Title block attributes

[Ninjaneer]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to access title block attributes from VBA so that I can standarise them across drawing sets. I'm very experienced with Excel VBA but I'm afraid I'm a total noob with AutoCAD. My drawing contains a block called A3BORDER, I can read the items from it and by looking for the right ObjectName I can ignore static text and graphic objects. Here's the code:

 

Sub foo()
   Set myblk = ThisDrawing.Blocks("*PAPER_SPACE").Item(2)
   For i = 0 To ThisDrawing.Blocks("A3BORDER").Count - 1
       Set myobj = ThisDrawing.Blocks("A3BORDER").Item(i)
       If myobj.ObjectName = "AcDbAttributeDefinition" Then
           Debug.Print myobj.StyleName, myobj.TextString
       End If
   Next
End Sub

The problem is I get the attributes from the template not the layout, for example SHEET_NO comes back with value 'XX OF YY' instead of '8 OF 8'. 'XX OF YY' is the default value I see if I edit the title block in the Block Editor.

I've tried looking through the items in PAPER_SPACE and one has EffectiveName = "A3BORDER", is that the instance I need? If so how do I get it's items?

 

Thanks

Ninja

[mdbdesign]

It is good to know about your excel VBA experience. Welcome to the forum

[Ninjaneer]

Well there's a productive first response. Pardon my ignorance of etiquette on this board but I felt it may be useful to show that I am comfortable with VBA but not the AutoCAD object structure. Ho hum.

[spiff88]

Not sure exactly about your code, but maybe the object you need to be looking for is

 

myobj.ObjectName = "AcDbAttribute"

 

instead of

 

myobj.ObjectName = "AcDbAttributeDefinition"

[spiff88]

Also - have you looked at the myobj.GetAttributes method?

[Ninjaneer]

Hi Spiff,

 

Thanks but the block has no AcDbAttribute items, just AcDbAttributeDefinition, AcDbText for the fixed test and other graphical items such as lines etc. You've set me on the right path though. I had already tried this

ThisDrawing.Blocks("A3BORDER").HasAttributes 

Which fails so I'd not bothered with GetAttributes. What I had not done is the HasAttributes test on myblk for some reason. That returns True and GetAttributes returns the the text I'm after. The clue should have been that the above code fails to the debug prompt, if it was a valid test it would have returned False. By testing myblk instead I'm effectively this instead doing this (this is not valid code, just illustration)

ThisDrawing.Blocks("*PAPER_SPACE").Blocks("A3BORDER").HasAttributes 

Which obviously is the instance on paper not the one I see in the block editor.

 

Thanks again Spiff88

Ninja

[BIGAL]

There is posts here about using VBA and title block attributes I use them every day so I have posted code will try to find posts for you

 

Couldn't find pre posted code so here it is again may be helpfull

 

Public Sub add_project_number()
' This Updates the project number
Dim SS As AcadSelectionSet
Dim Count As Integer
Dim FilterDXFCode(1) As Integer
Dim FilterDXFVal(1) As Variant
Dim attribs, newtext As Variant
Dim BLOCK_NAME As String
'On Error Resume Next
Dim startCH As Double
newtext = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetString(True, "Enter new project code : ")
FilterDXFCode(0) = 0
FilterDXFVal(0) = "INSERT"
FilterDXFCode(1) = 2
FilterDXFVal(1) = "DA1DRTXT"
BLOCK_NAME = "DA1DRTXT"
Set SS = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Add("issued")
SS.Select acSelectionSetAll, , , FilterDXFCode, FilterDXFVal

For Cntr = 0 To SS.Count - 1
  attribs = SS.Item(Cntr).GetAttributes
       
       
       attribs(1).TextString = newtext
               attribs(1).Update
        
Next Cntr
ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Item("issued").Delete

End Sub

Edited September 30, 2011 by BIGAL

[Cherilm]

I'm not sure if you got your question answered, but the object you might be looking for is not att definition, but Att Value. I'm still trying to learn the methods and such in AutoCAD so I can't be a great deal of help, but I have come across this in other situations. Not sure, but worth a try.