Custom blocks

#Creating a custom block (block wizard)

Goal: turn drawn objects into a block or a fixture for the library – with insertion point, default values and the connectors for drainage and water.

1. Draw the objects (3D solids and/or a 2D floor plan) – in a DWG of their own or in the current drawing.
2. Gear menu › New block / fixture from the drawing (wizard) …. The first time, the help with a picture explains the four clicks.
3. Select the objects of the block and confirm with Enter (1). A selection made beforehand applies; Enter without a selection takes the whole drawing.
4. Click the insertion point (2) – for fixtures at the wall, in the middle, on the floor.
5. In the Block wizard dialog box enter name, storage folder, type, default values and the connectors you want. OK.
6. Now click the connectors you checked: the drain (3) – only the position in plan counts, the routing sets the elevation –, then cold water and hot water (4) with their elevation (object snap helps). Enter leaves a connector out, Esc cancels.
7. A DWG with a preview image is saved in the chosen folder. The palette reads again; at the bottom it says "New in the library: <name>".

Options

• Connectors you have already placed with the tools of the plug-ins (a pipe connector of Piping 3D, a drainage connector of Drainage 3D) simply belong to the selection – they are taken over. The line at the top of the dialog box counts them.
• If only one point is clicked for the drain, it applies to both routings.
• If the DWG already exists, the wizard asks whether to overwrite it.
• A drain needs Drainage 3D to be loaded, otherwise the command line says the drainage connector could not be created.

#Connectors of a fixture

Goal: understand which connectors a fixture carries and how they arrive in Piping and Drainage.

A standard fixture can carry further roles (recirculation, heating supply and return, gas). The color of a connector is always that of its system. How Piping 3D and Drainage 3D connect: Connecting pipes.

#Preparing a DWG as a block

Goal: use an existing DWG – from a manufacturer, from the office – as a block without the wizard.

1. Put the DWG in a folder of your own library (see Adding your own folders). Every DWG and DXF there is a block right away; the base point of the DWG is the insertion point (BASE command in GstarCAD).
2. LuaCAD recognizes by itself what is 2D and what is 3D: solids = 3D, flat objects = 2D. A block without solids is a 2D block.
3. If the DWG lies in a folder named Apparate, it also appears on the Fixtures page. It gets connectors if you place the connector objects of the plug-ins in the DWG – or you make it a fixture with the block wizard.
4. Values for the property fields (manufacturer, article number …) are written into the DWG by the block wizard; attributes of a third-party DWG stay attributes of the block.

#Editing and reloading the DWG

Goal: change a block of the library and bring the new state into the drawings.

1. Right-click the tile › Open DWG (edit, define connectors) – the DWG opens in GstarCAD. Do not change a standard block itself: copy its DWG into a folder of your own and change the copy (it then counts as a custom block).
2. Change and save.
3. Back in the drawing: Current Drawing page › Reload block and click an inserted block – all insertions show the new state, including the 2D version and the connector sets. Their values (property fields, dimensions) stay.
4. Whoever inserts the block again afterwards already gets the note while inserting that the DWG is newer.

See Reloading a block.