Joe 6 Pack Explantion of a BLOCK

Can I get a Joe 6 Pack, simple, explanation of what a BLOCK is AND how would using a Block fit into my work?

20 years plus of drawing nets and gear and I have never concerned myself with this, but I am now. A simple explanation and how it would affect my work ( Ex: using one of my attached DWG would be greatly appreciated).

....dumb question after all these years.....but I have more interest in how this software works now. Old Dog can still learn.

Bag seine 1.dwg

Think of a block as a group of objects that can be inserted into a drawing as a single entity.

Symbols are commonly created as blocks to eliminate the drudgery of recreating them anew each and every time we need them. Blocks can be used in the drawing they are created in or they can be saved to the hard drive via the WBlock command (Write Block) to be used in any drawing we wish. Blocks can be inserted via the Design Center as well as from a custom Tool Palette.

Any entity that is used more than once in your drawing could be a candidate for turning into a block.

When I draw a process piping diagram I may utilize dozens of blocks to represent various types of valves, pumps and instrumentation. This significantly decreases the amount of time that it would take to create the drawing.

Blocks can also contain Attributes of many types (that you define and that are defined by the program).

I didn't look at your file, but if you have components that you use over and over again you can assign a cost to these components.

At the end of the design you can have AutoCAD give you a quantity for each type of component, costs and total costs.

The use of Attibutes is limited only by your imagination and how much duplication of items/components you commonly see.

OK. So lets say i draw chain links, which i use a lot of. I can turn it into a Block and save it somerwhere in my files?

When I pull it up, can I change the color or maybe the thickness of the line weight to indicate a heavier chain?

Right now i just draw up a lot of my hardware and save it , each in its own file. I haveto open it and COPY and paste it into the new drawing.

Blocks are different from this?

It looks like I will just have to play with this to see. I do not know what the Design center is but I did start working up a custom tool pallet of sorts.

I am sooo far behind you all in this, but thank you for the instructions and information.

PS

* I do pipe too, but its in a net design for extreme deep water gear. I cheat by copying a real picture and practice trying to make it look like the picture*

** I had no idea that Attributes could be assigned to figure in costing of standard components.... that idea would save me a lot of time on certain gear that we sell over and over. **

Thank you all again.

I'm lost. I drew up a test sphere and saved it as a BLOCK.

I the tried to pull it back up.

Got myself lost.

What do i do with this screen?

Any help is most appreciated again.

test for blocks.doc

Just hit OK, and the block will be inserted, on whichever layer is current when you start the INSERT command.

Then ZOOM EXTENTS.

I assume that you accessed the block which you are trying to INSERT via the BROWSE button?

That is how it is usually done. In that way you can access the folder where you keep your blocks, and select the one you want.

The ZOOM EXTENTS was the thing i did NOt know about. What a dream this BlOCK thing will turn out to be.

Is there an icon I can click on to save a particular block , so i do not have to keep typing WBLOCK?

Thank you again.

You can find the WBLOCK icon on the INSERT toolbar.

Or you could do this instead.

I am not sure if you can use this command on LT, but give it a try, if it doesn't work I will show you another way to do the sme thing.

Enter ALIASEDIT at your commandline, and hopefully the command will be recognized?

If you have ALIASEDITOR at your disposal you could simply change the command ALIAS for WRITEBLOCK from WBLOCK to WW, for example.

DG,

So far so good, but I have hit another issue.

I tried adding a BLOCK to a drawing i had up on the screen.

I had a colored box and I added a Block of two emerald fishes.

The fish block was sooo tiny and so far away from the original colored box. I had to zoom in until almost nothing, before I saw the fish and the box on the same screen.

Any suggestions on how drop the block into a drawing near the place I want and not so far away ? I am NOT accomplished at all with the scale thing and have stayed away from it in my work.

Thank you as usual . There are no issues with saving to a Block. Got that. Now its just using the dang thing .

block test with two items.dwg

You can just ZOOM EXTENTS after you INSERT your block.

Hit CTRL+A which will SELECT ALL, at which point you should be able to see the GRIPS jumping out at you, making those little fishies easy to find.

Then you can just corral them or the NET in question and put them as you would have them.

You can rotate you block in the PROPERTIES palette if you want to.

Or you could always write your blocks at 0,0,0 so that you know where to go looking for them when you insert them into a new drawing.

If you do the same with the nets you are drawing they will all come in to about the same neighborhood.

With fishing, being in the right neighborhood is about as good as it gets, eh?

I would recommend against making 0,0,0 your block basepoint and instead, when prompted, pick on one corner of the block. Then, when you insert your block, it will appear right next to your cursor.

I would recommend against making 0,0,0 your block basepoint and instead, when prompted, pick on one corner of the block. Then, when you insert your block, it will appear right next to your cursor.

ReMark, damn, that makes a lot of sense!

Well 0,0,0 might work if all your drawings are small but the larger they grow the less sense that idea makes.

You should also look into creating Dynamic Blocks.

I think the OP will have enough to deal with just using the BLOCK and WBLOCK commands to begin with.

Respectively, I'm of a different opinion than ReMark on the insertion point of 0,0,0 and here is why:

Although blocks are relatively simple in concept things can get a little complicated as you begin using them. One of the things that make using blocks a little confusing is the insertion point. When you create a block in a drawing and select a point in space, that point is (or can be) arbitrary, but often it is relative to the geometry that is included in the block.

Now suppose you want to WBLOCK out that block (or just create a WBLOCK from geometry). When you perform this operation the arbitrary point you selected as the base point becomes the basepoint in the new drawing and all subsequent insertions of that drawing will use that base point.

Now, suppose you need to make modifications to that drawing and so you open it and discover that all that geometry is constructed out there "somewhere" in space and you decide that you want to move it closer to 0,0,0. When you now insert the drawing into another drawing it comes in at a wacky position because you forgot to change the basepoint of the drawing to 0,0,0.

My suggestion then for avoiding this problem is to get in the habit of always using 0,0,0 as the basepoint when creating blocks, but, before doing so move or copy your geometry to a location that is relative to 0,0,0. Also, remember to set your UCS to 0,0,0 before doing this because the UCS has an affect on these operations.

Like I said, things can get complicated but good and consistent methods can keep you out of trouble.

There have been far more posts here describing problems with blocks that have their insertion point located at 0,0,0 than blocks that have their insertion point right on the geometry. Far more. And it is particularly vexing to people who deal with very large projects.

I probably don't see as many posts as you do ReMark so I can't dispute your statement. I would agree that the point most certainly needs to be right on the geometry (or sensibly relative to it). One issue is when a Block is then Wblocked problems can occur. My guess is most problems are related to lack of knowledge of the UCS and its interaction with base points.

It would be interesting to conduct a couple of polls:

Which selection method do you use: Blah blah

and

Do you work with your UCS icon on?

We might have to first ask...Do you know what the UCS is? Too many users don't.

Sadly, I think you may be right on that.

I did post a poll about point selection, going to add a UCS poll now.