Inserting blocks into a Promis*e drawing from plain AutoCAD

I'm wondering if I open a .dwg that was created via Promis*e V8i in plain AutoCAD or AutoCADe, and insert a block, will this corrupt the Promis*e database or project?  The block would be very basic and have no Promis*e-smart entities or layers.

  • You could insert the Acad block while opening and using the drawing in Promis.e. All the regular Acad commands are still available to you for use with plain Acad objects. We just caution that you should not use plain Acad tools on intelligent Promis.e objects. It is not uncommon to want to insert some existing plain acad graphical object that you want to use, but that has not need for intelligence. But having said that, there is no reason you couldn't do the same in Acad itself outside of promis.e, again, as long as you avoid editing or touching any of intelligent promis.e items, including texts. You should also be cautious of making sure you are using a compatible Acad version and don't do something like accidentally save the dwg in a format that doesn't match your promis.e version

    Answer Verified By: MagEngineerAaron 

  • Thanks Tani,
    This is for VBA script to run through and add or remove a block (stamp) on each drawing of a drawing set. Unless you know of another batch method to add/remove a block to all drawings...?
  • If you are capable with VBA, then feel free to write a script. For inserting a stamp on each page we have in the past used the Page Macro feature in Promis.e, typically for things like approval stamps, but that is done before the page is created, not to add something to existing pages. Some users have created titleblocks with stamps in them, and those could be swapped out at any time to add or remove the version with the stamp for one without a stamp, so that is more flexible. Another way would be to write a plugin with the API or to use the Project Builder to add the stamp block to every page. If you are comfortable with VBA though, that is a perfectly acceptable solution.
  • I am considering adding the stamps through VBA code to access the files in their folder (outside of Promise). If we run within Promise, running a next page routine, we can't gain control back to continue adding stamps throughout the project. Essentially our subroutine adds a stamp, ends with the calling of the next page routine (it does indeed go to the next page), but the VBA is then stopped. Is there some other way to call the next page routine and gain access back to the VBA routine we have written?

    It ends right now with:
    ThisDrawing.SendCommand "ECAD_EXEC_NEXTPAGE" & vbCr