Referencing a title block from model space into a new tab of paper space?

[AJC4]

Greetings everyone,

 

I just started a new job and am struggling to set everything up the way my old company had AutoCad configured, so hopefully someone here might be able to point me in the right direction My old company actually had people that were involved in writing the code for AutoCad on the payroll, so hopefully what I'm looking for isn't some intense computer programming issue.

 

In short, I am trying to be able to create a generic title block in model space, and reference that title block into paper space of a new drawing without having to create a new tab or anything first. A new paper space tab is automatically created upon attaching the new title block. My old company had its own custom menu bar with lots of custom commands, so the work flow would go something like this: "Old company name" in menu bar -> "Insert" -> "Title Blocks" -> "24x36 title block" (or whatever size we wanted to use obv). Once the desired title block size was seleted, a new tab would be created in paper space with the title block as an xref, and a copy of the generic title block was saved to the main folder containing drawings of the project, and could be edited with the specific project info from there.

 

Is there a semi-easy way to do this, or is this a coding issue that a non-programmer such as myself might have some difficulty doing?

 

Thanks in advance

 

AJ

[tzframpton]

This is very easy. Here's what you do:

 

1. Create a Template file (*.DWT filetype) and place it in your default Templates folder.

 

2. In that Template file, create your Titleblock on a Paperspace Layout, not in Modelspace. It's good to name the Layout tab the size sheet it is. Create multiple Paperspace Layouts for each different sized Titleblock. So you will name the first Layout (E1 - 42x30), then the second Layout (D - 36x24), etc.

 

3. When you are in a drawing and want to import your specific Titleblock, simply right-click a Layout tab, and choose "From Template" and you then choose which layout you want that houses the correct Titleblock and size you're after.

 

Hope this helps.

[AJC4]

Thanks for your reply! Quick question...I'm working with jobs that have lots of drawings in them, so I'm trying to be able to make a change to a title block in a job and have that carry through to all the drawings that have said title block referenced to them, without affecting the other jobs with different names, info, etc. So would I need to create a templates folder for each job? Thanks again

[tzframpton]

You can do that by using XREF's, but that is REALLY bad practice to use a global Titleblock for all jobs. It is good to have a common Template file that you start every job from. All the files related to that specific job should have the Titleblock isolated from the global Template file. So if you need to make changes to that specific job, you only make changes to the specific Titleblock associated with it.

 

I would suggest getting familiar with the Sheet Set Manager if you are utilizing more than a few sheets for plotting. There is a learning curve that comes along with using the SSM though. If you simply utilize multiple Paperspace Layouts for your Titleblock, then if you make it an actual AutoCAD Block, you can edit all referenced Layouts easily by making one change.

[AJC4]

Guess I'm living up to my title of Forum Newbie here haha, really appreciate the help though. Oh yeah I would never use one title block for all jobs, I'm trying to have a title block for each job that is referenced into all drawings of that particular job only. My old job was for a civil eng company so we typically had at least 5 or 6 design files referenced into the title block files, I'm just stuck on how to create/insert a title block that will carry through to all drawings in a job without all the old commands and menu's from my old job. And as much as I worked with xrefs I unfortunately never really used the SSM that much.

 

I created a basic template file as you suggested, then brought that into another drawing. This creates the new tab I'm looking for, but it also brings the new title block directly into the drawing instead of it being referenced in. I tried creating a .dwg of a basic title block in paper space, and then xref'ing that into another file, however that just throws the xref'ed title block on top of whatever I have in a current tab in paper space. So I guess my question becomes is there a way to combine the template issue and xref issue so that I am able to reference in a title block and have it create its own new tab such as inserting the template does? Hopefully I'm making sense. Thanks again for the help

[tzframpton]

Give me your email and I'll give you my "generic" Titleblock so you can learn from.

 

What you want to do is make the Titleblock an actual Block. So lets think about this, if you edit a block, it makes the same changes to ALL references of that block. So if I change the Job Address in the Titleblock "block", then no matter how many Layouts are copied, it will update in all Layouts.

 

So now all you have to do is have a few lines of Text that is not inside the Titleblock "block", things that are sheet specific, such as Revisions, Date, or Sheet Number. Make sense? Anyways, I'll shoot you over my Template file if you want.

[AJC4]

That would be awesome, thanks. I understand what you're saying about the blocks, so I guess I'll have to do it that way instead of inserting the title block as an xref. Don't think I can send you a pm yet as I'm a noob so hopefully putting my email address out here won't do any harm lol. I had to put spaces in there cause I'm not allowed to post a link yet either. So take out the spaces so its all one piece of text and thats my email.

 

Thanks a million,

 

AJ

Edited July 12, 2011 by AJC4

[tzframpton]

Sent......

[SLW210]

AJC4

 

You should now delete your email (or make it a non-link) to prevent getting a lot of spam.