2020-12-18

BricsCAD Exploding Attributed Blocks with Express Tools

The first time I tried BricsCAD, I attempted to BURST a block. I don't use normally use attributes myself, and being a Facilities person who constantly receives outside files, BURST is my default and is in any cleanup commands that I run. No such command.

I did try EXPLODE after that, though, and saw my attribute values disappear and the definitions remained. 

Checking the online help confirms that is the behavior as designed. 

I did some searching and ended up on a site none other than CAD Panacea. R.K. pointed out that a developer (CAD4FM UG) has made an Express Tools plugin (which will work on BricsCAD Pro and BricsCAD Ultimate, but not BricsCAD Lite).


The installation was quick and simple. The .exe did flag for not having a known publisher name, but operated just fine. 

Upon reopening BricsCAD, I now see a ribbon tab, floating toolbars and a menubar menu, providing access to the commands. 


I turned off the toolbars and hid the menubar (menubar = 0) and called the command from the ribbon... okay, fine, I did it from the command line!

Click the "Explode Attributes" button, or type BURST, click to select your block, then right-click to complete the command. 

And there you have it, separate attribute values instead of the attribute definitions. 

(These steps also apply to AutoCAD, but Express Tools are installed and loaded by default in the last few releases.)


If you would like to see a short demonstration of exploding a block with attributes, without losing their current values, please feel free to check out this YouTube video.



If you want to try using BricsCAD, click here for more information. 

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