Bring block defenition into drawing without being displayed.

I need block PCSACO2a in my drawing so I can use it as a custom arrowhead.
Right now I have my routine check to see if it exists and if it doesn't
insert then delete it. Is there a better way? I'd rather not see it flash on
the screen for a second but my method seems to work. I'm always looking for
a better mouse trap. Any ideas?


(if (= (tblsearch "block" "PCSAC02a") NIL)
(progn
(command "_.insert" "PCSAC02a.dwg" (getvar "viewctr") 1 1 0)
(command "_.erase" (entlast) "")
)
)

 

You can cancel the Insert once it has brought in the definition, which it
does as soon as you give it the name, so as to be able to drag it to an
insertion point. There's no need to even get as far as giving it an
insertion point, much less the scales and rotation. If you don't even want
to see it appear at your cursor location momentarily for dragging into
place, you can turn dragmode off, call up Insert, give it the name, cancel,
then reset dragmode.

And by the way, you don't need to check whether it's in the drawing already.
That would only matter if it was in there, but with the wrong definition,
and you wanted to update the definition from the external drawing. But in
that case you'd want a routine that would anticipate the question of whether
you want to replace it, and provide the Yes answer. If that's not the
situation, plain old inserting (or starting to, anyway) will do just fine,
whether it's already in there or not.

 

(if (not (tblsearch "block" "PCSAC02a") )
(progn
(command "_.insert" "PCSAC02a.dwg");gets the block def in the drawing
(command);cancels the insert command
)
)