xref Causing newly inserted blocks to not appear

[rchiasson]

We are having a problem with blocks not appearing after xreferencing a drawing. We can place blocks as normal from the tool palette, but as soon as we xreference a 2D site plan and select blocks from the tool palette, they will not place. You can see them when placing, but once you click to place it, the block does not appear. I have copied out the site plan to a new dwg file, still does the same thing. Everything has been purged and ran an audit in the plan drawing and also the site plan drawing. The block does not show up in the block editor either. I am trying to avoid redrawing the site plan like we had done with two models that were doing the same thing. Remodeling a vessel and rebuilding a skid composite corrected the problem with two other drawings, but redrawing this site plan would take considerable time. Hoping someone has run into this before or some ideas.

[dmfrazier]

I have not run into this before, but had a thought.

If you do the "manual" equivalent of what one of your tool palette tools does, do you get the same result?  Does an error message appear on the command line?

[rchiasson]

inserting any block in any way yields the same results.

[pendean]

is this simply a Layers 'thing'? Thaw/turn on all layers (if you are in a viewport, you need to do the same in the custom VP layer settings too), including all XREF layers, and find out.

[dmfrazier]

Please try running this at the command line (to enable "normal" error messages):

(SETQ *ERROR* NIL)

Then, try your "manual" equivalent of a tool palette command.

Do you get any error message on the command line?

[rchiasson]

There aren't any layers frozen or turned off. I can place the block in the actual model file, without a problem. Inserting a 2D block, it is either saying that the block is a duplicate and being ignored, or CPM is a duplicate block and ignored. I am working with Cadworx models and the CPM block shows up in all CW models and we don't have this issue with other files. If you look at block editor, the blocks do no show up even though it is saying it is a duplicate. There is also a block showing up "$AUDIT_BAD_BLOCK_RECORD1" Editing it shows up nothing in the editor, and it doesn't purge out of the dwg.

I even deleted everything out of the dwg file, removed all xrefs, purged everything out, xref'd in one of the backgrounds that was giving me a problem, and it does the same thing, but this time it doesn't give me any message about duplicate blocks. it just says specify insertion, click, nothing. Open the block editor, and there is still the bad block record in there

[pendean]

Start a new file (do not reuse this old one, no matter who 'clean' you think you got it).
RECOVER and PURGE the 'problem background' file.
XREF your background into the new file.
INSERT your blocks in your new file.

Still have a problem?

[rchiasson]

We tried that. It still doesn't work. My issue has now changed slightly. I figured out how to get rid of the $AUDIT_BAD_BLOCK_RECORD blocks. Hoping this was the issue, I created a new plan drawing and xref'd in the piping models with the removed bad block record block, and it still triggers the issue. Only now, instead of nothing appearing, I get a little line that appears after placing any block. I've passed it off to our Cadworx reseller for them to take a look at it.

[drjohn]

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@rchiasson wrote:

Only now, instead of nothing appearing, I get a little line that appears after placing any block.

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Maybe a stupid question, but is the UCS set correctly.  Even if you are working in 2D it can change. Why?  FIIK.

Just to make sure set your ucs to view when you insert your block and see if you get a good insertion.  Your post suggests the UCS is not set correctly and you are seeing the sideview of the block (assuming it's a 2D block).

Regards,

DJ

[rchiasson]

The UCS is set correctly. The blocks are being placed in paper space. They insert fine, we go to model space and xref certain models, go back to paper space and the blocks don't work. Detaching the models and purging the drawing does not cause it to start working again.  Other models are xref'd and it is ok, it only begins happening after certain models are xreferenced.

[pendean]

If the problem is only inside the viewport, not modelspace, then which UCS are you checking exactly that you are certain are correct? You'd never seen the problem in modelspace.
What about layers being turned off or frozen exclusively inside the viewport (you'd never see the problem in modelspace)?