About Extracting Data from Block Attributes

After you attach attributes to blocks, you can query the block attribute information and use it to generate documentation about your drawing.

Extracting attribute information is an easy way to produce a schedule or bill of materials directly from your drawing data. For example, a facilities drawing might contain blocks representing office equipment. If each block has attributes identifying the model, manufacturer, and cost of the equipment, you can generate a report that estimates the equipment costs.

Output to a File

If you save the data to an external file, the comma-separated (CDF), space delimited (SDF), and data extraction (DXX) formats are available. You can use the following commands to extract attribute information:

• -ATTEXT - Extracts attribute information using a template file that describes which attribute values to extract.
• EXPORT - Extracts attribute information from a drawing into a DXX file format. DXX is a file format similar to DXF except it only contains attribute information.