Tipster Danny Korem sends us a tip he first gave to a client of his that needed to globally change attributes in AutoCAD files.

"In my last training session, I worked with a client who uses paper-space layouts, but is not familiar with sheet sets. For that reason, he created a title block that is managed separately for each layout. The title block holds some attributes, and the client wondered if it is possible to modify a specific attribute that resides in an array of blocks globally. I answered with tons of confidence, 'Of course it's possible!'

"This morning I woke up and it was clear that the best place to search for the solution is among the Express Tools. This time I looked for GATTE, a global attribute-editing machine that is all but clumsy. Though it's not a young piece of code, it's friendly and you won't be prompted to type attribute tag names or values, just to select. It will work when you select anywhere within the block, so it will satisfy my client as well. I invite you to try it, I'm sure you'll like it."
 
Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: GATTE is simple to use; it allows you to globally change the value of an attribute tag in every instance of the block that's inserted in your file. This is a great tool for updating title blocks, as in the tip. Start the command, select the block you need to change, select the attribute, and type in the new value. You can't use GATTE to change just one block, though — it's all of them or nothing. But it really is a fast command. It would be nice if you could enter in a field instead of just text, but the code has been around for a while.