A tribute to Attributes

What do you attribute your fantastic schedules and material takeoffs to?  That would be ATTRIBUTES…

An attribute is basically real life information that is stored within a Block Definition in AutoCAD.  If you are ever in the need to create schedules or material takeoffs using AutoCAD then attributes are for you!!

Although a block can just be a symbol that represents an actual component in your projects, it can also include information about that symbol, information such as: the manufacturer of the item, its cost, its sizes, the model number, color, etc.   Adding attributes to the block allows for this input.   Once the attributes are added, selected, and saved into the block, they can later be extracted into a schedule (TABLE) in AutoCAD.

In my classes I use the following phrase over and over, and that’s, “The more work you do early on, the less work you do later on”.  Adding attributes will take an effort on your end to get these to work seamlessly for you.  The joke in the class is, “Get an intern to create the attributes”!!  It usually gets a laugh (unless you are an intern, of course).

This was the toughest topic for me when I was learning AutoCAD many years ago.  I just couldn’t comprehend the terminology behind the command, especially the TAG.  I remember asking the professor what the TAG was and he said, “The tag is information stored within the database of the computer that…..and I just started to nod my head as if I was understanding what he was saying when really I was falling deeper and deeper into a confused pit.  So, I just followed his instruction and created them then inserted them.

An epiphany hit me as I was teaching the course one day and realized that the tags were simply headings.  Whatever word that was entered as the tag would be used as the heading of a column in an extracted schedule (table).

Some of settings that I would like to cover here:

AutoCad Attribute Definition Dialog box

Attribute:

               TAG:                      A heading for a column

               PROMPT:             A directive posed to the user that inserts the block

               DEFAULT:            A value can be added to use as the default value.

Modes:

INVISIBLE:           Specifies if the entered value will be invisible or visible (by default)

CONSTANT:         Defines whether the value is fixed or variable (fixed cannot be edited)

VERIFY:                 After the user inserts the block and enters the attribute value, they will have    verify their input.

PRESET:                Acts similar to a CONSTANT value except that it’s value can be modified after   insertion, unlike a constant value. Although you would still enter a                                               prompt for a preset, you will not be prompted for a value,

the one you enter here will automatically be used.

LOCK POSITION              Locks the value in the location it was placed.  IF unlocked, the value can be                                 moved relative to the rest of the block by using grips.

MULTIPLE LINES             Allows for multiple lines of text for the value (Mtext)

In the AutoCAD Level 2 class we go deep into the creation, editing, and extracting of attributes to create custom schedules for your projects.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us and let us know how we can help !!