Thanks to those of you who attended my Webcast about how to create dynamic blocks in AutoCAD 2025. For those of you who were not able to attend the webcast, you may find the recording useful. Click here to view the webcast recording.
The following are some of the questions I received during the webcast along with my responses that I hope will explain this feature a little further.
Question: How does the Align parameter work for dynamic blocks that are not placed near a linear surface and what happens when the block is pulled away from an aligned surface?
Answer: If the block is not close to any surface, it can be placed as a free-standing block with its saved orientation/alignment. When you want the block to align itself, move it closer to the surface and the dynamic block will align to that object, as shown on the left figure. If you don’t want to align it there, simply pull the block away from the alignment object and it becomes a free-standing block. When you are moving a block with alignment parameter closer to surface, it temporarily starts the Nearest object snap and snaps to the aligning surface. As soon as you move it away no object snap is invoked, thus becoming free-standing.
Question: Do dynamic blocks (parameters/actions) work in 3D model? How well do dynamic blocks work in 3D.
Answer: Dynamic blocks can be created in AutoCAD 3D, the same way as in AutoCAD 2D. They work the same as in 2D. So yes, they work well in AutoCAD 3D too.
Question: What are parameter sets?
Answer: Parameter sets contain the parameter and action combinations provided with the software. They create related parameters and associated actions at the same time. For example, if you want to flip objects in a block, you can apply a Flip Set and specify the reflection line.
Question: In a dynamic block can you create a line that could be hidden line or continuous line dependent on the wall finish
Answer: The linetype, color, or layer properties work as normally as they would be in any other standard block. So, you can create a line/object that could be hidden or continuous linetype and the dynamic parameters and actions can be applied to it.
Question: Have you had anyone share blocks on the cloud with entities outside of their organization?
Answer: Yes, the blocks can be shared with anyone within/outside of the organization. It depends on the specific cloud collaboration features of the cloud storage provider that you are using for cloud access. The AutoCAD supported cloud storage providers are Box, Dropbox, One Drive, and Google Drive.
Question: Are you able to have hatching included in the dynamic blocks?
Answer: Yes, the dynamic blocks can have hatching in them and the parameters and actions can also be applied to the hatch. In the desk, I applied the hatch. Make sure the hatch is Associative. While applying the Stretch action, when I had to select the objects, I included the hatch as well.
Question: Are there any online sources for pre-made dynamic blocks for download?
Answer: Autodesk provides a library of pre-made dynamic blocks. You can find them in the Tools palettes. They are bunched together under categories such as Architectural, Mechanical etc. as shown in the Figure below. Note the lightning bolt symbol indicates that they are dynamic blocks.
Question: When setting up the parameters for the block, how to get the Properties palette?
Answer: In the Block Editor, right-click on the parameter and select Properties in the right-click menu, as shown below in the figure.
Question: How should we balance having dynamic blocks made up of different view states with minimizing memory size that the blocks take up?
Answer: The answer was provided by another attendee (Richard): “I have used dynamic blocks that contain very detailed top, front, and right-side views. The original drawing size can increase considerably. Once the desired view is selected, the block can be exploded to remove the other views and thereby decrease the size of the drawing. The selected view is maintained.
Thank you for all of your questions and interest in my webcast! The topic of dynamic blocks is quite vast, and I am hoping that this webcast will encourage you to dive deeper into the world of dynamic blocks. Have fun! Finally, some of the information was pulled from our AutoCAD 2025 Advanced learning guide which is available for purchase on our ASCENT eStore and Amazon.
About the Author
Learning Content Developer<br><br>Renu is a learning content developer for AutoCAD and AutoCAD Toolsets, Autodesk 3ds Max, and other Autodesk products. She has over 25 years of experience working with Autodesk products and specializes in AutoCAD and design visualization software. She enjoys sharing her knowledge via blogs and webcasts and uses her instructional design expertise to create effective learning content for Autodesk software users. Renu holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering.
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