placeholders - what??

[jamie.casile]

ok, i like fields, and i've looked everywhere, but i cant seem to find a clear, concise explanation for what block and sheetset placeholder fields do. what are they for? how do i use them?
thanks,
jamie

[zoomharis]

Excerpt from AutoCAD help


Some sheet set fields can be inserted as placeholders. For example, you can insert
SheetNumberAndTitle as a placeholder. Later, when the layout is added to a sheet set,
the placeholder field displays the correct sheet number and title.

Block placeholder fields can be used in block attribute definitions while you're working
in the Block Editor


Let us know, in case you need further explanation.

[jamie.casile]

thank you for your speedy response!
what i'm looking for tho, is specific typical situations they would be used in. the help explanantion is cryptic to me. i've tried a couple of test uses, but the pattern is unclear to me.
thank you,
jamie

[Chris.N]

thank you for your speedy response!
what i'm looking for tho, is specific typical situations they would be used in. the help explanantion is cryptic to me. i've tried a couple of test uses, but the pattern is unclear to me.
thank you,
jamie
Sheet* fields only work inside a Sheet Set Manager project. it's how the tags & info are coordinated.

if you create a lot of blocks, the placeholder fields can be implemented to automatically populate depending on the use, but can only be inserted from the Block Editor environment.

[jamie.casile]

so are the placeholders only for use in attributes?

[Chris.N]

so are the placeholders only for use in attributes?
since i never recommend placing fields in plain text inside a block, i'm going to have to say "Yep"...

mind you, i've not had time to play and master all the options available for each field type to be deemed an expert, but 1 or 2 ppl around here listen to me sometimes... :mrgreen:

[zoomharis]

since i never recommend placing fields in plain text inside a block, i'm going to have to say "Yep"...


I believe that you can say "Yes" even if you recommend that :).

[Beaglemommy]

since i never recommend placing fields in plain text inside a block...


I know you placed this reply a while ago, but I was curious as to why would you never recommend placing fields in plain text in a block? I'm creating standards for an office and looking thru posts on fields and came across your reply. Thanks for your input!

[vapross]

i could help you;i mean fields and office project template; but i've made some sort of template project with dwt and dst files. i've got several amount of questions and i'm keeping on resolving them. so if you need it we could share both with some info about it/

[irneb]

The reason for placing a BlockPlaceholder type field inside a block, is to get some property or dynamic parameter's value shown in the block. If it's text inside the block then it (at best) will only show one instance of this block. If its in an attribute, then each instance will show its own property.

So for the BlockPlaceholder field type, it would be useless to place it inside a piece of text ... either all blocks would update to one single instance's values ... or more likely an error would occur / nothing happens. If you want to use text, place something else than a block placeholder ... i.e. read something which doesn't have anything to do with the block into the text.

It depends what you want, if all instances of the block should show the same thing (and you don't want to extract that data) ... by all means ... place it inside text. If however the displayed value changes for each block (e.g. Insertion Point / Layername / etc.) this has to be in an Attribute otherwise it won't work.

BTW, it's not necessary to use a BlockPlaceholder for this. A BP can only be placed inside the default value of an ATTDEF entity (while inside the Block Editor). So it would only apply to newly inserted instances of that block. You could normally edit the ATTRIB of each block instance and type over that, even insert a normal Field code (say Object insert point of this block).

I'm not entirely sure about SheetSetPlaceholder, but I'm assuming this is to allow the user to setup fields pointing to a sheetset variable without actually having an active sheet from a SheetSet. E.g. when creating a template file.

[randyspear]

I'm sorry to add to the confusion but I'm not seeing the benefit of BP's.

The reason i say that is because they actually do nothing (correct?). Once you insert your block into a sheet set, you still have to edit the field to point to the desired sheet or view.

Especially, if you are talking about titles/section call ups etc.; I'd rather see "X" in the small area designated for the detail/section number/letter opposed to "VIEWNUMBER" (which masks everything else).

Hopefully I am missing something.