AutoCAD Electrical 2021 – Splitting Attribute Values Across Multiple Lines

by Miles Nicholson

Generally within AutoCAD® Electrical each component’s attribute data is displayed on a single line of text.  The exception to this is that a Description can be split easily across 3 description lines:

Moreover common descriptions can be saved as a company standard ensuring company standardisation of abbreviations and/or descriptions across multiple engineers.

Select 

Select  to add the description.

If you  using Notepad, adding a “|” symbol in the long description will allow you to either split the description text potentially across 3 description lines, or as a single description value where the “|” is effectively a carriage return.

Component TAG’s can also be easily split by having the attributes TAG1_PART1 & TAG1_PART2; TAG2_PART1 & TAG2_PART2. This is typically done within P&ID drawings. More information on this can be found:

Split Component TAGs

However what about other attributes that don’t have 3 associated attributes or what about splitting the description into further lines?

Although the title of this article relates to AutoCAD® Electrical, the splitting of an attribute into multiple lines is applicable across all versions of AutoCAD® using the following methodology.

This can either be done within the symbol within the library, or within the specific block on your schematic. In the below example, we are going to change DESC1 attribute into a multiline attribute, on the fly, so that the description text can be split across even more lines.

Select Home ribbon tab > Block panel > Edit or type BEDIT at the command line.

Select the block from the list of the blocks within the current drawing you wish to edit:

Select 

Highlight the attribute you wish to change to a multiline attribute.

Right click >

Scroll down the Properties dialogue and change the Multiple lines value to Yes.

Now change the Boundary width which has become available from the change above:

Select  

Save the changes.

Select Home ribbon tab > Block panel > >  Synchronise Attributes or type ATTSYNC at the command line.

Type S or select S on the command line.

Pick the symbol you’ve just modified.

Type Y or select Yes on the command line.

The text will be split across multiple lines based on the Boundary width defined whilst editing the block. Some attributes may become visible/invisible dependent upon their norm within the library symbol. These can be turned ON/OFF using right click Attributes > List/Edit.