Replacing Non-Annotative blocks with Annotative blocks

[SpotWesMom]

Hello!

 

I have found every answer for every AutoCAD question that I have had in the past 9 months at this site and I love it!! Best. cad website. Ever.

 

However, I finally have found something that someone else hasn't posted about yet (I think).

 

My company is in the process of updating the entire block library to be annotative or dynamic (depending on the usage) and it's been wonderful for new projects.

 

The problem comes in when we have to update an existing dwg. When we try to "blockreplace" the new annotative tags for the old non-annotative tags. These tags have attributes, but we have literally not changed anything about the blocks except the "annotativedwg" property within the root block file. When we run blockreplace, the old blocks disappear completely! they're not at a teeny scale or a gigantic scale, they're not on an "off" or "frozen" layer, they just fully go away even if you say "don't purge the old block that is being replaced".

 

I usually don't have a problem "doing my job" and just going through and replacing them individually on the smaller sized projects, but most of our projects have upwards of 700 - 1000 tags per dwg. Slightly tedious as you can imagine, especially since I am addicted to finding newer faster better ways to draw.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

~Amanda

[RobDraw]

We just started changing over to using annotative scaling and I have found some fast ways of upconverting the old files. Your explanations are a little confusing but I think I know what you are saying.

 

Annotations don't update by updating the block alone, you need to do an ATTSYNC afterwards.

 

To fix blocks that already reside in a drawing: Update the definition. Select one that is the wrong scale. Right click and select "Select Similar." Then, using your properties box, set the scale to one. If they are still too big or too small check the annotative scale settings for the drawing.

[SpotWesMom]

I think part of the problem is that the new versions of the block have been renamed to say "anno" afterwards, so it's not just an update of the existing block. For example, "tag block xx" is now called "tag block xx anno". So autocad doesn't see it as the same block anymore. Would it be easier if the "ANNOTATIVEDWG command were done inside the existing blocks instead of creating newly named blocks?

 

And a quick side question, I thought ATTSYNC was short for attribute sync not annnotative sync?

[RobDraw]

No wonder I didn't quite understand your post. I misread it. Let's try this again.

 

It would be a lot easier if you could post a sample stripped down drawing but I'll take another stab at it.

 

One possibility is the blocks (tags) may not have disappeared but may be way off in space somewhere. Double check insertion points.

 

Another; I don't think that the new blocks will pick up the values that have been input into the attributes because they have a different name. If the block is just attribute(s) without any linework, then maybe you have left the default value as blank.

[SLW210]

Did you try BLOCKREPLACE?

 

Sounds like a job for LISP. I think Lee Mac LISP GENIUS might have a routine or two you may can use.

[SpotWesMom]

All of the light green and dark green blocks in the attachment need to be replaced. the Annotative versions are placed above the building. This is a very small project, just for test purposes.

 

I have tried BLOCKREPLACE with and without purging the original blocks, scaling up the new replacing block and scaling down the to-be-replaced block. Made sure to turn on and un-freeze all layers, zoom extents the whole shebang... they have fallen into a rip in the time/space continuum, or something.

anno block test.dwg

[RobDraw]

Sorry for the delay. I have a solution for you.

 

After doing the block replace (It doesn't matter if you purge or not.), Select the new block that you can see, right click, and select similar. In the proerties box, change the X,Y,Z scales to 1 and add the 1/16" annotative scale.

 

[SpotWesMom]

Did that work for you on your system? I tried it a couple different times and with a couple different blocks and it didn't find any other blocks (besides the origin block) after I did the block replace. Like they're just not there. Could it be a system variable that needs to be set some specific way?

[RobDraw]

It worked for me exactly as described. You are replacing blocks so it should select them.

[SpotWesMom]

Now that's really awesome... It works in the test drawing that I made, but it won't work in the actual project drawing. I'll do a little bit more experimenting, but thank you so much for your help!!

[RobDraw]

That figures. Good luck. If you can't get it sorted, strip down the actual project file to a few relevant items and post it.

[CovenStine]

Hello,

Just wondering if this was ever resolved?

I found a lisp routine that does something very similar (CHSYMBOL fwiw) to BLOCKREPLACE.

Both options cause the symptom that the OP describes.

I'm running an up-to date version of CIVIL3D.

In order to do this, I exploded the POWERPOLE block in one drawing, re-block'ed it with the name POWERPOLE_Anno (for example) in the same drawing, both with the same (center of 2 concentric circles) insertion point. After the BLOCKREPLACE, with zero hidden/off/frozen layers in MODEL space, the blocks are nowhere to be found, even with SELECTSIMILAR.

It seems that this was 'solved' or worked-around for a specific drawing, is there a more broad-scope solution?

thanks very much!

[RobDraw]

Post a file and I'll give it a shot.