Deleting Block

[SPHINX building Design]

When I dxf' d a drwaing into Chief'97,
by mistake an unwanted block came with it.
This project needs to be dxf-out for this client.
But every dxf, floor plan and sections / elevatons,
still retains this block reference.
Which stops it being read by my clients program.
Please, how do I delete, some call it purge, a block
from a Chief '97 plan ?

Thanks, desperate Jan

[Larry Kumpost]

This is a problem I have had several times. I was told by someone at ART that they had a fix for this type of problem but I still get it on several 97 plans.

The first rule is if you name a block in Chief do not use 'spaces', dashes, etc. if you plan to dxf out. ACAD does not like that.

I do not know how to delete a block in chief but you can delete it in the dxf file:

First open the dxf file in ACAD. You will get a 'drawing discarded' message. Scroll back the command line to get specific information on what is causing the problem.

Open the dxf file in MS Word Pad. You can do a word search (Edit, Find) for the block(s)that is/are causing the problem. When you find the block you can delete it. Don't worry about all of the code it is just a text file.

You start deleting several lines above the 'block name'. I start with selecting the 0 (zero) above the word 'BLOCK' and drag down until I see 'END BLOCK', leaving the 0 below it. Always leave only one zero between block discriptions.

Now save the file. Win95 asks what type of file. Save as a text file if asked.

Now open the dxf in ACAD. If you did it correctly the file will open. If not, you can always make a new dxf file a try again. Once you do it several times it does not take long.

Have fun.

Larry

P.S.
If you have more than one block causing the problem you must deal with each one.

[Mac MacDonald]

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, CA 6.0 still does not allow you to purge unused blocks. This also creates large CA files if you use a lot of CAD details with imported blocks.

Larry's solution is the one I use. The block definition may look something like this.
0
ENDBLK
0 (Start deleting here)
BLOCK
8
0
2
ABCXYZ (This being the offending block name.)
70 (Information from here down
64 defines the entities in the
10 block and it can be very long.)
0.0
20 (Search for next ENDBLK and delete
- everything in between)
-
ENDBLK

If you know the name of the offending block do a search for it and remove its definition as above.

Be brave as Larry said you can always create a new dxf if you mess up.

Mac


[This message has been edited by Mac MacDonald (edited 01 September 1999).]

[SPHINX building Design]

Larry & Mac,
You people are champions.
Yes, Mac the drawings are much larger than usual.
Lots of thanks, Jan