AutoCAD Attributed Block - PropertySets and Schedules

[mdhutchinson]

Some background... then a question.

I have developed standard attributed blocks that work in concert with MEP PropertySets and Schedules.

I need to add a Location Property to the PropertySet, however, it is not too suprising that standard AutoCAD blocks cannot respond to a Space nor an AEC Polygon. Is there an alternative to standard AutoCAD blocks that would acomplish the same end? I think a Label Curve object might work, but typically Label Curves are attached to another object and I don't think they can stand on there own. 

Please disregard if you will that fact that these are 'tags' of a sort, but they do not read other MEP objects PropertyData... as we use third party Duct Objects.

[mdhutchinson]

ok... I see the red arrow saying my post was escallated on Wednesday... but I don't see it on our subscription support page.

Case ID - 10431624

[Keith.Brown]

Why not just convert the standard autocad block to a multiview block?  That being said I am not sure if the attributes will convert to a multi-view block.

[Pothman]

It doesn't look like the Location Property type will work with an AutoCAD Block Reference. I created a new property set that applied to a Block Reference and the location property would not work - "invalid property set definition" and when I change the same property to apply to a window, the location property worked just fine.

Here is an article on creating custom tags if that helps you any:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/article/How-to-create-a-custom-tag-in-AutoCAD-MEP-or-AutoCAD-Architect...

[Keith.Brown]

I was able to create a block with attributes and then use that block in a multi-view block and have access to the attributes on the tool palette.  Additionally I was able to create a property set for a multi-view block and assign it a location property.

I guess the next question is can you switch your blocks over to multi-view blocks?

[mdhutchinson]

oooh... this is encouraging!

I have lisp code that evaluates the data and assigns a MARK to a block attribute for display on the drawing.

history... I am assuming you saw the image of the attributed blocks and schedule. I have two schedules that work in concert along with a lisp app. Sorting for both schedules are set the same. The data in the second schedule, (fields chosen to determine unique dampers), is exported to a csv file... then lisp reads it back in comparing each line of data against the last. When it changes, the MARK number in incremented.  Then the lisp app writes the MARK to the block attribute for display on the drawing.

Any chances I only have to modify this code slightly to write the the attribute value differently?

Perhaps I can eliminate the attribute data and work directly with the property data instead... assuming of course an mvBlock can report on the very PropertySet which is attached (only) to it.

I do have code that will write to propertydata fields.

(I know .NET would be your suggestion... and I have wanted to learn it... however, I have a vast lisp library and it is there for fairly quick work like this.)