detached XREF layers keep crashing drawing

[DIFOULD]

HI there,

 

Am working on an AutoCAD LT drawing with several XREFs. I have been hatching some small areas and, last click of the day (isn't is always) one of the hatched areas appeared to leave the defined boundary and created a new hatch ALL OVER the main drawing, referncing multiple areas on the top survye XREF below - not just one area, but hundreds of them - all the way down the length of the Road. Every time i click on these hatches the whole drawing freezes and crashes.

 

When the freeze stops after a few minutes, you can see that it has selected the entire xref layer - all of the lines and grips from the xref have been selected. Even though it's detached. And i mean ALL the lines and grips - not just those that seemt o be associate with the weird hatching.

 

I have detached the xref, hoping that they would disappear, but they remain on the main drawing (all of the x ref lines disappear, but the hatches remain visisble. What's also strange is that the main drawing still displays the 'xref' layer i had used - but whe i go to 'laydel' list to try and remove it all completely fromt he drawing, that layer is missing from the list. If i reattch the survey - it appears in the 'laydel' list again.

 

Have uploaded four images here - one with the xref attached, one with it detached (you can see all the grey hatch shaps more easily, scattered along the road length) and one image showing the layer XREF1 which held the xref, and then the laydel options where that layer is just missing - at the same time it is in use on the drawing. Then the last image shows all the lines and grips selected after the few minutes wait, when i have clicked on the hatched area and it has frozen - even though that XREF is detached (so not there, right?).

 

How is the main drawing still referencing those xref lines even though it's not there? And on a layer i can't delete? How do i fix!?

 

Hope this all makes sense...

 

 

[CyberAngel]

It's not clear to me whether you detached the xref before or after the hatching mishap. I would guess after, since the hatch is using its geometry.

 

A hatch will "escape" if any of its boundaries has a gap, as you probably know. If there's no other boundary to contain it, it fills the entire drawing and then uses the outer boundaries of everything else as inner boundaries. Seems like they'd give you the option to abort once the hatch reaches infinity, but what do I know.

 

After you've erased the hatch, the first order of business is to find that gap and close it. If that border isn't a polyline already, I recommend using one (even if you put it on a nonplot layer) because you can check that the boundary is closed. You can detach the xref, but the the hatch (and its boundaries) will remain as long as the hatch does.

 

My standard disclaimer: I don't claim to know everything about AutoCAD, so someone else may have better information.

 

Welcome to the forum!