Ok folks… I was playing around with Seamly2D and I was able to do this:
Can anyone catch it? With some work this could change how we draft. 
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You mysteriously got two basepoints on one block? What happens if you make another draft block now?
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It just creates a new draftblock and still works. Everything is still in order of creation so it all works… with the exception of what the base of the new pointname is. Here the 2nd draftblock has base point C… but is still using the base “A”
Minor issue… as we can switch the basename to what ever.
Think about it though… if we have an “Insert Basepoint” tool… we can have multiple blocks within a draftblock without an etch-e-sketch connection to some random point like we have to do now. Also each block can move on it’s own:
You could also change the history cursor pointer to point to the last tool in a block and append tools to that block or the default at the history end appending to last block.
BTW… In case you’re wondering what I did… I just combined all the common elements together from 2 draftblocks. 
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Like I said…this could change the way we draft. Since there could be multiple blocks within a draftblock, the basepoint could have a “rotation” attribute that would rotate the whole block… which you could then move independently next to or over another block to say check if 2 seams match up.
Hmmm… Or a block basepoint could have a “scale” factor.
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Oh, @Douglas , I love you to the moon & back!!! 
What if… we have a selection box that we can click on to say which draft block we’re working on (instead of the dropdown), that we could just click to add new points to the other “drawing board”, so that we don’t need to open the History and move the cursor down to the place? And this selection box has an “Eye” that can be opened or closed to control visiblity, like the groups?
I think that an option to place the Base point on top of another point may also be an added plus.
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What if we add a new “Blocks” dock where you can add or delete blocks, and it has the visibilty eye and lock like the groups. So adding a new block adds the basepoint. for the block. You would be able to show / hide, lock / unlock a block. Selecting the row of the blocks selects which block is active. i.e. sets the cursor pointer in the History to the end of the block. Something to be worked out.
The structure of the xml could be simplified. It would be like:
< pattern > < blocks > // represents the full history < block name = "block1" visible = "false"> ... // block 1 tools < /block > < block name = "block2" visible = "false"> ... // block 2 tools < /block > < block name = "block3" visible = "true"> ... // block 3 tools < /block > < /blocks > < modeling > ... < /modeling > < pieces > ... < /pieces > < groups > ... < /groups> < images > ... < /images > < /pattern >
In the basepoint tool there could be a an “anchor point”… where you could anchor the basepoint to another point on the board… or “None” of you want it to float. For ex: Say we have block A and block B… you anchor block B to point A1 in block A. Moving block A also moves block B. Block B is prevented from moving by moving basepoint B as it’s anchored to A1 in Block A.
The main thing to work out would be converting from the current schema to a new schema, but it would automatically solve this topic’s question:
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Does this impact the ability to reference lengths or points across different blocks? In both good or not so good ways.
And if so, I could associate this potentially helping you making a function that searches dependencies. The Am I off?
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No difference.
VS
But the history would now be:
VS
It might make it easier giving the History wouldrepresent the whole pattern, not just the active draft block.
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Yes. It means that there is functionally only one block as far as Seamly is concerned. Draw a line from C to B, then put a point on Line_B_A of Line_C_B length… Is it helpful? I don’t know, but it sure is entertaining!
I am a bit concerned that it may lead to more confusion regarding the interaction between different draft blocks, but with normal layer features like @Douglas has suggested, I am somewhat hopeful that it won’t be a huge deal.
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