Mastering AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008

Early in this book, you learned how to create blocks, which are assemblies of AutoCAD objects. Blocks enable you to form parts or symbols that can be easily reproduced. Furniture, bolts, doors, and windows are a few common items that you can create with blocks. And as you saw in later chapters, whole rooms and appliances can be made into blocks. There is no limit to a block's size.
AutoCAD also offers a feature called attributes that allows you to store text information as a part of a block. For example, you can store the material specifications for a bolt or other mechanical part that you've converted into a block. If your application is architecture, you can store the material, hardware, and dimensional information for a door or window that has been converted into a block. By storing this information in a block, you can quickly gather information about that block that may not be obvious from the graphics.
Attribute text can be set up to be invisible, or it can be displayed as text in the drawing. If it's invisible, you can easily view the attribute information by double-clicking the block that contains the attribute. The attribute information is displayed in a dialog...