Developing Title Block Text File Components: Attributes, Positioning, and Detaching Xrefs

We're working on our title block file so far, but we're getting ready to work on the components that are associated with the title block file. Again, the title block file is going to be referenced into all the drawings within the set. The title block text file, which is what we need to work on next, will contain the attributes that will be associated with information down here.

The title block text file will again be containing attributes only. The attributes are holding spots for consistently placed information where the value of the contents of those attributes will change sheet to sheet to sheet. So let's create a new file, File New.

Let's use the template and let's save the file. On the 301 folder, I'm going to slide down and choose VDCI TBTxt Title Block Text File 2234. When we end up putting our deliverable sheet together, we will be referencing in the title block into paper space at 00.

We also want to reference or insert the TBTxt file into the paper space environment of the sheet file also at 00. So what we're going to do is we're going to bring the TTLB file into the drawing and use it to give us the positioning for the information that we're going to need for developing the TBTxt file. So right now I'm at the Insert tab and I'm going to go Reference Attach and I'm going to slide up, but you can see that it's looking for image files.

So I'm going to slide up here and choose Drawing Files. Again, I'm in my CAD 301. Slide down and choose my title block file.

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I'm going to say pop it in at 00, scale factor of 1 as a standard attachment, and I will go OK. So there is my title block file. What we're going to be doing is working on the attributes that will go down in through here.

Now what I need to do first is to create a title block layer because even though this is the TBTxt file, I want everything related to the title block to be on a title block layer. I'll go to Home tab. I'll go to Layers.

I will create a new layer, A-TTLB. I will make it my current layer and its color will be 120, and I'll close the interface. Now, the reason that we X-Ref'd the title block into this is because we want to be able to detach it out of the TBTxt file.

If we had inserted the title block, we would have then had to erase it and then purge it out of the drawing so that there would not be any reference to the title block file within the TBTxt file. So again, we are reference attaching the TTLB file in. We will do our work, and then we will detach the reference out of here.

So I'm going to start working on my attributes. I'm going to go over to Insert, and I'm going to Define an Attribute. So I will choose Define Attribute, and the first one I'm going to choose will be the one for Drawn By, Define an Attribute.

The tag will be Drawn-By, and again, with attributes, they need to be one word, which means no spaces. I'll press the Tab key. I'll take off my caps lock, type in Drawn By.

Again, this is what's going to be seen at the prompt, so it's in pretty much standard English, Drawn By. I'm going to purposely give this a default value of a period. The reason I'm doing that is that when we complete the TBTxt file, this drawing will not have any geometry associated with it.

If we were to have inserted the TBTxt file into a deliverable sheet file, and if we did not have any default values, if we had blanks as default values, if we were to first insert the TBTxt file with default values of blank, there would be nothing that we could click on to let us update the value of the attribute. In this example, and that's because the TBTxt file only contains attributes once we're done, we want to have a default value of a period. I'm going to say Drawn By, Drawn By, default value of period.

My justification will be top right. My style is Text 01. My height is going to be an eighth of an inch, 0.125. I'm going to say Specify Insertion Point on Screen.

I'm going to deselect Lock Position. Again, my tag is drawn by one word, Drawn By. The prompt is what I'm going to see, a default value of a period, top right orientation, Text 01.125. I'm going to go OK, and I'm going to pop it in at the end of this line right here.

I'm now going to copy this value from here to here to here. Enter. So I have my Drawn By tag, so when I'm in my TBTxt file, I'm seeing the tag.

I now want to change the value on Checked By, so I will double-click it. I will let it say the word Checked By. Go down here, take off Caps Locked.

Checked By. Double-click here. Scale.

Scale. And I'm just going to put down As Noted. The reason I'm putting all of this in capital letters is normally in construction documents we use all caps.

As Noted. Enter. What I'd like to do next now is to move these down by a sixteenth and to the left by a sixteenth.

So I will say Move, choose these three, Enter. Arbitrary Base Point at minus one-sixteenth of an inch, comma, minus one-sixteenth of an inch. So they've now been moved down.

I now want to position my sheet number. And what I'm going to do is this. I'm going to offset by a quarter of an inch this line.

Ah, I cannot offset it because it's part of the attribute. So I'm going to draw a line on top of this, ortho on, over to there. And I will move, M, Enter for Move, this guy down a quarter of an inch.

I will then draw a line from the end of here to the end of here. And I'm going to erase out that line segment. Because, again, what I'm trying to do is to get my sheet number to be in the center of this space.

It's technically called the centroid. What I'm going to do next is to put in an attribute. I'll go to the Insert tab, Define Attributes.

This will be Sheet Number, the prompt, Sheet Number. The default value will be a period. My justification will be middle center.

My text style will be text 02. And the height will be a quarter of an inch. Specify insertion point on screen.

I go OK, and I'm going to pop it in at the midpoint of this line. I will now erase the line and save the file. Now, you can see that if I were to insert this tbtxt file right now into my working one file, that I'd end up having confusion going on.

Because I have the title block file in more than one file. All I want to have is the actual tbtxt contents, not the title block itself. So I need to detach the xref.

You can see that we have an option here for attaching, but there's an option for managing the xrefs right here on this little angle down arrow. So I will choose this. I'm going to move my bar to the right.

Now, the title block file contains the title block file itself and the title block image. The image is nested inside the title block file. By detaching the title block, I will also get rid of the image.

So I'm going to select VDCI title block 22x34, do a right button, and I will choose Detach. You never erase xrefs. Let me say that again.

You never erase xrefs. You detach xrefs. Because if you erase them, the pointer to the xref is still in the drawing, but there's no contents.

By detaching, you remove the contents and you remove the pointer. And so I will say Detach. I will close the interface, do a zoom extents, zoom real time, and I will save the file.

Now, you will notice that when we did this, we did drawn by check by scale and sheet number. Again, here was the first one. I copied the second, the third, and I created this one.

When we end up inserting the TBTX file into our working one drawing, the order in which we created the attributes is the order in which they will be listed on the matrix for populating the TBTX file. So I'm going to save this. I'm going to go back over to my working drawing.

And what I'm going to do now is to insert the TBTX file. So I'm going to go to Home tab, and 0 is my current layer. And I'm going to say Insert, Block Attribute.

Go to Browse. I'm going to go over to the C drive to CAD 301. I'm going to slide down and choose my VDCI TBTX 2234.

I will go Open. I'm going to say bring it in at 00 at a scale factor of 1. And again, the reason that we bring it in at 00 is so that we can bring all of the title lock information in at 00. So bring it in 00, scale factor of 1. Okay.

You now see the matrix. And you can see it says drawn by, checked by, scale and sheet number. The same order in which we populated the attributes.

So I'm going to say drawn by you, the tab, checked by the boss. I'm going to say scale as noted. I'm going to accept that.

And I'm just going to call this sheet number A2.1. I'm just making this up, and I will go OK. So you can see now that we have the information brought in as an attribute. If you are working on sheet A2.1, your initials would be there.

If someone else were working on sheet A2.2, their initials would be there. Different project managers' initials there. The scale can either be as noted, or you can also have different values for the actual sheet number.

So I'm now going to save the file. What we're going to be doing next is we're going to start working on the drawing label that will be below all of the images. So, so far, we have the title block.

We have the title block text file. We have a holding spot over here on the right for keynotes. We're next going to begin working on the drawing title area, and after we have those components, then we have everything that we need to begin working on the model view viewport for a one viewport image drawing.

So I'm going to save the file, and let's get ready to start working on our drawing title one.