Configure Standard Title Block Synchronization

By configuring title block attribute synchronization, you specify the attribute tag values within your title blocks (static or dynamic) that you want to synchronize with Meridian document properties. Standard title block synchronization supports one title block per drawing. For a more advanced configuration, see Synchronize Multiple Blocks Per Drawing.

Compile a list of the block names used by your organization as title blocks in the past and present. For each block, list the attribute names that should be synchronized and their corresponding Meridian property names (and property set name). For each attribute, note whether it should be read or written, or both. In effect, determine which application will control the value of that attribute, Meridian or AutoCAD. When doing so, consider where the drawings will originate from, imported from outside the vault (title block attributes should be read) or created inside the vault with the aid of a wizard that prompts the user for title block properties (title block attributes should be written). Identify those blocks for which Meridian should synchronize the same attributes in the same way.

To configure standard title block synchronization:

1. In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Application Link Settings.

   The settings for each application link appear in property pages in the right pane.

2. Click the AutoCAD tab.

   The AutoCAD link's settings page appears in the right pane.

3. Click Edit.

   To export the settings file to your computer, click the Export button. This can be useful if you would rather edit the file in your favorite text editor. You can then copy your changes to the Clipboard and paste them into Configurator.

4. Locate the section of the file that begins with [Settings] and locate the TitleBlocks setting.

   The value of this setting contains the names of all blocks that the AutoCAD link will search for attributes to synchronize.

5. Edit the value of TitleBlocks to include the names of all blocks that you want to synchronize.

   You can delete all unused block names to simplify editing and increase synchronization performance.

6. For each block name in TitleBlocks, create a section in the file that begins with the block name surrounded by square brackets, for example, [MyTitleBlock].

   You can type comments in the file by beginning each line with a semicolon (;). Use the default sections in the file as examples. You can delete all unused sections to simplify viewing and editing the file.

7. If the title block contains date attributes that will be synchronized, configure the TitleBlockDateFormat setting as described in Format Attribute Date Values .

8. If your organization uses multiple title blocks composed of the same attribute names, insert an Aliases setting in the first line after the section name.

   The value of this setting is a list of block names separated by commas that will use the same synchronization settings in that section. Wildcard characters are allowed to make this setting more convenient to specify, for example, TBlock* instead of TBlock1, TBlock2, TBlock3 or * to apply to all titleblocks.

   Note:

   • Use the empty wildcard (*) carefully, all title block configurations that follow it will be ignored.

   • The Aliases setting is useful if your organization uses a different title block for each sheet size but the attribute names are the same in all title blocks. You can then specify just one set of synchronization settings for all of the title blocks. You can also take advantage of this if the names of your title blocks have changed over time but the attribute names have stayed the same. The same title block settings can be used for all of the title blocks.

9. On consecutive lines in each section, list the attribute names that you want to synchronize, one line per attribute.

   For each attribute, specify the Meridian property set name (except for multiple title blocks per drawing as described in Synchronize Using Configuration Settings) and property name (for single or multiple title blocks per drawing) to which you want it synchronized.

   Note:

   You can find the names of property sets and properties on the Properties page of each document type, as described in Create And Edit Document Types.

10. Specify a flag if the attribute (not Meridian property) should be read-only (RO) or write-only (WO).

    Use the default lines in the file as examples. By default, attributes are read/write (RW). Use the following format for each line.

    For a single title block per drawing:

    <TagName>=<PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

    For multiple title blocks per drawing:

    <TagName>=<PropertyName>,<Flag>

    Note:

    Although Meridian internal properties can be synchronized to title block attributes, you should never attempt to update internal properties or else Access denied errors can occur. Flag all attributes linked to Meridian internal properties as write-only (WO). Only write to Meridian properties (the RO, RW, or no flags) in the Custom property set.

11. If you want to synchronize a property to a parent project (routed) property, specify the folder type name from which to get the folder property as in the following example.

    <TagName>=<FolderTypeName:PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

12. If you want to synchronize one property to one of several possible routed properties, specify a unique identifier for each of the property on the left side of the setting as in the following example.

    <TagName,ID>=<FolderTypeName:PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

    The value of ID is insignificant but must be unique among all of the lines in the same block section. Using this syntax, you can map the same attribute to multiple project folder types and the value will depend on the document's parent folder. The following example uses three different folder types NewProject, UpgradeProject, and RepairProject.

    PROJECTNUM,new = NewProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO           
    PROJECTNUM,upgrade = UpgradeProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO     
    PROJECTNUM,repair = RepairProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO

13. By default, the AutoCAD link synchronizes properties automatically from the vault to the files when the files are opened. The properties are synchronized from the files to the vault when the files are saved. You can configure when these synchronizations occur by adding AutoUpdate settings to the title block sections as appropriate for your needs. The possible values of AutoUpdate are as follows:

    • 0 – updates are disabled on OPEN on SAVE

    • 1 – updates are enabled on OPEN, but disabled on SAVE

    • 2 – updates are enabled on SAVE, but disabled on OPEN

    • 3 – updates are always enabled (the default)

    Note:

    To control the updates to all title blocks in the same way, instead of adding AutoUpdate settings to every title block section, you can set the DisableTitleBlockUpdate value in the following registry key as described in the Accruent Meridian Enterprise Administrator's Guide:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\AutocadLink

    Note:

    By default, when a user saves a new drawing in the vault, possibly after having entered property values in wizard pages, those values are first saved in the vault but they are all overwritten (by possibly different values) next by the linked AutoCAD attribute values taken from the title block. Depending on how the properties are configured for the wizard pages and how they can be modified in the AutoCAD drawing, this can have unexpected consequences, especially for empty property values.

    You can modify this behavior by setting the SupportWizards setting to 1 in the [Settings] section. This causes the AutoCAD link to synchronize the title block from the vault first. If the title block values are not modified in the drawing afterward, then they will remain unchanged when the vault properties are next taken from the title block. This effectively merges the values from the wizard pages with the values from drawing title block.

    The exception is empty linked document properties; they will not be updated from the title block. Whether empty linked document properties are synchronized to the title block is controlled by the CheckBlankPropertiesAssigned setting described in Configure Empty Property Synchronization. For this setting to work as described, the AutoUpdate setting described above must not be disabled (0 or 1). This setting only affects new drawings saved to the vault by the AutoCAD link.

14. Click OK.

15. Test the link thoroughly by synchronizing each attribute and block.

    You can do this by changing the Meridian property values for a drawing in the vault and the title block attribute values in the same drawing and confirming that the synchronization occurs the way that you expect. Also test synchronization during drawing import from AutoCAD (saves) and other methods. You can manually synchronize properties with the Meridian client applications as described in the Accruent Meridian Enterprise User's Guide.