AutoCAD Map 3D

[#1]

Hi all,

I have an existing map book system that covers a City.  I am currently going through a review process to make sure that everyone who will be using it is happy with the layer before we spend any money producing the books.  My last comment was to change a particular hatch pattern within the actual map book template.  Specifically, to change the hatch inside the north arrow from it's current pattern to a solid fill.

I went in and opened the map template I am using to generate the map sheets.  The arrow block is a part of the overall title block, but I went in to the block editor and successfully made the changes.  I then saved the file, keeping it as a dwt.

Obviously this change won't be immediately implemented in the actual map book, so I went ahead and re-built the map book.  When this finished, I noticed that the hatch pattern in the north arrow had not changed, so I went back and re-built the map book again, but choosing the option to "edit settings and rebuild."  In the settings, I made sure that I was pointed at the correct template and re-built again, but still saw no change in the hatch.  Finally, I deleted the entire map book and re-built it again from scratch, but the hatch pattern has still not been picked up.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why the changes to the template file are not being picked up?

Thanks,

Norm

[#2 · Accepted solution]

I think that I found the problem, but it seems like it should be a bug.  What I was doing was regenerating a map book inside a drawing that had allready contained the map book at one point.  Since the north arrow is a block object in the template, the original block definition with the old hatch pattern had been added to the list of block definitions in the drawing.  When I re-built the map book, it saw that there was still a north arrow block with the same name as the original, so it drew the block based on the block definition in the drawing, instead of using the block definition in the template.  I ended up having the edit the block locally (in the drawing instead of the template) for the change in the hatch pattern to take effect.

Although I understand what went on, it still seems like any drawing should pick up all of the definitions from the template and use them as defaults.  Oh well.

Norm

[#3]

Has anyone had the problem of not being able set up a map book in a drawing. That is were i am 

any help would be great.  I have tryed to follow the book but have ahd no luck at it.

[#4]

If you are having problems with the basic setup, I would highly recommend the three articles on Murph's blog.  Here is the first part:

http://map3d.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/map-books-part-1/

Norm