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The Tutorials section provides over 100 original tutorials for AutoCAD, 3ds Max and other design applications. Michael’s Corner is an archive of productivity articles that brings you the best AutoCAD tips and tricks. Our Forum is a lively community where AutoCAD users can ask questions and get answers. The Downloads area provides free AutoCAD blocks, free AutoLISP routines and free images.
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AutoCAD Productivity
Possible Solutions to the Disappearing Drawing
From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #142
Originally published: October 2015
Many of my customers encounter a situation where the drawing disappears when they change the view or use Zoom Extents. Here are a few of my suggestions that I'm beginning to include in all my training sessions:
Purge and Audit a drawing you inherit or haven't worked on in a while. In the Purge command, if the two boxes under Unnamed Objects are ‘live’, check them both.
Save the current layer condition as a layer state, then turn On and Thaw all layers. Objects that are on layers that are Off are still ‘seen’ when you Zoom Extents. Saving the layer state will give a fallback position, just in case.
Set the QTEXT (Quick Text) feature to ON, then Regen the drawing. Turning on Qtext will replace all text objects with boxes and may make the dots around the perimeter of the screen easier to see. This feature was used extensively in the early days of pen plotters when it just took too long — albeit very entertaining over a lunch hour — to plot drawings with a lot of text. Instead of pppllloootttiiinnnggg out each letter, it just drew a quick 4-sided bounding box around the text. (Set QTEXT back to OFF when you're finished.)
Set PDMODE to 35 to display Points in the Circle-X format. All my furniture/facilities customers have drawings with Point objects on the insertion points and other vital locations on their furniture. Setting the PDMODE — Point Display Mode — to 35 makes any floating Point object visible. (Set PDMODE back to 0 to go back to the default condition of dots.)
After all's said and done, hopefully you will see the misbehaving object that's keeping your drawing from displaying as you expected. At that point, you can either move those objects back among their peers… or simply delete 'em. That's your call, but at least now you know what that problem was!
See all the articles published in October 2015
Michael's Corner
Between 2003 and 2016, Michael Beall (and one or two guests) wrote almost 600 articles for CADTutor. The focus of these articles is AutoCAD productivity, and although some of them are now more than a few years old, most remain relevant to current versions of AutoCAD. The article above is just one example. Check out Michael's Corner for a full listing.
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Tip of the Day
Absolute and Relative Coordinates
Coordinate | Interpretation |
---|---|
25,75 | depends on context |
@25,75 | relative |
#25,75 | absolute |
It used to be very simple. Enter a coordinate and AutoCAD interpreted it as an absolute coordinate. Enter a coordinate preceded by "@" (the at sign) and AutoCAD interpreted it as a relative coordinate. This simple rule changed when dynamic input was introduced and now the interpretation of coordinates is contextual. For example, when you draw a rectangle using RECTANG, the coordinate for the second point is interpreted as absolute with dynamic input turned off and as relative with dynamic input turned on. Really, try it and see.
Fortunately, there's a new coordinate prefix that forces an absolute coordinate, even when AutoCAD decides you want a relative one. Precede any coordinate with "#" (the hash sign) to force an absolute coordinate.
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