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Block/Dynamic Block use scenario

Anonymous

Block/Dynamic Block use scenario

Anonymous
No aplicable

Hi, I'm not sure what the best course of action is for the situation we are in, and I thought it might be worth asking you guys to brainstorm some ideas.

 

We have a range of standard house types that we use repeatedly across multiple sites in different configurations and scenarios. At present we have a library of blocks for these house types to use in site layouts. However, this means that we have an almost infinitely increasing number of blocks to maintain and update when the range changes. For example, house type A might occur as a semi-detached house connected to type B, C or D, each scenario requiring a different roof plan. Types B, C and D could then be in different positions relative to Type A, so the variety of roof plans is pretty infinite, and we're only dealing with Type A so far!

 

At present we have a standard block for the most common configuration, but have within it two nested blocks, one containing information which doesn't change, and the other containing the roof plan and other elements which may need to be amended. Users can then explode selectively if they need to produce something non-standard.

 

This works fine, but now other parts of the company would like us to embed further attributes into the blocks and use some form of database access to pull information out of the block and produce client facing clickable maps of sites. I'm not entirely certain how this will be done at present, but the implication is that a single block for each house is required, with all the attributes in the top level block. This makes changes to types on an individual basis difficult (not every instance of a house type will be subject to the same changes), and I need to avoid others using the blocks from having to explode them, as this will inevitably cause the database extraction to fail.

 

I've considered dynamic blocks, but this seems like a rather complicated way to go, and doesn't (as far as I know - my experience with dynamic blocks is limited) deal with all of our issues.

 

What I feel like I need is something like a group with a block in it, so that users can amend the contents of the group, while leaving the block and its attributes intact. I'll play with this solution, but if anyone else has any smart ideas, I'd be grateful to hear them!

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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni

Hi @Anonymous,

 

To better visualize what you are describing, can you attach a couple sample drawings?

 

I am afraid that nesting things in dynamic blocks might get pretty cumbersome to keep up to date and might be too large to handle easily.


John Vellek


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Anonymous
No aplicable

John,

 

An example is attached. On the left is a sample of the block we need to retain intact through out. It shows the outline of the foundations of the house, plus soil stacks, service entry points etc. I've added in various attributes to the block that we may want to pull out to a database later on, such as X and Y co-ords, type number, plot number etc. On the right is the "cosmetic" part of the block which I want people to be able to edit. It will obviously line up with the first block, and I want the geometry to move, rotate and mirror with the first block as well.

 

Does this help?

 

P

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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni

Hi Phil,

 

This is an interesting problem!

 

My first thought is to keep your left hand side as-is in a block. This seems to work well for you.

 

The right hand side (IMHO) should be a set of Roof templates that could be opened and saved as drawings that would be XREf attached as necessary.

 

Do you actually place all of these onto a master site plan? Or, just the parcel that they get built onto?


John Vellek


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Anonymous
No aplicable

Thanks John, I think we're going to go with something fairly simple at this point along the lines of what you suggest, albeit not a perfect solution!

 

We use these blocks on large masterplans, usually 1-500 houses but sometimes up to 1000 or 2000 houses, so using an individual XRef for roof plans is likely to be pretty cumbersome (not to mention complicated for some of our less skilled technicians to grasp!). There's also the added complication that the convention is to show a simplified roof plan on the overall layout, and to exclude any roof overhangs, so it's a diagrammatic roof plan rather than an accurate one.

 

The solution we're going to follow is to have a "data" block, which contains all the technical back end data, and that will be used for the database extract etc. We'll then have a secondary block for the "cosmetic" geometry, such as the roof plan, and that this will contain the majority of the information that plots. Users will then be able to monkey around with the appearance of the house block as much as they want, but will be able to leave the data block intact.

 

Having two blocks is not ideal, but we think that this is the least stressful in terms of workload of creating the block library and in terms of giving  users the flexibility to amend things as they need without breaking the database extraction.

 

Still happy to hear of any other suggestions!

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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni

Hi @Anonymous,

 

I would be careful about using a second block for the roof plans as one block change would possibly affect all the other blocks in the drawing which might cause a serious problem.

 

Of the 500 houses, I wonder if even with the varying rooflines, if there is still some duplication. Perhaps only 40 unique conditions for example might dictate 40 blocks that have different xref roof conditions.

 

It would obviously be nice to leverage each custom configuration without having to redraw. If nothing else, perhaps a table/schedule placed on a non-plot layer to help track what is being utilized and where.


John Vellek


Join the Autodesk Customer Council - Interact with developers, provide feedback on current and future software releases, and beta test the latest software!

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