unit block

A block, which is drawn one unit long and one unit wide, and is designed to be scaled to fit each circumstance. Unit blocks can be any shape, but must have 1 x 1 dimensions. When a standard defines dimensions as well as a unit block, asset inserting adds the specified unit block to the drawing and parametrically scales it according to the dimensions. Therefore, unit blocks can be repeatedly used to represent items that have the same shape but differ in size or aspect ratio.

For example, suppose you define a unit block that resembles a chair (block C1, with 1 x 1 dimensions) and then create two chair standards in the Furniture Standards table. CHAIR1 defines a large chair and specifies the C1 block and a large depth and width; CHAIR 2 defines the smaller chair and specifies the C1 block and smaller dimensions. Asset insert CHAIR1 and the program parametrically scales block C1 according to the large dimensions; asset insert CHAIR2 and the program parametrically scales block C1 according to its small dimensions. The result is two blocks depicting two chairs, each drawn at different proportions. See also asset inserting, standards table.