AutoCAD lines are jagged and disconnected

[alexandra.seager]

My 2013 AutoCAD file needs to "regen" after just scrolling in and out once. I can't do anything because the lines are disconnected and jagged all of a sudden. This started a few hours ago after I drew a spiral staircase and blocked it. I noticed the lines were all of a sudden not connecting while drawing the stairs though. Is there a command that I might have accidently typed to change some type of format? or unit set up? I have been working on this file since September and this problem has never occured. The lines look fine from far away, but when you zoom in there's a clear separation. My snaps are on and they seem to be aligning when I click, but when you zoom in they're not touching at all. I've been googling for soooo long and can't find an answer. My units are 1/8" (Architectural) and when I check the dimension between the two lines it says it's 0". Pleeeeease help!!!! Thank you!!!!!!

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

can you try to disable the hardware acceleration (command _3DCONFIG ==> manual tune) and do the same steps again?

I can't see any problems in the drawing too, so I guess it's more depending on something around that drawing, e.g. graphic card (btw: what GC and what OS do you have?)

- alfred -

[alexandra.seager]

I think it might be a problem with the external hard drive. It's  a Seagate portable drive (Model: SRDOSPO). We tried plugging it in to 6 different computers and the same problem occurs each time. A new file doesn't have the problem though... only the files that have been sitting on the hard drive. Maybe they're corrupt?

The "regen" command only partially works in the file - if you zoom in more you can see the lines poking out of the circle or polygon. The other problem is that lines draws are "snapping" to an end but not closing flush. There is a slight gap there and it says the dimension is 0". We've been doing this all day and we can't get the work fixed. It happened all of a sudden at 7am this morning, so that's why we're thinking it may be the hard drive.

[alexandra.seager]

Hi Alfred,

Yes we are thinking it may be a corrupt file or something... strange that it's opening fine for other people, but all the computes we've tried are having the same issue. It's like there's a bug that counters "regen" and wont let two lines meet.

Alexandra

[dmiller11]

I went back in and fixed it  let me know if that helps

[nestly2]

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alexandra.seager wrote:

I think it might be a problem with the external hard drive. It's  a Seagate portable drive (Model: SRDOSPO). We tried plugging it in to 6 different computers and the same problem occurs each time. A new file doesn't have the problem though... only the files that have been sitting on the hard drive. Maybe they're corrupt?

The "regen" command only partially works in the file - if you zoom in more you can see the lines poking out of the circle or polygon. The other problem is that lines draws are "snapping" to an end but not closing flush. There is a slight gap there and it says the dimension is 0". We've been doing this all day and we can't get the work fixed. It happened all of a sudden at 7am this morning, so that's why we're thinking it may be the hard drive.

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Regarding the issue of the lines extending beyond the circle/polyline, that's a common display issue, but I'm able to resolve it with REGEN.  This is something every AutoCAD user will experience to some degree if zooming in tight enough.   If Regen doesn't fix it on your machine, then my guess is that your video display system may be underpowered.

The 2nd issue with "gaps" between lines is (apparently) because some of the lines are not precisely orthogonal.  You're reading a distance of "0" because the linear and angular display precision (UNITS command)  is set very low.  This doesn't affect AutoCAD's overall accuracy, only the degree of "rounding" that's applied/displayed to the user.

here's another demo of what I found --> http://www.screencast.com/t/qGy1jA7nED

[pendean]

I wonder if the problem is the description and not the actual file: the splines for example have too few points to be truly smooth at extreme zooms where lines stop meeting up.

This problem "suddenly" started at 7am too: you all need to stop and think about what made 7am different from an earlier time when everything worked fine.

[dmiller11]

 I tried an autocad file from a different usb and its doing the same thing as well  when it the past it was fine. Is there any solution for this?  Could making / redefining a block I created in the cad file do something like this?  Also what do you mean  by the problem being the description.?

[dmiller11]

How do I check to see and fix my video display?

[nestly2]

You said earlier that you were using Macs running Windows... I know virtually nothing about Macs, but if you have access to a PC that meets the minimum system requirements, perhaps test the file on there, as the drawing seems to display properly on my Windows based PC's.

As a quick test, I WBLOCKed part of your drawing into "clean" drawing file.  Do you have the same problem with lines overlapping curves after REGEN in this file?

[dmiller11]

I use a pc at home and it still does the same thing and I tried a file from a different USB and it's corrupt as well

[pendean]

I looked at the last file you posted with notes in it:

1. Line adjacent line when zoomed close: sloppy drafting on your part. MOVE command and place that green line over the white line, use OSNAPS and dont eye-ball it. END the INT fixed it. Inattentive drafting.

2. Staircase treads extending outside circle: TRIM command fix them. Again, your not drafting accurately, you seem to be eye-balling it.

You seem keen to find an external fix to a badly drafted drawing file. Nothing more.

Start redrawing and fixing it, there is no cliff-notes fix for that messy file sadly.

[nestly2]

While I agree (and previously noted) that many of the lines are not precisely horizonal/vertical when they should be, I also don't think those inaccuracies are entirely responsible for the problems described.  As far as I can tell, there are no trimming inaccuracies between the lines (treads) and the arcs (railing) in the area the OP called attention to as being problematic.

[pendean]

Sadly the OP is inconsistently reporting problems hoping there is one fix, when we have all shown there are many problems. They also are unable to acknowledge they need to REGEN or REGENALL after extreme zooms.

Wonder what this new bad block story is all about.

Remember, these problems only started 7am yesterday 🙂

[dgorsman]

I tend to agree - its why I asked for a screen shot rather than the actual file.  To my mind there may not be any technical problem but rather one of understanding how AutoCAD displays curves.

For the OP: AutoCAD "cheats" while drawing curves on the screen, using line segments instead of true arcs.  This greatly speeds up working with the drawing.  If you zoom in substantially you will certainly SEE the lines not meeting up with the arcs, while calculated distances, intersects, etc. will indicate that they should.  This is not an error or a bug, just how objects are displayed.