Updating Title Block Attributes (13:10 min)

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Now let's talk about how to edit

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custom data that is associated with our title block

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information.

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This is one of my favorite commands inside

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of AutoCAD Electrical.

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It is very easy to map your title block information

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to key fields within AutoCAD Electrical properties

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so that you can do automatic title block updating

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and not ever have to manually update a title block again.

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I'm going to switch over to paper space

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so that I can see my title block.

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I'm going to Zoom up on it.

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And we're going to map it for the very first time to all

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of the attributes and entries that I

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want to be able to utilize in the data

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that AutoCAD Electrical provides.

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I only have to do this one time.

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Once you do it for your template,

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you don't have to do it again, unless your template changes.

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You can even do it for multiple templates.

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In the case that you may have different sizes and shapes,

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things for A size, B size, C size

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and so on, as long as the attributes

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themselves are labeled exactly the same, then this same title

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block mapping file will work across all

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of those title blocks.

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It is not about location or size,

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it is about the name of the attributes.

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So if you need to set up your AutoCAD Electrical templates,

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make sure that you help yourself by making

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all of those templates have the same attributes in them

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so that the same mapping file can be used across all.

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If you don't do this, you will need a separate mapping file

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for each type of template.

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When I want to do this for the very first time,

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I come up to my project tab of the ribbon

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and I click on title block setup.

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It will then ask me how I want to set this title block up.

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Do I want to do it with an external file

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or do I want to do it with an embedded attribute?

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Both have their pros and cons, but I truly

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like the external option, the best.

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It's easier to edit.

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You can manually edit it in a Notepad file.

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And you can also copy and paste it across different tools

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or have changes for different ones

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as opposed to needing to change the embedded attribute

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into that block.

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Now the next question if you do the external file is how do you

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want to define that external file?

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Now this is true for all custom files for AutoCAD Electrical.

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You have three ways that you can define them.

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The first way and the first thing

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that the software scans for is something

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with the name of the exact same name as your project file

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dot whatever the extension of that related file is.

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In this case, these are WDT files for the templates.

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These files then would say, in this case,

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custom data nfpa.wdt, and they would

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be located in the exact same folder as the project file.

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The second option would be to have that exact same setup

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but without the project name and just the word default

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but still located in the Project file.

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The final scan that the software will do to find this file

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is if it doesn't find either of those two,

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the next step is to find a default.wdt out

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in your support directories.

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Again, there are many reasons and ways

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you could implement this.

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You could have that one super file be out in the report

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directories, but then when there are certain specialty title

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blocks that you have, you use an override

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with just the project specific file in the folder

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with the project.

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That will supersede your support files.

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However, I like every project file

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to be its own island, where everything

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that project needs is together inside the folder

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with the project, meaning the project, the drawings, and all

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of the related support files that go with that project.

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That way, I am not relying on a support file that

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may get updated over months and years for something

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that I may want to pull forward a couple of years from now

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and be able to use again, but none of those files

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match to it.

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So in my personal opinion, I enjoy

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being able to keep everything specialized

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to that single project file.

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It does mean duplication of all of these support files,

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but they're very tiny, easy notepad files

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to copy and paste.

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In this case, I will choose the top option here.

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Click OK.

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And then, it obviously sees that I already

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have one for this training project,

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but I am going to say that I want to override it,

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which would be me creating new.

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Now, if you know your block name, you can type it in here.

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And this is also the case that if you have multiple title

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blocks, remember those A, B, C, and so on,

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that I suggested that this is an opportunity

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to put all of the names of those blocks

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into this field with just commas separating them

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so that it works on all of them.

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But in my case, because I'm going

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to use the same block I have on the drawing,

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I'm just going to click pick block.

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I'll choose this title block.

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Hit Enter, and it comes in with that block name.

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Once I click OK, it then opens up my dialog box for me

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to start mapping.

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Here is where we go back and look at the project

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descriptions, and we can start mapping those

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to our attributes in our title block.

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So, in this case, I have named all of my project descriptions

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the same names as what I have attributes

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for in my title block.

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This is a very important part of implementation

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of AutoCAD Electrical.

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You can edit that dialog box, which I will show you right

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after I leave this one with that information that's already

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built in here.

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Once that's done, then these things

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can map to all of those attributes.

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So this list that gets populated by me selecting that block

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is every attribute already built into my title block.

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Now, I just map them.

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So title one will go to title one, title two to title two,

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title three, and so on.

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It is very important when you look at your attributes

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and which ones you want to see get

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mapped to project-wide fields versus individual drawing

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specific fields.

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I'll just keep mapping these.

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Everything you see me fill out here

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can be set up so that every single drawing has

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this information, same project titles, same job

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number, same date, same engineer, same drawn

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by and checked by, and scale.

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But when I move over to my drawing values,

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these are the things that get populated by the drawing

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properties, and they are the things that

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are unique to each drawing.

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So, in this case, the individual drawing numbers,

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the file name if you want to put it in there, the drawing

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descriptions, and even the sheet numbers

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if you wanted to say what sheet is this and then

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what is the maximum sheet.

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So if you want to say

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seeing on the screen here, that needs

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to be two separate attributes, one for the existing sheet

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number and one for the sheet maximum.

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And notice, I am not filling every one of these out.

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I don't have attributes in my title block

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for every one of the options listed in this dialog box.

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So this is also an opportunity for you

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to take a look at your type of block

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and see if there are additional things that you would like

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added to it so that you can map them automatically

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from the software into the title block.

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The final option is to go to this user-defined area

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where you can either put a user constant on here

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where you choose the attribute in the same text

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constant or auto LISP routine can drive the information that

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comes into that attribute whenever we run the title block

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update.

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Once we're done, we click OK, and our mapping

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has been set up.

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And just to remind you where all of those mapping pieces

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came from, the attribute list is what's inside the title

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block itself, standard AutoCAD title block

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information with attributes.

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The project properties that we map

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to things like the title of the project,

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the project number, drawn by, checked by, all of those

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is located by right-clicking on the project coming down

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to the descriptions, and then looking at the descriptions

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here.

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Notice that these have been changed to read the same as the

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attributes themselves.

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By default, these would just say line 1, line 2, line 3, and so

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on.

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And you have a never-ending list of attribute fields

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that you can map to.

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However, it will make it so much easier when you're

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filling these pieces of information

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out to actually change that file from saying

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line 1 to actually equaling your attribute information.

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To be able to do that, we create a file called a wdl file.

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You do have to manually create it.

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As a Notepad file, it's just simply a text file.

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This is what the file will look like when you create one.

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You will call it default_wdtitle.wdl.

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Make sure that you have file extensions turned on in Windows

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Explorer so that you don't have this end with a .txt.

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You need to override that text file extension with the wdl.

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That's how AutoCAD Electrical will find it,

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and all you're doing is then mapping that particular dialog

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box from saying line

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whatever it is that you want it to match to your title blocks

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with.

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It's a very simple thing to do.

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And again, you only have to do it one time.

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And then that will make this dialog box read how it is.

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Then we can fill out the information in here,

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and it will be engineered by me, drawn by me, and checked by me.

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And my setup is a one to two.

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Now, once I click those descriptions in there,

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I can then take a look at where the properties that

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are drawing specific come from.

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If I re-click on my individual drawing

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and go to drawing properties, this

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is where you'll see the drawing descriptions, the sheet number,

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the drawing number, and any other information

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that you want to map to your title block.

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This is where you would fill that information out.

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If you remember when we created our very first drawing

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from scratch, you get this dialog box right out

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of the gate and that is to ensure that you fill out

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this information so that it can be used in the title block

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when you're ready to do an update.

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So assuming we have done all of that

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and we have our mapping file, which we do now,

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all we have to do is an update.

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The title block update can be started

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from here, in the Project tab of the ribbon,

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or by right-clicking on the project

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and coming down to title block update.

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You can then choose what you want

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it to update by selecting all.

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The blanks don't do anything, so you're

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welcome to do that instead of having to individually

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check and mark everything.

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You can also come down and choose

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what you want to have update from the drawing

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information, which I will include sheets and sheet

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maximum.

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If you skip sheet numbers in between,

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the software will also analyze what the previous sheet is

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and what the next sheet is if they

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don't follow a numerical order.

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Once I'm done, I can say, OK project-wide,

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and it will then go through every single one of my drawings

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and quickly update the title block as you see here.

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If I double click on a different drawing

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and take a look at that title block,

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it has been updated as well.

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That's how fast and easy it is to use

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the title block updating.

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Please take a moment to do the exercise on title block

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updates.