Replace contents within a fixed boundary

[Intuos5]

Is it possible to swap one block instance for another without changing the blocks that are swapped?

I have multiple layouts of several different blocks that are within a certain irregular boundary.

Let's say it's a floor plan with several blocks for furniture. The boundary, the house, doesn't change, but the layouts vary in terms of arrangement of furniture (blocks). I have put the layouts side by side and have the house in a site-plan with various other geometry around (let's say planting and site stuff) is it possible to now put one of the layouts in the site model and swap them around? Like making a block out of each layout and then swap blocks or groups?

[Anonymous]

In a similar scenario, what I do is have the "room" geometry, walls, door, etc on their given layers. For different options of furniture, equipment, etc. I have different layers for each configuration, all residing in the same "room" or groups of rooms, and have a layout and viewport(s) for each configuration, freezing/thawing layers as desired. Attached is a very simple example, walls and door are on layer 0, shown in both viewports. Layer 1 is shown on the left, layer 2 shown on the right. Is this what you are trying to do?

[Intuos5]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In a similar scenario, what I do is have the "room" geometry, walls, door, etc on their given layers. For different options of furniture, equipment, etc. I have different layers for each configuration, all residing in the same "room" or groups of rooms, and have a layout and viewport(s) for each configuration, freezing/thawing layers as desired. Attached is a very simple example, walls and door are on layer 0, shown in both viewports. Layer 1 is shown on the left, layer 2 shown on the right. Is this what you are trying to do?

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Although I am not on my PC at the moment, it sounds like how I would usually do this.  I'll have a look tomorrow morning, thanks. However on this occasion I need to have multiple layers for some elements, therefore I am looking for an alternative approach.

[Kent1Cooper · Accepted solution]

You can have Blocks set up that are just the different furniture arrangements, and as long as they are all oriented the same way with the same insertion base point, you can swap among them with the BRS [= Block Replace, Selected] command in BlockReplace.lsp, available >here<.   Read about it there and in the file, and about its companion command BRA [= Block Replace, All].  There are many other Block-replacing routines around that you can Search for.

[Intuos5]

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@Kent1Cooper wrote:

You can have Blocks set up that are just the different furniture arrangements, and as long as they are all oriented the same way with the same insertion base point, you can swap among them with the BRS [= Block Replace, Selected] command in BlockReplace.lsp, available >here<.   Read about it there and in the file, and about its companion command BRA [= Block Replace, All].  There are many other Block-replacing routines around that you can Search for.

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This should have been in Autocad by default, it's great.

It would be even better with an optional dialog (like the BEDIT dialog to choose blocks from).

Thanks for the tip!