The new smart block functionality offers placement suggestions based on where you've placed that block before in the drawing and replace specified block references by selecting from a palette of suggested similar blocks.
Block Placement
The new automatic block placement capability is now enabled for blocks inserted using the Blocks palette to help you place blocks more easily and save you time.
The block placement engine learns how the existing block instances are placed in your drawing to infer the next placement of the same block. As you insert a block from the Blocks palette to your drawing, the engine gives placement suggestions close to a similar geometry where you've placed that block before.
For example, if you've already placed a chair block close to the corner of a wall, when inserting another instance of that same chair block, AutoCAD automatically positions the chair as you move it close to a similar corner. As you move the block, the walls are highlighted, and the position, rotation, and scale of the chair block are adjusted to match the other block instance. You can click to accept the suggestion, press Ctrl to switch to other suggestions, or move the cursor away to ignore the current suggestion. To temporarily turn off suggestions when placing a block, hold Shift+W or Shift+[ while inserting or moving your block.
Block Replacement
When you select block references to replace, the product suggests similar blocks for you to select from. You can also replace the selected blocks with another block you specify from a drawing or from a list of recently inserted or created blocks. The replaced block references retain the scale, rotation, and attribute values of the original block.
The first time you complete a block replacement, a consent dialog box displays requesting access to your block data. Sharing your content data that's used during block replacement helps AutoCAD improve the block suggestions and other functionality of the Smart Blocks feature.
You can still use the block replacement feature even if you opt out from having your data used for product improvement.
Important Notes
- Block replacement uses machine learning algorithms to generate suggestions based on the block name and visual similarities of existing blocks. Machine learning heavily relies on data, so insufficient block data may result to inaccurate suggestions. Granting access to your block data can help improve the accuracy of block suggestions. To enable data collection, set the BLOCKSDATACOLLECTION system variable to 1.
- Block suggestions can be based from the collections of block definitions stored in drawing files. Adding more block libraries can provide more meaningful and relevant suggestions.