Expert: Bob - 6/2/2006

Question
what is the difference between global and individual attributes, and what are they?

Answer
Hi-- Without your telling me what release of AutoCAD you are using and telling me your experience, it is hard to know how to write clearly to you.

In any case, ATTRIBUTES are an important feature of AutoCAD. They refer to text or numbers within a block that can be changed to fit the situation or use.
EXAMPLES: a title block has attributes for you to fill in the client name, sheet number, etc. -- a detail mark has attributes for you to note the detail number, the sheet number, etc.

You should read the HELP section and a chapter of a book, do some online tutorials, etc -- because you need to be comfortable with attributes to get a job using AutoCAD.

Your question has a misunderstanding. You can edit attributes GLOBALLY (all attributes of that type in the drawing) or individually (change one at a time)
To change an attibute globally, one uses the Express Tool, GATTE (global attribute edit). To change one individually, double click on it and the the Atribute Editor (varies by release)-- You had assumed that global and invidual were types of attibutes.

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Good Luck!!

BOB

GATTE (Global attribute edit)
Another nice AutoCAD express tool I use is the GATTE tool. Or better known as the Global attribute editor. This command will change values for all insertions of a specific block in your drawing. Then will allow you to specify a new value for one of the attributes & automatically replaces all values with the same tag name. Whats nice about this tool is if your attributes values are different you can still update them all to one value. With FIND/REPLACE you would need to run a find for each different type of value to replace with your new one.

To start the command, type in GATTE on your command line. This will issue the Global attribute edit command. Next you will be prompted to select your attribute or block to edit. Once you directly select the attribute annotation value you want to edit it will prompt you for a new value. Next specify your new attribute values, hit enter, and confirm to process the attributes. If you don't want to update EVERY block you can say NO when prompted to process them all, and select only the block instances you want to process