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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Define block attributes.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
3 min.
Transcript
00:04
This is a copy of one of the standard Autocad sample drawings
00:07
that you'll see in the start tab right after an installation,
00:10
it's a floor plan of a building
00:12
with a lot of offices and furnishings that are all inserted as blocks.
00:15
We're going to make a new block of our own
00:18
zoom into the office labeled as number 6 100 in the upper right near the atrium.
00:23
You'll see a new chair in the middle that I have almost finished.
00:27
In fact, let's go ahead and finish drawing the block.
00:30
Let's make sure you're on layer zero to do this.
00:32
This is about the only time you should be drawing
00:34
on layer zero as it is intended for block creation.
00:38
When entities are drawn on layer zero and converted into a block,
00:42
that block will take on the properties of the layer that it is inserted on
00:46
using endpoint object snaps,
00:48
draw a line across the front edge of the chair to complete it.
00:51
The new chair is now a collection of lines and arcs.
00:54
We want to use this new chair in multiple places within our drawing.
00:58
So it should be turned into a block.
01:00
However, this chair comes from the manufacturer in various colors.
01:05
We want to be able to identify the color
01:07
in our drawing and possibly extract that information.
01:09
Later
01:10
you do this with attributes,
01:12
you can find the define attributes tool in the home tab of
01:15
the ribbon and within the additional tools portion of the block panel,
01:19
click on it or just type in the command name
01:22
at DEA,
01:23
this will display the attribute definition, dialogue or
01:26
you can control all the various attribute settings.
01:29
We'll accept the defaults, but
01:31
we're required to give it a tag. Think of the tag as the unique name of the attribute.
01:36
A few things to note about tags.
01:38
You can't have spaces in the tag name.
01:40
So it's very common practice to use an underscore between words.
01:43
Also a tag is always upper case. But don't worry if you type it in lowercase or mixed
01:49
Autocad will change it to all caps for you.
01:52
Given those rules, I'll type in the tag name of chair color,
01:57
enter the user prompt to use,
02:00
I'll use inter chair color.
02:04
Finally,
02:05
if you want a default value, you can define it here.
02:08
Most of our chairs will be black. So I'll use that.
02:11
We'll leave the justification and textile the same.
02:14
Let's make the attribute annotative. So check that and click, OK?
02:19
Pick to place the attribute definition just above the back of the chair.
02:23
If you click on the at DEA
02:25
and look at its properties you'll see that all of the controls that were
02:28
in the dialogue are now also available to edit in the properties palette.
Video transcript
00:04
This is a copy of one of the standard Autocad sample drawings
00:07
that you'll see in the start tab right after an installation,
00:10
it's a floor plan of a building
00:12
with a lot of offices and furnishings that are all inserted as blocks.
00:15
We're going to make a new block of our own
00:18
zoom into the office labeled as number 6 100 in the upper right near the atrium.
00:23
You'll see a new chair in the middle that I have almost finished.
00:27
In fact, let's go ahead and finish drawing the block.
00:30
Let's make sure you're on layer zero to do this.
00:32
This is about the only time you should be drawing
00:34
on layer zero as it is intended for block creation.
00:38
When entities are drawn on layer zero and converted into a block,
00:42
that block will take on the properties of the layer that it is inserted on
00:46
using endpoint object snaps,
00:48
draw a line across the front edge of the chair to complete it.
00:51
The new chair is now a collection of lines and arcs.
00:54
We want to use this new chair in multiple places within our drawing.
00:58
So it should be turned into a block.
01:00
However, this chair comes from the manufacturer in various colors.
01:05
We want to be able to identify the color
01:07
in our drawing and possibly extract that information.
01:09
Later
01:10
you do this with attributes,
01:12
you can find the define attributes tool in the home tab of
01:15
the ribbon and within the additional tools portion of the block panel,
01:19
click on it or just type in the command name
01:22
at DEA,
01:23
this will display the attribute definition, dialogue or
01:26
you can control all the various attribute settings.
01:29
We'll accept the defaults, but
01:31
we're required to give it a tag. Think of the tag as the unique name of the attribute.
01:36
A few things to note about tags.
01:38
You can't have spaces in the tag name.
01:40
So it's very common practice to use an underscore between words.
01:43
Also a tag is always upper case. But don't worry if you type it in lowercase or mixed
01:49
Autocad will change it to all caps for you.
01:52
Given those rules, I'll type in the tag name of chair color,
01:57
enter the user prompt to use,
02:00
I'll use inter chair color.
02:04
Finally,
02:05
if you want a default value, you can define it here.
02:08
Most of our chairs will be black. So I'll use that.
02:11
We'll leave the justification and textile the same.
02:14
Let's make the attribute annotative. So check that and click, OK?
02:19
Pick to place the attribute definition just above the back of the chair.
02:23
If you click on the at DEA
02:25
and look at its properties you'll see that all of the controls that were
02:28
in the dialogue are now also available to edit in the properties palette.
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