A Dynamic Class on Dynamic Block Creation in AutoCAD

TRACY CHADWICK: Looks like it's 8 o'clock, so we'll go ahead and get started. Thanks for joining me this morning. Before we get started, again, I mentioned this to a few of you, well, a lot of you that were already here, but those of you that trickled in, we're using the new technology here at Autodesk University called fxptouch. And we're only using it in a few classrooms this year just to kind of pilot it and see how it goes.

What you can do is you can go to this URL and you can sign in basically with your email, and the reason for that is if you make notes on the slides you can email them to yourself. So you can actually interact and see the slides as I'm going through them. Although, I'll be using the software probably more than I actually use the slides.

You can ask questions. So if you have a question and don't want to actually speak up and ask it, then you can do it that way. And occasionally I'll stop and look at the questions and try to answer them as we go. So again, if you're interested, do that. I've got one little poll in here. We'll try it out see how it goes, and run from there. So--

This is all about Dynamic Blocks. My name's Tracy Chadwick. I'm from Hutchinson Community College. I've been teaching in our CAD program for about 17 years now. And this is my fifth year teaching at Autodesk University. I really enjoy coming out here, and hope you guys enjoy the class.

So, Dynamic Blocks. I think probably you guys all know why we're going to do Dynamic Blocks, but it just basically will help us condense our block library. Instead of having so many different blocks, we can add some actions to them so that we can actually just maybe have one block with a bunch of different actions.

So by the end of the class today I'm going to demonstrate a lot of these things, obviously. I basically set my handout up as exercises. I also do this classes as a lab. So it's basically set up as exercises. I've got in my class files up on the website. And I've also got a folder in there with the completed ones. So if you want to work backwards and kind of reverse engineer one of them you can do that, too.

So we're going to look at several different features. We can't cover them all in an hour, unfortunately. But we'll be looking at things like stretching, mirroring, creating arrays, rotating objects, using the align function, using multiple insertion points. Sometimes these simple ones, I think, I get the most mileage out of.

And then we're going to look at how we can limit them. So instead of just being able to stretch from here to eternity maybe I only want a few allowable values. So I'll show you guys how to do that as well. And then we'll also look at block tables and look-up actions. That's another way that I can limit some things.

We'll take a look at constraints and parameters. So I'm not sure if everybody's using constraints and parameters in AutoCAD. It's kind of more came from the Inventor world where I first learned it, but now you can do that in AutoCAD and that can help us make some blocks and drive them with some values.

And then finally, we'll take a look at how we can extract that information. So if I have, for example, a door-- a door schedule. I've got lots of doors in my drawing. They're all different sizes. I want to pull that information down and see how many of each size I have. So that's kind of the roadmap for today.

So just a quick poll. And again, if you've got the app enabled you can answer the questions this way. So I figure you're one of a few categories. So A, I've already created Dynamic Blocks, but I'm looking for some tips and tricks. Or B, I've never created a Dynamic Block before and I want to learn how to do that. Or hopefully this is not you, the class I really wanted was full. So, I hope that's not you.

So if you got the app go ahead and should be able to answer the question now. And then we can see the results. And OK, there we go. No C's so far. That's good. There's always one wise guy. Somebody's got to pick C, right? I would have picked C. Are you able to see how many people responded?

AUDIENCE: Yes. It's about-- so this is conversation right here. And you already got one question. [INAUDIBLE]

TRACY CHADWICK: I got you. OK. Well, looks like we're almost half and half. That's great. I am kind of going to be starting at a pretty basic level here. So those of you that have some experience, hopefully I don't lose you at the beginning here. Hopefully you guys can pick up some tips out of here as well. Let's switch back here.

All right. So just kind of a-- I think I went back there accidentally. The idea behind Dynamic Blocks, like I said, we want to be able to work with blocks and really reduce our block library. I like to use tool pallets. I like to put blocks on my tool palettes.

This is just the simple door that comes with AutoCAD, and it's a great example of the power of Dynamic Blocks, because when you're looking at this door it's just a door, but it has six different door lengths. So there we're basically using a stretch function, which, again, we'll take a look at. So now that one block has turned into six blocks, but I also have a little door jam links here. So I have three different door jams.

So each variation I now have 18 different blocks. Then in addition, every one of those 18 options has some different opening options. So this is visibility stay here, where I can show it open or closed and at the different angles. So I got five different variations there. I'm now at 90 different blocks.

And of course, you can insert blocks and then mirror them, but if I wanted that to be part of the block even when I rotate it-- or excuse me, mirror it one way I'll have 180. Mirror it the other way, that's 360 possible block combinations.

So I've done this class a few times and I keep thinking that I'm going to actually create a tool palette and show you what 360 blocks look like on that tool palette, but that's way too much time. So I haven't done that yet. But you get the idea. Lots of different options there just on one simple little block.

So in the block creation environment, how do we get into a block? We're going to most of the time double click on a block, with a few exceptions. Does anybody know of an exception where you can't double click on a block to edit it? Anyone? Attributes, yeah.

So if it has attributes in it, which I've got a couple today that will have attributes, then you can't double click on it. It will bring up the attributes editor. So instead, you can always select the block at right click to get to the block editor. And then up in your ribbon you also have the ability to jump into edit block that way, as well.

Now typically if you go up to the ribbon and choose edit block, then you have to choose which block you want to edit. If you double click on it, then obviously AutoCAD knows which block you're trying to edit. Once you're in the block creation environment, you usually know you're in there because you have a different color background. By default, it's a gray color. Sometimes I take that out in my presentations. When they're printed out they look white, but that's so they print better.

So you have a gray background. And typically these palettes will show up over here on the left side. And people who haven't used Dynamic Blocks will typically close that because they don't want to use any of that. So to get it back I've got a button up top that will let me bring that back. So, again, here's my contextual tab. And then up here there's the button right here for authoring pallets. So if you do close this that's how you get it back. This button right here.

All right. So in the environment on that pallet we have four different tabs. And we're going to look at each of these tabs today. So you have a Parameter tab. And, as we'll talk more about it in a little bit, most of your, if not all of, your Dynamic Blocks are going to need some parameter. This is what's going to be driven.

And then a lot of them, but not all of them, will need an action, too. So we have the action tab where we can then say what we want to do to that parameter. And then the third tab is a set. So Parameter Sets combine the parameter and the action to make it all into one step. You'll decide if you like that better than the separate ways.

And then finally we have our parameters. And we also have the parameters available up on our ribbon as well. But again, this is where we can add in things like horizontal, vertical constraints, and dimensional constraints as well, which we'll look at.

So again, first thing that we want to do is take a look at how to create some blocks with some of these abilities. And the first one I want to talk about is additional insertion points. I love this one. Have you guys ever inserted a block and hated the insertion point? And so what do you do? You have to move it afterwards, or copy, it or whatever.

So wouldn't it be nice if you had the ability to choose where you want your insertion point to be? So we can very easily go in and add in additional insertion points just simply using the point tool. And as I alluded to earlier, most Dynamic Block actions you've got to put a parameter on it and then an action to drive that parameter. A few of them you don't. So this is one of the examples where you don't. You can just simply use the point parameter.

So I'm going to show you what that looks like here AutoCAD. There we go. So I'm going to back up just a little bit and go really basic on you guys. Last year I did this class and somebody said, you didn't show us how to create blocks. You just showed us how to edit them. So just want to make sure everybody is clear on creating a block. Pretty straightforward. Hopefully everybody has done it.

But just real quick. I've got some geometry out here for a chair. If I want to create a block I can just come up to my ribbon and choose Create Block. And then give it a name. I'm going to call this one Chair Two, since I've already got one here.

Very important, pick a base point. As I mentioned, I teach college classes and this is the number one things my students seem to forget. So when they insert their block it's way off screen, because it shows-- I see some heads shaking. You guys know what I'm talking about. So I'll pick a good base point here on the chair, and then select my objects, and then I'll tell it to convert this one to a block. And I'm not quite ready to open in in Block Editor.

So I'll go ahead and click OK. You can see it change colors. It changed colors because I created it in the zero layer. If you create a block in the zero layer then you're able to actually change it's layer after the fact. So there you can see I turned it into the walls, the layer.

Whereas this guy over here was actually created in the furniture layer. So-- Oh, no. I take that back. It is still in the zero layer. So as the block creator, if I wanted it to always be in the furniture layer I just make sure I draw it that way. But if you create it in the zero layer, then you're able to change it. So hopefully that's pretty familiar to you guys.

Once you've got just a regular block then it's a simple matter of double clicking on it and editing it to get the dynamic stuff. So I've got this desk. And I want to bring this desk in and, whether it's me or somebody else, we'll blame somebody else, we chose the midpoint of this desk as the insertion point. And I want to put one of these desks in every one of these other corners.

So I'm going to have to, I guess, click out in space. And use my Move or Copy, whatever method I want to use. But again, I can't even do multiple because they each have different ones. So perfect example of how multiple insertion points will help me.

So I'm just going to double click on this guy and click OK to get into my editor. And the first thing I want to point out is when you're in the block editor, your UCS icon is at the insertion. 00 is the insertion point of this block. So if you really just hate that the insertion point and you wanted to change it, then I could just move the geometry. Maybe if I wanted this to be the base point, I'd move all the geometry so that corners 00.

The other alternative is there is a base point tool. And this base point tool lets me replace the base point. So I'll just click this corner up here. And I'll close my block editor.

By the way, when you're getting out of the block editor, a couple of different things you can do. You can test the block first, although that's not really going to help me on an insertion one. You can click Save up here in the upper left corner. My workflow, I usually just click-- close the block editor, and then it'll prompt me and I'll save my changes here.

Never hit this x. Anybody ever done that before? It's so frustrating. I do that all the time, too. Yeah. I'm done with the block. I close it. I actually close the drawing that the block was in, and lost everything. So don't do that. So I'm going to save my changes here.

And then the next time I go to insert one of these desks, then you can see my upper left corner now is my base point. So that's if you just want to change the base point. If I want multiple base points that tool does not work. If I go back and click the Base Point tool, if you watch my command line up here, it says there's already a base point in here. So that's not the one we're going to use. That's just if you want to change the base point.

I'm just going to use the regular point tool. And one thing that I want to think about to make this block really nice and useful is, this is going to be the original insertion point. As I add more insertion points, I'm going to make sure that mine go clockwise around the desk just to make it a nice block instead of jumping all over the place.

So I'm going to come into my point parameter and just pick my next insertion point here. And then just click to place the label. The label is not going to show up anywhere. It's just while I'm inside the block editor.

Now you notice this exclamation point. A lot of times that's bad. Typically you see that because you've added a parameter, but you haven't assigned an action to it yet. In this case it's OK. So I'm going to ignore it and keep going.

So I'm going to go ahead and place a few more points here around the desk. There's my next one. I'll just use my space bar to repeat here. There we go. So I now have four extra points here. And again, I can save, but I'm just going to close my block editor and click Save Changes.

Now you're not going to see any difference on a block that's already in there. You're not going to see extra insertion grips. So I can't just grab an existing grip. It's only effective if you're inserting.

So when I go to Insert, and I bring in one of these desks, I can now tap the Control key. And every time I tap the Control key it will cycle through the different ones. So now if I just hit the space bar to repeat, Control a couple times, then I can get the exact one that I'm looking for. So a lot better than the whole inserting and moving into place, right? All right.

So hopefully you guys can take that back. And I got some different examples. Some mechanical ones, some architectural ones, kind of civil one. But really, I'm just hoping you guys get some techniques from me that you can go back in and create blocks yourself with.

So let's look at the next one here. The next one I want to show you as the alignment grip. I love the alignment grip. Have you guys used it? A few of you. So if you haven't used it, the alignment grip is fantastic. Basically, it will rotate the object for you.

So here, this is actually one of the toilets on the pallet that comes with AutoCAD, and this little block right here is my alignment grip. It kind of looks like a house. And basically the arrow is pointing in the direction of what I want to align it to.

So if I grab this grip, and then bring it over here to any one of these walls, you'll see that it basically just rotates to match those walls. Pretty cool. Don't have to know the rotation angle, I just bring it in there.

Also notice that the way it works is, I'm coming from this direction, so it aligns on this side. Just going to do that again here. If I come from this way, it's going to align inside the wall. So the arrow kind of points to the direction that you want to move your mouse and align to. I think I was tracking something weird there. So grab that again, and then I can come in here and align. Notice that it also automatically turns on the snap to nearest while you're doing that, the little hourglass.

So I'll go ahead and find my midpoint there and place it. Never had to rotate it. So I'd like to do the same thing with this vanity. Super easy. I'm going to double click on it. Click OK. And I can use a new point. I'm just going to use the insertion point here. Here on the Parameters tab I'm going to choose my alignment parameter.

And then I'm going to pick my-- my first point's going to be where the grip is at. So I'm going to pick this midpoint here. And then I'm going to come to the right. And I really don't have to snap to the object, I could just use tracking. But notice that when I click there my grip is pointing back towards the object. So that situation with the toilet, when I had to go through the wall but it was backwards, if this grip is pointing this way I actually have to go through the wall to get it to go the other way. So you always want your arrow to point the direction of what you're trying to align to.

So I'm going to undo that and place it in there again, and this time go to the left. So a little bit trial and error. Now I can see the grip is pointing away from the object, so it's going to align in the way that I want.

This is another one that doesn't need any sort of action. So I'm going to close my editor and save it. Now my grip has turned into this little symbol. And now when I grab it I can just simply bring it in. You'll see that it will align to any of the geometry. And I can place it.

So, again, really simple to add, but hopefully really powerful. Because now I don't have to use the rotate command. I can just go ahead and plop it in wherever I want.

Let's look at another one. Again, we'll just keep going through these and see many different examples. I'm not going to cover every little thing, obviously. But I've got this counter-top and I would like to set it to work I can mirror it. And I want to mirror it horizontally and vertically as well.

So I'm going to edit this guy. And I'm now going to add in a flip parameter. So I don't know why, but inside the Dynamic Blocks they're called flips not mirrors. But they're the same idea.

So I'm going to add a flip parameter. And what I want to do is click a couple of points that are going to represent the mirror line, if you will. So let's say I wanted to just mirror this in place, and I'll start horizontally. So I'm going to grab this top midpoint. And then the second one, again, it doesn't really matter how far I go down. What matters is that I'm locked onto 90 degrees so that it will mirror horizontally. So I'll just kind of click below.

And then it always has one more extra click, which is to put this label somewhere. So I'll just kind of click it up top here next to my original one. Notice that it put my grip at my first click, and that I've also got the exclamation point. And now that's important because I need to add an action. It's not going to do anything right now.

So I'm going to go to the Actions tab. And then here is my flip action. Now every time you use an action the first step is always going to be the same. If you watch my command line it's always going to tell you to select the parameter you want to apply it to.

So I'm going to come over here, and you can click on the name or you can click on the line, I'm going to click on this parameter. Now it asks me to select the objects. So just like using the mirror command I'm just going to window a crossing around everything here and press Enter. And I now have my first flip.

Now I mentioned you could test it. Let me show you what that looks like. If I go over here and click Test Block it just pops over into another screen. And I now have my little flip grip where I can just simply grab it and test it out. Looks like it's working pretty good. So I can come up and hit Close Test Block and then keep going. Not sure what happened there. Jumped to another drawing.

OK. Scared me. For a second there I thought I'd hit that x. OK, so let's do another one. I'm going to do the flip vertically as well. So once more I'll start at this midpoint and then just kind of bring it over to the side. And I'll place my label next to the original.

And then Action, Flip. Again, always the same steps. Choose your parameter and then choose your geometry. I'll go ahead and press enter. And then I'll-- I'm going to go ahead and close it and go out and test it out.

I don't know why. I got started not using the best tool. I always like to close and save and come out here and look at it. Just kind of my workflow for some reason. OK. So you can see the flip is working pretty good. And then you can see this flip is working pretty good.

But something kind of weird happens. Notice when I flip this one-- actually kind of in both cases-- that the flip grips don't go with them. They kind of stay in place.

So when you're editing a block you want to make sure-- if you want those things to go with them, you've got to make sure they're part of your selection set. And so for example, when I did this flip state one, this crypt didn't even exist. So I couldn't pick it anyways.

So I'm going to come in here. And there's a little symbol here. I'm going to right click on it and go to Action Selection Set, And then Modify My Selection Set. And so now I can just add more stuff to it.

So I can now go back and add this guy to it since it wasn't in there already. And then I'm going to do the same thing with this one. I'm going to modify that selection set. And then I'll add this to it, as well.

So I'll go back and save. And hopefully my grips go with them this time. So now you can see that that grip travels over to the right, instead of just being out there in space. Oops. I accidentally d double clicked. And then if I want to go ahead and mirror it this way, then you can see that grip goes with it as well.

I can't really help the base point. It's going to be in that upper left corner anyways, but now you can see that I can get those grips to go with it.

So sometimes want to add that extra grip. Sometimes-- or that extra parameter. There's other cases where you don't. Where you don't want the second action to affect the first one. It just kind of depends on the complexity of the block. Again, we'll keep it kind of simple in here. So-- Yeah?

AUDIENCE: If you wanted to always keep the base point at that one corner would you just have to add four for each mirrored--

TRACY CHADWICK: Um, if I wanted-- oh, I gotcha. So I always wanted the base point to be in this corner?

AUDIENCE: Correct.

TRACY CHADWICK: I'd probably instead-- so the question was, what if I always want the base point to be in this corner? I probably would have mirrored it differently. I probably would have made my mirror lines on these edges here. That way they would just mirror in place and then this would always be in the corner.

AUDIENCE: --parameter?

TRACY CHADWICK: What was that?

AUDIENCE: Add a base point parameter?

TRACY CHADWICK: Um, adding the base point parameter, I don't think would help me, because there's still a base point there. And so--

AUDIENCE: And you include that in there.

TRACY CHADWICK: Say that again. I'm sorry.

AUDIENCE: Can you include it in your--

TRACY CHADWICK: Oh, and Include it in there? I gotcha. Let's try that out real quick. That's a good idea. So if I go to my Modify Selection Set and then include the base point as part of it. And I'll just do it on the one and see how it works. Let's see. Yeah, it looks like the base point's gone with it. So great idea guys.

So if you didn't catch that, adding the base point parameter. And then going back and editing my flip so that it included the base point let's it go with it.

AUDIENCE: It's not going to be on the other flip.

TRACY CHADWICK: What's that?

AUDIENCE: It's not going to be on the other flip.

TRACY CHADWICK: Right. Because I didn't do that to that one yet. Yeah, it won't be on that one. But--

AUDIENCE: Can you strain it to the corner?

TRACY CHADWICK: Um, I'm not certain to be honest with you. I think this workflow seems to work. I'd just have to go back and edit the other one as well. So, all right. Good questions.

I always love the ideas. Shows that you guys are thinking about how you guys can use this. Let's take a look at another example. This time I'm going to show you the rotate, but I'm going to show you guys the parameter sets yet.

So those of you guys that are using Dynamic Blocks, are there any of you that prefer parameter sets to just doing the parameters and actions? By show of hands are there any of you? A few of you. Oh. That's all right. Thank you. I didn't think about that. OK, so I saw a couple.

I am a very linear thinker. I like to add the parameter and then add the action. The parameter sets kind of does it all at once. But as you'll see, there's still kind of an extra step I have to do. So maybe afterwards those of you that really prefer parameter sets you can come talk to me and convince me. Maybe I'm not doing it quite right.

So the parameter sets combines a parameter and an action. So you can see, like, what the linear parameter, there's lots of different things I can do with a linear parameter. And we'll look at a couple of them here in just a few minutes.

But I'm going to go down and find my rotate here. Here's my rotation set. So remember, my workflow so far is place the parameter and then the action. So if I do the rotation set, it's going to ask me for a base point for my rotation. So I'll just come in here and choose my origin. And then the radius of parameter, basically this is just going to be where my grip is going to go. So I'll kind of place my grip out here to the side. And then just like when you're using the rotate command, there a default rotation angle as 0, and then you change it. So it's asking me from my default rotation angle. I'm just going to press Enter to accept 0.

And then the thing is, the little exclamation point is not there anymore, but I have this symbol with an exclamation point. And this is maybe why this isn't my favorite method, because it's very easy for me to feel like I'm done and to close. But the problem is I've never selected the objects that I wanted to rotate.

So you actually have to come into this icon and right click on it. And remember a while ago I modified my selection set? Well now I have to do a new selection set because I've never selected anything yet.

So now I go ahead and window around everything, close my block editor and save changes. And now you can see that I can grab this grip and rotate it around. So again, another really powerful tool where I can just very simply rotate stuff without having to start my rotate command.

But again, that's kind of the idea of the parameter as it has the parameter and the action all at once. But you have kind of the extra step of going and right clicking and telling it you want a new selection set. I kind of prefer the linear method, but wanted you to see both ways. And again, those of you that maybe prefer this way, maybe you can tell me why after class here today.

OK, let's look at another example here of-- let me make sure I go in the order of my hand-out here. I think I get the fasteners next. Let's look at visibility states.

So if you ever have a block, and you have multiple ones. And you want to choose from them instead of having to go and pick different ones. So here's an example. I've got three different fasteners. And instead of having three different blocks on my palette, maybe, I just want one, and then I want to use a drop down and choose the one that I want.

Another example I've used a lot is like manhole covers if you're doing civil. And you get different types of covers, I want to be able to switch between them. So anything you can think of where things are kind of similar and you want to just be able to switch between them, instead of having completely different blocks. We're going to use visibility states.

So for this one, it's going to be a little different, because I'm not actually going to edit one of the existing ones. I'm going to start by creating a new block, and then I'm going to bring these guys into it. So with that in mind, I'm going to start by creating a new block.

So I mentioned earlier I can hit Create up here. B is the short cut. I'm sure many of you like keyboard shortcuts. And then I'm going to start by giving it a name. And I'll just call it Fasteners Top. And then I'm going to leave my base point at 00. And I'm not going to select any objects. So basically I just want to go into an empty block editor. So I could start doing stuff in there.

So I'm going to leave that empty, and then I'm going to tell it I want to go ahead and open it directly in the block editor. When I click OK, AutoCAD even thinks I'm crazy because I haven't selected anything and it really wants me to, but I'm going to click Continue. And again, that's just going to put me in an empty block editing environment. And I can start doing whatever I want.

So the first thing I want to do is I want to set up one of my visibility states. And that might mean that I just go in here and start drawing whatever that first thing is going to look like. I've cheated. I've already got blocks. So I'm going to insert one of these in here and bring it in at 00. And I'm going to go ahead and explode it so I don't have any nested blocks.

So pretending like I just drew this, this is going to be my first little visibility state here. So what I want to use is this little area up top here, visibility state. But as you can see it's all grayed out. So for this one I need to use the visibility parameter. So I'm going to choose my Visibility Parameter. Wherever I click is where my little drop down arrow is going to be. So maybe I'll click to the lower left here.

Once again I get the exclamation point, but this time instead of associating an action to it this area now opened up up top. And I can go ahead and edit my visibility states. So I'm going to start by renaming this one. Visibility State 0 as a horrible name. So I'm going to click Visibility States and then I'm just going to rename. And I'll just call that my Hex Cap Screw

Then I'm going to go ahead and create a new visibility state right here. So you want to start by creating the visibility state and then working in it. So I'm going to click New. And for this next one I'm going to call this my Flathead Slotted, I think is what I've got.

But then here's the important stuff. What do I want to do with all this stuff that's out there? Right now it's set to just leave this particular one out there. And I don't want to do that. I actually want to hide.

So I'm going to hide any existing objects in this new state. So when I click OK and OK again, I should have another new fresh screen here. Now I can draw in my next shape, which again, I'm going to go ahead and cheat and insert a block. Because you guys don't want to sit here and watch me draw a screw. So once again, I'm going to insert this 00 and explode it. I've now got my second visibility state.

Now I'm going to go make a third. So again, visibility States, New. And I'll say this is Flathead Phillips. Once again, making sure that it's going to hide all my existing stuff. Click OK, and OK again. And once again, I've got a blank slate. Draw in my item, or in this case I'll insert it, and explode it. And there's my third visibility state.

So I could do this all day, but hopefully you get the idea from just seeing a couple of them placed in there. I'm going to go ahead and close my block editor and save my changes. I'm not going to see any updates to these. Most of these other blocks I've edited and I come out and see updates to these. But remember, I didn't edit these blocks. I made a whole new block.

So I've got to go to Insert Block. And I got to go to my New Fasteners Top. I want to specify my base point on screen. And then, of course, I want to make sure I turn off my explode that I was using a while ago.

Then I'll go ahead and click OK and click to place my fastener. And now I've got my little drop down arrow. And very easily I can change the shape. And again, this shape is pretty similar, but it could be totally different things. There's a great example on the tool pallet that comes with AutoCAD. With a toilet where maybe you want to see a top view, or a side view, or front view. So you can have one that shows different views as well.

So here's another idea. If I bring this block in and I think, you know what? In the work I do I probably use the Philips head 50% of the time. I'd really like that one to be the default. Then I can go back into the block, and if I go up to my Visibility States, it's based on the order that they appear here. So if I choose my Phillip and have it move up to the top and click OK. Let me go ahead and-- I'll make it current, too, so I can see it in here as well. Not critical, but that way you can see it. It shouldn't change anything out here, but the next time I go in and place one then you can see that the Phillip is the default one.

So again, hopefully that's starting to generate some ideas for you. Yes?

AUDIENCE: Do visibility states also work for 3D?

TRACY CHADWICK: The question was, does visibility states work with 3D? And my experience with 3D is that Dynamic Blocks don't really work very well with 3D. Have you been able to--

AUDIENCE: But I'm saying in visibility though?

TRACY CHADWICK: Yeah, you know, that's a good point because you're really just changing what's on screen. I honestly haven't tried that. I was looking at editing Dynamic Blocks, and I saw some people on the forums had ideas of basically exploding them into faces and then messing with them. But, yeah, it's a good idea on and on the visibility, because you're not really changing the geometry. You're just hiding stuff. I'll have to try that. I honestly don't know the answer. Has anybody tried that at all? Visibility states on 3D? So-- yes?

AUDIENCE: I have.

TRACY CHADWICK: You have? Did it work OK?

AUDIENCE: Absolutely.

TRACY CHADWICK: Oh, it did? OK. Excellent.

AUDIENCE: Thank you.

TRACY CHADWICK: The answer is yes. Thank you. Did you try it?

AUDIENCE: I tried it, and couldn't get it to work.

TRACY CHADWICK: And you couldn't get it to work? Huh? Interesting. Well, if we have time at the end maybe I'll play with that a little bit. So haven't tried it. I'll have to check that out. All right. Let's take a look at another one.

So looking ahead here, or back as the case may be, I haven't been using the slides very much, obviously, but mostly like to get into the software. But next up one of the things that we wanted to do is, how do we now limit these? So I don't want to be able to just, again, stretch something from here to eternity. Or like on those trees when I was rotating them, maybe I don't want to rotate weird angles. I want to lock it onto 45 degrees, or something like that.

So for this one we're going to actually take a look at the properties of the parameter itself. So for example, when I add in a linear parameter I can actually take that parameter then and limit how it works. So let's take a look at a stretch example first here.

And I'm going to edit this block, and click OK. And I'm going to start with a linear parameter. So if you think about a stretch you're basically stretching out a linear distance. So I'm going to start with a linear parameter.

And I want my grip to basically be over here on the midpoint of this line on the right side. So I'm actually going to create my parameter across the midpoints here. Now obviously if I was doing final dimensioning this would not be a good dimension, because I'm not having my little gaps and so on there for my extensions. But it's OK in here. These dimensions, I promise, will not show up on any drawings.

So you can see, again, I've got the exclamation point. I need to add an action. I'm going to come over and add my stretch action. So once again, every time it's going to ask me to click a parameter. So I'm going to click my distance one parameter.

And then it's going to ask me, for this particular one, a point to associate with. So notice that I get a little red x either with the left point or the right point. So since I'm stretching on the right side I'm just going to make sure I click where I see the red x there. You don't have to click right on it. You just click on the right side of the screen there.

Then it's going to ask you for your stretch frame. So this is where it gets a little weird compared to the regular stretch command. Because in Dynamic Blocks you don't have to apply it to the whole geometry. You can pick specific things. So this is actually going to ask me for two crossings. The first crossing is basically, what area do you want to stretch? And then the second one is, specifically what geometry do you want to stretch? And as I'm sure you guys all know when we're using the stretch command, we want to use a crossing. So we want to go from right to left.

So I'm going to start with first crossing, like so. And I'm just going to cross around here, because that way the threaded part will change. And then like I said, now it gives me a second one that says, select objects. So I'm just going to create a very similar stretch crossing in there.

So if I go ahead and press Enter I can see I still have an exclamation point over here. And that's basically because I haven't assigned any actions to the left side yet. And that's OK. I'm going to clean that up in just a few minutes. I'm going to go ahead and test this out real quick, though. You can see that it doesn't actually even put the arrow here, because I think the original insertion point was there.

But now you can see I can stretch this out. And like I said, I can stretch it from here to eternity. And if I'm a CAD manager I probably want to limit exactly what bolts we actually have access to instead of letting it stretch forever.