Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published March 2008

Global Attribute Edit (aka Gatte)

As many of you know, the contract furniture industry is - essentially - my customer base. Consequently, the drawings I encounter are full of attributed blocks; some with visible tags, some without. In my occasional coverage of the Block Attribute Manager [October 2006 and August 2007], you will see that Battman addresses the attribute related elements of the block definition, and to a lesser extent, the elements of the block references throughout the drawing (see May 2003 for the specifics on those block terms).

However, when you need to change the attribute value of several blocks at once - globally or by way of a selection set - the Global Attribute Edit command (GATTE) is a wonderful tool. Curiously, Gatte can only be accessed as a keyboard command (which naturally begs to be added to a toolbar or a button on a palette). It has been around for many years, dating back to one of the original Bonus routines in Release 14, I believe.

You can use Gatte to change the value of any attribute tag in an attributed block. In the following example, I'm using it to change the tag for several selected worksurfaces.

Instructions to Change the Values of a Visible Attribute

1. Type GATTE, then press [Enter] and you see the following prompt:
   Select block or attribute [Block name]:
2. Select the attribute tag of the block and you see the following prompt:
   Enter new text:

Note: If you click on something other than that block's attribute (or if there is no visible tag), you will see a list of the known tag names for that block. In this example I have selected an attributed furniture block available from the CAP Designer program (see www.2020technologies.com for more information on this program).

Known tag names for block: CAPGC CAPTG CAPDH CAPQT CAPMC CAPMG CAPPN Select attribute or type attribute name:

At this point, you can either enter the tag name for which you want to change the value, or click on the attribute if you missed it the first time.

3. Enter the new text for the attribute value, then press [Enter]. After entering the new text, AutoCAD will tell you how many of those blocks are in the drawing, and give you an option to change all of them. If you say No, you are given the prompt to Select Objects, as shown in the first illustration where I have selected three worksurfaces for the attribute change. The second illustration shows the changes on those worksurfaces only.

Enter new text: FS_60x30
Number of inserts in drawing = 266 Process all of them? [Yes/No] <Yes>: N
Select objects:

Please wait...
3 attributes changed.

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