Can't delete or purge unused blocks

[jackt]

Have some files developed over serveral versions of A-CAD and includes stuff from client drawings. There are blocks that will not delete. Even went so far as doing a SaveAs and then deleted all items from Model Space, all existing tabs in Paper Space (Acad put up a new Layout1tab). I then deleted all layers except 0, and all xref and I still have a bunch of unused blocks.  When clicking on the list of things Purge will not delete there are listings with an * as the lead character that I suspect are the culprets that contain over 50 blocks that Purge won't let me delete.

Thanks in advance for any help in getting rid of this clutter.

[mathewkol · Accepted solution]

If the file came from a vertical application such as Civil 3D those blocks could be in use by objects you can't see or edit. Try the exporttoacad tool to save a new dwg and try again.

Google superpurge, that could help as well.

[jackt]

Thanks Matt!

Doing the exporttoacad was a whole lot faster than copying and pasting all the model/paper space elements to 23 new drawings just to get rid of unused baggage.

[mathewkol]

Glad to help.

[bham4ever · Accepted solution]

And if you go to purge and toggle "View items you cannot purge" you see them.

Well this is a problem solver for you.

You want to clean the drawing and you want to keep all your paperspace tabs so you will end up with a clean drawing.

1) use the command   -wblock

2) enter a new name

3) enter *    (that will tell Autocad to create a new drawing with everything in it)

4) close the old drawing don't save and open your new clean drawing with all your paperspace tabs, your done!

[jackt]

That works too. Thanks bham. BTW is that Bellingham, WA?

[bham4ever]

YOUR WELCOME...........

Took me a little while to figure that one out, but what a time saver ..for sure.

And it's Birmingham Al.

[Murph_Map]

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@bham4ever wrote:

YOUR WELCOME...........

And it's Birmingham Al.

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Perhaps an old customer of ours? ALACAD 

[srestmeyer]

Is there any reason why the -wblock method won't work in LiSP?

(command "-wblock" (strcat (getvar "dwgprefix") "CLEAN_" (getvar "dwgname"))"*")

When I run the -wblock manually it cleans the drawing, but when I run it in LiSP it goes through without errors, but the new file is the same size as the old one.

Any help is appreciated.

Scott

[mseN827L]

Hi guys

I have the same problem but the Wblock wont do the trick is there something im doing wrong

I dont know if it can be a factor the unused block I need to get rid are in other blocks?

Can someone help me 

thanks

[schang2185]

Hi,

Do you know what AutoCAD is doing when you go through the process:

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@bham4ever wrote:

1) use the command   -wblock

2) enter a new name

3) enter *    (that will tell Autocad to create a new drawing with everything in it)

4) close the old drawing don't save and open your new clean drawing with all your paperspace tabs, your done!

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I thought "wblock" creates blocks, not cleans up files.

[RobertGibbs531]

This worked for me. Very fast and easy.

[bham4ever]

Glad to hear it.

Since I showed it to our users they have made it a easy way to clean out a drawing, hasn't failed us ...yet.

[schang2185]

It's worked pretty well for me too.

FYI:
One problem that we ran into while using it was that it didn't transfer over saved layer states to the new file.

[bham4ever]

That is true, but you can export out the Layerstate from your old drawing and import it back in to the new drawing.

[mrgrotey]

I just had this problem but the -wblock method didn't work for me. The file I was working with was a block that uses block authoring items like visibility states, flip etc and I was temporarily pasting in other block to trace round. For some reason, when I was hiding the temp block (for the current state only) it was visually, completely removing it for all states (not just greying it out, making it completely invisible) it then kept it in the file's memory and wouldn't let me purge it. Solution: As you can't use purge when in the block editor anyway I had to open the block but say 'No' when prompted if I want to open the editor, then use quick select (qselect) and choose the block by name. It would then select the block and all instances of it (albeit not visually, but confirmation was shown in the command line) then you need to hit 'delete'. After this purge would work. and the temp block was gone.

[resnyder]

wblock is different than -wblock. That could be your problem.

[resnyder]

Also could be DGN items originally from Civil Microstation files. These items get copy/pasted invisibly into dwg after dwg after dwg even if you just copy one line, and you can't see them or Purge them, and -wblock isn't working for me for every drawing. 2013+ has a Hotfix and 2015+ has incorporated DGN into Purge command. Or you can DXF out, and then Purge/Audit, and then save back to DWG.

[mrcasper]

It works for me. Nice tip!

[Dragan_Ristic2]

Worked Great. Thanks!