Viewbase - Mleader and Snaps disappear

[Anonymous]

Running AutoCad 2020.1.2

This has been an issue for me for years, but seems to have gotten worse lately:

When pulling mleaders off of snap points on a Viewbase, I type out the full description then either click in paper space or hit escape to exit the mleader command.  About half the time the mleader and all text disappears and i have to do it again, this time not pointing to a snap or anywhere on the viewbase but out in paperspace somewhere, then enter text, exit the command and manually move the arrow head where I want it.  This is extremely annoying and inefficient. 

The problem seems to sometimes coincide with the occurrence another viewbase issue: Some viewbases lose the ability to snap certain points.  Snaps are turned on, and some parts are snap-able, but others are not. This usually starts with one point and worsens to the point where no snaps are available on that viewbase until I restart CAD. 

Restarting seems to fix both of these issues.

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any ideas? Is there anyone at Autodesk who can help me?

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

I agree, that does seem inefficient and frustrating. The first thing I would look at is drawing content or file corruption. 

Were any of the objects created in a different version or release, or a different application? 

Were they created from a custom drawing template or another file?

Can you share a sample file and a ScreenCast of the issue occurring? 

How to repair corrupt AutoCAD files

Please let me know if this helps.

If a post was helpful, Likes are always welcome.

Please click the Accept Solution button for any posts that resolve the issue or answer your question.

All the best,

[Anonymous]

Thanks Cheryl!

All of the objects in the model were created in that model, and I'm drafting in the same file. Nothing was brought in from a different version or another file.

The next time it happens I will attempt to screencast it and upload  a file.  

Thanks again,

Josh

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

That would be very helpful for troubleshooting. It would also be helpful to be able to check the file it is occurring in. 

I understand that viewbase views are one of the features that are tied to the specific version (or toolset) and release (like 2019 to 2020). Saving to a different version or release can cause the object intelligence to be lost.  

Let me know if I can help further with this.

All the best,

[Anonymous]

@cheryl.buck 

I DM'd you a few files for review, as I couldn't seem to get them to upload here. 

I've been having trouble recreating the exact conditions for the last few days. I guess I should be thankful its not giving me problems right now, but not that helpful for trouble shooting.  I did manage to capture the mleader disappearing once.  In the video, I start mleader, snap to a piece on a viewbase, type in text, click in paperspace to end the command and the mleader disappears.  

A few notes:

- this can occur using any type of snap: corner, mid, center, quad, perpendicular, etc

- In this instance I was able to create another one that worked, but that is rarely the case. 

- The issue seems to coincide with losing the ability to snap to objects.  I'm including another video that demonstrates the loss of snaps (but not the mleader issue)

- I will DM you the file, as it is a proprietary document. It and all objects were created in ACAD 2020.

Thanks for your help!

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous, 

I apologize, I did not receive your previous messages. Thank you for the file and the screen share, I will take a look and let you know what I find. 

All the best, 

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for the file and the videos of the issue occurring, I was able to run some tests on your file as well as a couple I created from scratch and did see the issue with the MLeader disappearing. 

For me, the MLeader only disappeared when I placed the arrowhead using the the Extension OSNAP to place the arrow head.  When I enabled the Nearest or disabled Extension, it stopped happening altogether. 

Can you test this and let me know if you are seeing the same? 

All the best,

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

I wanted to check back to see if the information I provided from my testing helped with working with the MLeaders. 

If a post was helpful, Likes are always welcome.

Please click the Accept Solution button for any posts that resolve the issue or answer your question.

All the best,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your tests and response Cheryl.

I am not able to recreate the solution. I don't believe I've ever used the extension snap before, in fact.  

The snaps I typically have active are Midpoint, End, Center, and Quad.  I haven't been able to notice a difference with different snaps active, but I will keep trying. 

Were you able to recreate the issue of the snaps disappearing?

Thanks again.

Josh

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for testing. I have only been able to recreate the issue with the Extension snap, so that is unusual. I did check your file, thinking it could be related to corruption, but did not see anything of note. 

I also did not see any issues with it getting worse and having to restart the program to fix it. I suppose that could possibly be a damaged install or AutoCAD user profile. You could try a reinstall and/or resetting to defaults. 

Reset does allow you to save your profile so you can re-import it after testing. To test these, you would want to work with the 'out of the box" settings and profile for a while to see if it occurs again. If it is still occurring, you could then re-import your custom settings and profile. If not, I would recommend rebuilding your profile. 

• Reset AutoCAD to factory defaults (see How to reset AutoCAD to defaults).
• Reinstall AutoCAD from the operating system (see How to repair or reinstall AutoCAD).  
• Clean Uninstall and Reinstall AutoCAD (see Recommended uninstall and reinstall procedures for AutoCAD). 

How to import, export, back up, and transfer settings to and from AutoCAD

Please let me know if this helps. 

If a post was helpful, Likes are always welcome.

Please click the Accept Solution button for any posts that resolve the issue or answer your question.

All the best,

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous 

I am checking back to see if you were able to test the reset or reinstall and if it helped. I look forward to hearing the results. 

If a post was helpful, Likes are always welcome.

Please click the Accept Solution button for any posts that resolve the issue or answer your question.

All the best,

[Anonymous]

Thank you Cheryl.  I won't be able to reinstall this week to try this out, as I'm on a deadline, but I will do so when I am able.  

This issue has followed me across multiple machines and multiple installations of CAD from 2016 to 2018 so one of my user settings does sound like a good candidate.  I have only once imported a profile in to a fresh installation, but I do usually adjust the same settings on each machine/install, so I'll be interested to see which of those might be causing the issue. 

Thanks again.

Josh

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

That is unusual. As far as I know, there isn't a setting that would affect snaps as you described.  If you rebuild it each time, that doesn't seem likely to be culprit.  Having seen it in multiple versions, and makes it sound possible that it is a file related issue after all. I have seen corruption at the base file level affect Viewbase views in unexpected ways before. Do you experience issue with the snaps any other time? 

Maybe a custom drawing template or a drawing that was reused as a base file? 

Maybe files (or template or base files) saved across AutoCAD version or releases? 

I look forward to hearing what you find out when you are able to run some tests. 

Stay safe and healthy. 

All the best, 

[Anonymous]

Oh, it's not all that unusual.  We've experienced the same thing, for years, with no solution from Autodesk, other than to uninstall and reinstall Autocad.  In our experience, out of the blue, we're unable to snap to objects in base views.  In some cases, base views on one tab are fine, but the next tab is unusable.  Tried importing tabs from our template, but that doesn't work either, and we can no longer create new base views. Ultimately, we have to copy geometry to new drawing and start over.  Not ideal.  I can find multiple posts in our forums, addressing the same issue, but no solutions from Autodesk, even when users have uploaded the offending drawings.  Very frustrating.

[cheryl.buck]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for your post. What you describe sounds like file corruption since you can resolve the issue by copying the geometry to a new file.  In the original post, the member mentioned that restart AutoCAD resolves the issue, so it is most likely related to the user profile or install.

If it occurs again for you, try repairing the file (see How to repair corrupt AutoCAD files), or you can create a new thread, include the details and file, and tag me. I would be happy to take a look. 

All the best,