Loose Attributes on Drawing

[MikeJarosz]

I have inherited the CAD manager position for a large project that has been under way for some time now. Certain important CAD standards have been ignored and it is my job to fix this condition. In particular, our sheet standards require that the title block and the issue date be blocks with well defined attribute tags to facilitate retrieval. We have programs in VBA and Object DBX that read this title block and issue information efficiently and quickly and generate management reports.



Most of the drawings have incorrectly inserted the title block information as simple text. I propose to retrieve this text and its insertion coordinates with a VBA filter and then sort by the Y value and then the X value. I will then erase the text, insert the correct block and set the attribute text from the stored values. This should work with most of the sheets. I am confident I have the skill to do this; I have done it before successfully.



Some of the text was inserted as a non standard block. That can be exploded without too much fuss.



My problem is that the issue dates have been inserted as loose attributes, not associated with any block. If you examine the issue date info in the attached file, you will find a very strange condition. The attribute has no value, and the displayed text on the drawing is in fact the tag! Even if I edit the attribute to have an explicit value, it still displays the tag and not the value.



I have tried exploding the attribute. I have tried express tools/attribute to text. After consulting with other experienced CAD managers, still no solution. There are several thousand drawings involved and any procedure will have to be automated through VBA. (I don't really know Lisp)



Attached is a bound sheet with the essential border, title and issue date information. The client and data have been removed to protect the innocent.

If you like puzzles, you'll like this!

[Ed Jobe]

The ET tool requires that you start with a block. I wrote a lisp that does what you need some time ago. See attached. It uses the tag value to create text. You could also incorporate that idea into your vba.

[zoomharis]

My problem is that the issue dates have been inserted as loose attributes, not associated with any block. If you examine the issue date info in the attached file, you will find a very strange condition. The attribute has no value, and the displayed text on the drawing is in fact the tag! Even if I edit the attribute to have an explicit value, it still displays the tag and not the value.



I have tried exploding the attribute. I have tried express tools/attribute to text. After consulting with other experienced CAD managers, still no solution. There are several thousand drawings involved and any procedure will have to be automated through VBA. (I don't really know Lisp)



Attached is a bound sheet with the essential border, title and issue date information. The client and data have been removed to protect the innocent.

If you like puzzles, you'll like this!

Hi Mike,
There is nothing unusual in your drawing other than improper use of AutoCAD objects. The main thing to know is the difference between a defenition and an instance. Technically speaking, a Block means the defenition of a block and a Block Reference means the instance of that block. Likewise, an attribute has two states. One is Attribute Definition and the other is Attribute Reference. Basically an attribute definition is a part of block definiton. Once you insert the block, an instance (attribute reference) of attribute definition is made inside the block reference. What happens when you create an attribute definition inside a drawing? You are not supposed to use it inside the same drawing.But you can insert this drawing in an another drawing to get the attribute reference of the attribute definition you made. In your case, some ignorant user just copied the title block definiton and pasted it into the target drawing, instead of inserting it. Here are some basic facts that I believe true to my knowledge.

• You CAN NOT explode an attribute definiton.
• You can not convert an attribute definition to text using the normal 'attribute (reference) to text' utilities.
• An attribute reference cannot stand alone without being a part of block reference.
• You MUST insert a block definition if it contains attribute definition in order to get proper result.

Now you can use the lisp file from Ed to convert an attribute definition to text. If you need a VBA idea, here is a few lines of code on how to access the attribute definiton.

 
Sub AttDefToTxt()
Dim ent As AcadEntity
For Each ent In ThisDrawing.PaperSpace
If TypeOf ent Is AcadAttribute Then
	If ent.PromptString = "REV. DATE (DD/MM/YY)" Then
		MsgBox ent.TagString
	End If
End If
Next
End Sub

HTH

[Ed Jobe]

• An attribute reference cannot stand alone without being a part of block reference.

Yes it can, the tag just looks like regular text.

[zoomharis]

Yes it can, the tag just looks like regular text.

Can you show me a sample Ed?
Thanks.

[zoomharis]

Yes it can, the tag just looks like regular text.

Hi Ed Jobe,
I am really confused about your statement. As far as I know, you can not have a stand alone attribute reference in your drawing and it MUST be part of a block reference. If you can show otherwise, that would be one of the best things I learn from this forum.

Thanks for your time.

[MikeJarosz]

Hi Ed Jobe,
I am really confused about your statement. As far as I know, you can not have a stand alone attribute reference in your drawing and it MUST be part of a block reference. If you can show otherwise, that would be one of the best things I learn from this forum.

Thanks for your time.

Did you load the attached file? In the issue table, issue 0 and the other text (IFC, 26/07/07 and the initials), are all loose attributes. I've attached the properties form for the IFC text. I'm just about to try the Lisp routine.

[Ed Jobe]

Did you load the attached file? In the issue table, issue 0 and the other text (IFC, 26/07/07 and the initials), are all loose attributes. I've attached the properties form for the IFC text. I'm just about to try the Lisp routine.

In addition, I did not say that they would still have attribute data. I mean, they don't disappear or something like that. Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean by "cannot stand alone". Think of the dwg that Mike posted as a block. You could insert it into another drawing, could you not? ...although that's not what he intended, the atts would work as designed even though the tags might not make sense.

[MikeJarosz]

Ed:

Your lisp routine worked perfectly. Kinda sorry about the select -- this won't work for thousands of drawings. I'll have to adapt this to a batch process.

As a CAD coordinator in a large firm, I have seen everything. You are exactly right when you say that the drawing I posted with loose attributes could be referenced into another drawing and Acad would prompt for the attribute value. Not that we would reference a paper space sheet file, but it can happen in data files.

I had a user referencing a base plan into a large scale blowup. Every attempt to reference the file produced a prompt: "enter door number" I drove us crazy until we discovered one loose attribute in the base plan with the prompt "enter door number". I now have a cleanup routine that regularly reports loose attributes on drawings. They are not a substitute for loose text, nor are they a block either. They're ATTRIBUTES!

[MikeJarosz]

Solved the attribute problem in VBA. Easier than I first thought (with all your help of course)

 
'===========================================================================================
Sub QP_ATTS()
'===========================================================================================
Dim Entity As AcadEntity
Dim AttText As String
Dim AttHeight As Double
Dim AttScaleFactor As Double
Dim Ipt As Variant

For Each Entity In ThisDrawing.PaperSpace
	If TypeOf Entity Is AcadAttribute Then
		'get attribute properties
		AttText = Entity.TagString
		AttHeight = Entity.Height
		AttScaleFactor = Entity.ScaleFactor
		Ipt = Entity.InsertionPoint
		
		'delete attribute and insert text
		ThisDrawing.StartUndoMark
			Entity.Delete
			Set Entity = ThisDrawing.PaperSpace.AddText(AttText, Ipt, AttHeight)
			Entity.Layer = "BORDER"
			Entity.ScaleFactor = AttScaleFactor
		ThisDrawing.EndUndoMark
	End If
Next Entity

Debug.Print "DONE"
End Sub