Annotations - reading data from blocks to update attributes?

[.chad]

For background - I've been working in Revit for the last couple years and only occasionally revert back to CAD land to help out when a project needs to ship so I'm a bit rusty. That said - tagging & annotating in Revit is stupid easy compared to what I'm running into in CAD and I'm wondering if there is a way to get something remotely similar. In short - I'd like to add a note property to a block (regular or mview) and be able to have a tag or another block read the note property and update accordingly. Is that even possible? I messed around in the style manager for a bit earlier but didn't really get anywhere with it...

[dkoch]

Are you using AutoCAD Architecture (or AutoCAD MEP) [ACA/AMEP] or plain AutoCAD? Tagging in ACA or AMEP can be just as easy as Revit, once things are set up. And you can tag AutoCAD objects (like block references) as well as ACA/AMEP objects. You will need:

1. Find existing or create new Property Set Definition that applies to the object type(s) to be tagged, and identify existing and/or create new properties to hold the values you want to show in the tag. Various automatic properties are also available, depending upon the object type. For ACA/AMEP objects that have Styles, you can have both Style-based and Object-based Property Set Defintions.

2. A Multi-View Block definition, with a correctly formatted attributed view block, to serve as the Schedule Tag.

Post back if you need more information or help with a specific item. You can find a lot more information on the Schedule feature in ACA/AMEP on my blog. This article has links to the other Schedule-related posts in the blog.

[.chad]

Using ACA

I've created the property set and can apply it to my blocks but I'm not sure how to add a value to it in the first place.

[dkoch]

Using ACA

I've created the property set and can apply it to my blocks but I'm not sure how to add a value to it in the first place.

If the value you want to add cannot be derived from an automatic property, you can add manual properties to the Property Set Defintion. When applied to a Block Reference, you can select the Block Reference and, on the Extended Data tab of the Properties palette, you should see the Property Set Defintion listed, and any manual properties should be editable.

The attached ZIP file contains an example file done in ACA 2010, with three instances of a "unit block" reference with differing scale factors (X, Y, Z) applied. The BlockReferenceObjects Property Set Definition contains several automatic properties and two manual ones. There is also a Schedule Tag set up to display some of the property values, and the three instances are all tagged. If you select one of the block references in the drawing, you can edit the values of the Manual01 and Manual02 properties and see the edits reflected in the tag.

[.chad]

Thanks. I had it mostly working (I think) but will take a look - odds are your sample is better than what I kludged together