Creating an annotative block

[brendan.j.mallon]

Having trawled forum after forum...

I've got .Net code that is creating a brand new block in a drawing file in AutoCAD 2010. So far this is all working nicely, making allowances for any user UCS in use and the necessary rotations, etc.

Now I'm trying to make my brand new block annotative at the time of creation.

I've tried to adapt the code from Kean Walmsleys 'Throught the Interface' article here, however it throws an eInvalidInput exception whenever I get to the 'obj.Annotative = Annotative.True;' line.

Of course this code is making an existing object annotative and doesn't accommodate blocks. There may be something in that, but blocks can be annotative after all.

I've tried a number of alternatives from attempting to assign the annotative directly to the BlockReference:

AcDBS.BlockTableRecord ms = (AcDBS.BlockTableRecord)tr.GetObject(bt[AcDBS.BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace], AcDBS.OpenMode.ForWrite);
AcGeom.Point3d InsPoint = Utilities.Get3dPt(doc, "Pick a top left location for the sign");
InsPoint = Utilities.TranslateCoordinates(doc, InsPoint);
AcDBS.BlockReference br = new AcDBS.BlockReference(InsPoint, btrId);
br.Rotation = rotAngle;
br.Annotative = AcDBS.AnnotativeStates.True;
br.AddContext(occ.GetContext(curAnnoScale));
ms.AppendEntity(br);
tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(br, true);

to capturing the BlockReference Id and doing it Kean's way.

AcDBS.DBObject obj = tr.GetObject(br.ObjectId, AcDBS.OpenMode.ForRead);
if (obj != null)
{
 obj.UpgradeOpen();
 obj.Annotative = AcDBS.AnnotativeStates.True;
 obj.AddContext(occ.GetContext(curAnnoScale));
}

Any clues as to which to hold my tongue, and do I point east or west?

[_gile]

Hi,

Is the block defintion (BlockTableRecord) annotative ?

Here's a little snippet working for me.
If the block definition doesn't already exist in the drawing block table, it is created, and made annotative. Then the block is inserted at specified point according to the current annotative scale.

        [CommandMethod("Test")]
        public void Test()
        {
            Document doc = AcAp.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
            Database db = doc.Database;
            Editor ed = doc.Editor;
            using (Transaction tr = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
            {
                BlockTable bt = (BlockTable)tr.GetObject(db.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForWrite);

                // if the block table doesn't already contain the block definition, create it
                if (!bt.Has("foo"))
                {
                    BlockTableRecord btr = new BlockTableRecord();
                    btr.Name = "foo";
                    // make the block annotative
                    btr.Annotative = AnnotativeStates.True; 
                    bt.Add(btr);
                    tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(btr, true);
                    // add some entities to the block definition
                    Circle c = new Circle(Point3d.Origin, Vector3d.ZAxis, 1.0);
                    btr.AppendEntity(c);
                    tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(c, true);
                    Line l = new Line(new Point3d(-1.2, 0.0, 0.0), new Point3d(1.2, 0.0, 0.0));
                    btr.AppendEntity(l);
                    tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(l, true);
                }
                // insert the block in the current space
                PromptPointResult ppr = ed.GetPoint("\nInsertion point: ");
                if (ppr.Status != PromptStatus.OK) 
                    return;
                BlockTableRecord space =
                    (BlockTableRecord)tr.GetObject(db.CurrentSpaceId, OpenMode.ForWrite);
                ObjectContextCollection occ = 
                    db.ObjectContextManager.GetContextCollection("ACDB_ANNOTATIONSCALES");
                Matrix3d ucs = ed.CurrentUserCoordinateSystem;
                Point3d pt = ppr.Value;
                BlockReference br = new BlockReference(pt, bt["foo"]);
                br.TransformBy(ucs);
                br.AddContext(occ.CurrentContext);
                space.AppendEntity(br);
                tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(br, true);
                tr.Commit();
            }
        }

[brendan.j.mallon]

Thanks. That did it.

The clue was applying 'Annotative' at the BlockTableRecord (btr) rather than the BlockRecord (br).

I guess that this makes sense when you consider how a block is both defined and used.

Thanks also for the 'occ.CurrentContext' suggestion.

A very helpful response.