Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published September 2011

BCOUNT [Block Count]

This buried treasure has come up too many times in training recently, so now I feel compelled to refresh your memory. The quickest way to count the blocks in a drawing or within a selection area, is the command BCOUNT.

You can't find it anywhere on a menu, button, Ribbon, etc., you just have to know it's there. Kind of like knowing how to order from the Not-So-Secret menu at IN-N-OUT Burger.

How to Use Bcount

1. Type BCOUNT, and you see the following prompt:

   Press Enter to select all or...

   Select objects:

2. 

   Create a selection window around the area where you want to count the blocks, otherwise, for a tally of all the blocks in a drawing, press [Enter]. In this example, I placed a window around the furniture in a particular department.

3. Hit the F2 key to flip to the AutoCAD Text Window and see the resulting list of blocks. You may have to scroll up to get to the top.

4. Bonus points: To get the count into the drawing, highlight the desired content, then right-clickCopy.

5. Go back to the drawing, then hit Ctrl + V and click in the drawing to paste the selected content as Mtext. Standard Mtext editing procedures now apply.

Hint: There's a good possibility the Count column won't ‘line up’ the numbers. In the Mtext editor, select all the text (Ctrl + A), then change the font to Courier New… and they line up quite nicely.

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