Title block template

[ToddHarris7556]

Using Product Design Suite Ultimate 2017....

Following the steps in the Fusion Help File "Work with Inserting Custom Title Blocks"

The suggestion is to use AutoCAD to create the DWG and edit ATTDEFs for drawing properties.

The challenge is that PDSU comes with AutoCAD Mechanical, not vanilla AutoCAD. AM sets up all sorts of styles and blocks which cannot be purged, which means that Fusion rejects the GWD as a template because it contains blocks. 

I used to be very proficient in AutoCAD, but never learned Mechanical - I went straight to Inventor. Is there some suggestion/workaround for editing DWG templates using PDSU tools that will result in a usable titleblock for Fusion?

Many thanks in advance - 

[ToddHarris7556]

OK, I noodled around some more and figured most of it out. I share here to hopefully save someone else a few hours 🙂

First, start plain-vanilla AutoCAD per instructions HERE. Note it's not immediately obvious, because there are two app menu shortcuts :

• "AutoCAD 2017 - English - AutoCAD Mechanical" and
• "AutoCAD Mechanical 2017 - English"

You have to right-click the menu shortcut, click More>Open File Location in order to get to the actual shortcuts so you can see their properties. If you look at the first one, you'll note that it uses the profile <<VANILLA>> instead of <<ACADMPP>>. That's the one you want. Click it, and you'll get to stripped-down good-ole-fashioned ACAD. 

Next, make sure that the DWG you create is a model-space only drawing. Make sure all blocks are exploded and purged. 

Follow directions HERE and HERE re: creating your titleblock attributes. No, I have no idea what they need to be named in order to get Fusion to populate them. (i.e. Rev must come from somewhere, I would think)

Good luck 🙂

I know there are many of us looking forward to the next drawing updates 🙂

[cmiller66]

Hi Todd,

Glad you were able to figure out how to launch vanilla AutoCAD using the shortcuts. We are continuing to work on ways to make it easier to create and work with custom title blocks, we just wanted to get the base functionality out there.  Your feedback is welcome.

Regarding auto-population of attributes when using a customer-defined title block, that is work in progress. We want to come up with an approach that does not dictate using specific tag names for your ATTDEFs. 

Thanks,
Chris