Chapter 24 Standard Blocks 747 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Storing a Drawing As a Wblock To store an entire drawing as a wblock, pick the Entire drawing radio button in the Source area. Use the options in the Destination area to locate the wblock. In this case, the whole drawing is saved as if you are using the SAVE command. However, all uninserted, or unused, blocks in the drawing are deleted. If the drawing contains any unused blocks, the Entire drawing method may reduce the size of a drawing consider- ably. Pick the OK button to fi nish. Exercise 24-8 www.g-wlearning.com/CAD/ Complete the exercise on the companion website. Revising an Inserted Drawing If you insert a wblock into multiple drawings and then need to make changes to the wblock, use DesignCenter to access the original drawing fi le. Right-click on the fi le icon in the Content area and select Insert as Block…. Then, in the Insert dialog box, check Specify On-screen in the Insertion point area and pick the OK button. When a message asks to redefi ne the block, pick the Redefine block option. All of the wblock references update. Press [Esc] to cancel the command so that you do not insert a new block. PROFESSIONAL TIP P R OFESSIONAL TIP If you work on projects that use inserted drawings that require revision, use refer- ence drawings (xrefs) instead of inserting drawing fi les. Chapter 31 explains reference drawings placed using the XREF command. All xrefs automatically update when you open a drawing fi le that contains the xref content. Symbol Libraries Symbol Libr a rie s Store frequently used symbols in symbol libraries to increase productivity. Continue to add new symbols to libraries to increase the number of symbols available for reuse. Establish whether you will store symbols as blocks or drawing fi les, and identify a storage location and system. Creating Symbol Libraries There are two general methods to create a symbol library. One option is to save multiple blocks in a single drawing. See Figure 24-16. The other option is to save each block to a separate wblock fi le. Consider the following guidelines when developing a symbol library: • Follow industry and company or school standards for blocks and symbols. • Identify each block with a descriptive name and insertion point location. • When saving multiple blocks in a drawing fi le, save one group of symbols per drawing fi le and use folders to organize fi les. • When using wblocks, give each fi le a meaningful name and use folders to orga- nize fi les. • Provide all users with a hard copy of the symbol library showing each symbol, insertion points, storage locations, and any other necessary information. • If a network is not in use, place symbol library fi les on each workstation in the classroom or offi ce. symbol library: A collection of related blocks, shapes, views, symbols, or other content.