Data Capture Block Attributes
Function
This command automates data transfer from block attributes to a
database table. Many
AutoCAD drawings are warehouses of information. The Data Capture Block
Attributes
command applies to drawings that contain blocks with attribute values.
The command starts by prompting to select one sample of
the block to
capture. The program reads the attribute names from this sample block.
This example uses Carlson point blocks that have attributes for point
number, elevation and description.
Next, there is a dialog for specifying the attributes to capture and
their order. Each sample attribute is
available to capture by moving these fields to the
block attribute list. There is an option to create a new block out of
the selected attribute by turning on the Create New Blocks option. In
the New Block Name and Layer Names fields, you
can specifiy the name and layer for the blocks. The Delete Objects
option will erase the source block entities. In the Block Attribute
Properties
spreadsheet, you can set the block tags, prompt, default and layer for
each attribute.
The second dialog setups up the database table to create from the block
data. The destination database is set with the Select Output MDB File
button. You can either create a new table in the database or select an
existing table. Under Table Design, you can set the Field Name and
Field Type for each attribute when a new table is being created. When
adding to an existing table, the Field Name and Field Type are read
from the existing table. For with an existing table, the Field Name
list in the lower left will show the field names from the existing
table, and the order of these fields should be set to match the order
of corresponding the text fields. The Use Key Field To Match Value
option will use the selected record as
the key field for the database table. The key field must have unique
values for each record in the table. To set the key field, highlight
the record row # in the spreadsheet and then pick the Select button.
The Create Carlson GIS Links option
will link the database table with the drawing entity for each record.
After the dialogs, there is a command line prompt to select the blocks
to import. Only blocks that match the sample block names will be
processed.
Prompts
Select sample block to capture: select a block
Processing entities...Please wait...
Select entities to process
[Select/<All>]: All
Created 2 GIS Links.
Done
Pulldown Menu Location: GIS Data
> Data Capture
Keyboard Command: cgis_getblockattr
Prerequisite: Blocks with attributes
File Name: \lsp\gisview.arx