topic Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block in AutoCAD Forum

Change visibility parent block from a child block

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 03:12:56 GMT

I'm trying to create a dynamic child block annotation from a parent block with an option to change pipe annotations.

Is there a way to change the parent Visibility States block from a chile block?

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Moshe-A — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 07:21:15 GMT

@Anonymous hi,

As far as i know you can not control the parent block from child block they are 2 independent blocks.

instead create a new block (that in future will replace the origin) that combines all visible capabilities.

Moshe

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 21:25:23 GMT

Hi @Moshe-A , thanks for your respond. I have been using all the visibility cobination. If the pipes less than 50mm they will use the same pipe formation (parent block) the different part is annotation e.g. 8mm, 12mm, 15mm...This idea just came up to me after I started chaging colors and pipe formations in each block.

The parent block is a dynamic block it can be changed via custom property (A= single pipe, B=2 pipes...) There should be a way to trigger it from a chile block.

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Moshe-A — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 06:09:51 GMT

@Anonymous

to tell you the truth, i'm not fully understand what you are trying to do?!

you are talking about 50mm pipes, than you talked about 8mm, 12mm & 15mm what are they diameter pipes?

you want to change a visibility of a child block and this will trigger a visibility change in a parent block?

are you aware that as soon as you change a dynamic property of a block it's name become anonymous (as "*Uxxx")?

so how would you know (not with eyes) who is the parent? there must be some other attribute that identify who is parent, who is a child?

upload a dwg with parent block + 2 to 3 child blocks so i would understand what you want to achieve.

moshe

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 21:53:31 GMT

@Moshe-A thanks for taking your time to response to my query. I guess I provided too much detail which caused this confusion. Becase of the 8mm,12mm, and 15mm are too small, they are all used the same diameter pipe.

Here are some example of a dynamic palette i'm trying to create.

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Moshe-A — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:15:33 GMT

@Anonymous ,

Now i'm starting to get you 😀 you want a dynamic block that has 2 main properties:

1. is the layout of pipes

2. change in text pipe diameter (8mm,12mm,15mm)

what is the (same) pipe diameter? and why you do not draw them at the right diameter?

i understand your problem with visibility, you want 2 but you can have one 1?

why those text not attributes?

post the block

moshe

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Moshe-A — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 22:05:37 GMT

@Anonymous hi,

Attached a zip file contains test.dwg + lisp pipes.VLX

inside the dwg is a dynamic block called pipes similar to your picture, contains 2 attributes (QUA, DIA) and Visibility1 for the pipes layout. place the files in a folder under AutoCAD support files search path then open test.dwg and load the VLX with (appload) as it loads the respond on the command line say:

pipes: installing command reactor...

this means it uses activex command reactor, do you know what it is?!

now...pick the block and click on visibility grip and choose a layout: on the command line a prompt will echo:

pipe diameter <8>:

enter the 8 or 12 or 15 or just accept the default. this would set the dia + qua attribute for you

is this what you had in mind?

Moshe

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 03:11:05 GMT

Hi @Moshe-A , you did it, that's exactly what I wanted. Thanks you for doing this.

I use this paletette for plotting old underground plan (TIFF/JPEG) with AutoCAD Raster Design. For readability I don't use the acctual pipe diameter, it's too small and too big for scales 1:250, 1:500, and 1:1000.

I'm not familar with "pipes.VLX", it seems to work with this palette only. This palette I only use for 8, 12, and 15mm (the same pipe diameter), I have other palettes for bigger pipe groups.

Using your idea, block attributes I was able to create dynamic block that I wanted, even though it is more like half dynamic, but I can live with that.

It seems logical to me to have an option for changing block perperty from other block, that's why I thought this option must be exist somewhere in AutoCAD that I didn't know, but it doesn't seem to be the case. This workaround is good enoght for me, thanks again for your help.

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Moshe-A — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 07:40:03 GMT

@Anonymous ,

I'm not familar with "pipes.VLX", it seems to work with this palette only. This palette I only use for 8, 12, and 15mm (the same pipe diameter), I have other palettes for bigger pipe groups.

of course you are not familiar with pipes.VLX , so was i two days ago, until i tailored it for you 😀

it only supports my pipes block. to make it support for other blocks it needs to know their names + attributes tag name + visibility property otherwise it will react to any block you touches on screen which is totally redundant.

here is my idea:

create any blocks you like in name range of pipe0 to pipe9 (10 blocks, only the amount you need for now, the rest would be reserve) and use (the same) reasonable tags names + visibility name than i will fix the lisp to support pipe0-9 - agreed?!

moshe

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 04:08:16 GMT

Thank for the offering. I constantly change my palettes, using the custom "pipes.VLX" would constrain the room for improvement, for example it doesn't look nice to leave a large space between the pipe and the annotation.

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Moshe-A — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 08:31:33 GMT

@Anonymous hi,

Only when you have 1 pipe the attribute 'should' move this called special case 😀 yes?!

think of putting it in other spot so it won't interfere. meanwhile i fix the lisp to do it but if you do find a better place do not use it. also i changed the support blocks name in the range of pipe0-9 (Note: your current version supports only pipes block)

moshe

Re: Change visibility parent block from a child block

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 03:59:10 GMT

Thanks for providing the file. It seems to work a OK until I added a Multileader to the block, somehow I couldn't move the arrow of the leader. Xplode the block would give me the option to move the arrow but it messes up the annotations.