Block rotation

[CAD cowboy]

We are using AutoCAD 2008 in our offices (we just recently upgraded from 2005, although some users were using 2006). We have a user who has defined a block with a line and attribute text, both above and below the line. If the rotate command is used, the block rotates around the origin point defined. However, the user likes to use the Change Properties Dialog Box to perform this task, by highlighting the rotation angle and specifying the angle he prefers. When he does this, the line and text rotates around each individual insertion point, so that the text is no longer above and below the line. This appears to be a new issue to 2008. Any thoughts? Is this an oversight by Autodesk, or perhaps was this done deliberately to 'encourage' users to use dynamic blocks? I have attached the block in question.

Thanks.

[ccowgill]

We are using AutoCAD 2008 in our offices (we just recently upgraded from 2005, although some users were using 2006). We have a user who has defined a block with a line and attribute text, both above and below the line. If the rotate command is used, the block rotates around the origin point defined. However, the user likes to use the Change Properties Dialog Box to perform this task, by highlighting the rotation angle and specifying the angle he prefers. When he does this, the line and text rotates around each individual insertion point, so that the text is no longer above and below the line. This appears to be a new issue to 2008. Any thoughts? Is this an oversight by Autodesk, or perhaps was this done deliberately to 'encourage' users to use dynamic blocks? I have attached the block in question.

Thanks.
it is a bug in 2008, you will have to recreate the block in 2008 to get it to work and even then it is spotty. That is one of the first things I noticed when we switched. We just learned to deal with it. It is a pain, especially when rotating spot grades so they are readable. I do not believe I have experienced that issue with 2009.

[jpaulsen]

Hi Cowboy,

We've been on 2008 for 9 months now and this one never came up. However, I was able to recreate the undesirable behavior you described.

When I want to rotate a block around it's insertion point I like the OLD change command (-CH). You can select one or multiple blocks and hit enter until you get to the rotation property. If you select more than one it cycles through all the blocks that you select.

*edit* I just tried in C3D 2009 and it works as expected.

[CAD cowboy]

Thanks Jeff. I had totally forgotten about that functionality of change. I will pass it on to the user(s) here who are experiencing the problem.

Hope that things are going well there. Have a good week.

Eric

[irneb]

To get arround this problem, after doing the rotate by property, run the ATTSYNC command (ot BATTMAN if you prefer a dialog interface). This will position the attributes relative to the block position, scale & rotation as per original block definition. However if you've moved, rotated, changed font or text height of any attribute inside any of those instances of the block - these changes will disappear.

Unfortunately this could cause a different problem - if any of those blocks were mirrored the text of the attributes will now also be mirrored. You'll have to change blocks with either X or Y scaling as negative to positive and then rerun ATTSYNC.