topic Re: Align multiple lines at once in AutoCAD Forum

Align multiple lines at once

Anonymous — Thu, 20 May 2021 16:46:40 GMT

I know ALIGN and CHANGE exist but I am either doing it wrong or they don't do what I want them to. I have exported from sketchup which breaks the lines anywhere they touch I want to fix this. I use OVERKILL but the vertical lines are a problem. Ones are parallel but have opposing angles (90 vs 270) sp OVERKILL sees them as different and does not join them.

I have FLATTENED them but that did not change anything. I could trace I know but I would like a better solution for more than getting through one project. When I use CHANGE I have one line but all the little segments remain and I can not do the whole project at one time so I could just trace at that rate.

Re: Align multiple lines at once

nikm42Q9N — Thu, 20 May 2021 17:08:43 GMT

So you are trying to make this one single line?

Overkill deletes things that are hidden under other objects it does not join things.

to join lines you need to use the join command or pedit if its a polyline.

or you could just draw a new line?

Re: Align multiple lines at once

Anonymous — Thu, 20 May 2021 17:28:27 GMT

This is not the only instance of this in the drawing and it is tedious and time consuming to fix them individually. I am using this as a test case to figure out a better solution.

Doesn't join make them a polyline rather than a single line?

(Also I have an older CAD just JOIN is not a command.)

Re: Align multiple lines at once

nikm42Q9N — Thu, 20 May 2021 17:36:01 GMT

no join would make them just a single line. Pedit would turn them into a polyline witch is a line that different properties can be added to such as width anyway that allot to explain lol. but you dont have the join command so lets just forget that.

Im not 100% on what you are trying to do. If you could explain it like im 2 and post the file id be glad to try and help

Re: Align multiple lines at once

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 20 May 2021 17:39:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

.... Doesn't join make them a polyline rather than a single line? ....

Yes, the PEDIT command's Join option does that. If it helps, you can do that and then OVERKILL [with the right settings]

can eliminate the intermediate vertices. EXPLODE if you want it as a Line object rather than a one-line-segment Polyline.

Re: Align multiple lines at once

Anonymous — Thu, 20 May 2021 18:56:55 GMT

@Kent1Cooper The PE was a good idea and it got all the angles to match but they are still not being cleaned up by overkill...

@nikm42Q9N I have files from sketchup that have tons of broken lines. I am using this one as a test subject to figure out a system to get it cleaned up without having to trace/redraw the exports. It has all these broken lines that you would expect overkill to turn into one line but it is not. I am trying to figure out what to do to get it to work and make one line out of many over the whole drawing rather than one line at a time because that would be the same as redrawing the project.

Re: Align multiple lines at once

pendean — Thu, 20 May 2021 18:58:19 GMT

Share your DWG file with us please.

Re: Align multiple lines at once

Anonymous — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:04:41 GMT

Here is a chunk to show you the problem. Client file so I cant share the whole thing.

Re: Align multiple lines at once

nikm42Q9N — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:22:53 GMT

why does it have to be a single line?

Re: Align multiple lines at once

Anonymous — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:27:22 GMT

Because the drawing is extremely unruly if you need to make changes when it is all broken up. It makes everything harder to have it in pieces.

Re: Align multiple lines at once

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 20 May 2021 21:18:21 GMT

Some of the successive Lines [or line segments after joining into Polylines] are ever so slightly off from being truly collinear, because some of them are ever so slightly off from being truly vertical. I have a little routine to report the angle off the horizontal of a selected Line or Polyline line segment [or anything straight], here for one such segment that is precisely vertical within the routine's tight tolerances:

But the next one up:

And another one with a different deviation:

I suggest you "quantize" the drawing to force everything to fall on the closest multiple of a grid location, even at a very small grid increment, which will get them to be truly aligned. When I used the QALL command from >zzQUANTIZE.lsp< on it, with a quantization value of 1/16", the joined Polylines did have their intermediate vertices removed by OVERKILL. There are other routines on that same thread, and other threads about such forcing of things to nearest grid positions.