So far, we have worked with attributes that are visible in the drawing area, but you can make attributes invisible as well. There may be blocks where you want to keep some of its information hidden from the drawing, such as the name of the manufacturer of a chair block or the name of the person in the cubicle tag that we made in the preceding example. For these kinds of blocks, you can make invisible attributes that, by default, won't show in the drawing area, but you can still see them by using some extra options:

In the following example, I will make an invisible attribute in the chair block using the drawing of the chair shown in the previous figure:

1. Click on the Define Attribute option of the expanded Block panel or use its command alias, ATTDEF.
2. Type MANUF for the tag and Enter manufacturer name in the Prompt field, then select the proper Text Settings, shown in the following screenshot.

3. Select Lock position and Invisible from the Mode panel. The Invisible mode will ensure that your attribute remains hidden when added to a block:

4. Click OK and then click somewhere close to the chair to place this attribute, as shown:

5. Now, select the Create Block option from the Block panel or use its command alias, B.
6. Enter the name of the block. In this example, I am naming it sample chair. Select the chair and the MANUF attribute and specify a base point for the block in the Block Definition window and click OK.
7. The block will be created and you will now see the Edit Attributes window, where you can add the name of the manufacturer. Type chair company for the manufacturer's name and click OK.

You will notice that the block will be added to your drawing but the attribute will not show up in the drawing as it was made using the invisible mode. To make this attribute visible, you can change the attribute display settings.

From the expanded Block panel, select Display All Attributes to show the hidden attribute and it will show up as next to the chair. By default, this setting is set to Retain Attribute Display, which keeps any invisible attributes invisible and other attributes visible. You can also hide all the attributes—visible or invisible—using the Hide All Attributes option:

So, this was all about making attributes and blocks containing attributes. As you can see, the application of these tools is endless and the reusable nature of blocks makes this tool even more useful. So, before we begin the next chapter, let's summarize the content we have learned and the topics we will be learning in the next chapter.