dimensions do not match the geometry. It is how trust erodes one small error at a time.
The full manual checklist takes 15-20 minutes. With automated gap and layer checking, the geometry and layer sections take under a minute. The annotation, model/paper space, and file hygiene checks still need human eyes, but those sections are faster because you are looking at specific things rather than scanning everything.
Twenty minutes before submittal saves hours after. Every time.