Search in attribute fields

Hi everyone,

I have looked and searched through this forum and I couldn't find the answer. If this is asked before and solved, then please direct me towards the topic. I am sorry if I ask something that has been answered before.

Here is what I try to accomplish:

I made a dynamic block for a butterfly valve with attributes. Some of these attributes are hidden, some don't. I am having trouble with the hidden (not visible) attributes.

I want to make use of the 'find' commando in AutoCad and want to find all butterfly valves. I could do this when an attribute is visible and filled in with the text butterfly valve. Problem is, I don't want this text to be visible, yet I do want the find commando to find me this block.

I would like this attribute to be hidden, but searchable and that the find commando will return me the results listing all butterfly valves in a dwg.

Is this at all possible? I hope I explained this well enough, if not, feel free to ask me.

Thanks for reading!

Are the attributes hidden using a visibility parameter or by setting their own visible property to off?

All I can say is that I have exactly zero success with attributes and visibility parameters playing nicely together - they just don't seem to get on.

If YOU don't need to read this data other possibilities is VERY small text or put your attributes on a non plotting layer. That way it can be read by FIND (I think) but not so obvious to you.

You can do it with a lisp search block name and attribute Tagname also visibilty and change value. There heaps of examples maybe start at http://www.lee-mac.com

The attributes are hidden by setting their own visibility property off.

I need the visibility paramater for other stuff. And since AutoCAD only supports one Visibility paramater per block, I cannot afford to use it for other stuff.

I know it is possible to fake multiple visibility paramaters though.

Sorry that bit was offtopic.

The link to Lee Mac's programs is really useful. I forgot to look at this guru's website. What I would like is a combination of his Dynamic Block Counter and the find command in AutoCAD. And what I am trying to find through the find command is hidden in an attribute. I tried the suggestion of you Dave, to have it not hidden but very small, but it is not the preferred way to me.

Thanks for your suggestions guys, really appreciated!

I tried the suggestion of you Dave, to have it not hidden but very small, but it is not the preferred way to me.

Post a sample dwg with a filled in butterfly valve, then its possible to snoop with lisp.