Does visibility just not work for attribtes?

[ekubaskie]

My DB should be pretty simple. I just want two visibility states that determine whether the single attribute in the block is displayed.

In Block Editor, I can switch states and the attribute def flips on & off. But changing the state in an actual block insertion does nothing - the attribute shows in both states in all existing and new insertions.

What am I missing?

[Norton_cad]

Try nesting the attribute as a block. Does the attached give the solution you seek?

[ekubaskie]

Try nesting the attribute as a block. Does the attached give the solution you seek?

It does make the attribute turn on/off, but when you do a new insertion, you aren't prompted for the attribute value.

Also you can't automatically set the attribute value from data if you're importing the points (from an ESRI shape file in this case).

[Norton_cad]

Well I'm a bit confused about your ESR thingy, but I supose if you want automatic insertion point X/Y/Z added to the attribute, you could write a script/lisp. Also, I know you can also write incremental attribute values, or fomula too.

I know it is a two step process, to get around the limitations of attributes in Dynamic blocks, but "the world ain't perfect", as the saying goes.

Have you considered using plain text, with feilds. Plain text dosn't have the visability issue that attributes have?

[ekubaskie]

Well I'm a bit confused about your ESR thingy, but I supose if you want automatic insertion point X/Y/Z added to the attribute, you could write a script/lisp. Also, I know you can also write incremental attribute values, or fomula too.

I know it is a two step process, to get around the limitations of attributes in Dynamic blocks, but "the world ain't perfect", as the saying goes.

Have you considered using plain text, with feilds. Plain text dosn't have the visability issue that attributes have?

The points are imported from GIS data files via Map 3D's import function. It reads the ESRI (ArcMap) shapefile directly, importing & attaching GIS data as object data in the process. It also (optionally) fills in block attributes if the attribute's tag matches the GIS datafield name.

[Norton_cad]

So it won't work for nested blocks, in the GIS because the script/lisp can't select the attribute?

If thats correct then the script could be forced to edit the nested attibute, by adding the hyphon "-" before the edit command. This punches through any nesting. I've used it many times with groups as well.

Another alternative would be not to have a visability state at all (ie not a dynamic block), and if you want the attribute to dissapear change it's property to Invisible, and let the ATTDISP system variable control the visability. Of course this will effect all attributes in a drawing. Have a look at the attached. Is this what you want?

[ekubaskie]

What I'm really looking for is visibility that works as advertised. Giving us visibility states as a feature of blocks is quite cool, but the level of usefulness for the feature goes WAY down when it doesn't work with one of the most common objects found in blocks. In fact, an object meant only to be USED in blocks.

I want to be able to select, block by block, whether to show the ID label of the well symbol. Mixed in with other types of wells, there are some areas where the symbols are packed too densely to show IDs, while other areas are sparsely populated and there's plenty of room. Or sometimes I'll want to show the ID on proposed wells, and leave off the existing.

[james.126519]

My DB should be pretty simple. I just want two visibility states that determine whether the single attribute in the block is displayed.

In Block Editor, I can switch states and the attribute def flips on & off. But changing the state in an actual block insertion does nothing - the attribute shows in both states in all existing and new insertions.

What am I missing?

I am not sure what was going on, but I just put a new attribute in there and it works fine?

[ekubaskie]

I am not sure what was going on, but I just put a new attribute in there and it works fine?

Holy BATTMAN, James!

I think you've got it.

It appears that you cannot add visibilty effects to block attributes that already exist in your drawing. ( I was trying to add the ability to an existing block definition.)

...

OK, I just tried it out in a fresh drawing. I created the block first, and then did the shapefile import. All the points came in with IDs, but the visibility thing still didn't work until after I synched the blocks with BATTMAN.

So it looks like you have to do both - define visibility states on NEW attributes, not existing ones - and sync them afterwards.

And the visibility states work fine right off with blocks INSERTed manually - it's just the auto-created blocks that need the extra step with BATTMAN.

[Norton_cad]

Holy underpants! BATTMAN saves the day. Horray!