Author Topic: CAD Block reference in Product List ignored by Designline  (Read 3160 times)

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Offline bobquallsTopic starter

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CAD Block reference in Product List ignored by Designline
« on: Feb 16, 2010, 19:29:09 PM »
I work for a Mechanical contractor modeling piping and plumbing.  We have a library of flanges, 3dsolids, that we want to use in our drawings.  We have added the "CAD Block" column to the relevant out of the box ITM flange files and are referencing the appropriate drawings there.  We are getting the content and display results we want with this approach if these flanges are placed in the drawings, item by item, using "Fill", "Takeoff" , "Swap" etc.  The Designline "Fill in 3D" passes over the block references and develops our models with the generic flanges.  There are work arounds for getting the content we want after the Designline fill, but the cost of this, time-wise, may mean sacrificing the content we want.  Further background here, we are all former QuickPen PD3D modelers and we've gotten spoiled by the appearance of those kinds of models.  On a more practical side, there have been times when these spools go to fab that a more realistic looking flange would help those guys do their work, i.e. showing a one-holed flange vs. annotating a one-holed flange (picture being worth a thousand words).  Is there a way to get the Designline "Fill in 3D" to recognize the "CAD Block" references in the Product Listed .itm files?  We've tried many solutions for getting this to happen; creating custom items, creating custom product lists, moving the referenced drawings to the folder containing the .itm, adding the appropriate statements to the AutoCAD search path.  What we've learned is that these flanges can be inserted in our drawings any number of ways except by using Designline.  Again, is there a way to get Designline to recognize these references and use our flanges?

Offline tnbndr

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Re: CAD Block reference in Product List ignored by Designline
« Reply #1 on: Feb 16, 2010, 20:07:22 PM »
I am no expert in Designline. But if you exclude all the other flanges from fill won't it use yours?
Do you have your flanges button mapped correctly for designline to use for filling?
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Offline bobquallsTopic starter

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Re: CAD Block reference in Product List ignored by Designline
« Reply #2 on: Feb 16, 2010, 21:58:39 PM »
tnbndr,
That's also one of the things we've tried.  As far as I can tell, this difficulty that we would like to solve is because Designline does not recognize the CAD Block drawing references.  We are using the generic flange .itm files.  Whatever code and/or button mapping governs the behaviour of these items is unchanged and still functioning.  We would just like to add content to the framework built into CADmech.  It works on an item by item basis, but not in Designline.

Offline ZTR88

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Re: CAD Block reference in Product List ignored by Designline
« Reply #3 on: Sep 17, 2020, 01:20:14 AM »
It's 10 years later and I still have this issue. Does design line still ignore the "CAD Block" references? I can get the CAD blocks to populate with "Fill 3D Items", but only after placing one manually with attacher. Also after that happens and I get the block to populate with design line, the "Erase 3D Items" command no longer applies to these items.

It's almost as if the block needs to be present in the drawing first for designline to find it. And as I said, even then it does not act appropriately with "Erase 3D Items".
Zachary Reese
Virtual Design Coordinator / Database Manager
Douglas Orr Plumbing Inc.

Offline cadbyken

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Re: CAD Block reference in Product List ignored by Designline
« Reply #4 on: Sep 17, 2020, 18:00:04 PM »
Development on the software stopped a long time ago.  There are a lot of these "little" things that could be easily changed but haven't.  Meanwhile, Autodesk continues to collect their fees for "maintenance".  Stepping off of my soapbox...for now.
Ken Taylor - Atlantic Constructors, Inc
BIM Technology & Database Manager
Revit - not ready for Primetime given all of the add-ons, work arounds, and general issues with Fabrication in Revit.  Tired of them taking our money for little results.