Different Z cooridnates

Architectural Desktop 2006

Windows XP Pro



I received a 276 KB drawing that was surposed to be a simple 2-D floor plan.
In trying to work with this file I discovered every object had a different Z
coordinate.



1st attempted solution: Using the CHANGE command I tried to change the
elevation of all objects to "0" and received the command line message
"cannot change elevation of objects with differing Z coordinates.



2nd attempted solution: Invoked the express tool FLATTEN, selected all
objects. The command began showing various symbols / \ _ (& a vertical
symbol which I don't seem to have on my keyboard) in rotating order followed
by the message "no translatable objects". This continued for 22 minutes - -
around and around and around and never stopped on its own!



So, it looks like I have 2 questions -

1.. How does one stop a command that wants to run on in perpetuity?
Ctl-Alt-Del didn't work.
2.. What command/method does one use to assign all objects a "0"
elevation?
Thanks to all

 

The offending items could be in a block, or could have thickness. Have you
flipped the drawing 90 degrees about the x axis to see what things are off
Z=0?

 

Michael

I've had drawings where the flatten command hangs as well but 276Kb is
pretty small for a hang

Sometimes it will work if you just select a portion of objects in the dwg
rather than selecting All

I've had good success with the button macro thingie

^C^C_UCS;;_move _all;;0,0,1e99;;_move _all;;0,0,-1e99;;

S. Scalise - Can you paste the line above into a new menu button and see if
it does the trick

HTH

Tim

 

There are offending blocks and offending "everything else". The only thing
at "0" is the title block and some exploded and scaled details.
Other items vary from 61'-3 1/4" to -124'-10 1/16" not counting dimensions &
leaders. When viewing sw iso (for example) the leaders soar to the upper
limits along with some of the text. Dimension points, arrows, etc. are on
varing levels and of course these don't return a Z when checking their
properties.
The bottom line (IMHO): A totally screwed up drawing

 

I don't know what the express tool does, but try the routine that moves
everything a light year and then moves it back. It is described in Tim's
macro post above. You can run it from the command line if nothing is locked.

 

Gave it a try and the following is from the command line:
_all;;0,0,1e99;;_move Unknown command "ALL;;0,0,1E99;;_MOVE". Press
F1 for help.
followed by:
"ALL;;0,0,-1E99;;". Press F1 for help.

 

You've got to replace all the semicolons with punches on the Enter key:

-MOVE (Enter)
-all(Enter)
0,0,0(Enter)
0,0,1e99(Enter)
-MOVE (Enter)
-all(Enter)
0,0,0(Enter)
0,0,-1e99(Enter)

Semicolons are the way "enter" is written into a script. This routine
basically moves everything up, and then back down again, but beyond the
accuracy capability of acad, so acad puts everything back to Z=0.

 

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH! My dumb a#$ is showing.

 

Hi all,
it's really simple.
to stop try this combination. I am not sure though.
ctrl+break

as to the next question,
go to this site and download the last LISP File zcord2zero some thing.
run that it changes all z cords to 0.

http://indiacad.tripod.com
and go to download page.

 

Let us know if it works. Remember this stunt doesn't work for things inside
blocks, or for things with thickness.

 

try exploding all blocks, repeat in case a block contains another block
until no more blocks and then flatten. BTW the vertical line that you
thinkyou don't have is called a "pipe" and is on the same key as backslash.

 

I've had a similar problem in the past which is when I realised , after a
fair bit of research, there are about 3 FLATTEN lisps out there and 2 of
them are absolutly useless on most drawings which contain things like blocks
and arcs.

Bellow is pasted the version I use which has not let me down in the time I
have been using it, try it and see what happens. When it asks to remove
hidden lines, leave the default NO and just hit enter. Good Luck!!

------------------------------------------------

(defun c:flatten ( / ss ans )
(acet-error-init (list nil 1))

(princ "\nSelect objects to convert to 2d...")
(if (not acet:flatn-hide)
(setq acet:flatn-hide "No")
);if

(if (and (setq ss (ssget "_:l" '((-4 . "<NOT") (0 . "VIEWPORT") (-4 .
"NOT>"))));setq
(setq ss (car (acet-ss-filter (list ss nil T))))
);and
(progn
(initget "Yes No")
(setq ans (getkword
(acet-str-format "\nRemove hidden lines? <%1>: "
acet:flatn-hide
)
);getkword
);setq
(if (not ans)
(setq ans acet:flatn-hide)
(setq acet:flatn-hide ans)
);if
(if (equal ans "No")
(acet-flatn ss nil)
(acet-flatn ss T)
);if
);progn then
);if
(acet-error-restore)
);defun c:flatten


(acet-autoload2 '("FLATTENSUP.LSP" (acet-flatn ss hide)))
(princ)

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

I get this when I import from my surveying instrument. The survey instrument
records all 3 dimensions when I take shots.

What I do is open the Properties window, select the entire drawing.

In the upper left part of the properties window is a selection drop down
box. In here I choose the various objects that can have a Z property, like
lines, points, etc. I choose each of these, and then set their Z properties
to 0. After this I have no problems.

If you don't do this, lines won't meet when they appear to, distances will
read longer than you expect, all sorts of wierd things.

Greg Chapp

 

That makes sense. Now, what happens if you do not change the Z's to 0 and
start inserting building footprint blocks, adding dimensions & leader? That
seems to be the story with the particular drawing giving me problems. As it
turns out, the biggest culprits were the dims & leaders. Once all of them
were erased/deleted I was able to move all other objects to zero.
A truely messed up dwg!