Tag Labeling Problem

[lstarbird]

I have a drawing that contains hundreds of labels (some of which are tag labels) and for some reason, I have a few tag labels that are missing. By missing, I mean to say that they cannot be found in the drawing using the “find” command nor do they appear when a line table of tag label entities are created. When I tried to start my tag label numbering at the desired missing label, AutoCad starts labeling at the very end of tag labels. For example, I have a line table of tag labels L1 through L50. In this table, labels L20 through L30 are missing (by reasons unknown to myself). I then told AutoCad to start labeling at L20 and began to make labels only to have it start labeling at L51. So I kept L51 and clicked the label to renumber it using the “renumber tags” button and also telling AutoCad to start renumbering at 1. AutoCad then prompted me and said that L1 was in use and to hit return to use the next available number. After I hit return it then goes to L20, however, this particular line I want to be L25 so I hit enter again to use the next available and it goes to L51. AutoCad seems to think that labels L20-L24 and L26-L30 are in use, but I cannot find them anywhere. I have also tried setting the next label number to use to the desired number, but it produces the same result (starts numbering at L51).

I also believe that a user can click a tag label and change the style to appear as bearing-distance, etc. but that the label will still maintain its association to the tag number but will not appear anywhere in the drawing and will not register on line tables. This may have been the case here, but I am not sure as this work was done by another user.

I do not know if there is a solution to this other than creating a new drawing and re-labeling everything.

[doben]

I've experienced similar problems in the past. The last time it happened I believe this is what I did:

I picked one of the tags and right clicked select similar frm the shortcut menu, then hit esc. to deselect them. I started the erase command and when prompted to select objects typed "P" for previous, then "R" for remove and windowed the area containing the visible tags. The command line showed that some objects were erased, these were the "phantom" tags. 

As for the second part of your post, yes, a tag that has been changed to another label type will retain the original tag number assigned. You can verify this by changing the label back to a tag. 

[lstarbird · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the feedback, Doben.

We were able to figure it out by doing the following:

Using the “qselect” command, select all general label segments. Using the properties window, change the label style to tag. Then go into model space and make sure all layers are visible. The phantom tag labels will now be there and can be deleted. The only thing I could not do was use a search function to find the specific tag I wanted to delete (maybe you have insight on how to do this?). I had to manually look around model space and find the problem label. Interestingly enough, the label I was trying to find was on a layer that was visible but did not become visible until everything in the drawing was thawed and turned on. Not sure why, but at least we found the problem label.

I appreciate your willingness to help us!