Autodesk AutoCAD: Dynamic Blocks and Tool Palettes Tutorials
Dynamic Blocks - Visibility States / Exercise: Bathroom Sink pt. 1
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Subtitles of the Movie (Autodesk AutoCAD: Dynamic Blocks and Tool Palettes / Dynamic Blocks - Visibility States / Exercise: Bathroom Sink pt. 1)
We're now in Exercise 1 for Visibility States within Dynamic Blocks and as I've stressed in previous exercises, you must do these exercises and get used to creating the dynamic blocks with the parameters, with the actions and with the visibility states. Now, in the overview of visibility states, we touched on using a dynamic block of a wall sink that had a front view, a plan view and a side view. Now, I'm working in metric here. Now, the way to check something like that is to go to your Home Tab or in previous versions of AutoCAD previous to AutoCAD 2009, use your tools, inquiry and distance. But if you just measure a distance, I'm going from end point snap there to end point snap there. You can see that the length of that sink is 558 millimeters along its front edge. I'll just exit that now. So these are three blocks. There's one, as you can see, there's the grip there for the insertion point; there's two, the grip there for the insertion point and there's three, the grip there for the insertion point. I now want a dynamic block that encompasses all three of those views using visibility states. Now, what I'm going to do, I'm going to go to the Insert Tab and go to Block Editor. In versions of AutoCAD that are older than 2009 and 2010, the Block Editor Icon is in the Standard Toolbar. Now, I'm going to create a new block, which is going to be called Wall Sink so the naming will be consistent and then -and then D-y-n for dynamic. So I click on OK, brings me into the Block Editor. Now, what I need to do now is insert those blocks so I go Insert and insert here and I'm inserting the block now into the Block Editor environment and I want the plan view first so I select Plan, click on OK, it comes in and I left click. Now, the reason I've done that is I've got a nice midpoint snap there that I can use to insert the other blocks as well. So I go Insert again and this time I want the front view, specify on screen again there, OK it and I use that midpoint snap there. I'm putting them on top of each other. Can you see that? So I insert again now, wall sink side, again specify on screen, OK and just use that midpoint snap there again. So what I've done, I've put all three blocks on top of each other using the same point. I'm going to put a point parameter onto these blocks. Now, I don't have to do that. What I can do instead is I can move them. So let's go and select all of them, right click, Move and I'm going to zoom in real tight and get that midpoint snap there as the base point. You can see it moving now on the crosshair. Then I'm going to type in Hash Naught comma Naught and then Enter. Then I'm going to do a zoom extents and you can see now they're still on top of each other but they're just on zero zero, so whenever I bring a block in now, it'll use that point there as the insertion point. What I'm going to do now is add a visibility parameter. So I go Visibility Parameter here, Visibility Parameter there. So I've got to have the Parameters Tab and then find Visibility. The parameter location, I'm just going to drop it about there; just above the objects like so. Now, because I've selected Visibility there, my Visibility Panel here has lit up. You will also have a Visibility Panel on the Toolbar on older versions of the block editor. So I click here now and I click Visibility States here. AutoCAD nicely gives me Visibility State 0. I'm going to rename that 2WS and then -and then Plan like so. Make sure you type it correctly unlike me there. Then I'm going to click on New. I want a new one, which is WS -Front like so. Just OK that and then New again, WS -Side like so. So I've got three visibility states now. I'm going to select Plan first of all and OK it and then I click here and I select Plan there. Now, make sure when you click on the Visibility Panel here that you select this one; Visibility Mode. You'll see why in a second.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | Autodesk AutoCAD: Dynamic Blocks and Tool Palettes |
| Author: | Shaun Bryant |
| SKU: | 34055 |
| ISBN: | |
| Release Date: | 2009-11-13 |
| Duration: | 6.5 hrs / 85 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
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