Locking objects together

[Stryker1989]

Hi Everyone,

 

Firstly I do apologise if this topic has been covered before, I have done a search on the forum but can't find anything and by all means if this has been covered just point me in the right direction.

 

I am currently working on some P&ID drawings at work and what i want to be able to do is move things around but keep them connected. In other words if I had a rectangle with a line connecting it is it possible to lock these two objects together so that when i click and move the rectangle the line stays connected to it.

 

I did a quick example on a cable block:

 

I want to go from this:

 

To this:

[ReMark]

Two possible options.

 

The rectangle could be a block and the text its attribute.

 

You could use the GROUP command.

[CyberAngel]

With a group the two objects will stay together. It seems that you have three objects, however--the text moved too. Also, the other end of the line seems to have stayed in the same place. You may want to use the Stretch command.

[Stryker1989]

Yeah I probably would want the text to move as well although it is no big deal.

 

Also yes the other end of the line would have to stay in the same place.

 

Like I said I'm not sure if this is possible and it's not a problem if it isn't it would just save me some time.

 

Thanks for the replies

[ReMark]

You're using AutoCAD 2000i to draw your P&IDs? Why not upgrade to AutoCAD P&ID where the symbols will already have attributes? This will solve at least one of your problems.

[Stryker1989]

I agree ReMark it's just trying to get the bosses to agree, we have a deal with Microstation which gets us their software for relatively cheap so the bosses are reluctant to upgrade AutoCAD.

 

The amount of times I open drawings and it gives me the message: 'this drawing was made on an incompatible version.' My immediate boss put it quite well and said: Yeah thats becasue we are using (insert colourful languae) AutoCAD (insert colourful language) Play Doh. Which did have me laughing for a good half an hour at the thought.

[ReMark]

That message is usually seen when one tries to open a drawing that was created with a NEWER version of the software. So what you are telling me is that the boss believes that a ten year old version of Microstation will open a drawing that was created with the latest (2012) version of the program? I was not aware of that.

[Stryker1989]

No we work on a mixture of Microstation V8i (which I hate and will use as little as possible) and AutoCAD 2000i. And when we get drawings from clients they usually always have to be converted for us to be able to see them in AutoCAD 2000i.

 

I'm sure you can see how much sense that makes

[ReMark]

Your problems seem somewhat self-inflicted partially due to the fact you're using software that is better than 10 years old and you're working with two different programs. This cannot be cost effective in my opinion.

 

Do most of your clients use Microstation or AutoCAD?

[nukecad]

Back to the original question; The STRETCH command will do what you show in your jpgs.

 

Use a crossing selection box (bottom left to top right) to select the rectangle, text, and end of line and then give the two points to move by.

[Stryker1989]

cheers nukecad

 

And yeah i don't think it's cost effective or logical, I don't think our clients use anything but AutoCAD and probably AutoCAD 2012 at that. At the moment though I'm the new guy so don't wanna rock the boat but sooner or later I'm gonna suggest getting it updated. I think it's ridiculous that I have 2012 on my computer at home but a multi million pound company can't get it.