Unused Text style will not purge

[ngutgsell]

Using AutoCAD 2017 with Windows 10.  I am not able purge a text style from this drawing that has only 2 arc items in it.  I have tried SuperPurge, regular purge, Wblock (multiple times).  Only Layer zero exists, no objects are found in model space aside from the arcs, and none found in paper space.  My ultimate goal is to purge this style from a number of templates that it is stuck in, but I can't even get it out of this simple drawing.

I will very much appreciate all help.

[user181]

Hi @ngutgsell,  What is the name of the text style you are trying to purge?  Is it assigned as the text style in a dimension or multileader style?

[ngutgsell]

Set all styles to standard and assured that all were using Standard text style. CCP-Text is the text style I am trying to purge.

[user181 · Accepted solution]

CCP-Text is the assigned text style in the table style named standard. It is assigned to Data, Header & Title cell styles. If you change them to another text style you can purge CCP-Text.

[ngutgsell]

Oh, my!  Several people have poured over this and checked and rechecked "all" styles (myself included) and missed that in the standard table style.  I am embarrassed to think of the hours spent on this!  Thank you!

[ChicagoLooper]

If you cannot purge it, then it is 'in-use.' Keep in mind that AutoCAD defines 'in-use' differently than someone who walks on two legs.

1. Type PU (or PURGE) on command line.
2. Scroll down to 'Text styles'
3.  If there's a "+" sign  then expand it to reveal text styles that you can purge.
4. If there's no + sign then all styles are 'in-use' (Cad will not purge styles that are in-use.)
5. Scroll up to look for + signs in other STYLES. Many objects have, or use, text styles. The most common, and not limited to are blocks, dimension styles, line types, MultiLeader styles, and Table styles. Expand the + signs for these objects and delete ones you know you're not using.
6. If you are still unable to delete CCP-Text then the style active, even though you don't know where it's being used and you'll have to perform forensics on your drawing.
7. If you have a titleblock, don't forget, a titleblock is a block, be sure to check to see whether it's being used there, in which case the text style CCP-Text might be active in paperspace rather than in modelspace.     

[meowruser]

@ChicagoLooper 

For what it is worth 6 years down the road, I had a similar problem with a very simple drawing, designed to be used a block.  Here is what I did to get rid of the troublesome text styles (which had been introduced into the drawing with another block that I used temporarily in development).

1. Since it had very few entities, I used DBLIST to look at everything in the file.  I found that one of the troublesome text styles had been used in invisible attributes that I must have created along the way.  I deleted them using Block Editor.  PURGE would still not let me purge the styles.  Just in case, I saved and re-opened the file, but no change.
2. I saved the file as a DXF, opened that in a text editor, and found the troublesome styles were still in the style table listing.  Perhaps I should have known, but a style still listed in the STYLE dialog seems to be considered to be in use.  Once I went in to the STYLE dialog and deleted the troublesome styles, they were gone for good.  It appears (not fully confirmed) that AutoCAD will let you delete a style only if it is not in use, so a Delete button that is active seems to be another way to identify a style not used in the drawing.

[cadffm]

Hi,

purge is to delete bamed objects what are not in use only.

"seems to be considered to be in use"

Sure, because it is in use.

In use: There is one or more pointer to this object.

(Object term:  Also named objects like layers or dimstyles are called objects in programming)

Use the purge option to show unpurge Objects to find such pointers.

Your both samples would be listed there.

Another thing why you can't purge an object (style, whatever), are the first objects of a kind in the database.

For example, the first text style. This is a very special exception.

[meowruser]

Thanks your interest.

I had used the "Find Non-Purgeable Items" option already. Both of the STYLES in question showed a Usage Count of zero. I also checked the Dimension styles, and they were not used there either.

Finding the styles were still defined in the DXF file in the STYLES section led me to deleting the styles in the STYLES dialog, which I assume removed them from the drawing database entirely, since they disappeared from both the STYLES dialog and from the "Find Non-Purgeable Items" listing.

You mention that the 'first objects of a kind in the database' cannot be purged, which is new to me. The STYLES table listing was the first appearance of the style names in my DXF file.  Is that what you meant?

[cadffm]

Yes, that it is

[meowruser]

Thanks.  It is always a good day when I learn something new.