Title block and symbol buider

[Justin2012]

Does anyone know a link or video where I can better understand the creation of title block and using symbol? what I find here is so generic. I will appreciate any help please. I am currently stock.

[testsubject]

Doug,

That request came from me but thanks for looking at them. I had not had the time yet today.

[dougmcalexander]

No problem Bob...I see that you've been very helpful to lots of people lately.  I've been too busy to spend much time here.  I'm spending this week preparing for a class I'm teaching next next week, so I took a moment to check the forum.

[Justin2012]

Doug,

It is not just one component but over 20 component that I need to add a new attribute. I really appreciate all the supports so far.

Thanks.

[testsubject]

Justin,

This is not that hard to do by using the project capabilites and a little script file.

Create an .scr with the following lines

PASTECLIP

0,0

(NOTE: It is important that you hit the ENTER after keying in the 0,0)

1. Add all the components you want to add the new attribute to to a new project and make it active.

2. Add the attribute to one of you component drawings and save it (you will skip this one during the batch process). 3. Copy the new attribute to the clipboard using Copy With Base Point (CTRL+SHIFT+C) and selecting 0,0 as your basepoint.

4. Run Project\Utilities and select "Run Command Script File". Browse to where the .scr you created is and select it.

5. Click okay twice and select all the drawings in the new project except the one you already modified.

6. Click okay and it should then run through all the dwgs in the project and add the new attribute.

Now just open the project that had the schematics that needed modifying and run Swap/Update Block on each of the components that you updated.

As a word of precaution, make a copy of the component files, just in case...

It really should not take more than an hour to do this.

I included a copy of the .scr.

[Justin2012]

This is new to me. Do you have an example I can see. A Two or three components example is ok.

1. Add all the components you want to add the new attribute to to a new project and make it active.

Should I add only the component tag names? Should I use colon to separate them?

2. Add the attribute to one of you component drawings and save it (you will skip this one during the batch process).

 I used the add attribute command to add a new attribute to a component.

3. Copy the new attribute to the clipboard using Copy With Base Point (CTRL+SHIFT+C) and selecting 0,0 as your basepoint. 

 How do you go ahead copying this attribute? 

Thanks

[testsubject]

I made some assumptions as to your experience level. Sorry about that.

1. Add all the components you want to add the new attribute to to a new project and make it active.

Should I add only the component tag names? Should I use colon to separate them

I am taking advantage of ACE's ability to run batch functions.

What I meant here was create a brand new project and add all the component drawings (i.e., HCR1, HFU1, etc) that you want to modify to the project.

2. Add the attribute to one of you component drawings and save it (you will skip this one during the batch process).

I used the add attribute command to add a new attribute to a component.

That only works to add an attribute to a component that exists in a schematic. If you want to affect all copies of this component (for now and forever), you need to open the original .dwg and add an attribute using ATT and fill in all the info. That is what I have been suggesting.

3. Copy the new attribute to the clipboard using Copy With Base Point (CTRL+SHIFT+C) and selecting 0,0 as your basepoint.

How do you go ahead copying this attribute?

You copy the attribute just like you would copy any object using Autocad. Select an object (like your new attribute) and then I like to use the Right Mouse Click/Clipboard/Copy With Base Point (CTRL+SHIFT+C). You are then asked for a basepoint and I would enter 0,0.

Might I suggest that you take a class in how to use Autocad Electrical? There is a lot of stuff going on that can be difficult to "just pick up on the fly".

I hope this gets you going in the right direction.

[Justin2012]

Please email me a screenshot if you have one(I'll understand if you don't)Thanks for all the support by the way.

[testsubject · Accepted solution]

Here are a couple of screenshots of a new project with 2 component files added to it and showing the Copy with Base Point highlighted. Note that RATING1 is selected. That would be the example of the attribute I would copy to clipboard. Yours will be different. I have HFU1.dwg open.

The files that you want to change are located in one of the folders located here.

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Acade 20??\Libs. (the year will match your release)

It all depends on what you had installed that determines what is here. If you are working in JIC you will want to use the JIC1 or the JIC125 folder.

I am unsure about what screenshots you need since you were not specific. I hope this helps.

[Justin2012]

I still can't get this to work. Please refer to the attachment(previous = title block & WDT file) and let me know what I am doing wrong. When I try to update the title blcok I get a message

1) Customer, shop_order and Job_city "(no change)"

2) Drafter attribute not found on title block A$C120E31E5

3) Searching block table for WD_TB...Found. Title block=A$C120E31E5 

4)Lastly, it is not upating the section on my title block

I've been trying to figure this out but no luck. Please any help will be grateful. Thanks.

[testsubject]

The attachment is missing.

One thing though; why is your Titleblock named "A$C120E31E5"? That type of filename is usually reserved for Autosave.

[Justin2012]

Please refer to the attachments and let me know what I can be doing wrong here. As you know this is preventing the project title block update from working.

Again help will be gratefully appreciated.

[Justin2012]

I forgot to add the WDL file just incase you might need it. Please let me know what might be the problem.

Thanks.

[testsubject]

Thanks for adding the WDL. It was helpful.

I looked at the titleblock. The reason DRAFTER and TITLE not showing up is because these attributes do not exist on the drawing.

I can guess that you want DRAWN=Line6 not DRAFTER. As For TITLE, it is set for the Drawing Description Line 1 (TITLE=DD1) but you do not have any attribute on the drawing for this information. If you do not plan on including it on the titleblock, you can remove it from the WD_TB attribute.

If you correct these things, the titleblock should update. Also keep in mind that if nothing has changed or the fields are blank, you will get the "No Change" response for all the titems in the WD_TB.

I hope this helps.

[dougmcalexander]

I think I saw something in an earlier post about a .WDT file being used. This file is not necessary if using the WD_TB method. The software looks first for a WD_TB mapping attribute and, if not found, it then looks for a .WDT mapping file.

[Justin2012]

I am sorry but it is still not working. Please refer to the attachment.

Thanks. 

[testsubject]

Justin,

I went through and fixed the titleblock and created a titleblock template for use to use to create new drawings.

The problem was that there was a lot of "garbage" existing in the drawing; hidden wire numbers, blocks not needed, layers not needed, and the big killer, an extra WD_TB that was hidden which was interupting the WD_TB that you were trying to modify.

If you need to make any changes, open the .dwt and edit teh tileblock using "Edit Block" from within the Block Editor Window, yo uwill be able to modify the attributes for the titleblock. You can even run "Project\Title Block Setup" from within it.

Just Close and QSave when finished

I hope this helps.

{note to moderators: Come ON!! .dwt's are not allowed as an attachment???}

[Justin2012]

Bob,

Thanks! The drawing is coming up as blank.

For my understanding, how do you went about fixing the drawing and most importantly finding the hidden WD_TB? It will be good to know so as to avoid this from happening again.

Thanks again.

[testsubject]

When I used the titleblock, I saw that there were two WD_TB calls.

I inspected the drawing and discovered that there were several layers in the titleblock (which are not needed) and 2 of them were turned off. After turning them back on, I saw about 50 wire numbers and an extra WD_TB. This was what blocking the Title Block Update.

I purged all the extra items from the Title Block and resaved it. I aslo removed the references to the two attributes that did not exist. That cleared up the problem and it updated just fine.

[Justin2012]

Thanks ! How did you check and discover I have two title block?

The template that you created is not openning. Please check and resend it.

Thanks.

[testsubject]

What version of Autocad Electrical are you using??