Ghost Components in Model

[Anonymous]

I was modeling away when I opened the Data Manger and saw under line #'s there was an unassigned component. When trying to select it to find it in the model to delete it I get an *Invalid* message. What is this? Why is it here and how do I get rid of it? The attached image shows said ghost component as well as the *Invalid* message I get when trying to select it.

Also, once in a while I'll be modeling and then all of a sudden the components have gone "stupid", meaning they no longer have intelligence and so I have to delete the component only to see that the weld dot didn't delete itself either so I keep deleting components until I get to a component that has intelligence and I re-model it. Why would this happen? This started happening after installing the Plant 2017.1 update.

Thank you.

[MNeugebauer]

Hi @Anonymous

with the ghost elements I think i can help you.

- Use the command ERASE and enter ALL into your command line

  Now you have selected all the objects including the ghost objects...

- Press SHIFT and draw a selection window over everything in your Plant 3D DWG

  Now you have deselected all visible objects and you should only have selected the ghost objects

- Hit enter and the ghost objects should be deleted.

(Let me give a credit to @dan.scales because he helped me in the past with a similar problem)

- Why would this happen?

I can only speak from my experience

I had similar problems in the past with a customer beacause they open the Plant 3D DWG in the "normal" AutoCAD and saved it (and thats a problem) or another customer used differend Service Packs/product versions. If you have update 2017.1 and a collegue working on this project too, please make sure he also use Update 2017.1 and not SP1 or without SP.

I hope this will help you.

Best regards

Matthias

[Anonymous]

Hello, unfortunately that did not resolve the problem. That little bugger is still in there.

[h_eger]

Hi @Anonymous,

does this object have a PnPID?
If so, this can be deleted from the database !!! ONLY FOR EXPERTS !!!

These Ghoust objects can hang during a crash in the project.

[Anonymous]

Yes it seems as though it does have a PnPID.

How do I go about deleting it from the database?

[MNeugebauer]

Hi @Anonymous

can you please make a little check?

Draw a window above everything in your Plant 3D DWG -> check the number in your properties.

Now use CTRL + A (choose everything in your drawing) and check again the number. Is there a difference between the 2 numbers?

The object has no coordinates right? If so, you can draw a line to the coordinates and see where it should be.

[Anonymous]

Whether I use the blue selection box, green selection box, or press CTRL+A I get the same count.

The ghost does not have coordinates for it is ninja and does not want to be found.

I'll keep hunting though.

[addupayN5RZQ]

Did you ever fix your problem? I have had no luck with any of the online solutions.

[Tom_Jipping]

Good afternoon,

I don't know if this problem is still active but I think I found a solution that worked for me atleast.

As was mentioned in a thread above, the ''ghost'' pnPID numbers can be generated due to a crash in de AutoCAD plant3D project. I noticed that, when plant3D crashes, sometimes recovery DWG-files are created in your (explorer) project folder. The thing that worked for me was to delete all recovery DWG's to be only left with your original DWG and .bak files in your (explorer) project folder. You then need to restart plant3D and audit the project before you do anything else. Open a drawing and if I'm correct the ''ghost'' pnPID numbers should be purged.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,