topic how to export a drawing with a block in AutoCAD Forum

how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 12:08:43 GMT

a part of my drawing is a block, and I need to export the entire drawing and it wont let me export the block... is there any way to convert this from a block back to an ordinary object for exporting? I tried explode, but i get the "cannot explode that block" error.

any input is appreciated.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 12:36:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

.... I tried explode, but i get the "cannot explode that block" error. ....

Use the BEDIT command and choose that Block to edit. Then in the Properties palette, find the slot called "Allow exploding" and change its value to "Yes."

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 17:33:12 GMT

i cannot seem to find the properties table and the allow exploding option you are referring to. when i run bedit and select that block I get the window in the screenshot...

I also dont see any proporties options in the toolbar under block editor tab.

am i skipping something? would you maybe have a screenshot to share regarding where to find this.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 18:26:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

i cannot seem to find the properties table and the allow exploding option you are referring to. ....

Type PROPERTIES. "Allow exploding" is in the Block category at the bottom.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 18:33:05 GMT

that worked, I am able to find the allow explode setting, but it was already set to yes, and i still cannot explode.

when i change the setting to no, it is a slightly different error, it says "1 cannot be exploded" versus when it is set to yes, it says "cannot explode that block"

so it seems as if the setting is working, but there is another issue that is blocking the explode....

any ideas?

this is mysterious to me.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 19:00:15 GMT

Are its scale factors equal? And related to that, what does the Block contain?

A Block containing any 3D Solid(s), and with unequal scale factors, can't be Exploded -- something about impossibility of defining the skewed resulting 3D Solid, I expect, though I haven't seen an explanation of the reason. I think there may be certain other entity types that can have the same effect, but I'm not positive of that.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 20:09:13 GMT

ahhh.

thats it. it is scaled in one direction.

if there isnt a way to explode it, is there any other ways to export it to a .stl if it contains a block?

I have attached my dwg file if it helps

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 11:21:07 GMT

posting to bump this thread back up to the top of the list...

still looking for some input on this.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 14:18:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
ahhh.
thats it. it is scaled in one direction.
if there isnt a way to explode it, is there any other ways to export it to a .stl if it contains a block?

I have attached my dwg file if it helps

Click on the object and change all scale factors in the properties dialog box to 1 and then explode.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 19:23:36 GMT

Thanks for the reply, and doing this allows me to explode, but I need to scale in one direction, and from what i see there is no way to do this without making a block and scaling it.

If there is a way to scale the object without needing to create a block, this would fix my problems. I have created a separate thread (linked below) on this topic as it seems to be different enough of a question that it should be in another thread.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/scale-one-direction-without-blocks/td-p/9035876

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

RobDraw — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 20:36:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
a part of my drawing is a block, and I need to export the entire drawing and it wont let me export the block...

Why not? What are you exporting to? Are you getting any warnings?

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 00:53:35 GMT

.stl is what im exporting to.

it just says cant export that object, and the solution is exploding, but with it scaled, I cannot explode.

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Alfred.NESWADBA — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 09:06:27 GMT

Hi,

>> .stl is what im exporting to.

So you need 3D-Solids as objects, block-insertions can't be exported using command _EXPORT to format .STL.

Instead of discussing 7 days in the meantime ... why not scaling your block like you need it (to have all object snap points) and create the object with the existing block as backgroundinformation ... it's done in just a few minutes.

But keep in mind, your wall thickness is not constant in your current file, scaling it into one dimension again makes it worse, not sure if that is what you want to produce then.

- alfred -

Re: how to export a drawing with a block

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 17:43:31 GMT

Thanks, I am going to consider this subject closed, I have gathered some good information here.

Once again, thanks everybody.