Title Block Help

[laura-ashworth]

Ive been away form AutoCAD for a few years and can't remember how to set up title blocks.

Id like to copy the dynamic scale bar from DWG1 and put this into a new format as in DWG 2.

The blocks don't seem to be working and are hard to edit- logo disappears and have to move text manually by editing block in place. Anyone have tips as once I have one page set up, I'm going to make a suite of A4, A3, A2, A1 and A0 drawings as DWT files. 

If you can help, please reply using basic language as am not an expert.

All help welcome.

many thanks

[beyoungjr]

Hi,

Initial observations...

Corner Frame Brackets - The bottom two are in the block reference and the top 2 are in Paper Space and in the block reference (duplicated).  You have a horizontal margin outside of them at 11.5 per edge.  You have a vertical margin outside them at 10.5 per edge.

Inside the "A1 Title" block using block editor (not in-place)...

Text Spacing - All identifiers (red text) appears to be character-spaced and some run into the next in line.  Consider the spacing or consider adjusting width of these items horizontally.

Text Widths - Every Mtext element appears to have Dynamic columns turned on.  Consider turning columns off in properties for all text elements in your title blocks.  After columns are off you can adjust the Defined Width setting for each text object as desired.

*** If you turn columns off (from Dynamic) en-mass all of the Mtext objects will set as Defined Width of zero.  To maintain the existing width so you may reference while adjusting you can turn the columns off for each object individually.

After you finish making any size adjustments in the block editor for your other sheet sizes remember to use "save as" to save it as your new title block name (A2Title, A3Title, etc.).

I do not think you can copy/paste dynamic block objects from the block editor into another drawing, as only the objects will copy and not the parameters and actions.  Instead you would have to copy the entire block and edit in the next drawing as needed.

I prefer to setup my template with every title block and sheet size available but many others use different workflows.

As a quick model I have edited your DWG1 to illustrate a few points.  In the A2 sheet I just moved everything horizontally by the difference in sheet sizes and saved the new block.

Hope this points you in the right direction.  Feel free to post questions back.

Cheers,

Blaine

[laura-ashworth]

Thanks Blaine, Can you re save the drawing as am using LT2017.

I can then go through your comments and come back if I have any more questions- thanks again.

[beyoungjr]

Hi Laura,

Saved as 2013 format.

Cheers

[laura-ashworth]

Thanks Blaine, I tried to amend it and it all goes everywhere! 

I think trying to set this up is a bit advanced for me. Is there a real idiots guide out there to help me set up something from scratch with the attributes etc. Id really like to set up a template for our practice with all the page sizes, our layers , ctb file and text styles so is really easy to use.

I've tied youtube but can't find anything similar to what I'm trying to do.

Many many  thanks again.

[beyoungjr]

Hi again,

I'm creating a screencast >link here< for you to observe a few of the adjustments that I previously described.  Sorry of all that was a bit too complex or scatterbrained, I can overdo it I'm told.

I'll try to stick to the following order in the video and it will not have sound...

1. Remove stray objects.
2. Copy layout.
3. Use block editor to set mtext widths for scale bar and title block fields.
4. Save original block.
5. Use block editor to adjust overall border/title block size from A1 to A2 dimensions (x-247, y-174 adjustments) dimensions.  You will notice me making several adjustments apart from one another as certain elements must be adjusted differently.
6. Save As second block.
7. Insert second block to new layout created in step 2.
8. Adjust page setup via plot dialog for new sheet size.

I had a hiccup or two and had to go back into block editor to move something I forgot to finish applying the appropriate sheet setup.

Let me know if you need a bit more explaining.  I enjoy helping.

Blaine