Inserting a Symbol

Inserting a Symbol
You can recall the Tub and Toilet blocks at any time, as many times as you want. In this section,
you’ll first draw the interior walls of the bathroom, and then you’ll insert the tub and toilet. Follow
these steps to draw the walls:
1.
Delete the original tub and toilet drawings. Click the Erase tool in the Modify toolbar, and
then enter
All
↵↵
to erase the entire visible contents of the drawing. (Doing so has no effect
on the blocks you created previously.)
2.
Draw a rectangle 7´-6˝
×
5´. Metric users should draw a 228 cm
×
152 cm rectangle. Orient
the rectangle so the long sides go from left to right and the lower-left corner is at coordinate
1´-10˝,1´-10˝ (or coordinate 56.0000,56.0000 for metric users).
If you use the Rectangle tool to draw the rectangle, make sure you explode it by using the
Explode tool. This is important for later exercises. (See the “Unblocking and Redefining a
Block” section later in this chapter if you aren’t familiar with the Explode tool.) Your drawing
should look like Figure 4.1.
TIP
The Insert Block tool is also on the Insert toolbar, which you can open by right-clicking any
open toolbar and choosing Insert.



Now you’re ready to place your blocks. Start by placing the tub in the drawing:
1.
In the Draw toolbar, click the Insert Block tool, or type
I
↵
to open the Insert dialog box.


2.
Click the Name drop-down list to display a list of the available blocks in the current drawing.

3.
Click the block name Tub.
4.
In the Insertion Point group and Rotation group, click the Specify On-Screen check box. With
this option turned on in the Insertion Point group, you’re asked to specify an insertion point
using your cursor. The Specify On-Screen option in the Rotation group lets you specify the
rotation angle of the block graphically as you insert it.
5.
Click OK, and you see a preview image of the tub attached to the cursor. The upper-left
corner you picked for the tub’s base point is now on the cursor intersection.
6.
At the
Specify insertion point or [Basepoint/Scale/X/Y/Z/Rotate]:
prompt, pick
the upper-left intersection of the room as your insertion point.
7.
At the
Specify rotation angle <0>:
prompt, notice that you can rotate the block. This lets
you visually specify a rotation angle for the block. You won’t use this feature at this time, so
press
↵
to accept the default of 0. The tub should look like the one in Figure 4.2.

You’ve got the tub in place. Now, place the Toilet block in the drawing:
1.
Open the Insert dialog box again, but this time select Toilet in the Name drop-down list.
2.
Clear the Specify On-Screen check box in the Rotation group.
3.
Place the toilet at the midpoint of the line along the top of the rectangle representing the
bathroom wall, as shown in the bottom image in Figure 4.2. Notice that after you select
the insertion point, the toilet appears in the drawing; you aren’t prompted for a rotation
angle for the block.