Moving an entity (or what looks like one entity) in AutoCAD can sometimes be a challenge. I frequently get data from outside vendors' websites. In the illustration below, both entities look the same. As I have noted, however, there are many more items associated with the one on the right side. This is how I received the data from the vendor. Usually, the multiple items are a result of exporting a 3D object to a 2D drawing.
I have previously selected the item(s) on the right with a selection window (left to right) and copied them to the clipboard, sure to capture all the individual entities.
When inserting the clipboard contents, I will choose to "paste as a block." This will bring all 2098 individual entities into my drawing as a single item. I have decided to "move" the item I just inserted into my drawing as a block from the clipboard.
I can now select any point on the blocked object as a handle to proceed. Note how every detail of the entity is included when I select it to move. No leftover lines here! If, on the other hand, I had just inserted the clipboard contents without selecting "paste as a block," I could see something like the example below.
An unexpected result, with a bit of clean-up to do! The selection window did not capture everything. Some will say that "grouping" the items does the same thing. Yes, that will produce similar results; however, if I want to copy the blocked data to another drawing, I can copy the blocked item to the clipboard and paste it normally into another drawing. I can also wblock out the single item to my computer for future use.
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