How do you import blocks from one .dwg to another?

I have opened a drawing template with titleblock in already and then Xref'd my .dwg into it...

Now, I want to make a key of some of the blocks in the dwg, but no blocks have been imported to current dwg.

How do I import them?

I'd rather do this in one go rather than individually (around 20 blocks).

cheers

cas

If you open a new drawing from your template and then insert your other drawing as a block and explode it on insertion, you then have one drawing with your blocks and your title block.

You could also use Design Center to bring in just your blocks.

You can also BIND the xref.

I would use Design Center - you can highlight all the blocks in the drawing and just drag-n-drop them to your drawing all in one go.

I have opened a drawing template with titleblock in already

How about doing the opposit? Work with your drawing file and import the frame with titleblock as a blok or xref?

How about saving a copy of any drawing where you did ALL the work----title block, layers, blocks etc,---delete all the drawing content, then save it as a TEMPLATE--( .dwt )

Now, you start EVERY drawing from now on as "new drawing from template" and you have not only your blocks,---but your layers, settings, layouts, page set-ups, etc. etc.

Copy and paste them in?

Copy and paste them in?

This.

I usually open the drawing, select all, then copy and paste into the new drawing off to the side and then right after that, delete everything I pasted. It brings over any blocks that were present in the drawing that is copied.

I have also dragged the drawings icon in to my new drawing, placed it somewhere thus inserting it as a block, and then exploded it and deleted it. It does the same thing but without having to open the existing drawing.

You guys are responding to a thread that is 5 years old and the OP hasn't been here since that time.

For anyone else that might be reading this, it is best to store you blocks in a library of some sort. Some people keep them all in one file for easy insertion. That is fine only for the smallest of libraries and you use most of your blocks in nearly every drawing. Depending on the type of drafting you do, you will probably have a library that could be thousands of blocks. You would then want to insert them individually or possibly in groups. Either way, you would not want to insert tons of blocks that you won't use.

I'm not going to go into the various ways of inserting blocks. It is very subjective as to the best method.

I would like to say that if anyone was caught doing "this",

This.

 

I usually open the drawing, select all, then copy and paste into the new drawing off to the side and then right after that, delete everything I pasted. It brings over any blocks that were present in the drawing that is copied.

 

I have also dragged the drawings icon in to my new drawing, placed it somewhere thus inserting it as a block, and then exploded it and deleted it. It does the same thing but without having to open the existing drawing.

where I work, they wouldn't be using AutoCAD here anymore, because "this" is against a number of best practices and firm policies. It might be fine for an individual who has total control of every aspect of there .dwgs but I still wouldn't recommend it.

For that matter one could open an existing drawing (ex. - piping and instrumentation diagram) do an "erase > all" followed by a "save as" under a new name thus retaining all the block definitions of the original.

 

For anyone else that might be reading this, it is best to store you blocks in a library of some sort. Some people keep them all in one file for easy insertion. That is fine only for the smallest of libraries and you use most of your blocks in nearly every drawing. Depending on the type of drafting you do, you will probably have a library that could be thousands of blocks. You would then want to insert them individually or possibly in groups. Either way, you would not want to insert tons of blocks that you won't use.

Agreed, and that's how I currently do it and have it set up with my cad group. Tool palettes that reference blocks stored on the network etc.

where I work, they wouldn't be using AutoCAD here anymore, because "this" is against a number of best practices and firm policies. It might be fine for an individual who has total control of every aspect of there .dwgs but I still wouldn't recommend it.

Well I wouldn't do it where you work either. Because apparently yall have a nice set of standards and all of this already laid out. And you are probably working on large jobs with many cad operators thus copying and pasting all kinds of stuff from one drawing to another might could cause issues. And you have templates and block libraries set up so there's no need for it.

But if you are one person working on a drawing and one drawing contains 20 blocks that you want in this other drawing and you want to bring them over all at once as the user requested, I fail to see how my suggestion was harmful in anyway. I understand that if it's work you are going to be doing over and over again it would be wise to set up a template file with the correct layers and the titleblock and create a library of all the blocks you might want to use etc. But if this is a one off thing that you are doing yourself, I don't see it as being harmful.

Is there something that I'm not thinking of?

In case it wasn't clear, I was speaking in general and not about the exception to the rule.

With your method, you are bringing in more than just the blocks which, at a minimum, brings in stuff that may not be needed into the drawing, line types, text styles, dimension styles, layers, etc. In the worst case, it could contain errors and could lead to a corrupt file.

If you are inserting blocks, do just that. Why bring in all that other stuff?

Call it OSD or just good drafting practice but I'd rather do it where I have the most control. I've been bitten by the infected copy/past bug more than once.

For anyone else that might be reading this, it is best to store you blocks in a library of some sort.

I agree.

Some people keep them all in one file for easy insertion. That is fine only for the smallest of libraries and you use most of your blocks in nearly every drawing. Depending on the type of drafting you do, you will probably have a library that could be thousands of blocks. You would then want to insert them individually or possibly in groups. Either way, you would not want to insert tons of blocks that you won't use.

and why isn't that suitable for a single dwg or multiple dwgs?

I would like to say that if anyone was caught doing "this",

 

where I work, they wouldn't be using AutoCAD here anymore, because "this" is against a number of best practices and firm policies. It might be fine for an individual who has total control of every aspect of there .dwgs but I still wouldn't recommend it.

That makes no sense to me. Heck I have enough trouble trying to get people to use blocks sometimes...

In case it wasn't clear, I was speaking in general and not about the exception to the rule.

 

With your method, you are bringing in more than just the blocks which, at a minimum, brings in stuff that may not be needed into the drawing, line types, text styles, dimension styles, layers, etc. In the worst case, it could contain errors and could lead to a corrupt file.

 

If you are inserting blocks, do just that. Why bring in all that other stuff?

 

Call it OSD or just good drafting practice but I'd rather do it where I have the most control. I've been bitten by the infected copy/past bug more than once.

Then that is a problem with the block itself and whether you copy in 20000 blocks or 1 block, if that 1 block has a problem then it will be a problem in both scenarios.

So long as only decent blocks (CAD wise) end up in the library/master dwg files then I don't see a problem. Blocks not used in an individual dwg can always be purged away if needed.

That makes no sense to me. Heck I have enough trouble trying to get people to use blocks sometimes...

No wonder you are so miserable when it comes to CAD.

Then that is a problem with the block itself and whether you copy in 20000 blocks or 1 block, if that 1 block has a problem then it will be a problem in both scenarios.

 

So long as only decent blocks (CAD wise) end up in the library/master dwg files then I don't see a problem. Blocks not used in an individual dwg can always be purged away if needed.

You obviously didn't read his method very carefully. He said he was copying and pasting everything, not just blocks and there is no library.

You obviously didn't read his method very carefully. He said he was copying and pasting everything, not just blocks and there is no library.

I thought the guy was talking about a drawing comprised of typical blocks that he needs to use. He was asking for the quickest way to get them in the drawing.

As for the fears of it wreaking catastrophic damage and destroying small villages, I think they are a bit overblown.

If he works at a place with set standards then my suggestion might have been a bit stupid. If he was working with a vendor drawing and he wanted to make a new drawing to send back to the vendor to give them more information or something to change then, respectfully, I see no problem with it.

The OP in his original post of 24-Feb-2011 wanted to know how he could get 20 blocks, in one go, into a new drawing that did not have the block definitions included as part of the template file. My answer would be if he could find an existing drawing that already had the 20 blocks he needed in it then he just copy/paste (the blocks only) between the two drawings. Any other discussions that deviate from the original question are irrelevant.

I thought the guy was talking about a drawing comprised of typical blocks that he needs to use. He was asking for the quickest way to get them in the drawing.

 

As for the fears of it wreaking catastrophic damage and destroying small villages, I think they are a bit overblown.

 

If he works at a place with set standards then my suggestion might have been a bit stupid. If he was working with a vendor drawing and he wanted to make a new drawing to send back to the vendor to give them more information or something to change then, respectfully, I see no problem with it.

If you are not using standards, you are doing it wrong.

You sound like some of the people that I work with. Just because they haven't experienced a problem, means it doesn't exist. Then they provide specific examples that are different from their original statement. Copy/paste in general is okay as long as you are totally aware of what can come along with what you are copying. I never said it was stupid or anything about catastrophies in villages. (Please take my comments at their face value, do not read into them, or exaggerate them to make a point.)

If you get files from outside sources, it is possible they contain things that can cause problems. I've had drawings get corrupted because something came along for the ride when someone pasted something from another file without taking the necessary precautions. You stated that you copy/paste everything from one file to another in response to how to get blocks from one file to another. That's overkill in my book and completely not necessary. It's like moving a building when you only need the light fixtures. Not only is it overkill, it can be risky.

If you are not using standards, you are doing it wrong.

 

You sound like some of the people that I work with. Just because they haven't experienced a problem, means it doesn't exist.

I should have been more specific I guess. Either way, I think everything on the topic has already been said.