AutoCAD Burst Command

by Jeff Weber
(Vincennes)

AutoCAD's "Burst" is another very useful command. There have been many times when I get drawing from a client where they have used a lot of attributes.

I really like using attributes when they are needed, but there are times when I just need some plain old run of the mill text.

So when I get the drawing from the client and I try to edit what I think is regular text, a dialogue box comes up.

This happened to me just the other day.

A client sent me a schedule that was created using attributes.

I needed to edit several things in this schedule but when I double clicked on it the attribute dialogue box appeared.

The problem?

Since it was a schedule, a lot of the information was the same or similar.

If I wanted to change the schedule I would have had to use trial and error to figure out which attribute(s) I needed to change.

Since it was a large schedule, it would have taken a lot of time to do this and there is a faster way.

After I figured out that I could not just edit the text like I wanted to, I started the BURST command.

BURST was originally just an Express Tool command.

When it was first introduced into AutoCAD you had to make sure that you had installed the Express Tools.

Now with 2010 it, along with the rest of the Express Tools, is already installed.

So if you have an older version of AutoCAD you may need to go back to your AutoCAD installation CD and install the Express Tools.

Now, after I initiated the command AutoCAD wants to know what I want to BURST.

In this case I select the schedule and AutoCAD goes to work.

You will see a little spinning indicator on the command line that lets you know it is working.

Depending on the number of attributes, the amount of time it takes to complete this step may vary.

Now that AutoCAD has finished I can go to my schedule and double click on the text that I want to edit.

Since it is now text it is easier and faster to work with and if your boss is the typical boss, faster is always better.