Has anybody updated ATTOUT to support nested blocks?

[TuFoFi]

Simple question my LISP friends.

I want the ATTOUT/ATTIN express tools to be nested block friendly.

Thank you

[mikitari]

Dear Community,
I do sign up for this question too!

I have a floor plan with dynamic blocks of glass panels of different (dynamic) width, which is connected to field in attribute in each instance of the block, and other attributes to write i.e. panel heights, fire resistance etc. Some glass panels are primary blocks, some are nested within other block.

I would like to extract data with ATTOUT to excel table where I could have simply sum numbers of panels of specific widths. Later if there were modifications in table, It is possible to insert data back to drawing with ATIN.
Would it ever be possible with ATTOUT if some of blocks are nested? Or shall I go through EATTEXT, select the block name from list there, and later combine results from different excel sheets?
Off course I'd rather have all the attribute extraction in a single step…
All comments are welcomed J

Kindest regards,

[Dadgad]

You should probably consider Lee Mac's Global Attribute Extractor lisp

http://www.lee-mac.com/macatt.html

for this, there are a bunch of good options.
Thanks Lee!

[mikitari]

Thank you I will give it a try of course, seems a big tool! In its description I can see the option to edit attribute input. That is being done before sending the data out to excel sheet, isn’t it?

ATTOUT/ATTIN work flow advantage is that it is two ways data extraction of attributes to excel, and back from excel into attributes, after its advanced sorting and other excel enhanced manipulations.

[mikitari]

Mac Lee's Global Attribute Extractor works fine, but after a short test it seam to me that it does not handle instances of a block which are nested. Only Primary Blocks extracted. Please correct me if I am wrong, or using it wrong way.

I need to extract throughout all of this drawing, nested and not, and hopefully with a “Handle” description for each block, so to work similarly to Attout, permiting easy attin.

Other idea I have to solve ATTOUT lack is to have a selection lisp routine which would select objects or blocks or all including nested and to run it ‘ transparently at the end of ATTOUT command, when it prompts to select objects. Maybe that would fix and make attout work on nested instances too?

[Lee Mac]

Mac Lee's Global Attribute Extractor works fine, but after a short test it seam to me that it does not handle instances of a block which are nested. Only Primary Blocks extracted. Please correct me if I am wrong, or using it wrong way.

You are correct, my program will only extract attributes from primary blocks.

[irneb]

I think the reason none of these programs actually work on nested attributes, is that it's rather useless. If you do edit a nested attrib, all you're really doing is updating the container block's definition - so it's a single change to all references of that block name.

As an example, say you have a block C with attribute definition X in its definition. Now you place block C inside block A's definition. The AttDef X becomes an Attrib called X in A's definition and its contents is set to default or changed to whatever you enter (let's say "Test"). Say you now have 5 references of block A placed in the drawing. All of them will show the "Test" contents. Say you now want to edit the 2nd reference to show "Passed", that becomes impossible, since the whole process of changing Test to Passed will update all 5 references in one go.

So say you do update AttIn & AttOut to handle these nested attributes. The TXT file (using the new AttOutNest) will look something like this:

Handle    X
AA0    Test
AA1    Test
AA2    Test
AA3    Test
AA4    Test

You open that in Excel and modify it like this:

Handle    X
AA0    Test
AA1    Passed
AA2    Test
AA3    Test
AA4    Test

Save it and run AttInNest. What you end up with is not what you'd expect. All 5 instances of block A will still show "Test", none of them will show "Passed". Say you edited the TXT file to look like this instead:

Handle    X
AA0    Test
AA1    Test
AA2    Test
AA3    Test
AA4    Passed

After running AttInNest all 5 instances will now show "Passed". So only the last version will be shown, because it will be the last modification of the block A's definition.

Is this really what you're after? If so I don't fully understand how you work. Perhaps attaching a sample DWG would get the blinkers off my eyes. But as far as I can tell, it would be a lot faster to simply edit A's definition using BEdit and change X's value once.

If it's not what you're after, then you should not use nested attributes. Rather place the AttDef inside A's definition, not inside C's definition.

[mikitari]

Dear Lee Mac, thanks for the replay! I appreciate your programs a lot!

Dear Irneb,

I want to extract to a table, for I have more than one attribute within block, and some of those attributes are fields for dynamic parameters, and others are just to input detailed information. To explain it to you, for I can not posts a file:

Here I have a big floor plan of a football stadium, where I put blocks of glazing, posts, doors and windows etc. of an industry system. Lets say:

Glazing = Bock A (it’s a dynamic block and has attribute with field BlockPlaceholder>“Width” reading dynamic width action/parameter. A has more attributes for Height, Fire Resistance)

Glazing Frame Post = Block B

Doors = C ( it’s a dynamic block and has attribute with field BlockPlaceholder>“Width” reading dynamic width action/parameter. C also has attributes for Heigth, Fire Resistance, handle bars, Access control, Number, etc.)


Blocks A, B and C are some times inserted alone (i.e. on curves, where every block has different angle) – then those are Primary blocks, that have no problem of ATTOUT extraction.

For simply orthogonal areas I have in repeative modules block with nested B+A+B, or, B+A+B+C+B+A+B etc. – in those A, B, Cs attributes unfortunately can’t be extracted with typical attout, for no matter what I type in the end to select objects (nor “all”, nor “previous” to call an earlier complete selection set) it will see and extract only primary blocks, and nested no.

The reason to extract AttOutNest and AttInNest is that there are more than one attribute to form a table, and many of those attributes are easier to fill/check in excel, and just import back into autocad afterwards. Attributes with field for blockplceholder>width parameter are time savers too, and would be nice to get them out of all dynamic blocks. I hope this is now clearer.

Do you have AttOutNest / AttInNest to share with us?

Cheers,