How to Define Attributes in BricsCAD

Quick answer: ATTDEF defines an attribute through a dialog box, or -ATTDEF at the Command line. In general, you specify the attribute’s name, prompt, and default value, its insertion point, its text properties, and optionally a set of flags controlling how it behaves.

Defining an Attribute

1. Open the Define Attribute dialog, via the Attributes > Define Attributes… button on the Tools toolbar, Define Attributes… in the Tools menu, or the ATTDEF command directly.
2. Define the attribute:
   • Tag: identifies each occurrence of the attribute in the drawing. Any characters except spaces are allowed; lowercase letters convert to uppercase automatically.
   • Prompt: shown when a block containing this attribute is inserted. Leave it blank, and the Tag is used as the prompt instead.
   • Default value: type one directly, click Insert Field to assign a field value instead, or, if you’ve checked Multiple lines (which dims the Default text field), click the button beside it to create an Mtext entity instead. For variable attributes, this default gets replaced by the actual value entered when the block is inserted.
   • Insertion point: type the X, Y, and Z coordinates directly, or click Pick Point to specify it in the drawing (the dialog closes temporarily while you do).
   • Optionally set any of the five attribute flags (below).
   • Define the text properties: Text Style, Justification, Annotative, Height, and Rotation.
3. Click OK to create the attribute.

The Five Attribute Flags

• Invisible: the attribute neither displays nor prints. One important exception: if ATTMODE is set to 2, every attribute displays regardless, including ones flagged Invisible.
• Constant: the attribute can’t be edited.
• Verify: the attribute must be explicitly validated whenever a block containing it is inserted.
• Preset: you won’t be prompted to define this attribute during insertion, though you can still edit it afterward.
• Lock Position: locks the attribute’s position within the block reference. Left unlocked, an attribute can be moved relative to the rest of the block using grip editing, and multiline attributes can be resized.

Using Sheet Set Properties in a Title Block

1. Create the sheet set.
2. Define its custom sheet set and sheet properties.
3. Open a sheet (layout) from the sheet set.
4. Create the title block’s source entities in that paper space layout: borders, line work, and fixed text, plus attributes containing fields that reference sheet set, subset, and sheet properties (see the SHEETSET command for more on the available default and custom properties).
5. Create a block from those title block source entities.
6. Copy the block to a drawing in one of your block folders.
7. Delete the original title block source entities from the layout.

The resulting title block can now be inserted into other sheets in the same sheet set, or any other sheet set sharing the same custom sheet set and sheet properties. Fields referencing those properties fill in automatically; if a property has no value available, its field displays hyphens (----) instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will an Invisible attribute ever actually show up? Yes, if ATTMODE is set to 2, every attribute displays regardless of its Invisible flag.

Can I still edit a Preset attribute after inserting the block? Yes, Preset only skips the insertion-time prompt; the attribute stays editable afterward.

What happens if I leave the Prompt field blank when defining an attribute? The Tag gets used as the prompt instead when the block is inserted.

How do title block fields get filled in automatically across different sheets? By referencing sheet set, subset, and sheet properties directly in the attribute’s field, so the same title block block definition can be reused across sheets, and even other sheet sets, that share those same custom properties.