On Mon, 22 May 2006 15:26:31 +0000, kevinaldo <> wrote:
>and this is the only difference?
Not really. The use of WBLOCK vs BLOCK as some distinct operational differences
that one should know about.
BLOCK creates a block definition in the current drawing, with an insertion point
that becomes the "Object Coordinate System origin" for that block definition.
You may notice this when you use the Block Editor, where the IP is 0,0 in the
Block Editor coordinate space.
WLOCK writes out the definition of the block to a drawing file. However, the
source drawing's current Dimstyle and Text Style gets writted out to it as well,
even if there are no dimensions or text in the block definition itself. You can
WBLOCK a block defintition, open the file, and run a PURGE to see this.
WBLOCK can do two things: It can write out selected entities to a separate
drawing file, or it can write out a predefined block definition to a file. There
are differences in how the IP is handled.
If you Wblock out a predefined block, the block gets written to the drawing file
with the block's IP and entities transposed to WCS 0,0,0 in the target file. The
target file's INSBASE is WCS 0,0,0.
If you WBLOCK out a bunch of entities, the selected IP becomes the INSBASE of
the target file but in the same WCS location as the source drawing. For example,
if you run WBLOCK and select some entities, and pick WCS 10,12,0 as the IP of
the new "block," then in the target file, it's INSBASE is WCS 10,12,0 and the
entities are positioned as they were in the source file.
The problem is, that if someone resets INSBASE in the target file to 0,0,0, they
may not reorient the entities to WCS 0,0,0 properly, effectively moving the IP
of the block.
In general, I tell my users to always use BLOCK to define the block definition,
then use WBLOCK to write it to a separate file.
Matt
mstachoni@comcast.net
mstachoni@bhhtait.com