LT Unlimited

Quick Way to Close the Enhanced Attribute Editor

In the old Attribute Editor, the only ways to get out of it were to either click the OK button or Tab over until it was highlighted and then press Enter. Not too bad, unless you're A) a keyboard junkie and/or B) editing the first attribute in a block that has twenty.

But in the Enhanced Attribute Editor (long available in AutoCAD, now included in AutoCAD LT 2010), there's an even easier way: Ctrl+Enter.

Just like the Mtext Editor, that handy two-key shortcut closes the dialog and saves your changes. Of course, clicking OK and Tab-Enter-ing over to OK still work too, but in my opinion Ctrl+Enter is faster than both.

Action Bars in the Block Editor

Prior to AutoCAD LT 2010, it could be difficult to tell in the Block Editor which actions, parameters, and objects were related. For example, look at this steel beam section, as seen in the AutoCAD LT 2009 Block Editor:

It's a mess -- actions everywhere, labels overlapping...yes, it could be laid out better, but even so there's no easy way to tell which actions affect which parameters.

Now look at the same block in the AutoCAD LT 2010 Block Editor:

Ahh...much better! Now, all the actions have been consolidated into Action Bars, so that all the actions for a given parameter are nicely grouped together. The icon tells you what type of action it is, and hovering over an icon gives you the action's name and highlights its parameter.

Even better, you don't have to do anything special to use Action Bars -- all your dynamic blocks will automatically display this way when you edit them in LT 2010.

Attributes and Flip Actions in Dynamic Blocks

The last time I overhauled a block library was in 2007, when dynamic blocks were still new to LT. Back then, it was a bit of a challenge to have a "left hand" and a "right hand" version of a block containing attributes, because the attributes maintained their justification through a flip action. (So if you flipped a block, then edited the attribute value, you might end up with text in unexpected places.)

The workarounds I came up with were either to use center-justified attributes (not always practical), or to use visibility states for the left and right versions (also not ideal, since you had to enter the attribute value twice).

LT 2008, though, introduced multiline attributes which adjust their justification when flipped. It's an extra click to access the value, since you have to launch the attribute editor and then the multiline attribute editor, but I think the flexibility of the multiline attribute (and getting rid of the visibility states) makes it worth it.

What do you think? How do you handle "left" and "right" versions of blocks?

Re-order Attributes in Blocks

Among the new-to-LT block attribute tools in LT 2010 is the Block Attribute Manager. You can find it on the Attributes panel of the Insert tab as "Manage", or at the command line as BATTMAN. (And if you just started singing the theme song, you're not alone.)

The Block Attribute Manager helps control the order of your attributes so that you can enter data in a logical way. For example, this block has its attributes out of order -- I'd like to enter Line 1 first, then Line 2, and so on, but right now they're mixed up.

(Yes, this attribute editor is different from the one available in LT 2009 and earlier. No, I haven't posted about it yet...but I will soon.)

To fix this, I'll run BATTMAN.

 

The "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons rearrange the attributes until they're in the order you want.

"Edit" launches the Edit Attribute dialog, where you can make changes to the attribute's overall properties, including its default value and prompt.

"Remove" deletes the attribute from the block definition.

"Sync" applies your changes to all block instances currently in the drawing.

You can use the pull-down at the top to switch between block definitions to make changes to the order of their attributes.

Along the bottom, "OK", "Cancel", and "Help" are pretty straightforward.

"Apply" saves your changes without closing the dialog so you can continue to manage attributes for that block or others.

"Settings" brings up a small dialog that has mostly to do with which properties are displayed in the main dialog window (like Tag and Prompt above). It helps you to distinguish between attributes, in case you have some with similar properties.

Two options you'll want to pay closer attention to are the ones circled in red. "Emphasize duplicate tags" shows you when you have two or more attributes in a block with the same tag. This is generally considered bad practice, because it can cause some unexpected behaviors.

"Apply changes to existing references" does exactly that -- if you uncheck the box, existing blocks aren't modified unless you use the Sync button in the main dialog.

Once I've finished my rearranging and closed the Block Attribute Manager, I can go back to my block and see the correct attribute order.

Dynamic Block Troubleshooting

If you create a dynamic block and it doesn't work the way you expect it to, the first thing to check is your selection sets.

For example, you have a block that contains a rotate and a stretch action. You use the rotate grip, and notice that your stretch grip is now off in space somewhere.

This is probably the most common problem I see in dynamic blocks, and it's caused by including actions in the selection set for another action. Including parameters is okay, and usually good, but including actions almost always produces unexpected actions.

In the rotate and stretch example, the weird behavior is because the stretch action was accidentally  included in the rotation action's selection set. Take it out, and you're up and running again.

So if you've got a misbehaving dynamic block on your hands, look at all your selection sets and make sure you don't have any actions sneaking in where they shouldn't be.

Synchronize Attributes

Here's another video post, this time one one of the new-to-LT features in AutoCAD LT 2010.

For the YouTube fans out there, I put it there too, but I know a lot of you have YouTube blocked at work, so I'm trying a new thing and embedding it here. Hope it works. :-)

Synchronize Attributes

AU Early Bird Discount and a Dynamic Blocks Tip

Are you all registered for AU? If not, and you're planning on it, you might want to do it today -- the $500 early bird discount expires at the end of the day. If you go, be sure to find me to say hi -- I love meeting blog readers. :-)

I learned something new about Dynamic Blocks this week, so I thought I'd share it with you. You probably know that you can use the Properties palette to change the custom properties of inserted dynamic blocks (like picking an option from a lookup table, or entering a value for a linear parameter). But did you know that you can use the Properties palette to change those settings before you pick your insertion point?

Try it: Begin to insert a block (from a menu, tool palette, or with the insert command), but before you pick your insertion point, open up the Properties palette. Look for the section called "Custom" -- this holds the parameter-based properties for your block. Change one of them, and watch the preview of your block update before you place it.

Anyway, I thought that was a pretty neat tip. I hope some of you find it useful!

Virginia Beach CAD Camp and a Dynamic Block Tip

I'm teaching a class on Dynamic Blocks tomorrow at the AUGI CAD Camp in Virginia Beach, so I thought I'd share a tip from it with you early.

One popular question on the discussion groups is how to stop attribute text from rotating when you rotate the rest of a dynamic block, so it always stays horizontal and readable.

Here's how it works:

1. I'm assuming you're already in the Block Editor for a block with an attribute in it somewhere, but no parameters or actions.
2. Add a point parameter at the insertion point of the text. Use the Properties palette to set its grips to 0, and set Chain Actions to Yes.
3. Add a move action to the point parameter and select the text as its selection set.
4. Add a rotate parameter -- use whatever base point, radius, and angle makes sense for your block.
5. Add a rotate action and select whatever geometry you want to rotate AND the point parameter. Do NOT select the text or the move action.
6. Close the Block Editor and Save changes.

That's it -- when you use the rotate grip to rotate the block, the text circles around but stays horizontal. Pretty cool.

Here's a screenshot of the block editor, and a sample file if you'd like to play around with it yourself. (Note: You have to have LT 2007 or higher to edit Dynamic Blocks.)

Dynamic Blocks and Layer 0

Strange things can happen to your dynamic blocks if layer 0 (zero, in case the font makes it look like an "O") is off or frozen. Many people (me included) create blocks with entities on layer 0, so they inherit the properties of the layer on which they’re inserted. (It’s why the same steel shape can display the proper color for new or existing, depending on whether it’s on a “new” layer or an “existing” layer.) So if you’re having trouble getting a hatch to follow its outline, or are unable to edit attributes, check layer 0.

Get to know dynamic block grips

Everyone's familiar with the little square blue grips that show up on AutoCAD objects like line, arcs, circles, etc. But 2006 introduced Dynamic Blocks, and with them came a whole new set of grips, light-blue in color and with shapes that identify their functionality. Here's a quick rundown on the new grips: