editing blocks

[lorenzo]

i am using version 2000i and i want to edit one block so that the changes i make will affect the copies of that block that have already been inserted into the drawing. please tell me this is possible because i dont want to edit each one individually...

[CADTutor]

:) Good news Lorenzo, this is perfectly possible. In fact it's a technique that is quite often used for all sorts of reasons. All you do is this:

Explode one of the blocks you need to change. Make the required changes. Create a new block of the changed objects BUT use the same name for the new block as for the old one. You will be prompted "do you want to redefine block..." or something like that. Enter YES. The drawing will regenerate and hey presto, all the blocks are updated.

Let us know how you get on.

[lorenzo]

i am very impressed with the speed of your response :) since then i have discovered another (simpler?) way: call up the reference edit dialogue box via Xref and Block Edit; select desired block and OK; drag window around block on the drawing and return, the block's attributes can then be edited individually. All that remains is to click 'save changes back to reference' in the Refedit toolbar and the changes will take place on all blocks!
p.s. this is the first time i,ve used this site but almost certainly not the last...

[CADTutor]

Yes, you are right but the method I described will work with all versions of AutoCAD. The newer method you describe will work from AutoCAD 2000 onwards.

[f700es]

Yes, you are right but the method I described will work with all versions of AutoCAD. The newer method you describe will work from AutoCAD 2000 onwards.


I remember having this cool lisp routine that I used in r13 that was very easy to use. You would appload the lisp and it would tell you to edit your block and then type DONE when finished and it would update the blocks. Very cool for back then :D

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