by Martin Phelps
Introduced in AutoCAD 2024 is the automatic “Block” placement. The idea behind this function is to quickly place “Blocks”, which are dragged from the “Blocks” pallet. The “Insertion” of the selected block is based on the previously inserted points of that “Block”.
The “Block” placement engine learns how the selected “Block” has been placed previously in the drawing and gives the user alternative options, which are highlighted in orange. Pressing the “CTRL” key allows the user to cycle through the various options that may be available. In the example below, the “Desk Block” has first been positioned in the first room on the left, then again in the room to the right of the first room, when the same “Block” is inserted in to the third room, the potential alignments are shown in orange, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
This seems like a useful function, however currently I find it more of a hindrance than an advantage, so for the time being it gets turned off.
The “Auto-placement” function can be turned off in the lower section of the “Blocks” pallet, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
As an alternative method to turning off this function, type in “AUTOPLACEMENT”, this is the system variable that controls this function. Change the default value of “1” to “0”, the “Auto-placement” function is now turned off.
Note: - If the “AUTOPLACEMENT”, system variable is set to “0”, checking or unchecking the box in the “Blocks” pallet, currently seems to have no effect, and the “AUTOPLACEMENT” remains off.