CAD Advanced – Benefits of utilizing block Data

Blocks have been a useful part of AutoCAD for decades. They offer many basics abilities to help you manage drafting consistency and information. There are a number of methods to extract information from blocks inserted into our drawings. My personal favorite is utilizing AutoLISP to extract the information exactly as I want it to a database. If your blocks have a reasonable purpose, then extracting data associated or directly from that block can prove to be very useful. Often times though, CAD designers fail to take complete advantage of blocks and the data they can provide. Block data can also serve as a useful tool for checking information and improving quality.

Some basic data available from a non-attributed block (to list a few):

  • Drawing filename
  • Insertion Point
  • Scale
  • Layer Name
  • Rotation

Add attributes and you can add even more (to list a few):

  • Attribute Tag
  • Attribute Layer
  • Attribute Font
  • Attribute Value

Add Dynamic elements and you can add even more like Display State.

How does this help design? Design is more than just lines, arcs and text. Design is understanding how everything comes together. Design is knowing how much is impacted by change, design is so much more. What happens if we change our wall mounted light fixtures in areas 100-500 to LED’s. How many drawings will we have to update, how many light fixtures does that impact? How many high pressure sodium bulbs can we delete? All this can be figured out or verified through the use of block data. It can also be done manually, by opening every drawing look at each graphical element in the drawing file or print. If there are 25 drawings in the above mentioned areas, and a designer takes 30 minutes per drawing to open, print, count, and document that data manually, how many hours did this task take? 12.5 hours, right? We are not even talking about marking up and updating the drawing, just the gathering of information. For me to perform that task using block data already pulled from drawings contained in an engineering Drawing database, I can have all that information in about 1-2 minutes. The amount of time it takes to write a simple SQL query to get the data desired. If we manage data effectively, we can manage change effectively and improve our design methods and efficiency.

Quality can be greatly improved using block data. Let’s talk about drawing title blocks. How many times have we used something like an excel spreadsheet that lists all the drawings and their status, an index drawing sheet that lists all the drawings, their titles and their current revision and the drawings title blocks as well, only to find none of them match. They should, right? That is because there are three data sources and three different input sources being used. Imagine if you utilized a single point data entry point to control all three. Using a single source to populate all this data results in three consistent documents. Imagine 300 drawings across a project and trying to make sure the status spreadsheet, the Drawing Index, and all the title blocks matched 100%. How many times have you found yourself frustrated because these don’t all match? The simple process of using the title block data from each drawing to generate the drawing status report and the drawing index sheet can prevent that inconsistency. There are a number of ways to implement this type of system. Personally I implement it through AutoLISP and SQL Server, but there are a number of methods and API’s to help facilitate this process. Consider the benefits of having all that data available to you. Drawing transmittals, would be easily generated. Status reports could be emailed as often as needed. I’m sure someone will think…,” but that is Document Controls job and the Document management system.” Yes, it is, but doesn’t it strike you as unprofessional when your document management system is not congruent with the data presented in the document it is managing? Systems integration is something I personally enjoy, getting systems to talk to each other, to share information between them. Your Document  or Data Management System and the Data contained in your documents should be congruent. Get your systems talking. Efficient data and data sharing provides for efficient systems integration and congruency.

All of this can start with something as simple block data. Design your blocks with that in mind and you will discover synergy in your data that you did not realize before. Once you wrap your head around the benefits of the data contained within your drawings, next imagine a bi-directional means to update that same data from the database. “With great power, comes great responsibility!” Anyone that knows me knows I’m a huge Spiderman fan. The statement is very true, so before you get started with bi-directional data, make sure you understand that you can automatically fix thousands of drawings in the blink of an eye, but it also means you can automatically mess up thousands of drawings in the blink of an eye.

If you are interested in learning more about how to implement any of the concepts I am discussing here and in my blogs, create a login, and comment that you would like to learn more, and I will start a blog set specifically for that purpose.

 

 

 

 

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