topic Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File. in .NET Forum

group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 03:12:39 GMT

I have created a group which is named in my way, when i cope that and paste in another CAD File, the group disappear. So i write block and insert it in another CAD file, then explode it, group is still exist. But this group name is changed.So, I want to ask:"Is there any solution to keep group's name unchanged."

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

norman.yuan — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 13:24:12 GMT

Interesting to hear WBlock would carry Group to another drawing, which I cannot reproduce with following steps:

1. In Drawing1, I drew a few entities, and add them into a Group "Test";

2. I entered command "WBlock". In the "WBlock" dialog form, select "Objects" radio button as "Source", then clicked "Select objects" button to select all entities that has been included in Group "Test"; Oked the dialog to save the block file;

3. In another drawing, I entered command "INSERT" and selected the newly WBlocked file, and completed the insertion;

4. Exploded the inserted block, so in this drawing there are the same entities as the source drawing;

5. Entered command "GROUP" or "CLASSICGROUP" to see if there is group existing. No, there is no group created because of previous operation steps.

If you can repeat what you claimed, you'd better to describe in detailed "step-by-step" how to re-produce it.

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:52:25 GMT

be happy to receive your reply and sorry for my expression.

The detailed operation is following:

step1: i have some groups in a CAD file,we named it "A";

step2: i create a new file,enter command "Insert", in the "Insert" dialog form, select "Browse" to select "A" file, open it, do not select "Explode" checkbox, and then click "OK" button.

step3: we can see that all the entity in "A" file are turn into a block reference. At this moment, i enter command "Explode" to explode this block to entities, and we can see, the group is exist. and the group's is changed.

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 01:43:57 GMT

By the way, if we select "Explode" checkbox in step 2, the groups would disappeared, that's a weird result to me.

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

norman.yuan — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:02:31 GMT

Your described steps are different from your original post. In your OP, you said "So I write block and insert it in another...". To me, "write block" means that you use WBlock to save some entities, which are in a group, as a block file. That is why I could not repeat what you claimed in the OP, because WBlock only grab the entities themself to save as block file. However, according to your described steps later, you now insert entire drawing database, which contains more information that a pure block drawing needed (in this case, the group). Exploding is a separate opearation after the inserting, and it could be done with different options programmatically to the resulted entities. It seems the one done with AutoCAD's built-in inserting dialog might do thins differently than the "Explode" command, in regarding to the extra information (Group, in this case) coming with inserted drawing. IMO, checking the "Explode" checkbox on block inserting dialog box does the better work to clean up a bad/improper drawing inserted as block (a pure block drawing should not have group, or other unnecessary data, for that matter, in the drawing database/file).

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 01:59:12 GMT

Thank you for your explanation.

What i need is the information of group, especially remain group's name unchanged. Because each group's name link to a unique entity, the texts and lines in one group means property information of this unique entity. In my program, if the property of entity changed, program would finds out the texts and lines, according to group's name in DB Dictionary, then erase them and re-drawing them. It seems better that i describe my program to explain why i want to remain the group's name unchanged.

step 1: I have created kinds of entities which contain different property, and i want to add some texts and lines, as a mark, to describe those property in the drawing, so others can see them and stick out a mile, each mark is added to a group,the name of which is unique.

step 2: When i changed the property of entity, the mark would be re-drew. in the program, according the unique group's name, the texts and lines would be found out , erased them and re-drew them, the mark is true.

step 3: In the actual work, more than two CAD files are integrated into a new file, in the way in previous reply, the result is group still exist, but its name changed.

If group's name changed, when i change property of entity and re-draw mark, program would not found corresponding group. this leads to a wrong result that program would draw a new mark, create a new group. But the previous mark which should be erase is still exist.

That, is my problem.

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 07:23:57 GMT

Hi, Is there any solution to keep group's name unchanged? it's important for me, any way, reply me please.

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

norman.yuan — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 13:41:49 GMT

With my testing (using AutoCAD2020), if you save a drawing with a few entities in a group, then inserting the drawing into another drawing, whether you check the check box of "Explode" in the inserting palate, or you explode the inserted drawing as block after inserting, the entities remain in group; however, the group is renamed to anonymous group (something like "*AXX"). If one thinks hard, this group name change (becoming anonymous group) makes sense: if a drawing can be inserted into another drawing as block, then it can be inserted multiple times and you may not want entities brought into the current drawing via multiple insertion still in the same group, in general.

In your unique case, you want to somehow to tie some entities together when they are transferred to different drawing. I'd think using Group is not a good option. Since you post in programming forum (AutoCAD .NET API), there are different ways to copy/clone entities from one drawing to another that allow you to keep entities being transferred related.

Re: group's name changed when i cope a group to another CAD File.

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 01:37:01 GMT

Thank you all the same.