Tag Archives: area field

AutoCAD – Area Room Tags

This is quick “how to” create a block with an area field which value adjust automatically when the polyline attached to that field is amended.

  1. Create a polyline.
  2. Open Attribute Definition window and set up typical attribute parameters.
    (command: ATTDEF)
  3. Click Insert Field button.
  4. From a list with field names choose Object.
  5. Click the button on the left of the Object type field and choose your polyline.
  6. Choose property Area (if it’s not chosen automatically) and choose desired precision.
  7. Click on the button called Additional Format… A new window will pop up.
  8. Enter desired conversion factor. E.g. If your drawing is in mm and you want area to be expressed in meters enter 0.0001
  9. Enter desired suffix if you wish. E.g. For square meters you can enter m\U+00B2. \U+00B2 will be replaced with ². You can also copy that symbol from Windows Character Map.
  10. Confirm hitting OK to close all windows.
  11. Choose a position for your new field.
  12. Create a block with any additional elements you wish for.

Attribute definition

Now a field in your block is connected with a polyline.
After you amended a polyline you need to regenerate to see the changes in the area field.

To create another block connected to another polyline you need to:

  1. Copy the block.
  2. Create or copy a polyline.
  3. Double clicking on the block. Enhanced Attribute Editor window will pop up.
  4. Choose area field.
  5. Double click the value (it should have gray background) A Field window will open.
  6. Click the button on the left of the Object type field and choose your NEW polyline.
  7. Set up fields in the Additional Format again (it’s a little irritating)
  8. Accept the changes by pressing OK.

or

  1.  Select a block and a connected to it polyline.
  2. Amend the shape of the copied polyline.
  3. Regenerate to see the change in the area field.

select polyline

Tell me if you know the faster way.


Note:

Data from attributes in blocks can be extracted and use in Excel.

A Table inside AutoCAD (2013) can be created with data extracted from attributes from blocks. Data in the Table can be updated after any amendments to polylines.