Custom Door Tag

[Mikaka]

This is technically in the wrong discussion group, but this one gets more views...

Anywho, I work in a firm that does 99.9% custom residential. We use simple 2D drawings - lines, hatch, text, a couple of blocks, and an xref here or there - for our projects. We practically only use 1% of what ADT is capable of doing (we use ADT 2005, by the way).

We are now starting to dabble in a little commercial work. I get to be the guinea pig that has to learn how to use ADT (with no prior ADT experience, just regular AutoCAD). I have many questions, one of which has been (basically) answered, another can't be solved until we finally upgrade to 08, and a third question I now bring up.

This is probably really easy to do, but again, I have no idea how to use the ADT features.

I want to make a custom door tag (and probably a custom window tag eventually) that looks like the picture I attached. The out-of-the-box door tags don't look like the one my boss wants, so I have to make one that does. So my question is, how?

I tried hacking and chopping my way through one try, and it didn't work. I opened up one of the stock door tags to see if I could modify it. Either you can't or I didn't do it right. What I ended up doing was exploding it, seeing what attributes were what and where they went, making the shape I wanted, and placing the attributes back where they needed to go. Then I did WBLOCK (seemed like a good idea at the time) with prompts of a room name and door style. Boom. Thought I was done.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. Not only did I lose the ability to keep it the same scale/size as it originally was, I also lost the ability to click on the ADT door first and having it know which door I clicked (which I still don't know how to change those attributes). All my door tag does is work like a basic block that I can place, edit the scale, and enter my info in the prompts, thus losing every feature that the door tag originally was.

So, what am I SUPPOSED to do to make a custom door tag? And keep in mind, while being quite knowledgeable with the basics of AutoCAD, I have no idea how Desktop's functionality works. So bear with me on this one and explain, it if you can, with an abridged step-by-step process. Or, point me to a link of how to do it.

[Anonymous]

Draw the graphics of your block at 1:1 (paper space size)
Place some text for the door number and below this place some text
for the door number suffix. E.g. just type "Door Number" and "Suffix"
From the Format menu, select "Define Schedule Tag"
Select the graphics and text items.
Give the tag a name such as "Your Door Tag".
Highlight the "Door Number"
Change the properties type in the drop down box from "text" to "property".
Select from the dropdown box for "Property Set" the "DoorObjects" PSD.
Select from the dropdown box for "Property Definition" the "Number" or
"NumberProjectBased" if you are using Project Navigator.
Highlight "Suffix" and repeat the process.
Click ok and select an insertion point for the tag.
Save the drawing.
From the Format menu, select Style Manager.
Expand the tree for MultiViewBlocks.
Look for your "Your Door Tag"
Drag onto a tool palette.......


Leo

[Mikaka]

Leo,

I'm not seeing the 'Define Schedule Tag' feature in the Format drop-down menu.

[Mikaka]

This is what I have in my menu....

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I missed where you said you're using ADT2005.
I started using ADT at 2006 version (now on ACA2008)

>>>Can someone join in of how to create a schedule tag in ADT2005.<<<<

Alternatively, you can do a Block Edit of the tag's viewblock and
just change the geometry from a circle to an oval. Just leave
the attributes as they are.

Leo


wrote in message news:5790851@discussion.autodesk.com...
This is what I have in my menu....

[Mikaka]

Ok, I tried dumbing it down a bit. I took an already existing door tag - "Door Tag - Project Based" - one that already works and duplicated it (that might be where my slight flaw is). I opened that tag in CAD and edited it "Block-in-Place." I got rid of the attributes I didn't need, repositioned the ones I wanted, and modified the shape. Saved my changes (I think this is the problem), went back into CAD. Ran the AEC Content Wizard with the block (with what I am almost positive is the same command line prompts as what it originally was) and saved the block. I then ran the BATTMAN command to sync my changes.

I went ahead and tested it....and something went wrong. I didn't change any properties besides what the text attributes are, but now instead of it coming up to pick an object, the tag just shows up - the positioning of my text changed the way I wanted it, but the shape didn't change and it's not to scale. Originally you click the button, the click the object (a door), and the place the tag. Now the tag just appears and it appear about 1/8 the correct size.

Could it be because the tag is being associated with the 'Aec4_Door_Tag_P' file? Did I modify something I shouldn't have? This should be such a simple thing to do, but I can't seem to figure it out (maybe it's time my cheap-ass boss upgraded out of a non-existent version - man I can't wait to hear about grad school and quit my job - but that's a completely different topic).

[Mikaka]

Alright. New area of research. So I was fiddling with things and fiddling with things, and I finally got something to work - not the way I wanted, but it did work.

I got the door tag to come up the right size, right shape, but now the room tag is missing, even after I labeled the space the doors are associated with....so now what?

[Anonymous]

You were headed the right direction by inserting a OOTB door tag.
Rightclick the tag, and select "Copy and asssign"
Give the tag a new name. "Your New Tag"
Save the drawing.
Open the 'Aec4_Door_Tag_P' block in the Block Editor.
Save the block as "Your Door Tag"
Make any changes you want.
Save the "Your Door Tag" block and exit the Block Editor.
Rightclick the door tag and select Edit MultiView Block Definition.
On the View Blocks tab, highlight the 'Aec4_Door_Tag_P' and click on the
Remove button.
Click on the Add button and in this dialog box select the "Your Door Tag".
Now your new door tag will reference the new view block.
A MultiView block is not quiet an Autocad block.
With a MultiView block you still need to reference View Blocks which in
essense are just
regular Autocad blocks. You can specify View Blocks for all different
directions, Top, Bottom,
Right, Left etc.
You can specify what you want to see for all the Displays as well, Medium
Detail, High Detail etc.
What was happening before is that your new door tag was still referencing
the old view block.
Best to create all new by copy and rename. No need to run AEC Content
Wizard.
And don't think of the "attributes" as regular Autocad attributes.

Leo

[Mikaka]

I hate asking questions when it's about something in the very beginning of the process, but is 'Copy and Assign" something special or something different? I just copy/pasted the original Door Tag DWG file in the folder (not in ADC), went to the folder in ADC, right clicked on it and opened it in AutoCAD

[Anonymous]

Design Center and Style Manager are two different animals.
For creating and copying tags and MVB's I would stick to the Style Manager.

Leo


wrote in message news:5791305@discussion.autodesk.com...
I hate asking questions when it's about something in the very beginning of
the process, but is 'Copy and Assign" something special or something
different? I just copy/pasted the original Door Tag DWG file in the folder
(not in ADC), went to the folder in ADC, right clicked on it and opened it
in AutoCAD

[Anonymous]

In 2005, your door tag will need to be an AEC Content file. Each item of AEC Content is stored in a separate file, and for it to work properly, must remain under the AEC Content folder structure. If you can modify one of the out-of-the-box tags, you would be better off copying the AEC Content file in Windows Explorer, renaming the copy, then using the AEC Content tab of DesignCenter to open the file and edit the graphics.

You can find links to resources that can help you understand the scheduling feature in general and tags in particular here:
http://architects-desktop.blogspot.com/2006/08/adt-schedule-feature-resources.html
if you are interested.

--

David Koch
Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator
Using ADT 2004 at work; access to 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 at home

[DParkRMAK]

Hi David,
I had a vba app that inserted door tags. The tag would report the door size in feet and inches. Like 3068 with inches smaller. I am not able to install the tools I used for ADT3.3 in the newer versions.

Has anyone made a door tag like this? Any help would be appreciated.

Dave Park

[Anonymous]

No VBA tools necessary. Several variations on residential "3068" tags have been posted in the Content Discussion Group. For a tag that treats inches differently, Matt Dillon's example may come closest. Links to those sample files can be found in this blog article:
http://architects-desktop.blogspot.com/2006/01/residential-door-tags.html

--

David Koch
Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator
Using ADT 2004 at work; access to 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 at home

[DParkRMAK]

Ahh thanks!
I knew this could be done since 2004 but I only recently got away from ADT3.3 and never had the time to fiddle with it in 2004.

Thanks

Dave Park