QCAD Block Attribute problem

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
I've recently (i.e. today) posted a question on the QCAD forum regarding a problem I've got with editing attributes on referenced blocks. OK, I'm a bit impatient but it occurred to me that there's not too much traffic on that forum nowadays and someone here might have a better idea.

Basically I'm starting off with drawing templates and want to edit the attributes of (for example) the title block of a drawing border (name, date, etc.). It seems quite straightforward but I can't actually see the referenced block attributes anywhere - all I seem to be able to do is edit the original block itself, which isn't what I need at all. It looks like they should be at the bottom of the Property Editor panel but they're not there.

I realise this is a bit off topic from the usual etch design queries here but hopefully someone might be able to point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,

Chris
 

BrushType4

Western Thunderer
Select the block and add to your drawing.

Then double click on the inserted block and it will open the block up to edit. It’s not the original block but the one added to your drawing.
 

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
Select the block and add to your drawing.

Then double click on the inserted block and it will open the block up to edit. It’s not the original block but the one added to your drawing.

Errr, not for me it doesn't - but I think I've got a fundamental misunderstanding somewhere along the line.

As an example:

1. I create a new drawing from a template (say the currently supplied iso_en_a4_metric_landscape_aec.dxf)
2. Select the "Revision" block and insert a new copy of the block (so there are now two on the drawing)
3. Double-clicking the new block moves to a view of just that block
4. The property editor shows the block properties but not the Dependent Entities, i.e the text values within the block.
5. I can double click and edit any of these values, but this edits all copies of the block, not just the selected one.

BTW, QCAD version is 3.23.0 on MacOS 10.15.4.
 

BrushType4

Western Thunderer
Ok. If I’m understanding correctly, you change the text in a block and all text in the other blocks on your drawing also change? If so, thats how the blocks should work.

So, start a new drawing, select the block you’d like, drop it into the drawing.

Double click within your drawing on the block and it will open up and you can edit away. Go back to the drawing and you will see the changes.

If you add the same block to your drawing it will be the edited version.

Close your drawing, start a new drawing, select the block and it will be as the original.

Does that help? Call me if you’d like.
 

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
Ok. If I’m understanding correctly, you change the text in a block and all text in the other blocks on your drawing also change? If so, thats how the blocks should work.

So, start a new drawing, select the block you’d like, drop it into the drawing.

Double click within your drawing on the block and it will open up and you can edit away. Go back to the drawing and you will see the changes.

If you add the same block to your drawing it will be the edited version.

Close your drawing, start a new drawing, select the block and it will be as the original.

Does that help? Call me if you’d like.

Yes, that is what's happening but I think I now see what I'm getting confused about. I was using this rather old demo video to get an understanding of block attributes, but my error was that I assumed that the supplied templates used block attributes for their text entities, but they don't - they're just plain text incorporated into the block.

I've created a text block with two dependent attributes called "the_number" and "the_text" and then created two block with different values in each, using the process in the video above.

Thanks for trying to sort this out for me - unfortunately it was due to me making one assumption too many about the sample files supplied with QCAD!
 
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