TAGSHED converts attribute definitions (ATTDEF) into plain TEXT objects. The typical use is a block full of attribute definitions that should have been static text all along, where you want to strip the attribute behaviour without redrawing the annotation.
What TagShed does
Every formatting group that TEXT and ATTDEF share — position, height, rotation, style, justification, oblique angle, width factor, colour — is copied straight across, so the replacement text lands in exactly the same place, at the same size, in the same style.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Open the block in the block editor, or work on attribute definitions sitting in model space.
- Type
TAGSHED. - Select the attribute definitions to convert.
How it works
An ATTDEF carries two strings, and choosing between them is the one judgement in the routine. DXF group 2 is the tag name; DXF group 1 is the prompt or default value.
What you see on screen in the block editor is the tag, so the tag is what gets carried across into the replacement TEXT object. Taking the default value instead would produce text that matches what the attribute would have displayed once filled in — which is not what was on screen, and not what anybody looking at the block editor expects to keep.
Notes and limits
- The tag is used, not the default value. That is what was visible.
- This is one-way in practice. One undo reverses it; after that, turning text back into attribute definitions is manual.
- The attribute behaviour goes with it. The block will no longer prompt for these values on insertion.
- One undo group covers the selection.
Download and details
| Name | TagShed — convert attribute definitions into plain text objects |
| Download | TagShed.lsp — 5.6 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Command | TAGSHED |
| Requires | nothing beyond a CAD platform with AutoLISP. |
| Source size | 5.6 KB, 129 lines |
| Error handling | Yes — a *error* handler restores every system variable it changed, on cancel as well as on error. |
| Undo | The whole operation is wrapped in a single undo group, so one U reverses all of it. |
| Compatibility | AutoCAD (any release with AutoLISP), BricsCAD, ZWCAD, GstarCAD, ProgeCAD and other IntelliCAD-based platforms. AutoCAD LT needs a LISP enabler. No .NET, no ObjectARX, no installer. |
| Author | YZ, August 2026 |
| Licence | Free to use, supplied “as is” with no warranty. |
References
- SMARTBURST LISP — turning attribute values into text when bursting a block
- ATTCLONE LISP — matching attribute formatting instead of converting it
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program