Creating a block instance that sits in same location but doesnt replace existing instance...how?

Hi,
V5
I see a video on youtube of an ’ I beam’ being updated by altering existing then saving it as block and selecting the name of the existing beam.
on a side note I try that by the way and it says cannot name it an existing name !

I however need to create a block and have it located in the same locations as the current block.

How is this done ?

Steve

If you want to edit an existing block (and all of the instances of that block that you have inserted), use BlockEdit (you can also double click on the block you want to edit).

If you want to replace a few existing block instances with a new block, use ReplaceBlock.

Hi,
Not replace and not edit, but create a completely new block and make it sit in all the places where the other instances are.

So I am seeing domes rivets and also spheres same location.
latter for cutting out drill markers for the rivets.

Steve

If you already have all your rivets placed as blocks, probably the easiest would be to edit the rivet block so that it now contained a block of the rivet (nested) and the sphere marker. You could then select the result and explode it, so you would be left with separate rivet blocks and spheres.

Sam

Hi Sam,
I think I follow that…um… The ref point for the rivet is the centre base of a shallow dome, and its the centre of a sphere, both to be on a circle, I shall need to understand

Hope I get time to explore that way. Seeing it done would be good for me, until I get a chance to learn blocks more, I have only just started out with them.

Steve

Blocks are handy if you have a large number of perfectly repeated parts that all need to be identical except for where they are located in the model. This particularly useful if you have no direct control over the component. This might happen if a particular sub component were required. Think of a home with 5 of the same toilets.
Then if the toilet model specification were changed, you can edit the geometry in one place, and all of the instances will update.

If you don’t have a lot of repeated geometry, then Blocks aren’t that useful.

In this case I need to also then place someone on each toilet.
A video or link to Sams method would be good for me,

I have rings of rivets on this item so repeated geometry seemed to warrant blocks. It stops V5 from acting up, initially I was getting part of the screen update and the rest was frozen in time when I shove handed ortho or perp views, using blocks has seen that stop, annoying though as I have this supposed awesome GTX970. yet rhino was felled by a ring of rivets !

Steve