topic Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD? in AutoCAD Forum

How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 May 2021 00:50:54 GMT

I have a set of drawings I created with a template title block. But my CAD manager has updated a new template (different file). How do I swap my existing title blocks with the new one?

The new one works if I create a new drawing but I just want to replace the title blocks in my existing drawings.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

vinodkl — Thu, 13 May 2021 03:41:22 GMT

Hi @Anonymous

You can copy the title block from the new template and paste it into the drawing which you are working on if you have a single layout in your drawing, if in case you have multiple layouts in your drawing then you can copy all the content from the modelspace using command ctrl+c and then paste (paste to origin command "PASTEORIGIN") it into a new drawing created using the updated template.

While copying the title block from the new template make sure the block name of both title blocks is not the same. If its same then while pasting the new title block it will be replaced with the old title block. If that's the problem, you first need to rename the old title block sing the command "RENAME" and then paste the new title block 🙂

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 13 May 2021 11:06:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I have a set of drawings I created with a template title block. But my CAD manager has updated a new template (different file). How do I swap my existing title blocks with the new one?

The new one works if I create a new drawing but I just want to replace the title blocks in my existing drawings.

Is the title block a Block in the existing drawings? If so, and if the insertion base point of the new one [set with the BASE command in the "different file"] is the same as the Block's insertion point in the current drawing, do this at the Command line in each existing drawing:

-INSERT

CurrentBlockName=DifferentFileName

Note the hyphen preceding the command name, to get the Command-line version, rather than the dialog box. The two names must surround the equal sign with no spaces. If the new one is not in a location where AutoCAD knows to look [some place in the Support File Search Path list, in the Files tab in the OPTIONS dialog box], you will need to include the path with the file name:

CurrentBlockName=X:\Your\File\Path\DifferentFileName

You can omit the .dwg filetype ending -- it won't consider any other kind of file.

It will ask whether you want to redefine the Block -- answer Yes. Then the Block will have been redefined, and you can cancel the Insert command without completing insertion of another one. All existing insertions of it will be updated, retaining their Layers, insertion points, scale factors & rotation angles, including in all Layouts if there are more than one.

The name of the Block in the current drawing will still be the same as it was, so if you want it to change to match the name of the new one's source file, use RENAME.

In the future, use XREF's for title blocks, instead of Blocks. When you change the source Xref'd drawing, it will automatically be updated every time you open any drawing it's Xref'd into, without your needing to do anything.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

3wood — Thu, 13 May 2021 12:11:26 GMT

You can also press Ctrl+2 to use Design Center to insert the new title block and replace the existing.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

JTBWorld — Fri, 14 May 2021 21:46:16 GMT

If you have many drawings you can use our app JTB Batch Change.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

johnUAVLJ — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 19:40:48 GMT

Great help @Anonymous -- Thanks.

I just want to add:

Try the command “ATTSYNC” to update the attributes locations

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

rchacinRUGAK — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 22:15:18 GMT

Hi, Kent,

I'm ACADE user needing to do what's described in the original post. Your answer is the closest I've managed to get so far, but I still have some issues.

For background, I am working on a set of drawings that were drafted in a different software and then exported as .dwg, which I then imported into a project. The "title block", just as every other "component" in the drawing is just a block without any kind of intelligence. I would like to be able to replace what's in it with an actual title block whose fields can be updated globally from a Title Block Update... I have a title block that matches the needs of the project, and using it would make the automatic page count and relocation much easier than manually typing on each block/page.

You method got me to be able to replace the existing block with my [title] block. However, it's still just a block albeit with attributes (if accessed through the Block Editor).

I know this is an old post, but I wonder if you have any further advise that would help?

Thank you!

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

cadffm — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 22:44:51 GMT

Hi,

Not sure what your issue is,

nested blockreference or just attributes?

Does it work with a new blockreferenc? Run INSERT

If so:

Don't forget to update your existing blockreference (Attributes).

As mentioned above, run Attsync

to update your blockreferenc.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

JTBWorld — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:54:21 GMT

What is it you next want to achieve next? Do you have regular text from the old block that you want to be added as attributes? If so, you need to get help to create a script for this conversion. Feel free to contact me if needed.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

rchacinRUGAK — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 14:53:04 GMT

Hi, Sebastian,

I am not sure I follow your train of thought, but to help visualize my predicament:

Running "-INSERT" did allow me to paste a custom-made .dwt title block on an existing drawing.
This .dwt template/title block works perfectly if used in a new drawing, but when inserted through the method described above it can no longer be updated via traditional means — that is, Title Block Update button.
If I don't a "ATTSYNC" it retains some of its attributes, so I can double-click it and fill them out like you would any other component. But they are out of place.
If I run a "ATTSYNC" then those attributes disappear. By double-clicking the title block then I am prompted with the Block Editor. From within the Block Editor I am then able to to see the attributes. However, this is ineffective for me.

What I would like to accomplish is to simply be able to use the title block template in the same way I would in a new drawing. That is, update the data in it such as Project Name, Drawn By, Description #1, so on and so forth by simply doing a Title Block Update.

In order to edit this information in the current drawings I have to double-click the pseudo title block, go in the Block Editor, and then edit each text field one by one, on every single page. Where there's potentially dozens of them, it turns into a very poor workflow.

PS #1: I can't run "INSERT" (without the dash) because that wouldn't allow me to insert the .dwt template, only a .dwg drawing. And what I am trying to do is not change the visuals/aesthetics of it — I am trying to bring intelligence to it.

PS#2: These drawings came from a different software (EPLAN, I believe), so nothing in them has any intelligence, including the title block. In other works, the title block in these drawings is just a block with a drawing framing the page, with text fields to account for the regular stuff you'd expect to find in an electrical schematic.

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

rchacinRUGAK — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 14:50:09 GMT

Hi, Jimmy,

I sort of laid out the problem I am facing on my reply to Sebastian in this thread. Here

Re: How do you swap/ replace title blocks in standard AutoCAD?

cadffm — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 15:10:47 GMT

Hi,

"PS #1: I can't run "INSERT" (without the dash) because that wouldn't allow me to insert the .dwt template,"

And do you know why? Because .dwt files a not to use as drawing or blockdefinition files.

They are for file templates only!

#2 -

This old insert has Attributes!

The old block has no attributdefinitions.

You will loose values because you don't use the same attribute names, thats the problem!.

Hey, without your drawing "original" and "mynewblock" it's just guessing. But i have a lot expierence 😉

I think your insert has attributes, flaged as 'constant', what is "impossible" to do by GUI in Adesk-Products, but it is possible by other programs and by programming too.

It's also possible to edit the attributes to be editable again.

And it is also possible to redefine the blockdefinition aswell.

So you have editable attributes abd the blockdefinition is build to create the same inserts, with the same editable attributes.

But not ootb, you need a tool to do this.

(I don't know about a all-in-one Tool on market, but i know that it works, vecause of my own function fir FixEplanExports)