Invisible xref?

[brian.strandberg]

Hello, I am a frequent poster on the Civil 3d group and have been using Autocad for many, many years.  My problem is I have an xref that reports as INVISIBLE.  I can overlay the xref normally and print.  But close the drawing, re-open it is now invisible.  The only way I can view the XREF's properties is selecting via SSX (Love SSX). Object reports as below.  I initially thought somehow the object was hidden through the isolate object process.  As you can see at the bottom, that is not what is happening.

So, I'm stumped and am asking for ideas on resolving this issue.

Command: SSX
Select object <None>:
Enter filter option [Block name/Color/Entity/Flag/LAyer/LType/Pick/Style/Thickness/Vector]: b
>>Enter block name to add <RETURN to remove>: _service*

Current filter: ((2 . "_service*"))
Enter filter option [Block name/Color/Entity/Flag/LAyer/LType/Pick/Style/Thickness/Vector]:

1 found.

Command:
Command: LIST
Select objects: p 1 found

Select objects:
BLOCK REFERENCE Layer: "xref"
Space: Model space
Invisible
Handle = 197b
Block Name: "_service_area_st_plane2"
External reference
at point, X= 0.0000 Y= 0.0000 Z= 0.0000
X scale factor: 1.0000
Y scale factor: 1.0000
rotation angle: 0
Z scale factor: 1.0000
InsUnits: Feet
Unit conversion: 1.0000
Scale uniformly: No
Allow exploding: Yes

Command:
Command:
Command: _AecUnIsolateObjects
Command: _.UNISOLATEOBJECTS

No objects to unisolate.

[pendean]

Must be a C3D feature 🙂

Post both files here if you are able.

[brian.strandberg]

I can post one file.  This is the XREF.  The sheet file has a bunch of GIS stuff, and would be difficult to post.  I have a work-around, I have just never seen this and want to know what is going on.

[ennujozlagam]

@brian.strandberghello, can you again attach as xref if this works for you. thanks

[ennujozlagam]

@brian.strandberg hello, open your file and change VISRETAIN set to 0 and save. hope it helps. thanks

[ВeekeeCZ · Accepted solution]

It looks like it has set a visibility parameter.

You should be able to turn this on with this routine. For select set use a previous selection as you did before.

(vl-load-com)

(defun c:ShowInvisible (/ ss i)
  (setq ss (ssget))
  (repeat (setq i (sslength ss))
    (vla-put-visible (vlax-ename->vla-object (ssname ss (setq i (1- i)))) :vlax-true))
  (princ)
)

[john.vellek]

Hi @brian.strandberg,

It looks like there are some good suggestions in this thread. Were any of them able to get your XREF back to a normal condition?

Please update your status.

[brian.strandberg]

Sorry all for the delayed reply.  I got shuffled off to an urgent project and was not able to  get back to the troubled file...  Thank all of you for your help.