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 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 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 interior elevation symbol is made up of 5 parts. Each of these parts is a block. The center circle, which contains the attribute for the sheet number reference, and four direction arrows, each with a sheet location attribute.

The symbol is inserted "exploded" so that the pieces come in separately. This allows you to erase any of the direction arrows that you don't need.

There is no way we could possibly anticipate all of the changes that people will want to make to this block so we will show below how we would recreate the block that comes standard with this software. Hopefully by understanding how the standard block can be recreated you will understand how you can customize it.

The block to edit is called "int-elev.dwg".

This block is located in the "Planblks" folder but we recommend that you make a copy in the "Custom" folder and edit the copy.

Open the drawing. It will look like this.

Explode the five blocks that make up the symbol. Once exploded the attribute definitions will appear and look similar to this (your text font may be different).

Note: At this point all of the elements of the symbol are in their "raw" form so if you were going to do any customization this would be the time to do it.

You may alter the graphics just about any way that suits your fancy, but if you decide to edit the attribute definitions it is a good idea to take a look at the justification and consider leaving the justification as it is (just the justification, you may modify any of the other properties of the attribute definitions). The top and bottom attribute definitions are center justified. The right attribute definition is left justified and the left attribute definition is right justified. This is so that if a long string of text is entered for the attribute that it will get longer away from the symbol. The "sheet" attribute definition is middle justified so that it's insertion point is the center of the circle.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the only reason there are five blocks that make up this symbol is to allow the points of the symbol that are not being used to be erased. If you will never erase the points (or whatever graphic you use for this symbol) there is no reason to go to all the trouble of making five individual blocks, you may make just one.

When making any blocks that comprise this symbol keep the following considerations in mind:

Insertion point    It is preferable to have the insertion point (base point) at 0,0,0. For each of these blocks the insertion point is at the origin (0,0,0) which is the center of the sheet number circle.

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

With that said, back to recreating the standard interior elevation block:

We will now recreate the five blocks that make up the symbol. Each of the blocks consist of an attribute and graphic elements that make up the symbol.

The first block we will make is the top arrow and attribute definition. Type "BLOCK" at the command prompt and give it a name (we used "aps-ietp" for the top block you may use whatever you like). The insertion point is the center of the circle which is also the insertion point of the "sheet" attribute definition (shown with the red dot above). We found for this first block that the insertion point of the "sheet" attdef was the easiest to select. The objects to select for the block are the top attribute definition and any graphical elements that you would want to be erased should this direction not be needed. In our symbol this is the attribute definition and arrow point (shown above colored yellow).

Once the block is defined and the objects disappear, we move on to the next block. We will repeat the above process of creating a block only this one we will call "aps-iert" (you may still name this whatever you like as long as it is not the same name as another block). The insertion point is still the center of the circle and since the top arrow is gone it is easy to select using the "center" object snap. The objects to select for the block are the attribute definition and the arrow point (shown above colored yellow).

Once the block is defined and the objects disappear, we move on to the next block. Again we repeat the above process of creating a block only this one we will call "aps-iebt" (you may still name this whatever you like as long as it is not the same name as another block). The insertion point is still the center of the circle and the objects to select for the block are the attribute definition and the arrow point (shown above colored yellow).

Once the block is defined and the objects disappear, and move on to the next block. By now you should be really good at this. The block name we used for this one is "aps-ielf" The insertion point is the center of the circle and the objects to select for the block are the attribute definition and the arrow point (shown above colored yellow).

Once the block is defined and the objects disappear, we move on to our final block. Now we will define the sheet callout portion of the symbol. We used a block name of "aps-iebb" with the insertion point the center of the circle and the objects are everything left (shown above colored yellow).

Once the block is defined and the objects disappear, we are left with a blank screen. It is now time to bring everything back. We will start by inserting the sheet callout block (we called it "aps-iebb"). Use AutoCAD's INSERT command to insert the block

Insert the block with the insertion point at 0,0,0 (the origin), with a scale factor of 1 (one) (in X, Y, and Z) and a rotation of zero. (The dialog above is from AutoCAD release 2002.)

If you cannot enter your block information as shown above you can always manually enter in the block name, the insertion point, and the rotation. Whatever method you use to insert the block, it just needs to be inserted at the origin with a scale factor of 1 and zero rotation.

When asked for a value for the attribute, enter the value that you would like this symbol to always have when first inserted.

Tip: We chose the default attribute value for this block to be a period for two reasons:
1. If the symbol was ever accidentally left blank on a plot you could write in the value without having to erase anything.
2. We put in the period instead of leaving it blank because when all of the points are present it can be hard to select the circle to edit this attribute. 

Next we will insert the top arrow block. We will insert this block ("aps-ietp" or whatever you called it above) at the origin with a scale factor of 1 and zero rotation. When asked for a value for the attribute, enter the value that you would like this symbol to always have when first inserted (we used the default which is blank).

Continue inserting blocks ("aps-iert", "aps-iebt", and "aps-ielf" or whatever you called them above) until all four points have been inserted. We will insert each of these blocks at the origin with a scale factor of 1 and zero rotation. When asked for a value for each attribute, enter the value that you would like the symbol to always have when first inserted (we used the default which is blank).

Once all four corners have been inserted make sure that all the blocks are on layer zero (change them if necessary). That's it, the symbol is complete.

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Saving the block

This block may be saved normally (using AutoCAD's SAVE command or any of the TPSCLOSE, PSCLOSE, or SCLOSE commands)

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