Synchronising block attributes

[soleary]

Hey all

I have been away for a while but good to see that this forum is still going strong.

I have a question in realtion to synchronising block attributes. Using 'battman' there is a 'sync' button on the dialogue box - I'm sure people are familiar with it. I know that this applies to attributes properties as opposed to attribute values (unless, of course, it's a constant attribute). However, if I don't click on 'sync' and just choose 'ok' on the battman dialogue box the properties are updated on existing (and new) blocks anyway. Therefore, what is the purpose of 'sync'?

Also, 'Auto preview changes' doesn't work for constant attributes. Is that correct?

[dbroada]

I never use BATTMAN but I think its the same as ATTSYNC. If you don't resync your blocks older definitions don't get updated. Therfore you could have a block with 2 attributes which you then change to have 3. Without syncing, all existing blocks will have 2 attributes while new insertions will have 3. If you sync the block both old and new instances will have 3.

[soleary]

I never use BATTMAN but I think its the same as ATTSYNC. If you don't resync your blocks older definitions don't get updated. Therfore you could have a block with 2 attributes which you then change to have 3. Without syncing, all existing blocks will have 2 attributes while new insertions will have 3. If you sync the block both old and new instances will have 3.
Thanks for your reply Dave. My initial observation was that even without using that 'sync' button (which I think is the same as ATTSYNC) that the existing block are updated anyway.

As you have mentioned it, how do you add an attribute to an existing block. I would explode the block and a tag and then redefine the block. In that case, I am promopted id I want to update any existing blocks of the same name - and therefore, ATTSYNC isn't required????

[dbroada]

maybe its just legacy then as older versions (2006!) wouldn't update attributes in existing blocks - in fact I didn't think it did in 2008!

I don't explode blocks these days. For simple changes I use REFEDIT and for more complicated changes or adding an ATTRIBUTE I use BEDIT. That way there is no risk of missing or including erroneous entities.