729 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Learning Objectives After completing this chapter, you will be able to: Create and save blocks. Insert blocks into a drawing. Edit a block and update the block in a drawing. Create blocks as drawing fi les. Construct and use a symbol library. Purge unused content from a drawing. The ability to create and use blocks is a major benefi t of drawing with AutoCAD. The BLOCK command stores a block within a drawing as a block defi nition. The WBLOCK command saves a wblock as a separate drawing fi le. You can insert blocks as often as needed and share blocks between drawings. You also have the option to scale, rotate, and adjust blocks to meet specifi c drawing requirements. Constructing Blocks Con s tructing Block s A block can consist of any object or group of objects, including annotation, or can be an entire drawing. Review each drawing and project to identify items you can use more than once. Fasteners, punches, subassemblies, fi xtures, and appliances are examples of items to consider converting to blocks. Draw the objects once and then save them as a block for multiple use. Selecting a Layer Identify the appropriate layer on which to create block elements before drawing the objects. To do this, you must understand how layers and object properties apply to blocks. The 0 layer is the preferred layer on which to draw block objects. If you origi- nally create block objects on the 0 layer, the block inherits the properties of any layer you assign to the block. Draw the objects for all blocks on the 0 layer and then assign the appropriate layer to each block when you insert the block. If you draw block objects on a layer other than layer 0, place all the objects on layer 0 before creating the block. block: An object, such as a symbol, saved and stored in a drawing for future use. block definition: Information about a block stored within the drawing file. wblock: A block definition saved as a separate drawing file. Standard Blocks 24CHAPTER 24
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