Updating field attributes in existing blocks

[kiva]

Is there any way to update new field attributes in existing blocks already placed in the drawing?

 

I have tried BATTMAN, REFEDIT, ATTSYNC, FIELDEVAL=31... nothing is working.

 

Or will I have to insert all those blocks again? Cause for now that's the only way I can make it work.

[Dadgad]

Welcome to CADTutor kiva.

 

You might want to check out Lee Mac's website, as he has lots of great lisps there for attributes, and just about everything else under the sun.

 

http://www.lee-mac.com/programs.html#general

 

Thanks Lee!

 

 

possibly the Attribute Modification Suite will work for you,

or the Batch Attribute Editor.

 

Yet another http://www.lee-mac.com/bfind.html Batch Find & Replace is capable of searching in Block Attributes too, without the need to open any drawings, it will fly through entire directories in a heart beat.

[kiva]

THAT'S A GREAT SITE! Thanks for that. There are LISPS there I needed months ago.

 

Can't seem to find a solution for this, cause my dynamic block attributes are fields (block InsertionPoint field - Y coordinate), and as I said that works perfectly when I insert the block again, it reads the Y coordinate and everything works.

But I already have 147 existing blocks where I need them and I want to update those without having to reinsert them in the drawing.

 

If they weren't dynamic blocks I would just insert them with a LISP I found few months ago to specific X,Y coordinates (I'll look for a link to that LISP if anyone needs it) and that would work, but since they are dynamic I want to avoid having to stretch and rotate and flip each of them again.

 

I'll keep looking for a solution but right now it doesn't seem it's possible without redoing all the work I already did.

[Dadgad]

Don't thank me, it's Lee who deserves the thanks!

 

Did you notice the lisp dealing with Dynamic blocks?

There is one down in the Functions list at the bottom of the page dealing with the extraction of data from Dynamic blocks.

 

One more might be helpful http://www.lee-mac.com/copyblockdefinition.html

[kiva]

Thanks, but those didn't help with the fields attributes. However I will be using them for other things cause they work very well. Thanks again for the link and THANKS LEE!!

 

I went back to my drawing, and redid the block again and now it seems to work with BATTMAN.

I have no idea why it didn't work this morning, but it's working now.

 

This is what I did (AGAIN):

 

1. Existing dynamic block already placed in the drawing (147 times)

2. I decided instead of writing the Y coordinate by hand in each of the 147 blocks to put a FIELD ATTRIBUTE for the Y coordinate in the dynamic block.

3. Open block editor

4. Define Attribute

5. Click on Insert Field

6. Field Cateogry - OBJECT

7. BlockPlaceholder

8. Block reference property - POSITION - OK

9. Place it where you need it

10. Save the changes

11. BATTMAN for that block and it works

 

That worked the 2nd time around, now I'm trying to figure out why it didn't the first time.

 

Thanks for the help DADGAD.

[steven-g]

It should work with attsync as well, but at least you have it working now.

[kiva]

Tried ATTSYNC too. Didn't work.

 

Figured out what it was though.

I had those attributes previously defined just not with fields.

So when I deleted them and placed field attributes I used the same TAG like before, so when I saved the block it didn't register the change.

 

So after deleting the existing attributes I saved the block and then used BATTMAN on the block, then went back and inserted new field attributes and after I saved it and BATTMAN-ed it it worked.

[steven-g]

Yeah Autocad doesn't like it when tags have the same names, but nice to know that BATTMAN solves the issue