About Anonymous Blocks (AutoLISP)

The block definitions (BLOCK) table in a drawing can contain anonymous blocks (also known as unnamed blocks), that AutoCAD creates to support dynamic blocks, tables, hatch patterns, and associative dimensions.

The entmake function can create anonymous blocks other than *Tnnn (tables), *Dnnn (dimensions), and *Xnnn (hatch patterns). Unreferenced anonymous blocks are purged from the BLOCK definition table when a drawing is opened. Referenced anonymous blocks (those that have been inserted) are not purged. You can use entmake to create a block reference (insert object) to an anonymous block. (You cannot pass an anonymous block to the INSERT command.) Also, you can use entmake to redefine the block. You can modify the entities in a block (but not the block object itself) with entmod.

The name (dxf group code 2) of an anonymous block created by AutoLISP, ObjectARX, or Managed .NET has the form *Unnn, where nnn is a number generated by AutoCAD. Also, the low-order bit of an anonymous block's block type flag (dxf group code 70) is set to 1. When entmake creates a block whose name begins with * and whose anonymous bit is set, AutoCAD treats this as an anonymous block and assigns it a name. Any characters following the * in the name string passed to entmake are ignored.

Note: Anonymous block names do not remain constant. Although a referenced anonymous block becomes permanent, the numeric portion of its name can change between drawing sessions.