Copy paste across drawings duplicate block names

[mat_hijs]

We're having some issues when copying objects (including blocks) from one drawing to another. To give some context I'll give an example. I receive drawings for each floor plan from the architect and I want to copy and paste them all into one drawing to work on them. These drawings are usually exports from models from Revit, ArchiCAD, ... meaning they are often made up of thousands of (nested) blocks with generic names like group1, group2, ... If there are blocks in different drawings that have the same name but a different definition it will reuse whichever definition was pasted first. I want to make sure I always have the correct geometry.

Here are some important points:

• I usually don't care about the block names since they are usually generic. Having duplicates renamed is not an issue as long as I don't have to do it manually.
• I'd rather not simply explode everything, especially polylines, hatches, ...
• I'd rather not use xRefs because not all my colleagues understand how this works and it's not as user friendly and easy to send for approvals.
• I'm fine if it needs some programming even though i'm not too familiar with the AutoCAD API

Is there a good solution to this problem, preferably out of the box?

[paullimapa · Accepted solution]

Too avoid the problem of nested blocks with different geometry definition the best bet is xrefs. After referencing in all the dwgs then you can always bind them.

[pendean]

@mat_hijs There is nothing OOTB to solve your issue if you want to rely on copy/paste with these named blocks: sorry.

For OOTB, you can

1) use ADCENTER then right-click drag those named blocks and answer yes to replace each one by one.

2) Do the same but with TOOLPALETTES (requires more work to set up first).

3) manually rename those blocks in either the source or destination first.

4) EXPLODE the blocks in the source file then COPYCLIP/PASTEBLOCK them into the destination file.

Teaching and learning XREF usage would be the OOTB faster solution IMHO.

[mat_hijs]

Binding xRefs works great. The only issue is that when drawings have the same block definitions I'll end up with multiple copies of the same block definition. I can ignore that though.

Thanks.

[paullimapa]

You’re welcome…cheers!!!