FLATTEN PROBLEMS - Does anything in AutoCAD work the way it's supposed to?

[Anonymous]

This software is once again becoming extremely frustrating. There are limitations, I know, but a command should do exactly as it is supposed to.

OK, done venting for now.

Here's the problem - I've got a floor plan that has many objects at different Z values throughout the drawing (much to my chagrin after working for countless hours on the plan). So, now my snaps don't work, I turn the drawing and Hello to multiple planes. I check out discussion groups to find a good answer to my quandry. My knight in shining armour is the FLATTEN express command.

Now the fun part.

So I initiate the FLATTEN command, select all visible objects (crossing window), remove hidden lines and step away from my machine for a few to let the command work its magic (it takes a short while to do a whole drawing). When I return, everything seems great. All my objects are now on the Z=0 plane. Back to work, right?

Wrong.

So I begin drawing with my recently flattened drawing and now all my dynamic blocks are dumb. No handles, no attributes, to dynamic properties (blocks that were dynamically rotated amazingly went back to 0). I select one and go into block editor and see that the block is still a fully functioning dynamic block - with attributes - the whole nine. I exit, drawing still represents dumb blocks. Turns out that I needed to reset all the "position Z" values in the blocks to "1.0000" to get my functionality back. OK, disaster averted. Then, I go to snap - my snap settings all disappeared - needed to be all reset (nuissance, but no big deal). Then, (see the trend?) I go to place a block and the Attribute Verify Dialog Box doesn't come up, despite the ATTDIA=1. OK, a little troubleshooting, found the problem (ATTREQ reset itself to value=0).

Now for the one that really bakes my noodle.

Upon further inspection, FLATTEN not only flattened the drawing, but moved and skewed geometry all over the place. I now have disjointed walls, columns that look like the Star of David, toilets that all have their own shapes and walls that look like they have shadows (and they're not supposed to).

Any suggestions before I destroy a perfectly good computer over a piece of defective software?

[garrionbeers]

because people send drawings that are in 3D and when people need 2d drawings to import into a CAFM system like FM systems which does not like 3d drawings.

[pendean]

The CAFM systems you use need to catch up with this decade is the real solution since that is never going away at all now, that is the norm @garrionbeers 

[mattdVF27J]

there are much better software out there now. Ive used many over my 18 years, ACAD in my opinion is slow outdated and really the last program I'd prefer to use. It can work, just need a ton of patience and realizing everything takes more clicks than it should. Lots of bugs broken tools and so on. It most likely will never change.