TIP! Swap Block / Update Block /Library Swap

[caddude1]

Those of you who are using AutoCAD Electrical for schematics (or mixed AutoCAD version drawings) will usually need to include mechanical layouts of some type (panel layouts and enclosure layouts, etc.). When working with mechanical layouts, best practice is to scale your item (panel, enclosure, etc.) at 1=1, and scale your title block to fit. It is preferred to stick with even numbers (2, 4, 8 etc.) if possible when determining the scale factor. You are expecting a result as shown in the (block_scale_example), where the title block is the full width matching the drawing border.

 What happens when your title block needs to be updated (in this example, I am updating to a new version to correct the company address) and your title block is drawn other than 1=1? If you select the swap/update/library swap, and proceed as shown in the (error_1) example, you will get a result you were not expecting. Note two things here! The "retain old block scale" option was not selected, and the title block no longer is sized properly!

 This can be cleaned up, if you correct the scale factor on every sheet where things went wrong (not a good time - I can tell you from experience), and there is no harm done. However, it is better to pause and look at all of your choices before you just make the leap and proceed. Take a look at the (fix_1) example. I have selected the "retain old block scale", retaining the existing sizing. You will find that by selecting this dialog box, the resulting drawing is correct! Often, just taking a moment to see what options are available in a dialog box will save you considerable time!

[testsubject]

You might want to consider moving your titleblock to paperspace instead of modelspace.

This is a non-problem then since you scale the modelspace in a viewport in paperspace and the titleblock never changes size. This also gives you the ability to xref the original modelspace layout into a different drawing for creating zoomed-in detail views. Then when the original is updated, all your zoomed-in detail drawings are updated automatically.

This works very well with Autocad Electrical (assuming you only use one layout per drawing).

[caddude1]

Moving the title block to paper space, while beneficial, is not practical, as I am working with legacy drawings, edited by any number of people over the last 20 years. Most of the time, we are not able to put the time into other than the minimum required changes. I am currently working on standard drawing set, which would give me the option to work with paper space.

-Mark

[caddude1]

I have no option to do this, as I work with legacy documents that are commonly repurposed to a new job. I also do not have anyone else in the department that would be able to handle the paper space option.

[Anonymous]

My title blocks are in model space only. 

Every year I need to to update (or swap) title block due to year change. I normally extract the title block from the drawing. Title block is normally embedded in the drawing when the drawing is created from the company drawing template. 

Once you extract the title block, modify as required, save it. Then swap / update the title block using option B. Select "Update a Block - substitute new version for selected block".  This is very efficient way of swapping / updating title block project wide in one sweep.

[caddude1]

That is the process which I follow. My title block is a separate entity. I have the block itself saved in the job folder however. I use the same option to do a project wide update with no issues. I often will need the extracted title block entity for another project with a minor change (plant name or machine description) on another job for the same company. As I am not the only one who works on drawings, I have found that it is easier to have the title block itself pre extracted (other users commonly double block before updating) to avoid other users causing issues with my drawings.