draw.Drawing

Methods

⌂ draw.Drawing

Method Reference: draw.Drawing.block

draw.Drawing: D = block (D, NAME, B)

Define a named block from another drawing.

A block is a drawing kept once and placed as often as wanted by insert. Nothing of it appears until it is inserted; defining one adds no entity.

Redefining a name replaces the definition, and every insert of it takes the new geometry, which is the point of a block, and the reason a drawing that repeats a feature two dozen times should use one.

A drawing has one layer table, which its blocks share, as in a DXF file. The layers of B the drawing lacks are added to it; a layer it has already keeps its own properties. Draw a symbol on layer '0' to have it take the layer of each insert placing it.

See also: draw.Drawing.insert, draw.Drawing.merge, draw.Drawing.transform

Source Code: draw.Drawing

A repeated feature is better held as a block and referred to, which keeps the drawing --- and the file it becomes --- to one definition.

 bore = draw.Drawing ().circle ([0, 0], 5).line ([-8, 0], [8, 0]);
 D = draw.Drawing ('flange').circle ([0, 0], 45).block ('bore', bore);
 for k = 1:6
   a = 2 * pi * (k - 1) / 6;
   D = D.insert ('bore', 30 * [cos(a), sin(a)]);
 endfor
 printf ('%d entities, six of them placing the one block\n', ...
         numentities (D));
7 entities, six of them placing the one block
 printf ('%d once expanded\n', numentities (D.expand ()));
13 once expanded
 plot (D);
 title ('a bolt circle from one block definition');
plotted figure