Drawings that we create (land surveyors in Croatia) are full of blocks with many attributes because we are preparing data in CAD for inserting into the GIS database.
Those attributes are mainly hidden (invisible), with a typical presentation of only 1 or 2 visible attributes. When we are working with other CAD software (ACAD, ZWCAD, NanoCAD, BricsCAD) it was never a problem because you cannot select invisible attributes, but in QCAD you can, and because of that working with our drawings is practically impossible, wherever you click (which is else considered empty space), a block attribute (or entire block if set in settings) gets selected.
Is there a setting to disable selecting invisible attributes, and if not, can this setting be implemented in near future?
I can send an example drawing via PM to developers.
How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
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ryancousins
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Re: How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
Are you hiding the attributes by nature of them being on their own layer and you are hiding that layer? If so, if you go to Edit>Application Preferences>Graphics View>Behavior>Select block references together with attributes and check this option, it looks like it will prevent the hidden attributes from being selected. After choosing this option, when I mouse-drag over a block reference and its attribute, the property editor shows that only the reference is selected. I can move the block reference and the attribute stays put, lending to my belief that it's not selecting the attribute. I'm not sure if this is what you're going for?
Re: How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
Hi ryancousins,
I'm talking about the "invisible" attribute, not the hidden one.
Please see DXF code 70.
There is an option to activate this flag when creating a new attribute in ACAD (see picture), but there is no such checkbox thing in QCAD Block>Attributes>Define Block Attribute.
Problem is that when I click on, what seems to be "an empty space" (see picture) an attribute or an entire block gets selected (depends on the setting you mentioned) - see picture. When you have 1000 of these blocks all over the place, it's impossible to work as you cannot click anywhere without selecting something. As I said, these blocks are defined in the specification for entire country, and every geodetic office must use these defined blocks in our drawings to create our products according to specification. So I'm currently testing QCAD as an individual, to define would it be possible to put it in production.
Other CADs simply ignore that these attributes exist in that location because they are set to be invisible, and you cannot select them, but can see their values when you select block (in properties panel) by clicking on any visible part of the block.
I'm talking about the "invisible" attribute, not the hidden one.
Please see DXF code 70.
There is an option to activate this flag when creating a new attribute in ACAD (see picture), but there is no such checkbox thing in QCAD Block>Attributes>Define Block Attribute.
Problem is that when I click on, what seems to be "an empty space" (see picture) an attribute or an entire block gets selected (depends on the setting you mentioned) - see picture. When you have 1000 of these blocks all over the place, it's impossible to work as you cannot click anywhere without selecting something. As I said, these blocks are defined in the specification for entire country, and every geodetic office must use these defined blocks in our drawings to create our products according to specification. So I'm currently testing QCAD as an individual, to define would it be possible to put it in production.
Other CADs simply ignore that these attributes exist in that location because they are set to be invisible, and you cannot select them, but can see their values when you select block (in properties panel) by clicking on any visible part of the block.
- Attachments
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- attribute definition in acad
- attribute definition.png (20.28 KiB) Viewed 4357 times
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- when clicked on "empty" space, block gets selected
- invisible_attribute.png (79.17 KiB) Viewed 4358 times
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ryancousins
- Premier Member
- Posts: 367
- Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2020 3:47 am
- Location: Michigan, USA
Re: How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
Well, this is above my pay grade then. 
It sounds like QCAD doesn't know how to deal with the invisible flag that may be applied to an attribute coming in from another program.
Actually, it does look like you can use the selection filter to select all attributes that have the property of "invisible". Perhaps as a workaround you could use this to select all invisible attributes, then put them on their own layer and then lock that layer making them unelectable?
It sounds like QCAD doesn't know how to deal with the invisible flag that may be applied to an attribute coming in from another program. Actually, it does look like you can use the selection filter to select all attributes that have the property of "invisible". Perhaps as a workaround you could use this to select all invisible attributes, then put them on their own layer and then lock that layer making them unelectable?
Re: How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
Hi phidrho,
please attache an example drawing which shows the issue to your post. Thanks.
What QCAD Version you are using?
please attache an example drawing which shows the issue to your post. Thanks.
What QCAD Version you are using?
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."
Re: How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
That seems to be a possible workaround in QCAD, but I don't know how other CAD software would interpret it, because the layer for an attribute is defined inside block definition. The remaining question is what would end up in DXF file, and how would software for specification audit look on that additional layer and changed property. I will try to send the drawing for audit tomorrow.
Either way, I think it's not a proper solution, as I've seen other professions (especially electrical engineers) also use this approach to extend their drawings with custom data (it's kind of the easiest approach, and proven to work in practice). Later is very easy to export this data to a spreadsheet or CSV and do some data processing to get the job done.
Either way, I think it's not a proper solution, as I've seen other professions (especially electrical engineers) also use this approach to extend their drawings with custom data (it's kind of the easiest approach, and proven to work in practice). Later is very easy to export this data to a spreadsheet or CSV and do some data processing to get the job done.
Re: How to disable selection of hidden block attributes
Yes, I think we can easily mimic that behaviour in QCAD for the next release (i.e. invisible attributes are not selectable on their own but remain editable when the block reference they belong to is selected).