Dynamic Blocks in Pull Down Menu

[SanMiguel]

Hi,

 

newbie in the forum, like the title says, i wanted to make a Pull Down Menu where i can insert my Dynamic Blocks, I already made a "Tool Palette" for my blocks but I wanted to insert them in the Pull Down menu as well. i tried one time but every time I make a new drawing the block I inserted just insert a plain block and not as a dynamic block. Anyway I can go around this problem?

 

Also i wanted to make a custom toolbar with a PLine command but with the custom layer and specific linetype for it.

 

Appreciate your replies in advance guys. if any questions have been raised before links would be appreciated as well. Tried the search function but no luck.

 

cheers....

[SanMiguel]

guys ....any idea on how to go around this??? or how do i automatically load my dynamic blocks every time i start a new drawing???? thanks....

[dbroada]

in what way is the dynamic block a normal block? Can you still edit it in the BEDIT screen?

 

have you created a block within a block and therefore need to explode it?

 

has it been inserted at scale of x=y=z=1?

[SanMiguel]

in what way is the dynamic block a normal block? Can you still edit it in the BEDIT screen?

 

have you created a block within a block and therefore need to explode it?

 

has it been inserted at scale of x=y=z=1?

 

 

yes they can still be edited in BEDIT.

[dbroada]

sorry - that's my two suggestions exhausted then

[SanMiguel]

no worries...thanks for the effort anyway...at least you answered....cheers:thumbsup:

[primalscr33m]

Stick with organising all of your dynamic blocks in a toolpalette.

 

Firsly make sure every block you create is saved in an orderly file system that you can understand, and named in the same way. After you create a wblock, it saves as the filename specified, in your filesystem.

 

When you enter block editor from the drawing that you have created your block in, you can add all of you dynamic attributes etc, and save the block definition, but this does not update the original block that you had saved under in your file system. It only saves the dynamic attributes as a 'block definition' within the drawing you created it in.

 

There are two ways to save the dynamic attributes to the wblock that you have created.

 

Firstly, if you have gone to trouble of creating a fairy complex dynamic block within a drawing as a definition, you can save it in block editor by choosing 'save block as', ticking the box that says 'save block definition as file' , choose he original name of the block from the list, or create a new name, navigate to the location of the originally saved block and overwrite it.

 

This will save the block with all dynamic attributes for insertion into any drawing.

 

Secondly, you can just navigate to the location of the original wblock you created, open that drawing, enter block editor, create your dynamic attributes, and save the entire drawing. This also achieves the same result.

 

Once you have created many dynamic blocks, named them accordingly, and created a file system for them, open design centre (CTRL 2) and set its home page as the uppermost folder of your block file system.

 

When you click on a folder in Design Centre that contains many blocks, you can right click within it and the option to 'create a tool palette' is available.

 

Choose this and it will automatically populate an entire tool palette with all dynamic blocks (or standard blocks) within that file.

 

Their are a few benefits to using design centre to manage tool palettes, with the most obvious being that you can instantly create large tool palettes effortlessly, and secondly any changes that you make to a dynamic block, if saved the way shown above, will update itself automatically in the palette.

 

You can get rid of all of AutoCAD's default palettes (as I always do) create your own palette groups which enables you to have all of your dynamics blocks at the ready, in neat groups, right there at the edge of your drawing board. I have thousands of dynamic blocks, all arranged in this manner, and block management is a breeze.

 

After a while you will get very familiar with the tool palette layout and this will speed up your drawing process immeasurably.

 

One piece of advice is to always keep full back-ups of your entire block folder and file system regulary, and a master drawing with all of your dynamic blocks, making sure you add new ones as they are created. Nothing worse than creating very complicated dynamic blocks and having a simple block definition issue screw them up.

 

Worse case scenario if a tool palette block has the wrong defintion, you can delete it, insert the block from the master drawing, overwrite it in the folder system and re-insert into your palette from design centre.

 

Hope this isn't too confusing and can be of some help.

 

I certainly learned the hard way first!!

[Sittingbull]

Do you get your dynamic block after exploding the one you insert with your toolbar?

If so, you just need to add the explode command in your shortcut.

[SanMiguel]

Firstly, if you have gone to trouble of creating a fairy complex dynamic block within a drawing as a definition, you can save it in block editor by choosing 'save block as', ticking the box that says 'save block definition as file' , choose he original name of the block from the list, or create a new name, navigate to the location of the originally saved block and overwrite it.

im sorry its either im using an older autocad 2006 or i just dont really get how to get this. i can save the file as a dynamic block as a different name but not as a wblock with the dynamic block properties to goes with it.

 

Secondly, you can just navigate to the location of the original wblock you created, open that drawing, enter block editor, create your dynamic attributes, and save the entire drawing. This also achieves the same result

apologies again but isnt wblock a file??? therefore i cannot open it in Block Editor, unless ofcourse im missing something???

 

Do you get your dynamic block after exploding the one you insert with your toolbar

sorry but i really dont understand what you want to ask me.

 

My problem is Dynamic Block in Pull Down Menu....or Dynamic Blocks as Wblock so i can fairly make a pull down menu for my Dynamic Blocks.

 

Anyway Thanks for the help guys....

[Sittingbull]

apologies again but isnt wblock a file??? therefore i cannot open it in Block Editor, unless ofcourse im missing something???

 

Right!!! But not with dynamic blocks.

You cannot have a dynamic block on the first lvl of your dwg file.

Dynamic blocks need to be "blocks" in that dwg file, in order to be able to edit them.

That's why you have to explode them when inserting them into other drawings.

Otherwise, you have a "dynamic block" in a "block".

Did you tried to explode your block after inserting it in a drawing?

[SanMiguel]

Right!!! But not with dynamic blocks.

You cannot have a dynamic block on the first lvl of your dwg file.

Dynamic blocks need to be "blocks" in that dwg file, in order to be able to edit them.

That's why you have to explode them when inserting them into other drawings.

Otherwise, you have a "dynamic block" in a "block".

Did you tried to explode your block after inserting it in a drawing?

OK after figuring out what you told me and tried putting explode...finally it works....now the problem am facing is i need to make a script for it.....any ideas???

 

you are one clever dude!!! (Tears of joy!!!) Dank u wel!!! Merci!!! Danke!!! thank you so much!!!

[dbroada]

I thought you said exploding didn't work. As it does try prefixing the block name with a *

 

INSERT

*myBlockName

[dbroada]

You cannot have a dynamic block on the first lvl of your dwg file.

yes you can (at least with 2008 & 2010) although I admit they are not so easy to work with.

[primalscr33m]

im sorry its either im using an older autocad 2006 or i just dont really get how to get this. i can save the file as a dynamic block as a different name but not as a wblock with the dynamic block properties to goes with it.

 

 

apologies again but isnt wblock a file??? therefore i cannot open it in Block Editor, unless ofcourse im missing something???

 

 

Sorry I didn't realise you were using ACAD 2006, block editor features as explained are only present in later versions, I am using 2010, and 'open in block editor' is a feature of all wblocks as they are created.

This allows first level creation of dynamic properties as explained.

 

I dont find them difficult to use, but that is probably due to hundreds of hours spent using the features since the release of 2010.

[SanMiguel]

I thought you said exploding didn't work. As it does try prefixing the block name with a *

 

INSERT

*myBlockName

 

sorry about that, i knew i was doing something wrong about the process... anyway i tried to put * before the Blockname.,it work but when i tried to insert the same block on the same dwg its no longer dynamic.

this is the script i got so far...

 

-insert

*Catch_Basin

 

i wanted to insert a dynamic file from the pull down menu then pick a point in the model space and set rotation to 0 and scale factor to 1

 

thanks again guys....

[Sittingbull]

 

^C^C-insert *yourblock.DWG

 

Does this help?

 

SB