Case Study: National Theatre creates immersive, accurate stage sets faster with Autodesk AutoCAD

Staging a Scene Using AutoCAD

National Theatre needed a way to turn designers’ scale models and concepts into full-size, manufacturable set drawings while balancing materials, cost, storage and rapid design changes. Project draughtsman Oli Cooper relies on Autodesk’s AutoCAD to create detailed bench drawings, ground plans and coordinated layouts that choreograph how set pieces move and interact on stage.

Autodesk’s AutoCAD workflow let the National Theatre iterate quickly, maintain high accuracy, and coordinate complex builds—supporting large elements (for example, an ark with a 17 m length and 10 m mast) and planning for manufacture, storage and transport. Using Autodesk tools (and adding 3ds Max for sightline checks) streamlined production, reduced rework risk, and ensured sets were produced to spec and delivered reliably for each performance.

National Theatre

Oli Cooper

Project Draughtsman