Block Library and Manager

Has anyone had any experience using the Block Library program from Terry Miller. I can not get it to work properly and am looking for something similar to use. What I need is a Block Library Manager that allows me to visually see the blocks I have. I'd like to be able to sort the blocks by certain criteria and there names, and be able to insert them on a specific layer, allow the user to input scale and rotation.

have you look into autocads tool pallette?

I would but we are using 2005 right now so it has to lisp or vba based. Sorry I forgot to mention that in my original post.

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32058.0

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32391.0

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32990.0

There are a lot of cool block managers out there, so I’m certain you will find one that suits you needs.

The tool palette came in with acad 2004 so I would believe it is in 2005.

I run 2004 and 2006 and they both have it.

Is there no tool palette in 2005? (just curious)

There are a lot of cool block managers out there, so I’m certain you will find one that suits you needs.

The tool palette came in with acad 2004 so I would believe it is in 2005.

I run 2004 and 2006 and they both have it.

Is there no tool palette in 2005? (just curious)

Thank you for those links. I'm registering with them now to see if that works for us. As far as tool palettes in 05 I'm not seeing them nor able to load any. Guess I need to look into that and see whats going on.

Thank you for those links. I'm registering with them now to see if that works for us. As far as tool palettes in 05 I'm not seeing them nor able to load any. Guess I need to look into that and see whats going on.

Type: toolpalettes

You ever have one of those days when you forgot everything but your own name. It's amazing how things work when you know what your doing. That worked. Going to look into adding the blocks to that. Not sure if that's what will work best for us or not. I'm thinking a program might work better but I'm not sure. Going to check out all options.

If you are thinking about using the tool palette there are some post on this site that might give you some insight. Search the site for tool palette and see what you can find.

The key to using blocks with the tool palette is organization.

Here is a quick rundown on how you could use it.

Make a folder on you C: drive named tool palette (put it on C so it becomes easer to transfer to other stations later)

Open a blank drawing and purge everything out.

Now let’s say you have some blocks of screws or fasteners.

Bring all the blocks into the new drawing

Save the drawing to the folder you created and name the drawing screws or fasteners

Close the drawing

In AutoCAD open design center and navigate to the drawing

Click the + sign next to the drawing and then select blocks

You will see all the blocks in that drawing displayed to the right.

In the area displaying the blocks right click in a blank area and select create tool palette from the menu.

Now a new tab will be added to the tool pallet named what ever the drawing name is.

On the tool palette you can right click on a block image and select properties and make changes on how the block reacts.

Now for each category of block that you have make new drawings like you did above.

Doing it this way makes it easer to put those drawing files on another computer and make tool palettes.

It can get more complicated depending on your situation and what you want to accomplish but this should give you a good idea on it’s potential

Thanks John, That's exactly how I am doing it right now. All the blocks were located in 1 master folder with no organization to them. I am separating them out into individual folders and then creating 1 master dwg file with all blocks with in that to add to the tool palette.

If you have a lot of blocks it’s better to make multiple files so you don’t end up with 100 blocks on one tab of the tool palette. Also the more you sub-categorize you’re blocks the easier it becomes to find what you need and add new blocks later.

The tool palette also allows you to export and import palettes. So if you end up with a lot of tabs you can export all of them then when you are working on a project you can just import the ones you need.

The better you are organized in the beginning the less headaches you will have down the road. (From experience)

Very good advice since I do have to migrate this Tool palette over to a couple of other computers as well. Going to spend the time to organize this one as best and as practical as possible.

Just make sure the drawing files are located in a folder on the c: drive. This is important for migration. If you put them somewhere else like in MY documents the path will be different for each machine and will cause you issues when migrating. There are a few different ways to deal with putting your palettes on another machine so try to make things as simple as possible.

Everything is located on a network so all standard blocks, lisp programs, and so forth are all located in the same place. Nothing is stored on each computer. They were stored on each computer and then I came in and showed them why there drawings didn't match each other cause each one was doing there own thing and not matching each other. I have since gotten rid of that and went to a centrally located standards drive that holds everything. I have also locked everyone out of there as for changing anything. They have to have me change it if they want it changed.