Lines are not coplanar

[Anonymous]

Hi all, hoping this is a quick and easy question.......

I am trying to calculate the area of a room, and have done it many times within this dwg file, but all of a sudden I can only select two points.

In the Command Bar after the first two clicks, it still suggests 'Select next point' but when I do (any point) it says "Lines are not coplanar."

The other thing I noticed is that there is a question mark next to the cursor (screenshots attached).

I have read about cursor badges but that only seems to turn off the question mark, not actually allow me to calculate the area.

I have opened a different dwg file and it works like normal there, so I am wondering if I have bumped a shortcut somewhere along the line? But which shortcut?!

Grateful for any/all suggestions! 🙂

[David_W_Koch]

The "?" cursor badge indicates that an inquiry-type command is active.

Are you using AutoCAD Architecture?  If so, what version?  Are you snapping to Wall intersections or endpoints?  Are the Walls all drawn with baselines in the same plane?  Are you certain that you have only selected two points, and get the error on the third point?  I cannot reproduce that behavior here (and a line and a point not on that line is one definition of a plane, so there is no way that three points can be non-coplanar.  I can get that error on a fourth point, however.

Can you post a sample file in which this problem occurs, and clearly indicate which points your are selecting to get the error?

[gotphish001]

I thought maybe it had something to do with locking Z elevation with the replace Z value with current elevation toggle. As David said though, the simplest plane is literally made up of 3 points, so there's no way 3 points can be non co-planar. I thought maybe I could force/trick it to think 3 points weren't co-planar with the Z-lock but I was still unable to replicate it with only 3 points by toggling the switch in the middle of the area command. 

Is it only in that one location that you can't get it to work? or now it doesn't work anywhere in that entire drawing, but it did before? If it doesn't work in the entire drawing, try a simple test. Make sure you are in plan view so you know you are drawing flat on the same z elevation and just draw a rectangle with the rectangle command. Can you find the area of that? If you can then it probably has something to do with the geometry being changed from before when you were able to find the area in that same drawing. But again 3 points can't be non co-planar. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for your answers. I am using Architecture 2016.

I have attached a sample file. It is definitely on the third point the error occurs, and it seems to be the same regardless of the area I am calculating.

Hopefully you see the same error!

[Anonymous]

On a side note, David I see you are a Revit user.......my firm is switching from Architecture to Revit in the new year. Would you say it is a fairly natural progression, or might things be quite different in Revit? I am thinking of downloading a trial of Revit over the Christmas break to get some practice in! We currently use Architecture and SketchUp, but hopefully we can do it all in Revit soon.

[gotphish001]

Going to experiment some more, but just my initial findings. When I open the dwg it gives me a warning saying it is not an autodesk created dwg. It also will not let me find the area of anything. After 2 points no matter where I click the 3rd point it says non co-planar.

[pendean]

You are too far away from 0,0,0: when I moved your model to that absolute point all the problems disappeared.

[gotphish001]

Things I tried:  First I wblocked the drawing and ran all my tests on that, so if I messed something up I still had an original copy to start over with. Purge, audit, recovery did nothing/found no errors. Flatten made it go crazy. As in the temp file save progress bar was going so fast it was flashing and the entire bottom ribbon was flashing from that. I thought for sure it was going to crash autocad. Took a couple minutes but it didn't crash and finally finished the flatten command. Good news is that it now lets me find the area of everything. Bad new is that it totally destroyed the geometry and there's no way you could use the drawing like this. DOH! 

Here is what it looks like after flatten. It also added a bunch of ellipses off to the side that were not there before. You can see those in second picture. Including the flattened dwg also. 

 

[gotphish001]

It's really far away from 0,0. That can cause strange issues. Select everything and move it to 0,0 and it works again. I meant to do it when I wblocked it but I realized I forgot. That did it.

Edit: Dean beat me too it. Never refreshed post. 😃

[David_W_Koch]

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@Anonymous wrote:

On a side note, David I see you are a Revit user.......my firm is switching from Architecture to Revit in the new year. Would you say it is a fairly natural progression, or might things be quite different in Revit? I am thinking of downloading a trial of Revit over the Christmas break to get some practice in! We currently use Architecture and SketchUp, but hopefully we can do it all in Revit soon.

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If you have used the AutoCAD Architecture objects and created 3D models in AutoCAD Architecture, then you should be familiar with the concepts of doing so and that will transfer over when using Revit.  The ways of doing any specific task are, often, quite different.  Your acclimation to Revit will go much smoother if you accept that fact and are willing to learn the "Revit way" without insisting that it should work like AutoCAD Architecture.

Both programs have strengths and weaknesses; but if you plan to work in the AEC industry for more than a few years, adding Revit to your skillset is definitely the way to go at this point in time.