Erasing Previously Drawn Objects [2007]

[xi-web]

Hi guys,

I've been viewing the forum and website over the last week or so as part of the new job requires a bit of CAD work. I am in touch with people inside the company for CAD help and was hired knowing it was something I would have to learn. Luckily my role does not rely soley on CAD!

Anyway, there are a few things I am stuck with or need some help clarifying. For example drawing to scale - if I want to draw something 400mm long, I just draw a 400unit line; as long as I specified I want the units to be mm. Then to scale when I print out I change the settings of a layout tab as opposed to the model tab.

But the biggest thing to have be stumped in some erasing. For example, I have been sent a brief layout of a room which I am then to populate with furniture. They have already hand drawn some in to show me the layout. For some reason when I go to delete this, the whole layout is selected - all the hand drawn furniture items and the wall layout. Is there anyway to erase things like you can in Photoshop? It's all on one layer as well - otherwise I would turn the layer off or change the colour to black to match the document background. If there is no way around this, I suppose I would need to trace over the room outline - what would be the easiest way? Using xlines to mark out my start/end points then the measuring tool to get the dimensions then plot it using a pline? Or can I fade the layer and simply trace over it?

The only other thing is that I have inserted some objects using the insert > dwg reference option. I then moved the folder with these objects in. Is there anyway to update the file paths? I have copied the files and moved them back so they show up on my document once again - atleast for now. Or can I save a "flat" image as if I sent this file to someone they wouldn't be able to open it without the icons in the same place? What about the publishing options? If I publish with the layout tabs I get an error, otherwise it saves as a DSD file?

Any opinions or advise would be helpful - I have searched the forums quickly but nothing has been touched on that meets my needs specifically. I am using AutoCad 2007.

Thanks!

[yedan]

you may find that the layout has been turned into a block, if you issue the list command and pick a part of the drawing then hit return it should list what the object you have select is, if it says its a block issue the explode command and pick your object again to explode it, this should then seperate the block entities into single items,.

[xi-web]

Hi yeden,

The explode tool worked brilliantly, thanks. Not sure where the list command is located though..if I turned the final piece into a block (how would I do this anyway?) would that solve my problem as to having the icons as file references?

[yedan]

being a keyboard user rather than icon user i always type the command :) just type list in the command line. from what you say i guess your inserting the icons you talk about as xref items, i personally don't use x refs, i always insert any icon or symbol as a block, that way the information is stored within the drawing and not else where, the draw back with this is of course that you hve no link to the original block so updating can get a bit of a pain but for what i do its not a problem.