Hi Meredith,

>>>>>>is there anything I need to do to keep future elevations from needing to be "flattened"?

This is a "classic" issue with AutoCAD drawing: sometimes you accidentally draw with elevation in your 2D drawing. The probable cause is because you snap to an existing object with elevation. But we never know, why the objects have Z value in the first place anyway.

So you need:

- always check drawings you get from others for potential elevation problems - use FRONT view to check if they are not flat,

- review all your existing drawings for elevation issues, if they are not flat - use FLATTEN command to flatten them,

- always check UCS icon, it should look like this:

to ensure that view direction is perpendicular to XY plan of the drawing. If you see Z letter and crosshair has different colours for X and Y axis:

then use PLAN command to set view perpendicular to XY plane.

- avoid using SHIFT+Scroll wheel - this turn on 3DORBIT command and you can accidentally change view direction,