2d dwg with different z information

[Anonymous]

Hello, I have a 2d dwg that was created on Autocad lt 2013 for Mac. All the geometry was at z=0. Start, End, Center and Normal. When I opened the dwg on my PC using Autocad Architecture 2013 I found lines were non-coplanar. I flattened the dwg and checked that all lines were at z=0 again. I even checked the 3d view and everything was correct. I opened the dwg again on the Autocad lt 2013 on the Mac, the lines were non-coplanar again. I corrected them in the LT version for Mac and tested it on the PC and the same thing happened. Has anyone encountered this problem? It seems that the machines are not reading the z information the same way. How do I make all the dwgs have an elevation of 0.00 permanently? We really need to solve this to dimension and snap to lines and draw efficiently. Thank you for the help, Jes

[Patchy]

Maybe try fixing OSNAPZ command when open the drawing.

[Anonymous]

I tried that. It worked fine on my machine (PC) then switched out of z alignment on the Mac.

I also found this on a nother forum:

"The only catch about this drafting setting (OSNAPZ) is that it doesn't get saved in the registry nor the drawing which means you will have to remember to set it every time you start AutoCAD. Point Filters can be helpful too, when prompted to pick a point, type .XY (enter), pick the point then enter the Z value, and if this was to draw a Polyline, you’ll only need to do this for the first point. "

The problem is that I can't ask all the project managers to do this everytime they open a drawing.

[leothebuilder]

You could add a startup with OSNAPZ=1, place in folder on server and add this folder each user's search path.

[Patchy]

Once the drawing is flatten I don't know why Z is changed again.

Maybe you need to use EXPORTTOAUTOCAD and get it to change to plain autocad drawing if this drawing was made from some other programs.

[Anonymous]

This could work but all the other project manager machines are Mac's with only Autocad LT. So I have no Osnapz capabilities that I'm aware of. I found the following on another forum but I don't understand it. I don't know what a lsp is or how to install or modify it. If I could add an lsp code to setvar "osnapz" 1 I shouldn't ever have this problem to begin with.

"To fix a 2D drawing in AutoCAD full or LT, you can create a button using this menu macro: ^C^C_move;_all;;0,0,0;0,0,1e99;_move;_p;;0,0,0;0,0,-1e99 Everything in the current space or active viewport will be on Z0 of the current UCS therein. But, if you want it to be set for every drawing, enter this line of code into your acad.lsp or acaddoc.lsp: (setvar "osnapz" 1) Also, sometimes, when calling up a drawing, the elevation is not at 0 when you think it is. This line of code in your acad.lsp or acaddoc.lsp fixes that: (if (/= (getvar "elevation") 0)(alert " CAUTION!! Elevation is not 0.000"))  "

Does anyone know how to install this acaddoc.lsp on a PC?

[Anonymous]

Patchy - If the project managers are using Autocad LT 2013 and I'm using Autocad 2013 I shouldn't have to have the dwg exported. Maybe these two programs just don't communicate well together.

[leothebuilder]

You mentioned Autocad Architecture, and if you're using ACA it's best to use EXPORTTOAUTOCAD which ensures that all AEC objects are exploded to z elevation.

Autocad LT does not support lisp.

[pendean · Accepted solution]

AutoCAD is a 3D program: whether you draw in MAC or PC and in every variant of AutoCAD, including LT, there is always a Z element everyone must watch out for and keep in mind. There is no 'permanent 0.00 in AutoCAD/LT, users need to be trained to be cuatious and attentive while drafting. It's not easy, but it's not hard to acheive either.

Note: OSNAPZ and FLATTEN are not LT abilities (and no Lisp, ARX, ACADDOC.LSP and others, part of the 75% discount in pricing over AutoCAD): but these tools are in full AutoCAD and in Architecture variants and you will need to fix these files for your LT team moving forward outside of LT.

[Anonymous]

I will try to fix the issue on my PC which has a full Autocad 2013 program. Then I'll talk with the LT team members. I may just have to take the PC out of the mix since it doesn't seem to see the same z axis information as the Mac lt computers. Thank you everyone for the  help.