I hope 2010 is treating you well and that it is off and running in a positive direction! January is such a fun month - American Idol begins (Paula is out - Ellen is in!), the NFL playoffs are here (Go Colts!) and since it has been so very chilly it's good we have some decent TV to watch! Cadalyst has started up my Tips and Tricks Tuesday videos again - yet one more thing you can watch in the toasty indoors!
An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Attributes
Adding Attributes to your blocks can be a bit tricky - and certainly not meant for the novice AutoCAD user. When you do decide to tackle attributes (text information that can vary within a block) there are a couple of tricks that will serve you well if you know them!
Depending on the block, the order that the attributes are requested from the user can be very important. For example, if you are creating a title block with attributes - you probably want the attribute values to appear in the same order that they appear in the title block.
The trick here is easy...the order that you select the attributes when creating the block definition - is the order they will be prompted when the block is inserted. Sounds simple - but with most of us being window selection junkies - it's all too easy to create a block with attributes in some random order. You are going to want to individually select the attributes in the proper order - and then you can window the remainder of the objects you want in your final block.
If you've already created your blocks and would like to rearrange the order of the attributes - no problem - BATTMAN to the rescue! the Block Attribute Manager allows you to easily reorder existing attributes.
Check out my Cadalyst video for some other attribute tips (I got rained on so it was a curly hair day.) In fact - you can find all sorts of tips posted in the Cadalyst video gallery without ever leaving your desk.