Controlling Paperspace appearance - Strange issue

[process_solutions]

The 2 drawings appear identical in AutoCAD versions prior to AutoCAD Electrical 2015, but in 2015, I am encountering drawings which do not display the normal appearance of Paperspace.

Is this a bug or a feature?

Normal appearance:

In the above "normal" appearance, the paper is displayed as black & the background is shown in that nice medium gray color.

The following is the Undesired appearance of Paperspace:

Short of recreating the drawing via wblocks of model & paperspace, I can't find any information on how to control/prevent this. The nice gray background is missing & there are gray lines that define what appears to be the papersize.  When I zoom way out, 2 of the gray lines appear to be Rays:

Is there some way to get rid of the totally black paperspace & show the normal paperspace that has the black paper-outline with the nice gray background?

Thanks in advance to anyone that knows how to control for these 2 types of appearances.

Regards

Sean

[ccad2509]

ive seen something like this before what it was

this is 2014 i'm referancing this from

if you go to the layout tab right mouse buttom > page set up manager

select layout >modify

check the paper size

what ive seen is a A0 paper setup for a viewport thats set to A4

[process_solutions]

Thank you for trying to help.

When I go to the Page Setup Manager it shows me a list of some common plot setups stored with the layout, all of which reference 11x17 as "ANSI B (11.00 x 17.00 Inches)" & is the same in both drawings I took partial screen-shots of. I can't get any change in appearance when changing among any of the Paper Sizes in the plot dialog box.  The layout remains unaffected by plotting at various sizes also.

Still seeking a working fix for this.

Best regards,

Sean

[sonny3g]

The first place I would look is in Tools/Options/Display to see if it looks like below:

When I have had funky issues with my layouts, it is usually resolved here.

Hope this helps.

[process_solutions]

Thank you for trying to help. I had the same settings you show w/exeption of show printable area & show paper shadow.

Don't know if it helps anyone to help narrow down the possible cause(s), but if I view the anomolous Paperspace drawings in any prior version of AutoCAD, the Paperspace layout looks just like it normally would (first screenshot) & only displays this unusual all-black layout in 2015.

Here is what changes when I match your settings (note additional printable area - dashed line & the "fat" gray border for the paper shadow):

Still seeking solution...

Regards,

Sean

[jalger]

Hi Sean,

Can you Check your Options and make sure the that colours are set properly?

(Options > Display tab > Choose "Colours" Check the Sheet/layout Entity setup.)

Sometimes the colours don't migrate over properly when you import a classic workspace.

So you may need to reset the colours.

See the screenshot for where to look:

If you don't have custom colouring you could use "Restore Classic Colours" to reset everything to the default look.

I hope this helps,

James

[process_solutions]

Thank you also for your effort to help.

I tried changing the colors, applying, closing options, quitting AutoCAD, restarting AutoCAD. No Change.

I then tried restore classic colors option, applying, closing options, quitting AutoCAD, Restarting AutoCAD & also... No Change.

This only happens on SOME drawings in a given subdirectory full of otherwise nearly identical drawings.

So far the only fix I know of is to replace the drawing with a save-as of a similar drawing & importing the wblocked Model & Paperspace to the replacement drawing.  Although I can automate the process, I'd hate to go through the effort.

Strangely, if I use the "-Layout" command & pull in a layout that displays correctly, the new layout doesn't look like the layout in the drawing the layout was imported from but keeps the all-black w/gray-rays appearance in the new layout.

This has been quite a stumper for me I must admit.

Regards,

Sean

[jalger]

Hi Sean,

That is quite Strange.

Are they older drawings?

Can you post a drawing that has the issue?

Maybe I can see something in the file thats causing the issue.

Regards,

James

[process_solutions]

I saved 2 drawings for comparison & "sanitized" them for posting for analysis or even verification of the issue (or any issue) on other system(s). (see attached files)

Both drawings look identical (paperspace formatting) in prior versions.  "has_problem.DWG" was created in 1998 & "doesnt_have_problem.DWG" wasl also created in 1998... so they are kind of old, but the same "vintage".

I'd be most curious if anyone sees the all-black paperspace in "has_problem.DWG".

Regards,

Sean

[jalger]

Hi Sean,

I Can see the same issue in "Has_Problems.dwg".

Whatever Background colour I set the Paper also takes that colour on.

I'm going to dig around the file and see if I can find out why its doing that.

Hopefully others well take a look at the files as well.

Regards,

James

[process_solutions]

Thank you very much James for both looking into this AND especially for confirming that "the problem" (or IS it a feature?) is not only on my machine/installation.  That confirmation alone is a great relief.

Thanks again & Happy hunting. I've tried DXF'ing to R12 dxf etc... seems to be maybe some extended entity data? I'm surprised I couldn't find any similar post of persons with same problem on the net.

Regards,

Sean

[jalger]

Hi Sean,

When I tried importing a fresh copy of the Layout into your file the layout takes on the same issues.

The file is cause of the issue, but its really strange that the two files from the same year both don't experience the issue.

Its Persistent, It keeps a version of the layout when its deleted, Even if it is Purged, Audited, or Migrated. (save as and export have the same issue...)

Hmmm, I recommend creating a Case with Autodesk, If you are on Subscription log a case on the Subscription website.

Submit the same two files that you posted here.

Its a very strange issue, and its a bit concerning that it won't heal through the normal methods.

I'll keep digging through the file to see if I can find anything else out about it.

Regards,

James

[process_solutions]

I have created a "Case". Thank you for the suggestion.

Regards,
Sean

[zalant · Accepted solution]

The behavior you're seeing in AutoCAD 2015 did not occur in previous versions, as you had stated. We're looking into this change to see if it can be corrected, long-term. For now, you can get layouts to appear normally by setting the FILLMODE variable within the drawing to 1.

[process_solutions]

Thank you VERY much for ferreting out the solution for resolving the strainge appearance issue.  This will ensure both uniformity of data provided to customers who may use the current version of AutoCAD & of course put an end to worrying about the possibility of data corruption. Great timely resolve to this "issue"; Much appreciated.

Kudos! Accepted as Solution!

Best Regards,

Sean

[cpierce]

This exact problem happened to me this morning, in Autocad Architecture 2016.  

I noticed it in one drawing, so I opened another recent drawing, and both had the same issue.

I created a qnew drawing from my normal template, same issue!

I thought I might have to just leave for the day, but I rebooted my machine first.

The problem went away. Four hours, and several drawings later, it has not resurfaced.

Interestingly, I asked another member of my team to open the same files, and she did not have the same issue.

She opened the file in both 2016 and 2013.  No problems.  

Rebooting did make the problem go away, so I'm happy.  

Also, I was happy to find this thread, to see that it's not just me! 🙂

[christinepeters.nyc]

Hello this is my very first discussion post ever. Very exciting. 

I'm having the same issue with lines appearing in Paper space, it also makes all of the text and annotation unreadable. Non of the below fixes have been able to solve this issue for me. And it is a huge issue as the only way to get rid of it is to copy everything into a new file and redo the layout. And to quote the you tube sensation "an't no body got time for that" 

Are there any other fixes?

[christinepeters.nyc]

Hi Zac
That is not working for me. Any other thoughts? Also in this mode all my text and leader arrows disappear

[process_solutions]

You appear to be using a newer version of AutoCAD than I am, so unfortunately I don't have any way to help explore alternative fixes.  If you have a coworker that doesn't have the same experience, I'd personally start with comparing system variables, then look into how video memory might be factoring in.  I tried checking on my end to see if SDI 0 vs 1 makes a difference but on my end it doesn't (I run SDI variable as 1).  If you open a "case" I'd be interested in knowing the fix if it is discovered before I also migrate to 2016 or newer.  Although I dont use annotative text or leaders I wonder if that can factor into what is happening on your end.

Best Regards,

Sean

[zalant]

If you'd like, Christine, I can take a look at your drawing file here and see what I can figure out. This issue was fixed prior to the release of AutoCAD 2016, so it's very odd that you'd still run into it. Did you happen to migrate settings from 2015 when you upgraded (if you upgraded from 2015)?