Trouble Flattening Blocks

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I can't seem to get these blocks flat neither manually nor with the flatten command.

When trying to flatten it it gave me rather strange results.

Anyone have good ideas?

Regards,

Connor

[3wood]

I tested it with FLATTEN in AutoCAD 2019 and the result is OK.

You can also try CHZ20 if FLATTEN doesn't work for you.

[beyoungjr · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I'd like to offer the following observations for the "human" block...

1. All objects are at Z0 in the block editor.  Therefore all of the ones placed in your drawing are at various Z values.
2. The objects in the block editor are a great distance away from the origin (0,0).  This is very poor practice because most blocks should have their origin or insertion point at a meaningful location with respect to the entities composing the block.

You seem to be using an AutoCAD vertical product as I see several indicators of AEC objects.  The placement within the vertical product was obviously erratic with human blocks being between 2 million and 7 million units in the Z axis.  Also very great distances in the X and Y axis.

When I select any single human block and use FLATTEN it works as expected with the new Z location as zero.  Same result when I selected 12+ human blocks.  I also used FLATTEN on a group of 5 workstations with human blocks and all objects changed to Z zero with no problems.

Not sure what could be preventing you from getting a successful FLATTEN?

Blaine

[neaton · Accepted solution]

In your Flatten Attempt drawing the UCS isn't set to World. If you used Flatten when the UCS wasn't World it would move the elements unexpectedly. In the original drawing change the UCS to World and try Flatten again.

Since there are only blocks and plines in the drawing you can move all the elements to 0 elevation by changing the Z value in the Properties palette to 0. Sometimes changing the Z value is all that is required instead of using Flatten and can be quicker if there are only a few types of elements.

>>Here<< are more suggestions on how to move elements to 0 elevation.

Nancy

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

I can't seem to get these blocks flat neither manually nor with the flatten command.

 When trying to flatten it it gave me rather strange results.

 Anyone have good ideas?

 Regards,

Connor

---

[beyoungjr]

I thought this to be the case as well but when I set the UCS to "Right" and used FLATTEN on one of the human blocks it went to Y0.  Changing back to World WCS, the same block read Z0.  The position stayed the same in Top view regardless of UCS setting.

Maybe trying several at once produces another result but it seems as though FLATTEN worked in both UCS's but left the block as desired.

Blaine

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies @beyoungjr, @neaton, @3wood.

A few points:

@3wood:

1. After reading your post I tried to flatten it again and it seems to flatten OK as you say. Not sure why the first time didn't work properly.

@beyoungjr: 

1. I received this drawing from a user who's on AutoCAD LT - we typically work in 2D (I'm not familiar with AutoCAD's 3D functionalities). However, I did try to change all the z-coordinates, elevations, and linework within blocks of objects to 0, but sometimes this was ineffective (drawing attached).
2. I have an AutoCAD licence, but its purely used for flattening drawings, LISPs, etc.) We are working with a couple of professional teams on this project and these blocks were inherited. Maybe they were drawn in another drawing program and exported to .dwg?

@neaton:

1. That would explain why it flattened at an odd angle, I set it to world and it worked properly for that drawing.

That drawing was an excerpt of a larger drawing with more issues. Please take a look at the drawings attached. Steps taken:

1. Set UCS to world
2. Flatten
3. Set z=0 from properties for those I could
4. Set elevation=0 for those I could.
5. Manually move linework still not on z=0 from the front view.

The x-, & y-coordinates of some objects seem to of changed after the move. I presume this is because they snapped to other objects while being manually moved to z=0.