change xref block name

All,

I must be doing something stupid here, but I can't see what it is. Any insights
appreciated. Using 2004.

;; select an xref
;; enter new name
;; attempt to modify the name of the xref block definition
(defun cutXrefName ( / blocks blkref newname blkdef )
(setq blocks
(vla-get-blocks
(vla-get-activedocument
(vlax-get-acad-object))))
(setq blkref (vlax-ename->vla-object (car (entsel "Select xref: "))))
(setq newname (getstring "\nEnter new xref name: "))
(setq blkdef (vla-item blocks (vlax-get blkref 'Name)))
;check property is available and can be modified
(if (vlax-property-available-p blkdef 'Name T)
(progn
(print (vlax-get blkdef 'Name)) ;testing
(print newname) ;testing
(print)
(vlax-put blkdef 'Name newname)
)
)
) ;end

Command: putxrefname
Select xref:
Enter new xref name: whatever
"Site Civil OP3B"
"whatever"
; error: AutoCAD.Application: Invalid input << why?

TIA
Joe Burke

 

Hi Joe,

FWIW, it seems to work here; 2005. Not much help, huh? Sorry. I'm sure
you've already checked this, but might it be a file specific problem?

James

 

Worked here, and I'm on 2004 also.

Tim

 

It's working fine for my in both 2005 and 2002. The only way I could get it to fail was by attempting to run it while refeditting the xref I'm attempting to rename. But that generated a different error message. I agree with James in that it sounds file specific.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for checking.

Whatever the problem is, it must be a strange one. It still doesn't work (error) with
the two files I was testing with last night. So I tried xrefing the file that was
xrefed in those, into another file. Run the code... error. Then I changed the xref
name manually in xref manager. Just to be sure it could be changed. Run the code...
now it works, name changed, no error. What?

I'm going to have to play with it some more. No time for that now.

BTW, if anyone is wondering, why code for such a simple thing. It was part of
something else. I broke it out just to isolate the problem.

Joe Burke

 

Follow up after some more testing.

James,

Looks you nailed it regarding a file specific problem. Many thanks. No, I didn't
think of that.

What I did using the problematic xrefs. Made a copy of one of them and ran audit on
the renamed copy. It found and fixed 548 problems. Then I referenced the audited file
into one of the files which also references the not audited version. Run the code
selecting one xref and then the other. It changed the name of the audited xref as
expected. The not audited xref still tosses the error. I guess that's proof.

The loose end here is why manually changing a damaged xref file name allows the code
to work afterwards. I can only guess, that operation performs some check similar to
audit, which doesn't occur when the name is changed using the code.

Thanks to Tim and dblaha too.

Regards
Joe Burke