Tuesday

Blocks II – Preparing symbol libraries with WBLOCK command

4 Comments Jan-15-2008 | Posted by Eren Pala | Printable Version | Level |

AutoCAD 12 and higher versions

I have mentioned what blocks actually are, how they are created and how to edit a block definition in the drawing in my previous article. Proceed form where were we last time by defining an external block.

We can create our own block library by creating external block definitions. Instead of searching a frequently used object through previous drawings or drawing it once again, constituting our own block library is more useful to locate and insert it into the drawing quickly. This speeds up the drawing time significiantly.

WBLOCK:

We can export any object, entire drawing or a block defined in the drawing with ‘Wblock’ (Write Block) command as an external block. The write block window (as in the figure 1) will appear when you enter the command. Let us study this window step by step.

Figure 1

The first three option in the ‘Source’ frame is about from which the block will be created. You can select a block name from the list and make it an external block if the ‘Block’ option is selected. Entire drawing is going to become an external block if the ‘Entire Drawing’ option is selected. We will mostly use the ‘Objects’ option. Clicking this option enables the ‘Base Point’ and ‘Objects’ sub-options. We can create an external block definition by selecting the objects we want to add and deciding an inserting point.

The ‘Destination’ section below is about the name and location of the block that is going to be created. The defined block is actually an Autocad drawing. Inserting an external block into a drawing end the connection between them. Hence it is now a part of the drawing. The changes that you will make in the external block do not affect the one in the drawing.

Now, let us create a few block examples:

Finish the drawing of the object that will constitute the block

Figure 2

Finish the drawing and open the ‘Block Definition’ window by the ‘Block’ command that we have learned in the previous article

Figure 3

Name the block, select the objects that you want to add the block and click the insertion point of the block to create it.

It is useful to be careful about choosing the insertion point. Inserting the block later for once make our job easier.

Previous articles:

• Blocks [1][2][3]

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