In this guide
The short answer
Use both. For a pallet rack layout, RackCity AI is faster: it places frames, beams and aisles, can bury columns in the flue, counts pallet positions live and prices the Material List. AutoCAD is the general CAD program for the stamped, permit-ready drawing set and for anything that isn't racking. On Enterprise, RackCity AI exports the layout as a DWG or DXF, so the drawing continues in AutoCAD.
What each tool is built for
AutoCAD draws anything. A rack layout in AutoCAD is lines, blocks and layers that you place, and its file, the DWG, is the native drawing format of AutoCAD-based products. That generality is the point: the same seat draws a rack plan, an office fit-out and a dock detail. It also means the drawing has no idea that two rows are a back-to-back pair or that an aisle has to clear a reach truck.
RackCity AI does one job: turn a building and a rack spec into rows of racking with an exact pallet count. It understands frame depth, beam length, flue space, back-to-back pairs and column burying, and it models multiple racking systems: selective (single-row, back-to-back and double-deep), drive-in, the 2-way pallet shuttle, push-back, cantilever, carton flow and wide-span shelving. Pallet flow, mobile racking and pallet racking on a mezzanine deck are not supported.
So the real question is not which tool is better. It is which part of the job is in front of you: working out what fits and what it costs, or producing the drawing someone signs.
AutoCAD vs RackCity AI, side by side
| Feature | AutoCAD | RackCity AI |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use | General 2D and 3D CAD | Pallet rack layout and quoting |
| Knows what a rack row is | No: you draw it, or build blocks | Yes: frames, beams, flue, back-to-back pairs |
| Pallet position count | Counts the blocks you placed (Count) | Live, computed from the layout |
| Columns and aisles | Drawn and adjusted by hand | Column burying; aisle widths checked against the forklift |
| Draft from a sentence or a drawing | Start from scratch or an existing DWG | Forky AI drafts from a sentence, a PDF, an image, a DWG or a DXF |
| Bill of materials and price | A block count table; pricing done elsewhere | Material List and Pricing Summary from the layout |
| Drafting control and standards | Full: your layers, blocks, dimension styles, title block | Fixed: one layer per element on export |
| Stamped engineering or permit set | Where it gets finished | Not produced; no structural calculation |
| Non-rack design | Anything | Racking and the building's features only |
| Platform | Desktop program, plus a browser web app | Any browser, a phone included |
| Files out | DWG (native), DXF | PDF, CSV, Excel on paid plans; DWG and DXF on Enterprise |
| Price | A paid subscription | Free to start; $30 or $100 a month with exports |
Where RackCity AI wins: the layout and the count
Rack-aware geometry. Draw a zone on the floor and RackCity AI fills it with rack rows at your frame depth, beam length and aisle width. Turn on column burying and the rows shift so the columns sit in the flue. In AutoCAD every row is something you place, and when the aisle changes from 12 ft to 11 ft (3.66 m to 3.35 m), you move every row after it.
A live pallet-position count. RackCity AI's count comes from the modeled geometry, so it is always the layout's count: change an aisle, add a beam level or move a column and it reflows. AutoCAD can count too, credit where due. Its Count feature counts the instances of a block and can drop a table of block counts into the drawing. But it counts what you placed; it does not decide whether another row fits.
A first draft in a minute. Forky AI, the built-in assistant, drafts the layout from a sentence ("600 by 300 ft, 32 ft clear, back-to-back racks with 12 ft aisles") or from the building drawing a customer sent: a PDF, a photo or scan, or a DWG or DXF. It reads the dimensions, clear height, dock count and column grid and racks the building. Check what it read against the real building; a draft is a draft.
The quote falls out of the drawing. The Material List calculates frames, beams, decking and hardware from the layout. Enter your own unit costs and fee lines and export a Pricing Summary PDF with the total and the cost per pallet position, or the list as CSV or Excel. In AutoCAD the count goes into a spreadsheet and the price into a template, and both have to be redone after every revision.
Where AutoCAD wins: the drawing set and everything else
The stamped, permit and engineering drawings. RackCity AI does no structural calculation, gives no capacity rating and stamps nothing. The engineer's calculations, anchor details and the sheets a building department reviews are finished in CAD, and AutoCAD is built for that kind of controlled drawing: dimension styles that establish and enforce drafting standards, layer sets saved in a template, blocks with attributes that carry a part number or a vendor name.
Anything that isn't racking. The office build-out, the dock pit detail, the sprinkler coordination, the site plan. RackCity AI draws the building's features the racking works around (offices, staging, pick-and-pack, mezzanine footprints, cold rooms), but it is not a drafting tool for them.
Full drafting control. In AutoCAD you choose every layer name, line weight, text style and title block, and Autodesk's help on layers calls them "the primary method for organizing the objects in a drawing by function or purpose". RackCity AI's exports follow its own sheet and layer layout. If your company has a CAD standard, the final drawing meets it in AutoCAD.
The native file. A DWG is AutoCAD's own format, so a drawing finished there needs no conversion before the next CAD user opens it, and AutoCAD also opens and exports DXF, the interchange format "often used to share drawing data between other CAD programs".
The workflow: RackCity AI, then DWG, then AutoCAD
For a rack dealer, a manufacturer's application engineer or an installer, the two tools are stages of one job:
- Draft in RackCity AI. Start from the customer's flyer, a DWG of the building or a sentence to Forky AI. Set the rack system, the frame and beam sizes and the aisles for the trucks, and run the customer's "what if" questions while the count updates.
- Price it. Open the Material List, enter your costs and fees, and export the Pricing Summary and the Layout PDF (the plan sheet plus an elevation per rack type) for the proposal.
- Export the DWG or DXF (Enterprise). The building, the column grid, the doors, the rack rows, the pallets, the dimensions and the title block arrive each on its own layer, so nobody redraws the plan.
- Finish in AutoCAD. The technical team details the drawing to the company's standard, adds what the job needs beyond the racking, and hands the engineer a plan to calculate and stamp.
Without Enterprise, step 3 is a redraw: the team rebuilds the agreed plan in AutoCAD from the Layout PDF's dimensions. That still beats drafting every version in AutoCAD, because only the version the customer approved gets redrawn.
The hand-off works the other way too. If the customer sends an AutoCAD plan of the building, Forky AI reads the DWG or DXF on every plan, so the layout starts from the real column grid rather than a retyped one.
What each costs
AutoCAD is sold by subscription. Autodesk's help says the AutoCAD web app is included with an AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT subscription and runs in a browser with nothing to install, while a free account gets viewing and measurement only. We don't quote Autodesk's prices here; check Autodesk's current offer.
RackCity AI is free to start. The Free plan lays out a building, counts it and keeps one cloud project, with a limited number of AI requests; it charges only when the drawing goes out. Solo is $30 a month with watermarked exports and Warehouse Pro is $100 a month with clean ones, or 20% less billed annually. The DWG and DXF export is on Enterprise, the plan for a team, which is sold by a person on one invoice.
Frequently asked questions
Can AutoCAD count pallet positions?
Not as pallet positions, but it can count what you drew. AutoCAD's Count feature counts the instances of a block in the drawing, and COUNTTABLE puts that count in a table, so if every pallet position is a block you get a number. Nothing re-packs the rows when an aisle or a column moves; you move the blocks and count again. RackCity AI computes the count from the layout as it changes.
Can I open a RackCity AI layout in AutoCAD?
Yes, on the Enterprise plan. RackCity AI exports the layout as a DWG or DXF with the building, the column grid, the doors, the rack rows, the pallets, the dimensions and the title block each on its own layer, for AutoCAD, BricsCAD or any CAD program. Solo and Warehouse Pro export PDF, CSV and Excel, not CAD files.
Can RackCity AI read my AutoCAD drawing?
Yes, on every plan. Give Forky AI a DWG or DXF of the building, or a PDF or a photo of the plan, and it reads the dimensions, clear height, dock count and column grid and racks the building. Extracted dimensions and the generated layout still need checking against the real building.
Does RackCity AI replace AutoCAD for permit drawings?
No. RackCity AI does no structural calculation, gives no capacity rating and stamps nothing. It produces what the package starts from: a dimensioned layout, an elevation per rack type and the material list. The engineer's calculations, anchor details and stamped set are finished in CAD.
Is there a free version of AutoCAD for warehouse layouts?
Not for drafting. Autodesk's help says a free account on the AutoCAD web app can view and measure only; the editing tools come with an AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT subscription. RackCity AI's Free plan lays out and counts a building at $0, and exports start on the paid plans.
AutoCAD facts come from Autodesk's own help: About Drawing (DWG) File Changes, About Importing and Exporting DXF Files, About Layers, About Defining Blocks, Dimension, Count and Work with AutoCAD Anywhere. RackCity AI facts come from our product, pricing and Enterprise pages. Autodesk changes its products and offers; its own pages govern.