Unfortunately if you take a Dynamic Block and use the method I outlined above to convert it to an Annotative block, it will make it Annotative, but also strip ALL of its Dynamic Block Actions and Parameters. Blocks can be both Annotative and Dynamic. AutoCAD will prompt you and ask if you want to redefine the block â€“ answer yes, and your block will now be an Annotative block. Select the “Annotative” checkbox as outlined above, and hit. Simply select the name of the block you want to convert to Annotative from the pull down (where you would traditionally type the name of your block). Contrary to popular belief we can actually do more than create new blocks from this dialog. Smart drafters can simply open the BLOCK command. But what if you want to convert an old block from a previous release into an Annotative Block? Exploding it and redefining it is what the hourly employees do when they need a few more billable hours. That’s truly all there is to creating a new Annotative Block. I want to keep my water valve blocks rotated as I insert them into my drawing, and thus will keep that checkbox unchecked (as illustrated). With “Annotative” enabled (by checking the checkbox), we can tell AutoCAD to automatically rotate the block to match its viewport by checking the “Match block orientation to layout”. To make it so this block can take advantage of the Annotative Scaling options within AutoCAD 2008, check the “Annotative” check box. Inside of the “Behavior” group we now have an “Annotative” option. The addition you will notice is under “Behavior”. You will still start by drawing the objects you wish to make a block in your drawing, fire up the BLOCK command, and finally select the objects & specify a base point. A scenario such as this is where Annotative Scaling for Blocks can truly shine.ĭefining an Annotative Block really isn’t any harder to do than defining a normal block in previous versions of AutoCAD. With that we frequently find ourselves copying our waterline valves multiple times to properly illustrate them at both scales.

We typically have to illustrate waterline designs on both normal plan sheets (1″ = 50′), and on at least one overall plan sheet (1″=100′).

While a large number of blocks are drawn with real units, others are purely for graphical representation and well scale dependent. See, Annotative Scaling isn’t just for text we can also dynamically scale things like blocks and hatches. Personally I would have been happy just to get Annotative Scaling with text in AutoCAD 2008, but the folks at Autodesk were apparently swinging for the fences as they have hit a home run. I am of course speaking about copying a piece of text numerous times just so we could plot a drawing at different scales. The general concept to make it possible to do in one object what once required we use multiple objects. If you have been keeping up with AutoCAD 2008, you know the idea behind Annotative Scaling as it relates to text.

Annotative text blocks