Unamed blocks in Create Block window

I suppose this issue has already been addressed ad nasueum, but my search of the forum didn't yield anything specific. I have noticed since we began using V17, a lot of *DNNN names listed under the Name field of the Create Block window. These blocks are not present in the Insert Block Name field, nor are they listed under blocks in the drawing explorer. They are not a big problem, just a nuisance, in that when creating blocks, I have to scroll by them to see what I have already created. The PURGE command hasn't helped. Any suggestions?

Comments

  • the reasons are so different like the Users are. If they are not purgeble by the System, you can try one of my favorite tools. Its called DWGClear. Its free for 30 Days and is able to purge much more than Blocks. Here

  • The presence of '*D...' blocks is pretty normal. They are used by dimensions. For every dimension there is such an 'anonymous' block. And they are automatically purged whenever you open a drawing.

    These blocks should however not be presented to the average CAD operator. So what Jim is seeing is a bug IMO.

  • I checked out all the V17 releases, but nowhere i could remark this issue.
    If these are really these dimension Blocks which are named D[number] (D123, *D45....) Roy is shurly right. But if not then maybe this are Renamed unnamed Blocks. I made an tool some jears before, which is able to rename some Blocks ant than they are listed in this Block window.

  • @Roy Klein Gebbinck said:

    ........

    These blocks should however not be presented to the average CAD operator. So what Jim is seeing is a bug IMO.

    Roy,

    Thank you for your reply. I think I will submit a bug report.

  • @Martin Drese said:
    ............But if not then maybe this are Renamed unnamed Blocks. I made an tool some jears before, which is able to rename some Blocks ant than they are listed in this Block window.

    Thank you for your replies Martin. I will investigate DWG clear. Can you elaborate on "renamed unnamed blocks"? As I recall, the PURGE command would delete unnamed blocks as long as they were NOT used anywhere in the drawing. But as far as I have been able to determine, these *DNNN" blocks don't appear anywhere in the drawing, and they are not removable by the purge command. I also don't failing to assign names to the blocks I created, or renaming such blocks. Do you know what your tool did?

  • Jason Bourhill
    edited March 2017

    Jim,

    I agree with Roy, this is a bug in the BLOCK command, or a hole in the matrix :) , The dropdown shouldn't list anonymous blocks.

    Using standard inquiry tools you won't necessarily be able to find the objects that thes block names reference, after all they are supposed to be anonymous.

    The following bit of LISP will allow you to see the anonymous block name of a dimension and other blocks

    (vle-cdrassoc 2 (entget (car (entsel "Select a Dimension or block: "))))
    

    As Roy stated dimensions are prefixed with a *D, and unreferenced anonymous blocks are automatically purged on opening the drawing.

    Regards,
    Jason Bourhill
    CAD Concepts

  • here is an Tool attached which i made to rename unnamed Blocks to named ones. But the Blocknames are shown without this * at the beginning.

    Regards
    Martin

  • Thank you Jason, and Martin. Very good help here. I have submitted the bug report, and will try the LSP file...

  • @Jim i have tried several V17 Releases. Which one does have these behaviour? Can you reproduce this in each drawing with Dimensions inside, or only in this one?

    Martin

  • @Martin Drese said:
    @Jim i have tried several V17 Releases. Which one does have these behaviour? Can you reproduce this in each drawing with Dimensions inside, or only in this one?

    Martin

    Martin,

    On reproducing the behavior.. May I get back to you on that? I'm very pressed for time on my work right now. Bricsys support tells me that this bug affects "v17.1.16 and all succeeding versions", and that it will be fixed.

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