Osnap and Join commands not recognized, don't work

[Anonymous]

We recently installed AutoCAD 2013 on the computers in a classroom for an engineering graphics course. We are finding some of the commands do not work. OSNAP was originally working, but now when we try to use it to snap objects to circles and things (say, for example,we want to snap a line to the center of a circle), we get a message on the command like this:

     Command: cen Unknown command "cen". Press F1 for help.

This is the case for every other snap command - TAN, endpoint, etc..

We have a similar problem with the JOIN command. Several students and I have tried to join together two arcs to make one continuous curve. We are doing it according to the instructions and the textbook, but we get this error message on the command line:

     0 objects joined, 2 objects discarded from the conversation

I tried restoring AutoCAD to its defaults, but that did not work. I could ask the IT folks to reinstall AutoCAD 2013 on all the computers, but before I try that, is there some other fix that might address this?

[Kent1Cooper]

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@Anonymous wrote:

.... We are finding some of the commands do not work. OSNAP was originally working, but now when we try to use it to snap objects to circles and things (say, for example,we want to snap a line to the center of a circle), we get a message on the command like this:

     Command: cen Unknown command "cen". Press F1 for help.

This is the case for every other snap command - TAN, endpoint, etc..

....

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Welcome to these Forums!

For that issue, you need to be in a drawing command before calling for an object-snap mode -- the Osnap modes [or their abbreviations] are not command names, and therefore can't be used at the Command: prompt itself, but only in response to some kind of pick-a-point prompt within a drawing command.  Start a Line [or any other drawing] command first, then type in cen [or any other Osnap mode(s)].

[On the Join issue, is either on a locked Layer?  Are they not in the same plane?  Are they drawn in opposite-facing Coordinate Systems?  Are they not truly concentric?  If you're not talking about joining them into one Arc object, then if they touch at a common endpoint, you could connect them into one Polyline using PEDIT and its Join option.]

[jackshield]

HOLD SHIFT AND HIT RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON, BRINGS UP SNAP WINDOW, ONCE YOU BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO IT, GREAT FEATURE