Find and Replace is NOT "Replacing" but adding to it??

[tedg]

AutoCAD 2013, using "find and replace" on a bunch of blocks using wild-cards.
It's finding everything ok, but instead of replacing the text I want, it adds to it?

I have a bunch of elevation datum (blocks) with various elevations and I want to change them to read "SEE PLAN".

For example, a block starting with:

EL. 100'-0"

I use "find": EL. *

And then "replace with": EL. SEE PLAN

I get: EL. SEE PLAN 100'-0"


This happens for all the blocks I select or in entire drawing.
What am I missing?
I'm not sure if it's an issue with my Acad 2013, I haven't used find and replace with wild cards with it before today.

Thanks

[BlackBox]

Have you tried Lee's Batch Find & Replace Text routine?

[cadtag]

Is the string you are trying to replace an attribute, an attribute linked to a field, or something else?

[tedg]

Have you tried Lee's Batch Find & Replace Text routine?

Thanks BB,
Lee Mac is freakin' awesome!

However... I loaded the routine and tried it, and am having an issue with wild-cards, it wouldn't do anything with it.
I was able to type in all the various elevations and put them in the list, and replace them with the "see plan" and it worked great.

So this was a help, but not sure why the wild-card thing is an issue.

My OOTB "find and replace" with wild-cards will find everything, but when replacing the desired text, it just adds to it.
Lee's routine works great, but didn't accept wild-cards, in otherwords it processed the drawing but no changes made.

[tedg]

Is the string you are trying to replace an attribute, an attribute linked to a field, or something else?

It's an attribute within a block

[BlackBox]

Thanks BB,
Lee Mac is freakin' awesome!

However... I loaded the routine and tried it, and am having an issue with wild-cards, it wouldn't do anything with it.
I was able to type in all the various elevations and put them in the list, and replace them with the "see plan" and it worked great.

So this was a help, but not sure why the wild-card thing is an issue.

My OOTB "find and replace" with wild-cards will find everything, but when replacing the desired text, it just adds to it.
Lee's routine works great, but didn't accept wild-cards, in otherwords it processed the drawing but no changes made.

No need for wildcard... Just replace "EL. " with "EL. SEE PLAN " and done... BFIND can process any layout, MText, Attributed Blocks, Dimensions, or an entire directory, etc. at your preference. Lemon squeezy.

[tedg]

No need for wildcard... Just replace "EL. " with "EL. SEE PLAN " and done... BFIND can process any layout, MText, Attributed Blocks, Dimensions, or an entire directory, etc. at your preference. Lemon squeezy.

I believe I do need/want a wild-card because I have a lot of these blocks with different elevations I want to change at the same time.


Yes, Lee's routine is awesome and does way more the OOTB find and replace does,..
..but shouldn't I be able to use a wild-card instead of type each different condition where a wild-card used to work?

[cadtag]

Intersting, i tried playing around your scenario, and am getting the same results. replacing EL: 12.34 and using the wildcard EL: * as the pattern, and EL: SEE PLAN leaves the 12.34 at the end of the resulting string. That may be an 'as designed' feature, but it's still a bug, in that it does not work as expected.

I could use the pattern EL: ##.##, and that let me replace the 12.34 with SEE PLAN, but that's still not ideal - one expects the '*' to mean 'from this place to the end of the string", and it doesn't.

Good thing Lee Mac has a better mousetrap....

[BlackBox]

I believe I do need/want a wild-card because I have a lot of these blocks with different elevations I want to change at the same time.


Yes, Lee's routine is awesome and does way more the OOTB find and replace does,..
..but shouldn't I be able to use a wild-card instead of type each different condition where a wild-card used to work?

Forgive me in advance if I've misunderstood you here... But methinks you're simply substituting one string (i.e., "EL. "), for another (i.e., "EL. SEE PLAN "), in which case, no, you do not need the wildcard within the 'Find what' string... Consider the arguments for the VL-STRING-SUBST function as an example.

This effectively changes multiple strings such as "EL. 100'-0\"", "EL. 175'-3\"", "EL. 231'-8\"", and "EL. 256'-1\""... To "EL. SEE PLAN 100'-0\"", "EL. SEE PLAN 175'-3\"", "EL. SEE PLAN 231'-8\"", and "EL. SEE PLAN 256'-1\""

Before:
augi.bfind.example.before.png


BFIND Dialog configuration:
augi.bfind.example.png


BFIND Dialog options:
augi.bfind.example.options.png


After:
augi.bfind.example.after.png



HTH

[tedg]

Forgive me in advance if I've misunderstood you here... But methinks you're simply substituting one string (i.e., "EL. "), for another (i.e., "EL. SEE PLAN "), in which case, no, you do not need the wildcard within the 'Find what' string...

Yes you are mistaken, and you're forgiven

I have a drawing (or two) that have section views, with elevation tags (in the form of blocks with attributes) which have different elevation values and some text.

I want to "find" all the various elevations and replace them with SEE PLAN.

I have done this before and it should work with an asterisk wild-card, I wasn't sure if there's a bug in 2013 as Cadtag mentioned.