Orthographic dwg generating as blank view

[Stumble]

I'm in Aplant3D 2014 and trying to generate an orthographic drawing from the model (for the first time in this software).  It looks like I'm following all the correct steps and setting the view area for desired view in the ortho editor.  With the paper check feature it looks like the scale is good for the display.  The orthoeditor is viewing 3 selected dwgs in the project which amounts to a floor plan with equipment and piping.  Once the ortho view is generated and up to date, the viewport is BLANK with nothing visible.

Help Please!?

Thanks,

Mike

[JarrodMudford]

Make sure all the models you are including in your view, are part of the AutoCAD Plant3D project. If the files appear in the Project Manager then they are in the project.

[Stumble]

They are all part of the project.  I have found after research that the equipment in the file was given to us by the equipment vendors as a 3D solid then we converted to equipment.  It seems there is something about the equip that APlant doesn't like.  With the equip placed in another project file and xref'ed as an overlay, I can at least get the piping and bldg geometry.  I'm still working on getting the equipment to cooperate.

Thanks, for you help,

Mike

[phwatso]

I found that we have to insert equipment models as a block and then convert, if we xref and then convert, the equipment does not display in the views.

[rod]

I am having the same problem.  I am using 2015.  Everything worked fine in 2014.  My problem seems to be with instruments that we added to the specifications.  We imported 3d models from the vendor for the instruments, converted them to blocks and then converted used plantpartconvert to add them to the specs.  I have tried removing the parts and recreating them in R2015, but have not had any luck.  If I remove those parts from the model the ortho works fine.

[JohnHolder]

Are the xref's ATTACHED or OVERLAY If they are OVERLAY they will not show up.

[rod]

They are attached as overlays.  

Nothing is showing up even the base model that has all of the piping in it.  I have selected two xrefed models in the model selection of the view creation.  I only needed the pipe and the structrural steel for the ortho.  It seems to be related to some of the instruments that we imported from .stp files and converted to parts.  They worked fine in R2014, but since we migrated to R2015 no luck.  I am having the same problem with all of the ortho's that I created in R2014

[JohnHolder]

Not sure if this will work for you or not, but should be quick to test.

I make a specific Ortho Master file for some drawings.

Name it O-OrthoName or whatever you want.

Then XREF all relevent files into the O-OrthoName file - have only XREF files in here all as ATTACH. - no nested XREFS

then generate your ortho drawing and see if it works.

[rod]

That seems to work very well.

Thanks

Rod Soule

[Anonymous]

Does that master Xref method work with speeding up ortho generation.

[Anonymous]

I have multiple users, in a project that is based on an SQL server. Response times are shocking, especially for ortho creation. Admittedly some views have complex models.

[rod]

Yes.  It is working much better.  Some of the imported objects in the model still cause a problem, but I know which ones they are and can work around them.

[Snomatic_Autocad]

Bad blocks.

Don't ask me what is bad.

I have exploded, converted to regions, stripped objects out, etc.

No joy.

It does seem to depend on AutoCAD Plant 3d version.

I pulled in a legacy 3d piping drawing and tried to reuse after copying to current project..

Blank Ortho images.

Deleted blocks until I found it was Gould pump I got from a vendor.

I suspect too complex geometry.

Even having the block in the drawing after deleting ones used in the drawing caused it to blank.

After block was deleted and purged, viewport worked.

Again, depends on AutoCAD Plant 3D version, 2018 is not playing.

Wish there was a way to fix this.

[darrelldixon]

---

@Snomatic_Autocad wrote:

Bad blocks.

Deleted blocks until I found it was Gould pump I got from a vendor.

I suspect too complex geometry.

Wish there was a way to fix this.

---

Or at least have Plant give some indication of what object it's having trouble with to make it easier to find among hundreds of parts in a model.

[Snomatic_Autocad]

Ya,

First time it happened was a small vendor block from a controls company.

I window deleted chunks of the drawing until drilled down to it.

Looked fine, exploded, cleaned, reblocked.

No go.

It is either to many surfaces or some sort of bad blend.

The ortho is totally blank.

I remember at one time the script puking and saying something about limits.