Autocad blocks having loaded automatically from specific directory or file!!!

[yudjee]

Hi Everyone

 

I know this and similar questions have already been posted in many forums, and before you start copy pasting links of other threads, you have to know that I probably have seen them already and none of them is 100% perfect answer to what I am trying to achieve. And now I will describe my situation and my issue.

 

I am a REVIT guy but I recently started a new job in an office that uses primarily Autocad. I am currently in the process of creating office standards. The problem is that it does not happen over night. At the moment I am mainly relying on (dynamic) blocks. As I keep creating them, I save them in a template file - let's call it "XYZ".

We currently have 40-50 active projects. Some new, some old. When I myself am working on a project - what I do is "copy/paste" all the blocks from the XYZ file so i can use them in the currently open project. The problem is that my colleagues are either stupid enough not to know or remember (how) to "copy/paste" the blocks or are just so lazy that can not be bothered (completely unpleasant environment).

 

So what I want to achieve is: whenever someone opens an Autocad drawing, to have all the blocks from the "XYZ" file already loaded. Or alternatively have all the WBLOCK files loaded from a specific directory like c:\Autocad\abcd...

Bear in mind that this is not 1 time thing that needs to be performed on all the active project drawings. I keep creating new blocks every day.

 

Please do not respond with "This can be achieved by....". I am looking for a way not to have anyone do anything, but Autocad do all the work. I would much rather be satisfied with "This cannot be achieved" answer, rather than having people enter JUST a few commands to get it done. My colleagues are stupid and they won't press an extra key to get the blocks loaded.

 

I would be really grateful if anyone can help me. If not, nothing changes, I have already lost faith...

[rkent]

I am not a fan of the solution you are after but if you insist this is the only way then in the acaddoc.lsp file add a line like,

(command ".insert" "C:\\_temp\\test1" ^c^c)

 

obviously modify the path and file name for yours.

[BIGAL]

Would'nt Tool palette or menus or slide menu be bettter than just dumping all in ?

[nukecad]

I would much rather be satisfied with "This cannot be achieved" answer,

 

OK then:

 

As long as your colleagues can't grasp how, or can't be bothered, to load the blocks then you are wasting your time trying to set up company standards.

 

If they can't be bothered to use the blocks then they wont be bothered to use the standards.

 

I've been through this before with colleagues who would not stick to draughting standards; it's a training and/or management problem not an Autocad problem.

[dbroada]

I would go with putting all your blocks as dwg files in a folder that is the top of your search path. They will then all be available from the INSERT command but I have to agree with nukecad. I too have tried introducing blocks to do all sorts of things but could never get people to use them correctly.

[Tiger]

You really formulated that question so there is no answer...

 

We use a DWT-file with a lot of blocks already loaded - the definitions are loaded, but no blocks are actually there. That means when they go to INSERT, the list is filled with blocks, no need to do anything else.

 

This hinges on you updating the template-file (DWT) with your blocks and everyone starting a new file from the correct template.

 

I could also achieve it via Design Center, and click and drag - but it requires the user to know where teh XYZ-file is and browse to it.

[yudjee]

Hi rkent

 

your solution worked until I edited the XYZ (template) file. it started not loading anything afterwards. I also tried second time, by changing the directory and instead of editing it in its location, copied out, edited and put it back, replacing with the original - still did not work. Do you have any suggestion for that?

[RobDraw]

I see two problems here.

 

You have already given up.

 

You are updating standards that apply to active projects.

 

When it comes to standards, you should have specific milestones. It's going to be impossible for people to keep up with something that changes every day. As an in-putter, that would drive me crazy. No wonder they don't want to cooperate. In my world, one seemingly minor change could affect many drawings. A decision needs to be made at what stage in a project the standards are locked. Around here it is when files are created. Kind of like being grandfathered.

[yudjee]

Hi Tiger

 

Do you have the DWT file auto loaded, or do u need to do it manually every time?

[yudjee]

It's going to be impossible for people to keep up with something that changes every day.

 

Nothing changes - I just keep adding new blocks.

[RobDraw]

Templates do not load every time you open a file. They are used to start a file. Try starting a new file to see if your changes are there.

[Tiger]

Every time I start a new drawing, I start from the DWT-file that I have pre-set in my Options - I can choose another DWT-file if I want, but I have one set as a standard so QNew starts from that DWT. Changes to a DWT-file does not affect already created files.

[rkent]

Try this instead.

 

(command "-purge" "b" "test1" "n" "insert" "C:\\_temp\\test1" ^C^C)

 

There are more elegant lisp solutions but I don't know enough lisp to offer an elegant solution.

[yudjee]

Thank you, rkent. This works perfectly