comcu Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Hi, was hoping someone can help. How do you insert a block that is contained in a drawing containing multiple blocks? I have created a button that allows me to inserts blocks into my drawings but this only works when the block name is the drawing name. if the drawing contains multiple block then autocad returns ""tl32.dwg": Can't find file in search path:" ^C^C-insert;\\1;1; i understand this is because it is searching for a drawing called "TL32" so my question is if i have a drawing called "standard fixings" and within that drawing i have blocks called "TL32" "TL38" "TL42" etc etc etc how do i insert the blocks with out having to make seperate drawings of each? I see autocad 2008 performs this task with multileader in tool palletes so i know it is possible just not sure how it works? thanks for any help. cheers, col PS i have set my support paths up to each folder where my blocks are contained Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbroada Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I don't know how to do this on a button but design centre can access blocks within a drawing. I prefer palettes so would open the source drawing and drag the blocks onto a new palette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I think what you are searching for is a WBLOCK a stand-alone drawing that in its entirity is inserted as a block. However, it looks like you want to insert a block that is contained within another drawing and lives there, basically. I would guess you will need to add the option to specify a drawing name, and then specify the name of the block you want to take from that drawing. Have a look around for some lisps or VBA macro's if too difficult to add to your button macro. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dipali Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 It is possible using design centre as already mentioned by 'dbroda'. open design centre form tool>pallettes drop down menu or press ctrl+2 fro quick access. browse to the drawing which contains all the blocks & click on block so it will give you the list. selct & right click will give you option to insert block. it also gives you the option to redefine the block which is useful if you already have that block in your drawing but the original block changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 If you copy and paste from the design center I'm pretty sure it will retain the current definition (the one in the target drawing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comcu Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Hi, thank you for the response. I am aware of design centre, tooll palaettes. however i am moving away from tool palletes as it is easier to type in 3 or 4 characters than navigate thru tool palettes or design centre. we use several systems and each have hundreds of blocks so as i know the systems fairly well it is easier to start command, type "sfg101" or "TL32" or "sd598" into the command line then the block is imported i currently use the macro ^C^C-insert;\\1;1; to insert my wblocks, some of the system houses supply cad librarys with the blocks as created as wblocks while the other supply a drawing with hundred or so blocks within. I could sit and manually create the wblock from the master drawing but it would be easier if i could just insert the blocks as described previously. as i have said i know it is possible. if anyone hase autocad 2008 and they look at the multiple leader tool pallet you will see there are several multileaders with blocks attached to the eg leader detail bubble, leader circle, leader rectange etc etc. and these are some how linked to a drawing in autocad folded on the c drive called "sample" all of these blocks are within on drawing so i know it is possible. i tried to break it down and understand how it works so i deleted the drawing multileader drawing and autocad returned the following error? "Create block failed. please verify whetehr block ....... exists and drawing file "_tagSlot - Metric" exists and drawing file "%SampleFolder%Dynamic Blocks\Multileader Tools.dwg" can be read" cheers, Col Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dipali Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 If you copy and paste from the design center I'm pretty sure it will retain the current definition (the one in the target drawing). yes, that is correct. to redifne you need to select the option 'redefine & insert' or 'redefine only' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbroada Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 "create block failed" suggests to me it is constructing the block on the fly, possibly opening the containing file "in the background" and extracting the block definition. That is how I would look into doing it in VBA, and may well look but I certainly don't have the time right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comcu Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 i will prob look using vba to create wblocks from the master drawings issued to us and automate it this way. thanks for the help col Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbroada Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 a quick look in the VBA help would suggest that the GetObject Function could get what you want. Whether this is the most appropriate call is another matter all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 I am having the same issue. I am creating a menu for some blocks of our standard product, and I wish to use this menu to insert blocks from within a drawing which contains blocks of the same type of product. I do not want to use lisp or VBA, as I need it to be able to work with LT - if this wasn't the case, I'd be using lisp. I know design centre can do this and that you can use design centre to create tool palettes, but I need this in a menu. Google doesn't come up with too much either - it's actually how I came here . If anyone has found a way to do this, your help would very much be appreciated. Cheers, Chandler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uddfl Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 In case it helps, this LISP routine will wblock every block definition in a drawing to a user-specified directory: http://www.dotsoft.com/public/wblockm.lsp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Was kinda hoping not to do it that way. I'm guessing there's no other way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryDotson Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 On 2/4/2009 at 7:17 PM, uddfl said: In case it helps, this LISP routine will wblock every block definition in a drawing to a user-specified directory: http://www.dotsoft.com/public/wblockm.lsp Thanks for the mention, but that tool evolved from a simple lisp and that link has long since changed (that's a problem with supplying direct links). For those interested, the updated AutoWblock tool can be found on our freeware page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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