Custom icons

[brent.duncan]

Using Symbol builder I modified a custom icon to create a different version of it.  I saved it as a different name but when I go to the ICON menu and browse for it to insert the new icon, it still gives me the original icon.  Looking at the dates they were created by using browse at the bottom of the ICON menu compared to using a windows explorer view of the same location it shows 2 different dates.  On the ICON browse window is shows a date from a couple of months back and the windows folder shows todays date.  They both show the same windos folder C:\users\public\Public Documents\autodesk\Acade2014\Libs\jic125\1-.  Can anybody tell me what I'm doing wrong, I've tried restarting the computer and still not having any luck.

[dougmcalexander · Accepted solution]

Are you modifying icons or symbol files, called blocks?  If you mofify a symbol that has already been inserted into a drawing once, you must run the Update Block command to force AutoCAD to accept the new version of the block.  (see attached image)  Notice that I said AutoCAD, not AutoCAD Electrical.  The AutoCAD part of AutoCAD Electrical still plays by the same rules it has since the 1980s.  To speed things up a bit, once a symbol (a.k.a.block) is inserted into drawing, the next time you need that same symbol/block the software copies the one in the drawing (RAM) to avoid havig to actualy spin the hard disk into place and find the file.  

Note:  Even if you erase blocks from a drawing, they remain hidden in the file until you purge unused blocks.  This is the AutoCAD Purge command.  But Electrical has an easier way to execute Purge project wide.  It is found on the Project tab under Utilites. (see attached image)

[brent.duncan]

Thanks for the feed back that solves my problem.  When I saw the dates were different for the same file I didn't know how to get that updated.  I didn't see in the help file for the symbol builder where it said anything about this.

[dougmcalexander]

Thanks for the kudos. Just to clarify, you do not need to purge if you used the update block utility. But, in case there are blocks that you deleted and will not use again on that drawing, you can purge unused blocks in order to trim the size of the drawing file.

I execute the purge from Project Utilities and select to process all drawings just to trim the unnecessary "fat" out of all project drawings prior to release.