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cleaning up aecb blocks

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Message 1 of 11
MuirEng
4714 Views, 10 Replies

cleaning up aecb blocks

Hello,

I have checked out a few similar posts but none seem to offer a definitive solution. We work in the electrical discipline, and have a new file containing all of our electrical device styles, property sets (and data), and associated blocks.

 

Our problem is that during the creation of this file a lot of unnecessary stuff has been loaded into the file. This includes a huge number of AECB blocks from other disciplines (e.g. Aecb_Welded_Butt to name one). The list of linetypes is pretty huge also.

 

BLDSYSPURGE and the normal PURGE commands do not seem to get to the root of this. The purge command shows all of these blocks, but only when "view items you cannot purge" is selected.

I have done what to make sure this file is not pulling in data from elsewhere and I believe that everything I am looking at is local. The drawing is actually fairly simple with no XREFs and no nested blocks that we are aware of.

 

What is driving us nuts is if we copy a single device from this file then suddenly and instantly the clean file is full of this junk. This is the case if the copy is done by way of copying the device from one model space to the other, or by way of copy/paste from one style manager to the other.

 

ideas?

 

 

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
Keith.Brown
in reply to: MuirEng

Those blocks are stored in styles that relate to other disciplines.  Try copying your device style to your new drawing using the style manager instead of copy/paste and see if that will work.

Message 3 of 11
MuirEng
in reply to: Keith.Brown

HI Keith,

Thanks for replying, but as I explained in the last line of my post I did try the copy with style manager.

 

your post led me to go to all the other areas of style manager, right click, purge. There no feedback about this operation, but it does not seem to have reduced the number of blocks residing in the drawing. Sigh.

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
Message 4 of 11
VitalyF
in reply to: MuirEng

Hi,
Try to use this free utility - ExplodeAllProxy + RemoveAllProxy,
Then copy the styles of your devices to a new file with the style manager
http://www.maestrogroup.com.ua/support/ExplodeProxy.zip

Message 5 of 11
Keith.Brown
in reply to: MuirEng

There is more to it than just purging the styles.  For instance, you cannot purge a standard style.  The program will just not let you.  If you go into the Piping Objects section and expand the Pipe Single Line Graphics Display you will see the standard style which you cannot purge.  If you select that style and then on the right hand side select the Single Line Graphics tab you will see a list of Connector Graphics Blocks that are associated with each Pipe Connection Type.  This is why you cannot purge those blocks.  They are being used by the standard style.  If you change each connection type to use the same block then you can start to purge some of these blocks. 

 

You can also use the export command to export your devices in model space to a new dwg.  This new dwg will not contain ANY styles that were not used in your devices.  This also means that all of the standard styles will be missing.  This could easily solve your problem quickly.  Just place one of each device into model space and then using the export command, export them to a new drawing.  The new drawing will only contain the styles used for the devices.  All other styles (including standard) will not be present.  I use this approach when sharing drawings with other trades.  It can drastically cut down on your file size also as there is usually alot of bloat in a drawing. 

 

 

Message 6 of 11
MuirEng
in reply to: MuirEng

Keith, the process of exporting as a block and re-importing is a great trick. The drawing is much leaner. Thank you!

However, even if I export one device I still have quite a few blocks and many linetypes I cannot get rid of. The blocks remaining are things like "AECB_OTH_RECT_1LINE_Elbow_Drop_Edge" and "AECB_OTH_Rnd_2Line_Rise" to give a couple of examples. These blocks seem very simple, just lines on layer 0, continuous. The one block I have associated with my device is the AECBE_FLRE_24x48_M light fixture.

 

It is really good progress but I still have these 12 or so blocks and lot and lots of linetypes completely unrelated to the single device in the drawing.

Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?

Really appreciate the help, thanks again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
Message 7 of 11
MuirEng
in reply to: MuirEng

okay, I figured out how to nuke the linetypes.

DGNPURGE, as explained in another thread.

Still have those 12 or so pesky blocks and a number of layers that are no doubt referenced in those blocks.

 

 

 

 

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
Message 8 of 11
VitalyF
in reply to: MuirEng

Hi,

 

Create files without standard styles and blocks

 

CreateEmptyFile.gif

 

 

Regards,

 

Vitaly

Message 9 of 11
MuirEng
in reply to: VitalyF

Vitaly, 

Thanks for the posting. I tried this some time ago but was the approach appears to break core functionality for the electrical tools. One example of the what I see lost is the classifications and types of the electrical devices. With the out of the box templates there are a number of device types, including

- Lighting

- Other Power

- Receptacles

- Communications

 

There are also a number of IfcMEPTTypeClassification entries including everything in IFcElectricalDomain, and a number of property sets which I believe are required to enable the functions of the circuit manager.

 

I imagine it might be possible to rebuild just the elements required to enable the functions I need but I hesitate to do this without really understanding what I am getting into.

 

Twelve or so extra blocks and layers is a big improvement from a few days ago. I would like to get rid of these but we can live with it if necessary.

 

Thanks again to everyone for their contributions. I hope this discussion is helpful to others also.

 

 

 

 

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
Message 10 of 11
awitt
in reply to: MuirEng

Open the Style Manager. Open HVAC Objects, Piping Objects, or Plumbing Objects. Go to for example Pipe Rise Drop styles.

Remove the views from the Rise and Drop tab. This also happens in the cable tray and conduit. So if you don't need those objects in your electrical device drawing remove the views in the Rise and Drop tab also.

You can also purge Property Set Definitions to purge Property Data Formats and purge Classification Definitions.

Then close the Style Manager and purge. The blocks and linetypes will purge.

Standard Styles will not purge. Just remove any views from the Rise and Drop window in standard styles.

When I make new drawings, I use the templates from the folder AutoCAD Templates. They do not include any MEP styles.

 

Message 11 of 11

We receive a lot of these contaminated drawings created in MEP. We’ve found that the best way to get rid of these Aecb_ blocks is to remove AEC dictionaries.

 

https://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?145542-AutoCAD-LT-LARGE-file-size/page2

 

(defun gc:GetDictEntries (dict / result)
(and (= (type dict) 'ENAME) (setq dict (entget dict)))
(while
(setq dict (vl-member-if (function (lambda (x) (= (car x) 3))) (cdr dict)))
(setq result (cons (cons (cdar dict) (cdadr dict)) result))
)
(reverse result)
)

;; delete all AEC*
(defun c:removeAEC ( / dict entry)
(foreach dict (gc:GetDictEntries (namedobjdict))
 (if (wcmatch (car dict) "*AEC*")
  (foreach entry (gc:GetDictEntries (cdr dict))
   (entdel (cdr entry))
  )
 (entdel (cdr dict))
 );fin if
)
(princ)
)

AutoCAD Command: removeAEC

Now you can purge them.

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