Extracting Information From Blocks

[felix.cortes5K3Y2]

Hi Forum,

I have a block used several times on an Autocad sheet and I want to get each instance as well as all of its attributes. The name of the block is called "MASS INTERMEDIATE DYNAMIC". I can't seem to get the count of the amount of instances used on the drawing and get the attributes. The code below only returns one instance of the block but I know it's used 20 times on my autocad sheet.

Dim acad1 As AcadApplication
acad1 = Marshal.GetActiveObject("Autocad.Application")
Dim oDoc As AcadDocument = acad1.ActiveDocument
Dim oblocks As AcadBlocks = oDoc.Blocks
Dim sblock As String = "MASS INTERMEDIATE DYNAMIC"
Dim blockname As String
For Each oblock As AcadBlock In oblocks
    blockname = oblock.Name
    If Not InStr(1, blockname, sblock) > 0 Then Continue For
    Debug.Print(blockname)
Next

Thanks,

Felix

[MakCADD]

if it is dynamic block then the name is 

block.effectivename  not block.name

[felix.cortes5K3Y2]

Thanks for the response... that doesn't really help me with this question

[MakCADD]

your document contains only one block definition in blocks collections

instances are blockreferences inserted in the drawing

you declared variable as block  you may be asking about block not about blockreference.....

[felix.cortes5K3Y2]

I see, so I should be using AcadBlockReference then. How do I retrieve all of the block references of a document?

I'm trying to re-write the For-Next loop to this:

For Each oblockref As AcadBlockReference in oDoc.Blocks
    blockname = oblockref.Name

Next

I seem to get an error because I am not getting the collection of the block references correctly.

Thanks,

Felix

[MakCADD]

Loop through all objects,. Find the entityname AcDbBlockreference, set the object,. Then verify the block reference name or effective name if it is dynamic block.  

But I think u are not using VBA.  It look like something else

[seabrahenrique]

Hey mate!

If i understand correctly, a Selection Set can help u in this case!

Try this code to interact with each block reference in your drawing:

Function FA_SST(nomeT As String) As AcadSelectionSet 'Create a Selection Set for a especific type

Dim filterType(0) As Integer, filterData(0) As Variant
Set FA_SST = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.ADD("SS01")
filterType(0) = 0: filterData(0) = nomeT
FA_SST.Select acSelectionSetAll, , , filterType, filterData

End Function

Sub ForEachBlock()

Dim SS As AcadSelectionSet, Obj As AcadEntity
Set SS = FA_SST("INSERT")

For Each Obj In SS

    Debug.Print Obj.EffectiveName

Next Obj

End Sub

Glad to help

[felix.cortes5K3Y2]

Hey thanks for the response! Is it possible to just get all of the references of the Autocad sheet? I don't really need a selection set. Just need to retrieve the instances that block is used on the autocad sheet and its attributes.

Thanks,

Felix

[norman.yuan · Accepted solution]

Assuming by saying "AutoCAD sheet", you mean Layout/PaperSpace. If using AcadSelectionSet, you can add layout name filter to select block reference on given layout. But looping through Layout block would be more straightforward/simple enough (assume you want to go through all layouts for block reference with given name):

Dim ent As AcadEntity

Dim lay As AcadLayout

Dim blk As AcadReference

For Each lay in ThisDrawing.Layouts

  For Each ent in lay.Block

    If TypeOf ent Is acadBlockreference Then

      Set blk=ent

      If UCase(blk.EffectiveName)="MY_TARGET_BLOCK" Then

         MsgBox "This is the block I am looking for on Layout """ & lay.Name & """".

         GetDataFromBlockAttributes blk

      End If

    End If

  Next

Next

Private Sub GetDataFromBlockAttributes(blk As AcadBlockReference)

   Dim atts As Variant

   Dim att As AcadAttributereference

   Dim i As Integer

   Dim attValue As String

   atts = blk.GetAttributes()

   For i=0 to UBound(atts)

      Set att=atts(i)

      Select Case UCase(att.TagString)

         Case "TAG1"

            attValue=att.TextString

            '' Do whatever with the attribute value...

         Case "TAG2"

          ...

     End Select

   Next

End Sub

HTH

[felix.cortes5K3Y2]

Sweet! This helped a ton. Thank you for your help.