×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Could this be a DXF issue?

Could this be a DXF issue?

Could this be a DXF issue?

(OP)
Hello,

I receive drawings from customers on a regular basis, sometimes as dwg's, sometimes as dxf's.

I have never had any problems in the past with either formats, but now when I receive dxf's from a particular customer, the blocks behave as though they have been exploded.

When I double click on the blocks, the text looks as though it has been selected, but it is not available for editing in the dialog box.

The only way to edit this text is by using ATTEDIT in the command line, and then all of the text is available for editing, but the dialog that appears is very different than the usual dialog. I only discovered this issue because I was trying to use a script to change similar block values in many drawings, but it wouldn't work for these particular drawings. Even when I changed my script, I kept getting a message that this text "could not be found" anywhere in the drawing.

I am using AutoCAD 2002, and I think the customer is also using this version, but I'm not sure.

Could these blocks be affected by the dxf process, or could this be a result of shotty block creation? Any suggestions on how to possibly fix this issue for the future?

Thanks

RE: Could this be a DXF issue?

Express tools contains a command to convert attributes to text.  It should be evident from the dxf file, which is a pure ASCII text file shat type of entity the "text" is.  Search for a known text string and paste into this forum the 10-15 lines surrounding that entry.

RE: Could this be a DXF issue?

(OP)
Thanks for your response. I am unclear as to what text I should be pasting into the forum. The "bad" text is part of a block that I can only edit using attedit. I tried to take a picture of the dialog that appears when this text is selected, but I can't attach it to the forum. Here is what is in the command line after I try to edit the text. I don't know if this will help or not. (The _.eattedit command is caused by me trying to double-click on the block to access the text.)

Opening a Release 12 DXF file.
Substituting [simplex.shx] for [iso8].
Regenerating model.
AutoCAD menu utilities loaded.
Command: z
ZOOM
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window] <real time>: e
Command:
Command: _.eattedit
This drawing contains no attributed blocks.
Command: 309.747213,10.685230,0.000000 Unknown command
"309.747213,10.685230,0.000000".  Press F1 for help.
Command: *Cancel*
Command: *Cancel*
Command: attedit
Select block reference:



If there is more or other information you need, I may need to be directed further to get it for you, but don't hesitate to ask! I am very interested in solving this issue!

Thanks :)

RE: Could this be a DXF issue?

Cut and paste from the dxf file

RE: Could this be a DXF issue?

(OP)
I have never done this before, so I opened the dxf with notepad, and this is what I got:

  0
ENDSEC
  0
SECTION
  2
ENTITIES
  0
INSERT
  8
R01
 62
7
  2
JR24E    (this is the main block)
 10
0.00
 20
0.00
 66
1
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
405.40
 20
13.00
 40
2.0
 41
0.70
  1
0-20
  2
BLANUM
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
 72
2
 11
411.00
 21
13.00
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
397.00
 20
9.00
 40
2.0
 41
0.70
  1
0-21
  2
BLATT
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
246.00
 20
15.00
 40
4.0
 41
0.70
  1
VERSORGUNG GR.0
  2
GR.NAME1
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
 72
1
 11
267.00
 21
15.00
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
86.00
 20
21.00
 40
2.0
 41
0.70
  1
20.8.87
  2
Datum
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
86.00
 20
17.00
 40
2.0
 41
0.70
  1
WEISS/heel
  2
Bearb.
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
3
 10
251.88
 20
10.00
 40
4.0
 41
0.70
  1
SUPPLY GR.0
  2
GR.NAME2
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
363.00
 20
10.00
 40
3.5
 41
0.60
  1
206025/A330
  2
KOM
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
304.00
 20
10.00
 40
3.5
 41
0.60
  1
ZE1200-45/22.2.2     (this is block text I want to change)
  2
TYP
 70
0
  7
LATEIN_P
  0
ATTRIB
  8
R01
 62
7
 10
304.00
 20
18.00
 40
3.5
 41
0.60
  1
123 743
  2

Hopefully this is what you're looking for. I didn't want to include too much stuff, but if you need more, please let me know.

Thanks for your time.

RE: Could this be a DXF issue?

(OP)
Thank you for trying to help IFR(Petroleum).

While checking out the dxf text file, I couldn't find anything really all that different from any of our other dxf files or other customer dxf files.

I did some more testing with the different options of the attedit command, and noticed that the script I was using (which was created by another user who passed the problematic dxf's to me) was not utilizing the command properly.

After pinpointing exactly what needed to be changed, and correcting the script, I can now easily change the block text with a script, even though the block doesn't behave normally.

Again, thanks for trying to help. You opened my eyes to new ways of finding information. Much appreciated.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources