AutoCAD Tutorial: Blocks and Attribute Definitions

This is a guest post from Jaiprakash Pandey. He is a CAD Corporate Trainer specializing in AutoCAD, CATIA, and Geometric dimensioning & Tolerancing. He has worked with Diecasting, engineering design consulting and training companies. He is an Autodesk AutoCAD Certified professional and an Autodesk expert elite. He is also a regular contributor to AUGI World magazine and he has developed AutoCAD video courses for Pluralsight, his own platform SourceCAD, and other E-Learning businesses.

Attributes are great methods of making blocks with dynamic text information which can be changed or modified according to its use in a drawing. As an example, if you have to mark different sections of a drawing with different numbers using a single block as shown in an image below, then this feature is the one that is best for you.

For this example I will use this sample block with attribute information, here the attribute text is enclosed in a hexagonal geometry.

Defining Attribute

To start with the block containing attribute create a hexagon with polygon command, to know about using Polygon command see the Polygon lesson from this AutoCAD tutorial series. After making polygon type ATTDEF on the command line and press ENTER to launch the Attribute definition window, alternatively you can click on the Define Attributes icon of the Block Definition panel on the Insert tab. You need to create all the settings related to attributes in this Attributes Definition window.

Specify text for Tag in Attribute panel, I am using PLOT as a tag for this example. In the prompt field enter the prompt which you want to see on the command line, I am using “enter plot number” as prompt. In the default field, type the text which you want to enter in case no entry is made in the attribute definition, you can also use fields in this column.

Specify text justification, style, height and rotation angle in subsequent fields as shown on an image below and click on OK. Now place the attribute tag at a desirable place inside the hexagon geometry.

Creating Block

Now click on create block on the Block definition panel. You can also use its command equivalent B. Once the block definition window is launched, give your block a name in the name field then specify a base point and select the hexagon and attribute tag in the block object selection. Keep all other settings at the default values and click on the OK button.

You will notice that an edit attribute window will appear with the prompt specified earlier. Enter the suitable value on the prompt and click on OK to enter the attributed block. You can now enter this block with different attribute values from insert icon of block panel. Upon inserting the block, the Edit Attributes window will appear in which you can enter attribute values as per your requirement.

You can also modify existing attribute values by double clicking on the block. When you double click on the block containing attribute an Enhanced Attribute Editor window will pop up in which you can enter new attribute values. Enter the modified attribute values and click on OK then click on Cancel to close this window as shown on the image below.