Turn off all Z-coordinates in a drawing?

[Anonymous]

My office drafts plans for construction, and drafting these plans includes topographical lines, various survey points for elevations, and other civil type items. We use other companies' CAD files for these types of items; usually we import them as XReferences, and draw our own designs on top of them.

For our purposes, all we need to show exists in a 2D plane. Many of the civil XReferences we import however, have Z coordinates. If we're drawing a 2D item, say a straight line, upon items with Z-coordinates, they will be measured based on the distance including that vertical Z direction. We get around this buy turning the Z-coordinates of the area to zero, by selecting that particular item's Properties.

Question: is there a way, at the beginning of our drafting, that we could tell CAD to turn off ALL Z-coordinates for all items present in the drawing?

Thanks everybody for your help!

[Patchy]

OSNAPZ (use 1) is the command to use so it uses flat Z

[Kent1Cooper]

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@Anonymous wrote:

.... we import them as XReferences, and draw our own designs on top of them. ....

Question: is there a way, at the beginning of our drafting, that we could tell CAD to turn off ALL Z-coordinates for all items present in the drawing?

....

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That suggests something different than what you will get by setting the OSNAPZ System Variable [which will only affect what you draw subsequently, not what's there already].  If that's really the goal, you can achieve that by FLATTENing everything, but that will require Binding the Xref(s), which is probably not a good idea.  But setting OSNAPZ appropriately does sound like the right thing for drawing-on-top-of-them purposes.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I should have clarified that. The "Flatten" command isn't recognized by my AutoCAD LT 2016 however.

How can I flatten the z coordinates of an x ref so that when I'm drawing on it, my own lines don't have z coordinates? I've been getting by manually going into a line I just drew and making Start & End Z Coordinates = 0, but it's time consuming.

[Kent1Cooper]

Is the OSNAPZ System Variable available in LT?

[john.vellek]

Hi @Kent1Cooper,

OSNAPZ is not available in LT.

PDF Import is though and that might come in useful to the OP.

Otherwise, if they are measuring they can set up a macro for the measure command that uses point filters.

[Anonymous]

The dialog box “OSNAPZ” takes me to the same one as “OSNAPZ”, which is the Drafting Settings, Object Snap dialog box.

How does this screen turn off z-coordinates in a drawing?

[Anonymous]

I do PDF import drawings on other projects; but preferably use XRef's. Is there any way for AutoCAD LT 2016 to turn off the z coordinates in XRef's, so that they don't affect what I'm drawing?

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous

Here are some options to explore:

• You can open each xref, use .CHANGE, select all the objects, Properties, and change the Z value to 0
• Have someone with a full copy of AutoCAD flatten the drawings for you
• Use point filters as described in this AKN Article
• Select all similar objects and set the Z value in Properties to 0
• Create a button macro that helps to automate the process too:

I found this one that might serve as an example: ^c^c'_dist .xy endp \0 .xy endp \0

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the quick reply!

About the CHANGE command: I'm trying it on an XRef. I entered CHANGE, selected the entire drawing. The "Center Z" value says 0, and is grayed out.

The command line is telling me I have options to change of: Color, Elev, Layer, LType, LtScale, LWeight, Thickness, Transparency, Material, & Annotative.

To clarify, I want to go to Properties>View Tab>Center Z?

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous

Depending on the objects selected you might see different things. This is always a pain isn't it?

I prepared a Screencast for you that shows some options.  Let me know if this helps or if I should keep working on some other options.

[dbroad]

If you work with xrefs and are limited by LT, I would take this approach.

1)Open each source consultant xref.  Using the "save" command save a copy of the original with a different name.

2)Use the move command.  Select all objects.  From point = 0,0,0  To point = 0,0,1e99.  Then a second move command.  Select all objects or previous.  From point:  0,0,1e99,  To point:  0,0,0.

3)Save the revised xref.

4)Repeat 1-3 for each xref.

That should flatten every main object.  You would need to repeat the process by editing any blocks that contain 3d information.

[pendean]

>>>...About the CHANGE command: I'm trying it on an XRef....<<<
You appear to be:
1. not inside the XREF. You appear to still be in the top file. Close the top file and enter the xref file.
2. You are using PROPERTIES command, and not the commandline CHANGE command. CHANGE command is all at the commandline and does not offer a "center z value" at all. Put a period in front of the command as you type it at the commandline, like this
.CHANGE
then tap <enter>
The type P for properties
then tap <enter>
now type E for elevation and type 0 (that's a zero, not the letter O)
then tap <enter>
no type T for thickness then type 0 (zero).
then tap <enter> twice to exit the command.

Your items in your xref file, not the top file, ought to be flat on the X/Y plane unless they are also 3D objects.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post or others helped you with your problem.
Please add a post with how you decide to proceed and your results so other Community members may benefit.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts fully solved your issue or answered your question.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

Another approach I found that works well for some users is to plot the XREF(s) to PDF's. Then if you have 2017 product you can then use PDF import to bring in the vector data.

If 2017 is out of the question, you  might be able to attach you PDF and snap to it. I am not sure that this will give you enough accuracy though.

[imadHabash]

Hi,

Try to copy and paste this to your command line  (command "_move""_all""""""0,0,1e99""_move""_all""""""0,0,-1e99") 

[BLAKE_SUSS]

Try to copy and paste this to your command line  (command "_move""_all""""""0,0,1e99""_move""_all""""""0,0,-1e99") 

This did it for me. Exactly what I needed. this has bothered me for so long.

Thank you.

[imadHabash]

Hi and welcome to AutoDesk Forum,

Glad to hear that ... Good Luck 🙂

[luis.m.quevedo]

Somehow all my "y" values were changed to "0" and the the "z"  ordinance assume all the "y" values. I have tried all the recommendations here but non works. Please help

[luis.m.quevedo]

I fixed it by doing this. Thanks.