so I have a situation here where I'm not
happy with how my toilet blocks are
defined here in an AutoCAD we have three
different ways we can we can modify our
blocks we can explode and redefine which
is kind of the the older method of doing
it's been there the longest we can use
the edit block in place option or we can
use the block editor so in this case
what I want to do is I want to make a
change to this toilet block so what I'm
going to use is I'm going to use the
edit block in place now with this
command unlike the exploding and
redefine option I don't have to worry
about the rotation the scale I not to
worry about the insertion point because
it won't allow me to redefine it so what
I'm going to just going to right click
here and what I'm going to do is I'm
going to do an edit block in place I'm
just selecting that option in this case
we can see there's one block there's no
nested blocks of any type so I can see
I've got this toilet block and I'm going
to automatically select all nest objects
now if I didn't want to work with all
objects in that particular block I could
actually prompt and pick the objects we
want to work with and I can see here
that when I pick this that it is going
to lock objects not currently in the
working set so it's on the settings
there so I'm gonna click OK
and notice that everything else has been
become grayed out or ghost I should say
that really grayed out and notice that
all other instances of the block have
disappeared now if I take a look here
the Edit reference ribbon here or panel
has been added to every single tab here
so you can see that even the annotate
tab data reference block has been added
now I'm using arc a mechanical but the
process is exactly the same whether I'm
using you know archive mechanical
AutoCAD electrical from using AutoCAD
architecture the process is exactly the
same so a couple things I want to do
here one is I don't really want this
circle to be part of the block but I
would like to use that on my drawing so
what I'm going to do is I'm actually
going to remove that from the working
set so I'm going to just going to take
the circle and actually copy that out so
you can see that I was able to remove
that from the block I'm also going to do
is I'm going to make a change here so
I'm going to extend this back here and
I'm going to use the extend function to
extend it up and I'll use the trim
function to clean it up so you can see
I'm just able to make some changes there
okay so I'm happy with it
with the chain
made copy that object out made my
changes it looks good so what I'm gonna
do is we came in here I'm simply going
to save the changes so it's going to
come up and say are you sure now in this
case this is something that's specific
to AutoCAD mechanical because it
actually gives me the options here to
change name or to change the base point
this feature here is specific to our cat
mechanical so you won't see this if
you're just using AutoCAD I'm overusing
some other flavor of AutoCAD so I'm
going to click OK and what I can see now
is notice that the block has updated and
notice that the circle is now it's now
free it's not part of the that block
anymore okay well I'd like to to kind of
redefine this block so I'm going to
explode this actually and I'm going to
make the first block here and let's just
call this let's call this toilet seat
and what my base point is whoops my base
point is going to be here here's my my
objects that I want to use and I'm going
to click OK so that's now my toilet seat
I'm now going to use the you know create
block option and I'm going to redefine
the toilet this is actually going to end
up rotating everything but I'm just kind
of make a make up point here so let's
select that and what I'm going to do is
I'm going to select that block and the
block itself so now we're going to end
up with is I'm going to end up with a
block within a block so now notice what
I could mean here and I run the edit
block in place so here's my edit block
in place notice that could actually come
in here and I can actually drill
straight down from here straight into
that toilet seat so I don't need to kind
of you know go into the toilet and I
need to go to the toilet seat I can
actually drill right down to toilet seat
so I click OK notice how it has put me
straight into that mode and you can see
that I've actually include too much
geometry here but again I could I could
copy that out or do something different
not affect those the Vantage of the data
block in place is how I can drill down
and and directly work with blocks that
are within blocks so in this case what
I'd like to do is I'd like to copy that
out so let's come in here and let's
let's remove this from the working set
so we'll take this will simply remove
that that's been updated let's add a
small circle in here because we might
toilet-seat I'm gonna save the changes
click OK and notice how that has been
updating all instances so there you have
it that's the ID block in place again
the the pros to it especially compared
with the explode and redefine option is
that you can you can select the block
that you want to work with so whether
it's nest or not you don't need to
explode it and you don't need to worry
about you know am i working with the
original orientation in the block you
know what was my insertion point you can
work with that in that instance it also
has the advantage that you can actually
copy out geometry and copy and drama
tree now really the only downside to
this is that you can't work with dynamic
blocks so if you have a dynamic block so
let me just drop in a dynamic block here
so I can see that I've got this this
dynamic block here if I right-click on
it and I do an edit block in place you
can see I'm doing a reference edit and
you can see that it's got custom block
properties so you can see it's going to
break the link to the original
definition and create a new block
definition so you're actually going to
get a static block based on the geometry
so the edit block in place cannot be
used with dynamic blocks