Can't purge layers

[Anonymous]

I've deleted everything within the layers i want to purge. If I only have the layers open that i want to purge i see nothing. But when I try to purge there is nothing to purge.

[cadffm]

How should we check this without the dwg file?

[scottspeig]

Try Qselect

Multiple

Layer (one you want deleting)

Select all

Then delete...

Either that or use LayMrg (doesn't work if any layer is frozen) and move them to 0 layer.

[imadHabash]

Hi,

any used layers will NOT be purged . you may need to check some blocks ( if any ) that use those layers. i suggest to attache here your CAD drawing for testing ? 

Regards,

[gotphish001]

You could merge the layer you can't purge to layer 0. That will delete the layer and put any geometry on that layer in a block or elsewhere onto layer 0.

Right click on the layer in layer manager and select the merge option. You can't merge the current layer.

[MikeKovacik4928 · Accepted solution]

make required layer current, draw a line on that layer, type in laydel, select the line, the line and the layer and anything else that happens to be on that layer will be deleted.

Michael Kovacik
2d & 3d Autocad and Inventor designer/draughtsman
.
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---(and recently Autocad/Inventor Customisation)
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(Impossible only means you haven't
found the solution yet)

[cadffm]

but thats absolutely the whorst hint for this situation.

I a user mean the Layer is empty but he can not verify the "problem", than laymrg is ok. But deleting without the knowledge why not he can purge the Layer?
In this case: laymrg to layer 0 is the safe way.
My2cent

And if he upload this original file we can tell him why purge didnt work.

[MikeKovacik4928]

Sebastian

Let me respectfully agree to disagree

Is is a quick fix for a situation where it could take a day or more or even never to

find the root cause.

He might not be able to send the drawing because of company confidentially.

In which case he might also not be able to reproduce a similar case to send to the forum.

He can make a copy of the drawing under another name before he does the laydel,

in case he loses anything he needs, and then bring it back on a different layer using

copy with base point.

Laydel has worked for me on many occasions in the past and saved me oodles of time

trying to find "root cause" for problems.

In any case let him decide for himself which is the best and quickest  fix for the problem

Mike

[scottspeig]

Mike,

That's some viciously powerful command. Just tried it out.

Not sure I'd ever use it just because of how vicious it is (deletes everything on that layer even within blocks) and use layer merge myself.

Although there were probably hatches or textlines or other weird anomolies on those layers that were causing the issues and they'll definately be gone! 🙂

[Anonymous]

---

@cadffm wrote:
but thats absolutely the whorst hint for this situation.

I a user mean the Layer is empty but he can not verify the "problem", than laymrg is ok. But deleting without the knowledge why not he can purge the Layer?

---

@cadffm wrote:
but thats absolutely the whorst hint for this situation.

I a user mean the Layer is empty but he can not verify the "problem", than laymrg is ok. But deleting without the knowledge why not he can purge the Layer?
In this case: laymrg to layer 0 is the safe way.
My2cent

And if he upload this original file we can tell him why purge didnt work.

---

My2cent

And if he upload this original file we can tell him why purge didnt work.

---

Hi @cadffm thanks a lot for this post, your suggestion is what helped me get rid of the layers i could delete even if they didn't had anything, I "purge" "audit" "-purge" and "audit" over and over and over, but couldn't get rid of them even using "laydel". Some of the layers were even showing up but not displayed in the "laydel" list. The command "laymrg" is not a common in a daily basis to me so I forgot about it! thanks guys!

[3d-labor]

Nice solution, my friend! Sadly I have a drawing with about 250 Layers with nothing on it and AutoCAD cannot purge it. With your solution I would need some hours to delete the layers. I prefer to mark all entities in the drawing and copy it to  a empty drawing.

Regards,

Holger

AutoCAD - 32 years, since Ver 2.6 😉

[pendean]

@3d-labor write:
>>>...Sadly I have a drawing with about 250 Layers...<<<
So start LAYER command, freeze all the layers you want to keep, sort and select the rest, right-click then choose the MERGE option and opt for layer 0 as the destination.

If it take you more than a minute to do you might have missed something in those 32-years you're bragging about 😉

>>>... I prefer to mark all entities in the drawing and copy it to a empty drawing...<<<
Or just WBLOCK to a new drawing is way quicker: 32-years?

😎

[3d-labor]

If you get drawings from other clients who work with other programs it is always better to create a clean drawing with only the content in it you need for your further work. The files I got were AutoCAD files with sizes between 50 and 100 MB. After I copied my needed data to a new drawing from a 96MB file I got a 4,5MB file.

[3d-labor]

Forget to mention, that I use another method than WBLOCK. Have some menu adaptations for this task, as quick as WBLOCK. And I mentioned the 32 years in answering the reply of our friend from South Africa, who puts his complete CAD vita into his answer. Some fun, no bragging. If you would know me in private you would know, that bragging is not one of my core competences 😉

[shahrokh.sobhani]

I didn't read all the replies but read those marked as solutions.
I think some objects might be in layer A and you have made a block with those objects and the block is in layer B.

so you turn off all layers except layer A and you see nothing on screen because layer B is off.

you need to find and fix the layer of the block's entities.

[Kent1Cooper]

---

@shahrokh.sobhani wrote:

....
I think some objects might be in layer A and you have made a block with those objects and the block is in layer B.

so you turn off all layers except layer A and you see nothing on screen because layer B is off.

....

---

That could be the case if Layer B is frozen, rather than merely off.

Another possibility is that there are things on Layer A in some other space than you are in, and therefore not visible [e.g. in paper space when you're in model space, or in a different Layout in paper space than the one you're in].

[Sam.Xie2HYR6]

Hey, mate. you posted a nice tip. 

in my case, some layers without anything (completely nothing!) cannot be purged and the purge window didn't show anything but only some byte data (no clue what were those) in such layers. 

With your tip, i merged all those layers to a new created layer called "purge", then i delete this layer easily.

much appreciated. 

[TomBeauford]

Looking at the software you're using purging layers isn't a good idea. In Civil 3D intelligent objects are set up to be placed on those layers would create problems if they weren't there. Best way to manage those layers are with layer filters so the only ones displayed at any given time are the ones needed at the time.