When attributes drift out of step — one tag at the wrong height, another on the wrong layer — fixing them one at a time through Properties is tedious and easy to get half-done. ATTCLONE is a format painter for attributes: pick one that looks right, then keep picking the ones that should match.
What AttClone does
Pick a source attribute whose appearance is correct, then keep picking attributes that should look the same. Height, style, layer, rotation, oblique angle, width factor, the colour-bearing properties and both mirror flags are all carried across.
Both prompts use nested selection, so attributes are picked directly inside their block references. Nothing has to be exploded and no block editor has to be opened.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
ATTCLONE. - Pick the source attribute — the one that already looks right.
- Pick each attribute that should match it. Carry on picking; the source stays fixed.
- Press Enter or Escape to finish.
How it works
The attribute’s value is deliberately left alone. This is the most important thing about the routine, and it is a design decision rather than an oversight. Attributes are how drawings carry real data — door numbers, room names, title block fields, revision references. A tool that silently overwrote that data while claiming to fix formatting would be genuinely dangerous, and the damage would not be visible until somebody read the schedule. Only appearance is touched.
The property list is meant to be edited. AttClone:Properties near the top of the file is a plain list of ActiveX property names. Delete a line to stop that property being copied — drop Layer, for instance, if you want the text to match but each attribute to stay where it lives. Add a line to include something else the attribute exposes.
To see the full set of property names available on an attribute, run XRAY from this library on one. Every name it reports can go in the list.
Notes and limits
- Values are never copied. If you actually want to push the same value into many attributes, that is a different job — see ATTPUSH in AttHarvest.
- Nested selection means no exploding. Attributes are picked in place, inside their blocks.
- Constant attributes cannot be targets. They belong to the block definition, not the insertion, so there is no per-instance formatting to change.
- Everything is one undo group, so a single
Uputs every changed attribute back.
Download and details
| Name | AttClone — match attribute formatting from a source to many targets |
| Download | AttClone.lsp — 8.1 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Command | ATTCLONE |
| Requires | the ActiveX layer (loaded automatically by the routine with vl-load-com). |
| Source size | 8.1 KB, 216 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
- ATTPULL and ATTPUSH LISP — read and write attribute values across a folder
- TAGTINT LISP — recolour chosen attribute tags across many blocks
- XRAY LISP — list every property an object exposes
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program