Drawing 2d in Autocad and it turns in 3d

[m_blaine]

I'm drawing in 2d, absolutely nothing is in 3d. Sometimes i'll draw a line and use a numerical value to tell the line how long to go. Let's say 52mm. Then i took a distance of that line and it tells me the distance is something like 1275.3854 but the Delta X is 52mm. It looks to me like the line is being drawn on a different axis i can't see. I would rotate the drawing to check but it's a very large file and freezes when i do so. Why would the line be drawn on a seperate axis? Is there something i can do to fix this?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

m_blaine wrote:
> I'm drawing in 2d, absolutely nothing is in 3d. Sometimes i'll draw a line and use a numerical value to tell the line how long to go. Let's say 52mm. Then i took a distance of that line and it tells me the distance is something like 1275.3854 but the Delta X is 52mm. It looks to me like the line is being drawn on a different axis i can't see. I would rotate the drawing to check but it's a very large file and freezes when i do so. Why would the line be drawn on a seperate axis? Is there something i can do to fix this?
>
> Thanks.
>

Sounds like your coordinate system has been rotated unintentionally, or
some objects have been drawn off the WCS.

Turn the UCSICON on, set UCS to W, and set the view to plan.
Be sure to turn off the DUCS button down next to OSNAP.

Since some objects have probably been drawn out of the UCS XY plane, you
will need to correct them before going any further, otherwise snapping
to them will create even more messed-up objects. Look at the drawing in
an isometric view, or use 3dorbit, to see which these are.

We feel your pain.

-Bill

[Anonymous]

Highlight the problem line and look at the Start "Z"and End "Z" values in
the Properties palette. They are probably different, so you can change both
to "0" if that is the desired elevation. That just takes care of that line
and doesn't address the real problem.

Are you snapping to an endpoint when picking the first endpoint of the new
line? If you are, it is probably grabbing the "Z" elevation of that picked
point to start the new line. If your current elevation is set to "0", then
your 2nd point (that you are specifying with a specific "X" or "Y" distance)
will have a "Z" elevation of "0". That means that you have a sloping line
which looks fine in plan plan, but won't if you look at it in an elevation
view.

Autodesk has added a variable named "OSNAPZ" which helps with this. If you
type "OSNAPZ" and set it to "1", when you snap to an existing endpoint, it
ignores the "Z" value of the point to which you are snapping and uses the
current "Z" elevation. It basically eliminates the problem which it sounds
like you are seeing. There is also a little icon toggle for this setting at
the lower right corner of your status bar, just to the right of the
Elevation setting. (Note that this elevation setting is what is being used
for the "Z" coordinates for any point not specifyng the Z" value.)

Existing "Z" values are not changed when using "OSNAPZ", but it helps keep
the problem from happening with new points as long as you keep that value
saved.

Also note that you may not think that you are drawing in 3D, but I have seen
a lot of blocks created with 3D points even though there seemed to be
nothing 3D about them. When those blocks are used, then the above problems
result.

I hope that takes care of your issue.


Doug
www.dougbowersconsulting.com
blog: http://aectechtalk.wordpress.com



"m_blaine" wrote in message news:6285091@discussion.autodesk.com...
I'm drawing in 2d, absolutely nothing is in 3d. Sometimes i'll draw a line
and use a numerical value to tell the line how long to go. Let's say 52mm.
Then i took a distance of that line and it tells me the distance is
something like 1275.3854 but the Delta X is 52mm. It looks to me like the
line is being drawn on a different axis i can't see. I would rotate the
drawing to check but it's a very large file and freezes when i do so. Why
would the line be drawn on a seperate axis? Is there something i can do to
fix this?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Always a fun problem.

Doug and Bill covered a lot of the hows and whys. You also want to check to make sure your elevation is set to 0 in the drawing.

To fix it -since you said it freezes up when you try to rotate it- you might want to w-block it into several smaller pieces and check the side and iso views to see what else is floating out there. I think you'll discover it's a lot more than you anticipated, and you problaby have some lines or objects with a thickness that's screwing up your drafting. This has been the case when I've gone into 2d files over the years to resolve this same problem.

Here's a macro you can apply to a button that will help.

-ch;all;p;e;0;t;0;;elevation;0;;

It will change your elevation to 0, change the elevation of any stray objects to 0 and reduce thicknesses to 0 as well. You still should check the iso and side views, because it will not affect objects within blocks and you want to catch those as well.

If you get a warning about being unable to change the elevation of objects with different Z-coordinates, you'll want to use a variant of Doug's suggestion with the properties bar. In very large drawings I would do a crossing window in small sections, then select "lines" from the object type dropdown. You can then change all the z coordinates to "0" at once.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[Darin.Green]

Blaine,

To resolve your issue, type THICKNESS in the command line and change the value to 0.