Make Blocks unique and other stuff

benjamin schlanz

I need to make a lot of blocks unique. I know that in Autocad you can use "Flatten" to to do that. the command will give every block a extension -flat1, -flat2, etc. thus making them unique.

But the Bricscad (or express tools?) flatten command doesnt do that.
Is there any other way to do it?
Lee Macs copyblock3 is pretty powerful to rename one block, but when it comes to automating for a lot of blocks.

This Problem is part of a bigger Problem.
As stated in another post ( https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/31717 ) i want to send parts of my drawing to a planner.
)I bound all my XCLIPPED xrefs to be blocks.
)Then i make a layout where i make a viewport with my whole drawing on it.
) EXPORTLAYOUT is exporting everything except the former xrefs, now blocks. It seems the command has a problem with blocks of former xrefs and their size. (funny thing, he actually exports the block to be seen in the block list of the new drawing, but there is no reference to it and its empty)
I audit, i purge, nothing helps.

If i rename them with copyblock AND Extrim everything outside the clipped area AND delete all frozen and disabled layers then he does export it.
The reason i need to make the blocks unique, is that i have multiple instances of the block xclipped in the drawing, so if i extrim one instance, it also changes the other instances.

But since this is a lot of work to do for 40 referenced drawings i would already be happy to make the blocks unique.

Has anybody every had problems with exportlayout in this kind of way?

Joe Dunfee

 It sound like what you need to do is create a LISP routine (or hire Lee Mac) to cycle through all blocks, and call the other routine he made.  I am not familiar with LISP, but it may only be a few lines of code.  Dealing with nested blocks may be a lot more complex.

-Joe

Roy Klein Gebbinck

I have tried the _ExportLayout command in three different (simple) cases.

NotNested:
There are no nested Xrefs.
The _ExportLayout command works fine. The _XClip boundaries are preserved, the exported dwg contains blocks.

NestedOrNotNested:
There are nested Xrefs but none of these are referenced directly.
_ExportLayout does not work properly. You have to bind the Xrefs first. After that everything works fine (see NotNested).

NestedAndNotNested:
There are nested Xrefs which are also referenced directly.
This is the most problematic case as both the _ExportLayout command and binding all the Xrefs in the 'main' drawing fail. You have to bind the Xrefs in all the drawings in the 'nesting tree' to fix this situation, which results in duplicate blocks and can be an involved process. After that _ExportLayout again works fine.

I am attaching a .zip file. The main drawing is D.dwg.

The *BIG* question is of course: Why don't you use _eTransmit?

XrefTest.zip

benjamin schlanz

Thats how it should work, yes. But... it doesnt

The Reason i dont use etransmit from the beginning because i dont want the planner to have all the files, just parts of it.

I bound all Xrefs. (1.dwg)
I already figured out that it has nothing to do with my invisible and frozen layers because i deleted them all.
Then i exported it. (exportlayout.dwg)
No Xref-Blocks
Then I extrimmed all unnecessary objects (for which i would do the exportlayout command normally).
Then i exported it. (extrim_exportlayout.dwg)
No Xref-Blocks
Then i renamed the blocks with copyblock3.lsp from Lee Mac.
Then i exported it.
Suddenly everything is there!

I also tried just renaming the blocks in the drawing explorer and exportlayout them, also no xref-blocks to be seen.
I also tried deleting the xclip and exportlayout, also no luck.

I dont know what exactly copyblock3 is doing to my blocks, but it does something to be able to export them i think.
Problem is copyblock3 doesnt keep the block xclipped, so i would have to xclip them again...


Any Wisdom?
I cant post the files here because of confidentiality, but will open a support ticket.

benjamin schlanz

From the Support:

--------------------

Hi Benjamin,

Thank you very much for your report.
I will consider this issue related to the fact the EXPORTLAYOUT fails to export nested blocks from xrefs. Issue which I can reproduce from scratch and I am investigating it.

Hi Benjamin,

I have informed our development team about the fact that EXPORTLAYOUT fails to export blocks from nested xrefs .

------------------

So does this mean nobody actually ever tried this before? Cant really believe that...

cheers

Joe Dunfee

  I have a related question, though I have not investigated a solution yet.  I am starting to work on some complex dynamic blocks, that I would rather not give out.  So, when I send a drawing out, I would like for my dynamic blocks to loose all their intelligence, and be converted to standard blocks. Is there an existing method to do this?

-Joe

Denis Lamothe

@Joe Dunfee:

  I have a related question, though I have not investigated a solution yet.  I am starting to work on some complex dynamic blocks, that I would rather not give out.  So, when I send a drawing out, I would like for my dynamic blocks to loose all their intelligence, and be converted to standard blocks. Is there an existing method to do this?

-Joe

Joe,

Your question should be in it's own thread, or you risk derailing Benjamin's question. Just did a quick google using search terms "dynamic block to block" and came up with the following link with a lisp routine that might be of use to you. http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32681.msg382548#msg382548

Joe Dunfee

@Denis Lamothe:

Your question should be in it's own thread, or you risk derailing Benjamin's question.

I was debating starting a new one, but I was sort of thinking it fell under the category of "don't give away too much," when you release a drawing.  Anyway, thank you very much for the link. I didn't think of those search terms.

-Joe