Creating a custom child block for ladder drawing information. Would like some assistance with an XREF issue.

[pqphillips]

Okay, so to facilitate ease of drawing creation (I know it's actually more difficult, but the decision is not mine to make), I have been tasked with creating two separate child blocks to place on the side of a bus ladder so we can copy the DESC and XREF information to where we want it without having to move individual attributes every time. One child block would copy the DESC information, while the other would show the XREF information. 

This is accomplished by going in and making the XREF attributes invisible on the parent (or NO XREFNO/NC XREFNC), with the child picking up that information and displaying it, like this:

The problem is that I cannot figure out a way to copy the XREF info from the parent to the child.

Does anyone know of a way to do this?

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

Cross-referencing behavior is set in stone and is not something you can adjust.

Because you have set up a parent-child relationship, these two objects will always cross-reference one another. The parent will display an XREF value that tells you where the child is. The child will display an XREF value that tells you where the parent is. While a parent might display several XREF values, one for each child, there can only be one value per child. Likewise, each child can only display a single XREF value, because it can only have one parent. That can't be changed.

So....as far as the relay coil is concerned, your special child symbol is just another set of contacts and will be treated as such. As far as that special child symbol is concerned, its XREF value is determined by the location of the parent, period. You can manually force it to be something else but that would be undone anytime you ran an update.

And if you're doing that, well, you might as well go back to manually moving the attributes around.

[pqphillips]

Okay, then. Sounds like a plan.

[Icemanau]

Assuming that all the parent blocks will be in the same position from the end of the wire, there is the option to edit the blocks and move the required attributes so that they are in the required position.

Then update the block in the drawing you are working on to have all the blocks show the new attribute positions.

Before you make any changes though, Create a Custom folder in the Libs folder and copy the blocks from whatever library you are using to the new folder. Modify the copies and add the Custom folder to the first position in the projects block search path.

With that done, ACADE will always use your custom blocks before the original blocks and the attributes will show in the correct place provided the blocks are placed correctly.

No extra child blocks required.

Another option is to hold down CTRL and select all the attributes individually. Then move one by the grip and the rest will move the same way.

Regards Brad