Entity isn't planar

[neilyj666]

What does this mean (see screenshot) and how do I get around it??

Trying to convert the magenta object to feature line and the message appears - the object is a polyline and all Z values are zero.

Thanks

[OMCUSNR]

It sounds  to me like there's a UCS in play, instead of the WCS.  Somehow, your drawing got into a UCS that is tilted or shifted in the x or y axis, so the object that you're trying to convert is not in the same place (plane) as the WCS.

Check to make sure you are in the WCS and then list the object & see what it says.  You may need to either redraw the object, or try to block it out and then back in.

Reid

[neilyj666]

A sample LISTing - don't know what bulge means put I assume it is what's causing the problem...

          at point  X=414607.580  Y=623921.493  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414609.494  Y=623896.590  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414521.476  Y=623889.781  Z=    0.000
             bulge    -0.420
            center  X=414523.170  Y=623867.847  Z=    0.000
            radius    22.000
       start angle    85.582
         end angle   354.376
          at point  X=414501.276  Y=623865.691  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414501.414  Y=623864.291  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414496.410  Y=623864.082  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414490.387  Y=623925.252  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414495.391  Y=623925.452  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414496.473  Y=623914.466  Z=    0.000
             bulge    -0.408
            center  X=414518.367  Y=623916.622  Z=    0.000
            radius    22.000
       start angle   354.376
         end angle   265.582
          at point  X=414520.062  Y=623894.687  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414549.289  Y=623896.954  Z=    0.000
             bulge    -0.414

[OMCUSNR]

1st time I've seen bulge too.  Are you sure it's a 2d poly & not a 3d?  Are you sure you are in the World Coordinate System?  (UCSicon ON)?  I'm still thinking that the pline was drawn in an inadvertant USC.

Reid

[Jeff_M]

The bulge in a pline is how arcs are defined, so this shouldn't be the issue.

[neilyj666]

The original data was derived from a 3rd party but there i'm in world coords

[OMCUSNR]

Try wblocking it out and then import the block back in.  Explode the block & see what it does then.

Reid

[Jeff_M]

Also, what does the start of the LIST output show? Something like this:

LIST 1 found

                  LWPOLYLINE  Layer: "0"

                            Space: Model space

                   Handle = 12209

            Closed

    Constant width    0.0000

              area   16342.0114

         perimeter   502.2458

LIST 1 found
                  LWPOLYLINE  Layer: "0"                            Space: Model space                   Handle = 12209            Closed    Constant width    0.0000              area   16342.0114         perimeter   502.2458

or more like this:

                  LWPOLYLINE  Layer: "0"

                            Space: Model space

                   Handle = 12209

            Closed

    Constant width    0.0000

Extrusion direction relative to UCS:

                   X=   0.9962  Y=   0.0000  Z=   0.0872

              area   16342.0114

         perimeter   502.2458

[OMCUSNR]

Jeff,

The "extrusion direction"  does that give a polyline a "thickness" (z direction)? as opposed to "width".

Reid

[Jeff_M]

No, that tells you that it is not in the current UCS, therefor not planar.

My guess here is that the "3rd party" this pline came from was Microstation. I've seen many cases where the MS created plines looked correct, but they have an extrusion of 0,0,-1 (normal WCS is 0,0,1).

[neilyj666]

Thanks Jeff_M - I'll take a look at the LIST on Monday and repost.

Assuming this is what is happening is there an easy solution??

[jmayo-EE]

Did you try exploding the pline and then use either MapClean or Join to recreate it?

[neilyj666]

Jeff_M - you were right, there is an extrusion direction in the polyline

                  LWPOLYLINE  Layer: "Y-IHB-CH-RWE"
                            Space: Model space
                   Handle = a721
            Closed
    Constant width     0.000
Extrusion direction relative to UCS:
                   X=    0.000  Y=    0.000  Z=   -1.000
              area   1397.315
         perimeter   221.102

          at point  X=414234.410  Y=623845.247  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414253.739  Y=623822.228  Z=    0.000
          at point  X=414223.106  Y=623796.506  Z=    0.000
             bulge    -0.362
            center  X=414207.790  Y=623783.645  Z=    0.000
            radius    20.000
       start angle   139.980

[neilyj666]

After exploding the polyline the original arcs seem to be the problem entities.

The Normal Z property = -1 and it is greyed out so I cannot edit it via the Properties panel - any ideas how I can get around this (hopefully avoiding recreating the arcs)

[Jeff_M]

Could you post or send me a drawing with some of these funky plines in it? In the mean time:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Extrusion-direction-relative-to-UCS/m-p/1565051#M1438...

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Polyline-elevation-1-Z-coordinate/m-p/1961601#M43785

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Negative-Contours/m-p/2158933#M65643

[neilyj666]

Dwg attached - REVCLOUD around some of the problem entities - will look at the links later

[Jeff_M · Accepted solution]

OK, looks like this simple little lisp will fix this problem.

(defun c:normalize (/ ss idx obj)
  (vl-load-com)
  (if (setq ss (ssget "x" '((210 0 0 -1))))
    (progn
      (setq idx -1)
      (while (setq ent (ssname ss (setq idx (1+ idx))))
	(setq obj (vlax-ename->vla-object ent))
	(vlax-invoke-method obj 'transformby (vlax-tmatrix '((1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0)
				(0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0)
				(0.0 0.0 -1.0 0.0)
				(0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0))
				))
	)
      )
    )
  (princ)
  )

[neilyj666]

Thanks for the lisp code - now a basic question; how do I get it to run??

[Jeff_M]

Create a text file, copy the code into it, save it as "normailze.lsp" to a place in your Autocad support path. In C3D, APPLOAD, find the file and load it. The command name is NORMALIZE. It's not fancy, so it won't report that it did anything, (unless it errors for some reason) but the 'bad' plines should now be 'good'.

[neilyj666 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Jeff - I'll try it back in work tomorrow....