Blocks & Solids?

[ACADuser]

I have three groups of eight 8x8x16' steel columns in the plan.

I know the height will change & maybe the size too. Wanting to be able to change one & have the rest change too I need them to be blocks.

But making then out of Solids only Arch Blocks are created & they can not be edited like regular blocks.

Am I stuck modifying all eight separately?  This is one of three lines of columns & each line will be different shape & height.

 

[Joe_Carrick]

Create a Symbol.  Then you have the ability to edit all or just some as needed.

[TheKitchenAbode]

If you create and Architectural Block with several items you can click on the block close to the item you wish to edit, hit the Tab Key. The item within will show it's bounding box and then you can open the objects DBX and adjust it. Works in all view types. Will only do one Tab level deep so make sure to be as close to the item you need before clicking the block.

[ACADuser]

Thanks for the quick responses.

 

I always forget the Symbol option.

So I would need 3 symbols with different names, one for each column row.

Then I can edit one symbol in that row and all will update to the correct size?

 

Gotta run but will give it a try later this afternoon.

 

[Joe_Carrick]

20 minutes ago, ACADuser said:

So I would need 3 symbols with different names, one for each column row.

Then I can edit one symbol in that row and all will update to the correct size?

Not exactly.

One symbol should be enough.  You can just multi-select the symbols in each row and edit them simultaneously.

[TheKitchenAbode]

You could try using the Distributed Objects. If you change the object/symbol in the user library the edit mode automatically changes to the Replace Object, just hover on the distributed polyline and click, all objects will be replaced. If you want this convenience but your objects are not evenly distributed then you can draw one very short distributed polyline, set distribution to "1" and attach your user library column to it. Copy/Paste and move this object as many times as you wish to get your desired positioning. You can now go into the your user library column, change it's sizing, the auto replace will activate. You just have to move over each object and click to replace it. The auto replace remains valid until you change to another mode. Ten columns to replace only requires one column change and 10 clicks.

 

If you anticipate having three different column sizes then save three columns to your user library. Change each accordingly and apply with one click.