Blocks, attributes and libraries

A block is a named set of objects that you define once and insert as many times as needed (a door, a socket, a symbol). Each insertion is a single object that can be moved, rotated or scaled; if you change the definition, all insertions change.

Creating and inserting

When you create a block you choose what to do with the original objects: retain them, convert them to an insertion of the block, or delete them. If the name already exists, you are asked whether to redefine it.

The Blocks palette shows thumbnails of the blocks in the current drawing, the recently used ones and those of the libraries. Click or drag a block to place it; scale and rotation are typed or picked with the mouse. Inserting a DWG or DXF file brings it in as a block with its layers, styles and nested blocks; definitions that already exist in the drawing are kept.

Tip: draw the contents of a block on layer 0 with ByBlock properties; that way each insertion takes the layer, color and linetype it is inserted with (see Layers).

Attributes

Attributes are variable texts inside a block (a reference, a circuit, a price).

• ATTDEF creates an attribute definition: tag, prompt and default value. It is included in the block when the block is created.
• When the block is inserted, the values are requested.
• ATTEDIT (or double-click the block) and EATTEDIT change the values of an insertion.
• BATTMAN changes the order, prompt, default value and modes of a block's attributes, and ATTSYNC updates the existing insertions to match the definition.
• ATTEXT extracts attributes to a CSV file or to a table in the drawing.

Dynamic blocks

Dynamic blocks made with AutoCAD work in LinceCAD: their grips are drawn in cyan and change visibility, flip, lengths, point positions, rotation, arrays and lookup tables. The Properties palette shows their values in the Custom section. RESETBLOCK resets them to the values of the definition. LinceCAD cannot create new parameters or actions yet.

Block Editor

BEDIT (or double-click a block without attributes) opens a block definition as if it were a drawing: all commands, object snaps, grips and undo work. The Block Editor ribbon tab appears and, at the bottom, a bar with the block name.

• BSAVE saves the definition and redraws all its insertions.
• BSAVEAS saves the edited contents as a new block and leaves the original unchanged.
• BCLOSE closes the editor; if there are unsaved changes, it asks.

The whole editor session is undone in one step. External references and anonymous blocks cannot be edited.

DesignCenter, palettes and libraries

• ADCENTER browses other drawings, open or in a folder, and copies their blocks, layers, linetypes, styles and layouts into the current drawing.
• TOOLPALETTES are palettes with blocks ready to insert with their scale, rotation and layer; fill them by dragging blocks from the Blocks palette or from DesignCenter.
• LinceCAD is installed with two libraries of its own in the bibliotecas folder: Arquitectura.dwg (doors, windows, furniture and sanitary fittings) and Electricidad.dwg (switches, sockets and lights, with CIR and REF attributes). Any DWG with blocks can serve as a library.

Notes

• PURGE deletes unused block definitions.
• The base point of a drawing inserted as a block is INSBASE.

See also

Layers and properties · External references · Tables · Tutorial: blocks