"Panel ID" Block that stores information of the object it is placed inside of.

[Bamcosd]

I am looking to create a "panel id" block that will be able to store the length, width, and potentially even more detailed information of the line/polyline object it is placed inside of. Similar to the information that is displayed when you use the 'measuregeom' command and you get the quickmeasure preview.

The ultimate goal is to have the panel information stored in this panel id block so that it can be exported to excel for material allocation, BOM's, and similar process tracking. I have attached a drawing with more information that should hopefully clarify what I am looking for. Thanks in advance for your time and advice. 

[MMcCall402]

Why not just have the panel be part of the block?

[Bamcosd]

Typically, we draw our panels how you see on the right side of the attached DWG. We draw large wall elevations with continuous horizontal and vertical lines that represent the panel joints. Ideally after the drawings are finalized, I want to be able to place the ID block and have it gather the dimensional information of the panel its placed inside, and then I want to populate all that info for project management and fabrication purposes. Currently I read the drawings and manually put in the information into an excel spreadsheet one panel at a time, even if they are identical shapes, we use individual panel ID's. Often times there a 1000's of panels on each job, and the size and shape of them are often revised multiple times throughout a project, (initial shops drawings, architect markups, field measurements, and panel release). A large portion of our work is simple rectangles, but eventually I would like to evolve this block to work with more complex shapes as well. This would have the potential to shave weeks off certain projects.  Thanks

[MMcCall402 · Accepted solution]

In order for the block to access info of another object you would need to use something like attributes with fields and those fields would need to be manually set up for each instance of the panel. Far too time consuming to ne workable.

My thought was to make a rectangle part of the block. (come to think of it, it might not even need to be there, just the linear parameters)  Anyway, it would be part of the block so that the attribute(s) with fields could be set up once.  The block would be inserted at one corner of the panel and then stretched in two directions. The attribute/fields would update to these new dimensions.   These block attributes can be extracted with a Data Extraction and sent to an excel file, a table within the drawing or both.  The table would be 'live', meaning with would update as blocks are changed, added or removed.

[Bamcosd]

Thats a nice solution. Thank you so much for your time. Its A little more time consuming when placing the blocks initially, but it will still end up saving time on manually entering and updating the data. Can I constrain the block perimeter to move when the line itself moves? Or would I have to manually adjust the block size? As you can tell I am fairly green with dynamic blocks.

[MMcCall402]

Here's a different version that can be resized in two directions with one grip. (in the upper right)   The first version used 2 grips, one for each direction.    Using the new one should be fairly simple.  Place the block in the lower right corner of your existing panel. Then resize it using the upper right grip.  Assign a panel number.  The only thing added to what you're doing now in placing a panel number block is to use the grip for resizing.  (note the resizing re-centers the panel number)

If you have multiple panels of the same size you can copy it to new locations and just assign a new panel number.

Additional attributes can be added to the block for use in extracting panel information.  They can be user input information or by selections from lists via Lookups,Block Tables or visibility states.

Welcome to the world of dynamic blocks!  Leverage the abilities of what they can do to make your life easier.

[Bamcosd]

Wow thanks, this looks like something I can learn from and work with for sure. I really appreciate your time.