AutoCAD Architecture 2008 - Service Pack 1

The Service Pack for AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (Formerly ADT) was released on 9/18 and is available here.

The readme lists the fixes, etc...

I am installing now, the first thing that caught me was that it was trying to install using the default installation to the M://. Since this is not a drive I have ever had on this machine I had to repoint this. Anyone else get something similar?

* Update - this seems to be the path it is downloading from visible from Vista.

** Update - If you do not have access to the original installation .msi location your installation update will need to be aborted.

Happy cadding...

AutoCAD Blocks

Do you use acad blocks? Do you use the same blocks in multiple drawings? Ever need to update the blocks?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then this posting is for you. I recently gave a refresher/updated materials course for a few AutoCAD users and part of this involved different methods of using blocks and redefining existing definitions in different drawings. If you need to accomplish this here are a few examples of ways to accomplish this:

1. The ability to have a block in a drawing and manipulate the block(s) by redefining/changing all instances can be done with the refedit command, or by recreating the block and using the same block name. This will update all the blocks in the current drawing of the same name.

2. If you are defining your linework for an object to become a block in an external file you can use the "insert" command with the browse option to choose the external file to override blocks in your drawing of the same name. If this is not working the most likely issue is that the file was wblocked out as a block to a file of the same name. If so explode the block in the external file to simple linework and purge the block from this drawing and save the file. The insert command>>browse option will now insert the file as desired.

3. If you are wblocking information out to an external file or block library as blocks and not linework you can use DesignCenter (Ctrl + 2) to redefine blocks in your drawing. To accomplish this open DesignCenter and browse using the folder tab to the file and expand the sub-files and select the blocks option. Nowright click the block you wish to redefine in your current file and choose "Redefine only" to update the block definition. You can use the "Ctrl + Tab" and/or "Ctrl + Shift + Tab" key combinations to cycle through open drawings and repeat as needed.

4. Of course for those of you who would rather type, script or use lisp you can still use the alternative -insert with the = option (-insert , ExistingBlockname=path of drawing and FileName, choose "yes" to redefine the existing blocks in the drawing).
Example -insert, MyBlock=C:\WorkingFiles\MyBlock.dwg which will replace all instances of the block "MyBlock" with the information from the drawing "MyBlock.dwg". This is very similar to Step 2 above and has the same limitations of requiring linework only in this file.

*5. Of course you could always use a small bit of lisp code to swap one block out for another, courtesy of David.

(defun c:SWAPBLK (/ SELECTIONSET COUNT NBLK BLOCK ELIST)
(princ "\n SWAPBLK")
(setvar "cmdecho" 0)
(setvar "osmode" 0)
(prompt "\nSelect blocks to be swapped to another:")
(setq SELECTIONSET (ssget) COUNT 0)
(setq NBLK (getstring "\nName of swapping block:"))
(repeat (sslength SELECTIONSET)
(setq BLOCK (ssname SELECTIONSET COUNT))
(setq ELIST (entget BLOCK))
(setq ELIST (subst (cons 2 NBLK)(assoc 2 ELIST) ELIST))
(entmod ELIST)
(entupd BLOCK)
(setq COUNT (+ COUNT 1))
)
(princ)
)
(princ "\nSWAPBLK loaded.")
(princ)

This should help you to understand a few of the many ways to use blocks more effectively in AutoCAD.

Happy cadding...