Corners won't always 'stick' when clicked when calculating Area

[craigY4JPF]

I'm using AutoCAD LT 2020 on Windows 10.  I have some building drawings that I am trying to calculate the area of the rooms.  Sometimes, when I click a corner of the room, it won't 'stick.'  For instance, a conventional room has 4 corners, I would click each corner and then AutoCAD would calculate the area of that rectangle (using the Measure command).  Sometimes, I click a corner and it's like I never clicked it at all.  Sometimes I can click several times and it finally will stick, but not always.  I seem to only have this problem with one of our campus buildings, which is a newer building and not drawn by the same architect or person.  I suspect it's some setting that is different but I can't figure it out.  I tried changing the Object Snap settings to be the same as other buildings, but to no avail. Thank you for your help.

[steven-g]

If it is only one drawing then it certainly looks like something just in that drawing, can you post the file and point out one of the areas that gives this problem? someone might be able to see why it causes difficulties.

[craigY4JPF]

I noticed that when I check the property of a line in the file I'm having issues with, there is a value for the Z component in addition to an X and Y.  In the older drawings, the Z value is always 0".  Could the problem be that these newer drawings are in 3D?  I see from another post that I can't turn that off in LT, correct?

I am attaching a copy of the file.  One of the rooms that I can't get the Area for is D137A, at the very top of the drawing.

[pendean]

Rotate your drawing (VIEW tab on the Ribbon, use the pulldown in NAMED VIEWS and select like FRONT or BACK or LEFT or RIGHT) and you'll see your 3D plan as it exists.

Since PROPERTIES command lists these as AEC objects, you probably need to ask the file creators for a 2D version of their 3D model to use. The DWGCONVERT tool found under the Big Red A in LT might be able to convert those objects for you too, but I have not tried it.

HTH

[steven-g]

As @pendean pointed out and you spotted in the properties, your drawing contains 3D AEC objects, but also some of the other geometry in the drawing like some lines have inherited 3D coordinates. It looks like the drawing didn't export very well from the original program that created it. Or someone has been editing the drawing without realizing it had 3D content.

You can clean up a lot of the items by selecting everything in the drawing and then using the property palette drop-down to select individual geometry types (lines, circles, text etc.) and change any 'Z' value properties or 'elevation' from a value other than "0" (it might read "*varies*") back to zero. This will work for everything except the AEC objects.

Those you can move the bases back to Z=0 using the 'move' command with a .z point filter, they remain 3D objects but at least the drawing is tidied up.

Attached is your drawing with everything back on the floorplan, and all the 3D AEC objects colored RED so you can see them easily and know where they are. If you get these drawings from the same company again then indeed it would be a good idea to ask them to try and only export these files as 2D.

[vinodkl]

Hi,

It looks like the drawing file came from an AutoCAD vertical product. I could AEC objects inside the drawing and below is the snapshot of the isometric view of the drawing.

Try to export/convert the drawing using the command "EXPORTTOAUTOCAD" so that all the AEC objects will be turned into basic objects and can be used in plain AutoCAD.

See the attachment containing the exported drawing.

[steven-g]

@vinodkl still a few odd 3D elements and objects not on Z=0, but a lot better than the original. 👍

[vinodkl · Accepted solution]

Oops. Was in a hurry and didn't notice that few objects were still elevated😅

Can get it completely flattened using the express tool "FLATTEN" but AutoCAD LT does offer that, so need to select all the object after exporting and then select each type of object from the properties and then bring the elevation to "0".

@craigY4JPF I do have the full version of AutoCAD at my end and I have flattened the drawing to bring all the entities to "0" elevation after exporting and attached along with the post. 

[craigY4JPF]

Thank you all for your help.  I will definitely look at those flattened files soon.  Sorry, but with other more urgent projects (like how many students can we really put in a classroom next fall?) and having to take furlough days, I haven't had time to get back to this.  Hopefully, soon.

[craigY4JPF]

This did the trick!!  Thank you so much all of you for your help.