.NET

[#1]

Hello.

I have a simple case.

I have drawing A and drawing B.

I have a block definition (block table record) in A as well as block references to said block definition in the model space.

The block definition contains 2 texts that change from reference to reference when they are created.

What I need to do is copy the references to certain block definition into drawing B.

I wouldn't care about the block definition being in drawing B but my logic dictates that to copy the block references I would first have to copy the block definition, and that's what I have done, and it works just fine.

When trying to add the block references (by going through the model space and seeing which Entities match my criteria) it seems to work fine but the references don't show on screen. the layer that the references belong to does get created even when it was not there before creation. This is my code base on an artile by Kean(article):

Again, the block definition is there, but the references are not showing u.u

      DocumentCollection dm = Application.DocumentManager;
      Editor ed = dm.MdiActiveDocument.Editor;
      Database destDb = dm.MdiActiveDocument.Database;
      Database sourceDb = new Database(false, true);

        // Read the DWG into a side database
        sourceDb.ReadDwgFile(orignalDrawingFullPath, System.IO.FileShare.Read, true, "");        
        // Create a variable to store the list of block identifiers
        ObjectIdCollection blockIds1 = new ObjectIdCollection();
        ObjectIdCollection blockIds2 = new ObjectIdCollection();
        Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.TransactionManager tm = sourceDb.TransactionManager;
        using (Transaction myT = tm.StartTransaction())
        {
          // Open the block table
          BlockTable bt = (BlockTable)tm.GetObject(sourceDb.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForRead, false);
          // Check each block in the block table
          foreach (ObjectId btrId in bt)
          {
            BlockTableRecord btr = (BlockTableRecord)tm.GetObject(btrId, OpenMode.ForRead, false);
            // Only add named & non-layout blocks to the copy list
            if (btr.Name == "*MODEL_SPACE")
            {
              foreach (ObjectId item in btr)
              {
                if (item.ObjectClass.Name == "AcDbBlockReference")
                {
                  BlockReference tempBR = (BlockReference)tm.GetObject(item, OpenMode.ForRead, false);
                  if (tempBR.Name == "losa-ne")
                    blockIds2.Add(item);
                }
              }
            }
            if (!btr.IsAnonymous && !btr.IsLayout && btr.Name == "losa-ne")
              blockIds1.Add(btrId);
            btr.Dispose();
          }

        }

        // Copy blocks from source to destination database
        IdMapping mapping1 = new IdMapping();
        IdMapping mapping2 = new IdMapping();
        sourceDb.WblockCloneObjects(blockIds1, destDb.BlockTableId, mapping1, DuplicateRecordCloning.Replace, true);
        sourceDb.WblockCloneObjects(blockIds2, destDb.BlockTableId, mapping2, DuplicateRecordCloning.Replace, false);

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Error in this code:

sourceDb.WblockCloneObjects(blockIds2, destDb.BlockTableId, mapping2, DuplicateRecordCloning.Replace, false);

You trying to add BlockReferences not to BlockTableRecord (for example, ModelSpace) but to BlockTable. BlockTable can has only BlockTableRecord's but not BlockReference's.

[#3]

I had to add this code:

ObjectId modelSpaceId = new ObjectId();

using(Transaction newTran = destDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
{
  BlockTable newBT = newTran.GetObject(destDb.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTable;
  foreach (ObjectId BTR in newBT)
  {
    BlockTableRecord newBTR = newTran.GetObject(BTR, OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTableRecord;
    //Used .ToUpper() because the name of the BTR is actually "*Model_Space" and not "*MODEL_SPACE"
    //Could as well just compared to "*MODEL_SPACE"
    if (newBTR.Name.ToUpper() == "*MODEL_SPACE")
    {
      modelSpaceId = BTR;
      newBTR.Dispose();
      break;
    }
    newBTR.Dispose();
  }
}            }
            newBTR.Dispose();
          }
	      }

There was a problem when saving, AutoCAD would crash, so I try changing the following lines and it worked, it saved without a problem.

sourceDb.WblockCloneObjects(blockIds1, destDb.BlockTableId, mapping1, DuplicateRecordCloning.Replace, false);
        sourceDb.WblockCloneObjects(blockIds2, modelSpaceId, mapping2, DuplicateRecordCloning.Replace, false);

 I'm planning to adapt this for use on a referenced drawing, that would mean accessing a table record instead of a side database. The use of that would be the manipulation of individual objects inside the reference block. But to make the changes persistent in the drawing, an event would have to be added to check the insides of the blockreference for the drawing against a dictionary or something like that. I'll update the post when I have something.

[#4]

Maybe this code looks better:

modelSpaceId = newBT[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace];

?