[Solved] Moving blocks from one file to another

RJCJ

Hi All.

I have 2 files open, a master and a concept. I'm happy with the design changes done within the concept file and am now trying to copy-paste the block into the master. Yet when I paste it into the master, all the changes made to the block are reverting to the old design. I've gone through the master and deleted every entry of the old design. I've gone into Manage/Blocks and deleted the block out of there. This isn't correcting it and I still have the issue.
I'm hoping I'm missing something simple and it's an easy fix? Any suggestions?

Anthony Apostolaros

I don't know what Manage/Block means. Something new?

The traditional way to remove a block definition from a DWG file, so that you can re-use that block name with a new definition, is with the Purge command, after deleting all insertions. Or you can select the block name in the Blocks tab of the Drawing Explorer and click on the Delete red X at the top.

eivber

If you delete every instance of a block in a drawing, the block definition is still a part of the drawing, so if you paste in a block with a different design, but the name of the block is the same as the old one, it will get the "old design".

There`s two ways to fix this:

1: To remove the old block definition after deleting all instances, you must run PURGE to remove the old definitions. When you then paste the "new design", you will get the new design since there is no old designs still in the drawing.

2: But you dont have to delete the old instances. You can run EXPLORER to browse through content from other drawings. Select "Folders" and add the folder that contains the DWG with the new design. Select the file with the new design click the + to see content from the file. Select "Blocks" and all blocks from the file will show up on the right.

Right-click on the block with the new design and choose "Insert", you will then be asked if you want to redefine all blocks with the same name in the drawing with this new design.

zoomer

There`s two three ways to fix this:

3: Bricscad could ask you, like other software does,

if you bring in a Block with same name as an already existing Block ….

• use/update to the new Block definition
• keep the old Block definition and adapt imported data
• keep both Block definitions and rename imported Block to : ….

Tom Foster

Purge is a blunt instrument, or at least runs you thro a zillion boring options. Easier, having deleted all instances of a block, to go into Drawing Explorer>Blocks; there you can check that there are indeed 0 (zero) instances of the Block; if so, you can delete the Block name/definition there in Explorer.

What's annoying, is that it refuses to delete, giving some story about it being nested (all zero instances of it) in another block - or similar rubbish. I never know how to untangle that, but sooner enough the problem just vanishes!

zoomer

Or if you delete a (used) Block,

Bricscad will not ask if you want to explode and keep the inserted geometry or not,

or replace it with another Block, based on the given insertion point, or …

And ACAD Block system, for working with nested Blocks, is the worst I ever experienced.

And for ACAD compatibilities sake - we still rely on it here in Bricscad.

Anthony Apostolaros

Copy and paste works even for a block definition that's nested inside another one.

You have to explode the block insertion in the source file, then use CopyBase to copy all the exploded parts to the Windows clipboard, with the block's insertion point as the base point. Then edit an insertion in the target file, delete all the parts, and paste in the exploded parts from the source file.

In both files you should have an insertion of the block with something marking the insertion point, and with nothing else nearby. You have to be able to select just the parts of the exploded or edited block insertion.

Tom Foster

"ACAD Block system, for working with nested Blocks, is the worst I ever experienced"

It's certainly arcane - takes a lot of learning, all its wierd-logic ways of doing things. I use Blocks constantly - my whole modelspace(s) made up of collections of Blocks, and have slowly learned how to avoid inadvertent nestings etc, which take a while to be spotted, and how to untangle them without having to Undo back to a sane spot, as I used to. It's arduous to constantly try to be disciplined, frequently fail. And when such tangles occur, going in and out of Refedit slows down dramatically - feels dangerously close to a Loop of Doom! I keep hoping there's some other thing in Brics, perhaps Mech Assemblies, which would do a similar job better.

Anthony Apostolaros

"It's certainly arcane - takes a lot of learning, all its wierd-logic ways of doing things."

But that's why they pay us the big bucks.

RJCJ

Thank you everyone for your input.

I very much like the idea if Bricscad asks:
"use/update to the new Block definition
Keep the old Block definition and adapt imported data
keep both Block definitions and rename imported Block to : …. "

I managed to use EXPLORER to delete all entries of the old design and then pasting the new showed no issues.