Dynamic Blocks

[#1]

We currently take out blocks out of our drawings and dump them into a text file that then gets imported into a database. From the database someone will associate a "style" if you will that then translates to a specific part number.

What i would like to do is have a block (say bth34h34w) dropped on a floor plan and right click on that block. Once i right click, I'd like to have a menu that comes up and gives me additional options, like "fiberglass" or "color" whatever... Based on what i select, it appends the bth34h34w and makes it bth34h34wblk if i was to select "black" on a pop up menu for that block.

Is this possible????

[#2]

Yes and no...

It's doable but if you have to many options it will only become more complicated and slow your machine down due to the size and amount of data to handle for one block file.

Not exactly sure what you are trying to get at, post an example and a rangle of styles.

The system for how you name your styles could also have a crucial effect on how you would build your block, post an example of your stylename and a description to why it's named as it is named.

[#3]

This might not suit your workflow but how about adding an attribute called NAME (or something) and using a block table to set NAME to bth34h34w or bth34h34wblk as required. I'm presuming that your using the ATTOUT command or something similar to just dump a tab delimited file that can be easily imported in to you database.

Actually editing the block name doesn't sound like it could be made to work as, assuming there was a way to do it, each time you changed a block name you would be redefining the block.

Gil

[#4]

The problem is that we have a few hundred blocks. If i had to have one block for each combination of block+style i would have to manage 1000s of blocks. Its easier to have one block that can represent 20 different colors or styles than 20 blocks for each style when its really the same block.

My computers are all i7s with 8+ gb of RAM. The speed "shouldnt" be an issue...

[#5]

I'm not sure if I've properly explained what I was trying to suggest so I've attached a very quick and generic example.

Using a chair block from the DesignCentre I have added a NAME, MATERIAL and COLOR attribute, a lookup and a block table. The block table changes the NAME depending on the material and color chosen and the look up changes the size of the chair.

In the generic.dwg I have 10 of the same block; each one has been assigned a different material and color using the block table and one of them has been resized. The generic.txt contains the out put from ATTOUT which is a tab delimited table of the blocks that could be imported into a database. ATTOUT doesn't recognize parameters so doesn't output the size, however you could get round this using data extraction to output to an Excel file.

Hope this helps.

Gil

[#6]

This could work. Now i have to see can these "options" for each chair be populated from a list rather than having to manually type in the values? I am trying to avoid having my design team type in the incorrect value where i may want them to select a color that we actually purchase from. Thus, instead of a 1234-123 (color code that we order) they might type 1234-134 which is a completely different and incorrect code because they hit the wrong keys...

[#7 · Accepted solution]

You would have to type in the NAME values; but only once EVER.

Some lucky person would get of typing in the correct name for each combination of color and material into the block table in the block editor but this would only have to be done once. CAD operators would then only select the color and material from the block drop down; they should NOT edit the attributes directly in the attribute editor or properties palette.

Gil

[#8]

Gil,

thank you for your help. I believe this will work.