Landscape Architect Articles

LASN Technology October 200511-04-05 | News

AutoCAD 2006: Dynamic Blocks

By Scott Weinberg, Technology Editor, University of Georgia, Athens

Most landscape architects and landscape designers who utilize computers in their offices are fairly content using software programs as is. In some cases I have heard design professionals complain about needing more diversity in the symbols used in some programs. Personally, if I were using a landscape program that had some 50-60 different symbols, I don?EUR??,,????'?????<

This is a typical set of blocks that are used in Eaglepoint?EUR??,,????'?????<

Along with looking at Dynamic Blocks I also want to mention a new way of learning some of the new and old features of AutoCAD. A new e-zine series is now available from a company called upfront.eZine Publishing. Upfront.eZine Publishing is an e publishing company that specializes in CAD issues. They have e books available on the following topics: AutoCAD, General CADD Pro, Generic CADD 6, AutoCAD, Architectural Desktop, IntelliCAD, MicroStation, Visio and VersaCAD.

So why use an e-zine to help you learn a topic when help is available through the program help command in AutoCAD? Well the answer is basically, what AutoCAD explains in three or four screens, the e-zine explains in much more detail, some 60 pages of detail and tutorials. The cost for these 60 plus pages was $9.90 and comes as PDF formatted file. I was impressed by the way the material was explained and presented. Not having to get in my car and drive to a local bookstore to pick up the latest AutoCAD help book was also a nice feature.

This car block was created using the Dynamic Block command. Notice the light blue lookup grip.

As stated in my copy of the e-zine, Dynamic Blocks was not available until the 2006 release of AutoCAD. You would consider all the blocks up until now as static. When you called up a block you got what you saw. Blocks themselves are small drawings created because you will use them in a repetitive way. For example, in Eaglepoint?EUR??,,????'?????<

Perhaps the easiest way to explain what a Dynamic Block is and can do is take an example and let you look at it. Using the example from the e-zine, let?EUR??,,????'?????<

Upon selecting the lookup grip a secondary block menu appears with different types of cars and views. All were programmed with the creation of this dynamic block.

Once the car is selected and the Dynamic Block grip is showing, all you need to do is select the grip and a menu will appear. The lookup grip is the key to seeing what can be done with Dynamic Blocks. The menu that pops up will have different types of cars and trucks, and different views that can be quickly substituted for the existing car block.

At the click of single mouse button the car has been replaced with the block of a side view of a truck.

This example selected the Truck Side view and the car itself has been substituted with a different type symbol. This was a side view of a truck. When creating these dynamic blocks you can create and link many types of blocks to each block you create. I found this command to be helpful if you were to create your own set of blocks and wanted to easily switch views or types of items. However, I also can see inserting a drawing and eliminating the original block drawing and not going through the entire Dynamic Block creation routine.

Dynamic Blocks can have more that one dynamic grip. Going back to the Architectural tab you can select the Door-Imperial block. This block comes with six different grips. These grips allow you to change the angle of the door swing, flip or mirror the door, stretch the door and even automatically align the door perpendicularly to walls.

The Dynamic Blocks feature pops up when users select the corresponding Lookup Grip.

These two examples are just a few ways that Dynamic Blocks can be configured to allow you maximum flexibility in design decisions. The creation of the Dynamic Block itself is not too complicated. However, it does take time and effort. Most of the creation itself is done using the mouse and selecting parameters and actions from the palette and toolbar. Some of the actions that can be programmed for these blocks are: Move-objects are moved in linear or polar directions; scale-objects are resized in linear, polar or x,y directions; stretch-objects are stretched in point, linear, polar or x,y directions; polar stretch-objects are stretched by distance and angle; rotate-objects are rotated; flip-objects are flipped about a mirror line; array-objects are arrayed rectangularly; lookup-objects change according to the settings of a lookup table.

Changing or adding parameters or actions is fairly automated using the Dynamic Blocks Edit command.

The use of Dynamic Blocks can be a helpful addition to your computer processing. However, each of you will have to decide if you have the time and energy to sit down and create your own blocks and links in order to create specific functions that you can already access with the extra click of a mouse.

Color-coded grips on this Door Block let users manipulate the image. Grips appear when an image is selected.

Author?EUR??,,????'?????< www.upfrontezine.com