Expert: Bill DeShawn - 11/8/2006

Question
I am working with a drawing file that was given to me by someone else. All of the content which I need to edit appears to be saved as a block definition. What's the least messy way to work with blocks? I have not exploded it. Rather, I am editing it within the block editor. Is this the best way to edit the drawing,yet keep the block as a block? Is this standard procedure? I generally don't work with blocks too often. Thanks!

Answer
AutoCAD 2006 and 2007 have BEDIT which will also create and edit Dynamic Blocks.  But if you're not into Dynamic Blocks, I like REFEDIT.  You can configure REFEDIT a few different ways, so be sure and play with the settings and the toolbar to get a good feel of how things work.  You can remove from and add objects to the working set with the touch of a button.  In some rare cases, I create an unnamed group.  Using the group command the group dialog comes up and assists you in making the group.  It can be either named or unnamed.  But if you have no need to ever use combination of objects ever again, grouping is just fine.  Besides, you can make the objects selectable and in that way make the group easier to edit.

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Bill DeShawn
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