Attributes in a annotative block

[shawnarringdale]

Im sure this has probably been hit on a few million times but I cant seem to find anything on it and i am stuck here. I am using multiple versions of AC, I have AC MEP 2010, MEP 2011 and ACAD 2011. I am looking to recreate our existing blocks and make them annotative. Not a major deal until I hit the ones with attributes. When I create them I set the attributes to just be there using ATTDEF, then once I have them all where I want them I use BLOCK and select all items attributes and line work. From here I set it to be annotative. All seems well until I insert it into a drawing, the text and the device flex just fine but without bursting the block I cant seem to edit the attributes.

My first thought here was to remake the attributes to Verify thinking this may do something but I was wrong same thing. What the system is doing is making it a nested block, when I burst the block 1 time it turns it into line work and another block with editable attributes which is what I am shooting for in the first place with prompts on insertion. My question is what am I missing here? I feel like its fairly simple but I haven't been able to figure this out.

[pmedina]

See if this helps with the nesting issue.
With regard to having a nested block, have you tried ‘directly authoring’ the block?
By ‘directly authoring’ the block I mean that you have a drawing with nothing but the items you wish to use in your block. Then, you type “BE” to get the “Edit Block Definition” dialog box. When that pops up you will see <Current Drawing>. You click on <Current Drawing> and then click OK. It will shoot you into the Block Editor with everything in your current drawing now visible in the block editor. When you are done setting everything up, in the Block Editor ribbon panel, you can click on “Test Block” to see if everything works properly. Click on “Close Test Block Window” when you are done testing it, while in the Block Editor click on “Save” and it will save your block just as it is in the Block Editor and will not create a nested block (unless you inserted another block in there). When you insert your new block into another drawing, you do not have to explode it. It will not be nested, since you are not inserting a drawing with your block inside of it, your block is the drawing and is not nested.

[irneb]

With attributes make sure that their AttDef's inside the block's definition is NO set to Annotative. Just the block def itself should be annotative.

Also a problem I've come across with annotative attributed blocks is whenever the block reference has been mirrored the attribs tend to go all over the show when you've got more than one scale set on that block.

As a tip: create all your annotative blocks as if for 1:1. Don't hope that the Annotative thingy would "automatically" know what to do. Rather make sure.

[clshade]

If the Attribs are Locked in a non Dynamic Block does that make a difference for the random placement when Mirrored?
Also the OP may need to Lock the Attribs from the older blocks he is using.

[irneb]

If the Attribs are Locked in a non Dynamic Block does that make a difference for the random placement when Mirrored?
Also the OP may need to Lock the Attribs from the older blocks he is using.

No, even on non-dynamic blocks the attributes go hay-wire if those blocks are "annotative".

The point is that as soon as you set a block to be annotative, its property of Uniform Scaling gets turned on. A mirrored version of the block reference has either its X or Y scale factor changed to negative. I.e. it's breaking this setting - the x will not be equal to the y.

You also see this problem when running Data Extraction. A message pops up stating that non-uniformly scaled blocks will be ignored. Painful when you've mirrored stuff like room/door tags! If the block is not annotative, and not dynamic, and not uniform, then data extract has no problem with mirrored blocks. If the block is set to be either annotative or dynamic or both, the uniform property is turned on and locked - so you end up with this "must-be-uniform" idea, which breaks on mirroring.

I've just learned never to mirror any reference blocks. Otherwise I end up with annotative blocks having strange positions on some scales, and gaps in my data extracted schedules.

As for "locking" the attributes: I only do that if they are supposed to be moved about inside a dynamic block. It has no positive effect on the mirroring problem, actually the reverse - when they're locked they have a greater tendency to go out of kilter.