Contents

• A note on customizing blocks
• Editing the block
• Saving the block

A note on customizing blocks

It is highly recommended that when you want to customize a block that you make a copy of the original block and put the copy in the "Custom" folder. Edit the copy in the "Custom" folder leaving the original file intact. We also recommend that you place any new blocks you create in the "Custom" folder as well.

Put all new and customized blocks here so they will go with you when you upgrade.

When any of the APS-2008 commands look for a block they look in the custom folder first and then in either the Planblks or Elevblks folders. By doing this you keep a copy of the original file (just in case something should go wrong or you want to go back to the original) and you keep all of your customizations centrally located which makes it easier to take your customizations with you should you move to a new computer. Also, future version upgrades to the APS-2008 software will copy any customizations in the "Custom" folder and use them with the new software saving you the hassle of setting it up again.

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Editing the block

First some things to consider when editing this block:

The block that the ALLCALL and CALLOUT commands use is called "callout.dwg" and is located in the ...\APS-2008\Planblks folder.

Insertion point    It is preferable to have the insertion point (base point) at 0,0,0. For this block the insertion point is normally centered in the text attributes as shown by the green dot in the image above.

Layer    All of the entities in the block should be on layer 0 (zero). This allows the block to change the layer that it resides on without exploding it.

Color, linetype and lineweight    All of the entities should be "byblock" color, linetype and lineweight. This allows the entities in the block have these properties modified without exploding the block.

There is no way we could possibly anticipate all of the changes that people will want to make to this block so we will do our best to help you understand the basics of changing this block in some of the most common ways.

Changing the text size

Changing the text style, justification, width factor, oblique angle, color and/or lineweight

Changing the location of the text in the block

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Saving the block

This block has five attributes in it and they must be in a specific order because the order of the attribute definitions affects the order that they are edited later. If the attributes get out of order in this block the wrong information will end up in the wrong spot and the callout may not be readable.

Once the block has been modified (see editing the block above) we will create a write block of the file. By creating a write block we can control the order of the attributes in the block.

Type "WBLOCK" at the command prompt. You will see one of the following:

Release 2000 and later

Release 14 Release 13

Release 13    Enter the block name (in this case callout.dwg) and the temporary location (shown as C:\TempStuff above) and press OK. Press <Enter> when prompted for a block name and enter 0,0,0 when prompted for an insertion point.

Release 14    Enter the block name (in this case callout.dwg) and the temporary location (shown as C:\TempStuff above) and press "Save". Press <Enter> when prompted for a block name and enter 0,0,0 when prompted for an insertion point.

Release 2000 and later    Enter the block name (in this case callout.dwg) and the temporary location (shown as C:\TempStuff above). Verify that the source is "Objects" and the base point is X=0" Y=0" and Z=0". Then press the "Select objects" button.

Now we can select the objects for the block. 

With this block the order to select each of the attributes is as shown by the green numbers above. When each of these five entities has been selected press <Enter>.

Release 2000 and later    Press the OK button.

Our block has now been created in our temporary folder.

All that is left to do is to move the new file to the ...\APS-2008 \Custom folder.

You may do this using whatever means you are comfortable with. Overwrite the file already in the ...\APS-2008 \Custom folder if it exists.

Now in all new drawings when you use the ALLCALL or CALLOUT commands you will get this new custom version of the callout block. Drawings with previous versions of the callout block will still insert the old version until the block is redefined or all of the old style blocks have been erased and the block reference has been purged from the drawing. (good time to use the CALLNUKE and PURGEALL commands)