Drawing Disabled

Hi, I have an interesting problem, I received an existing layout and have to make some additions. However, when I try to draw anything the drawing keeps resetting (for example when I try to draw a polyline I can specify the first point but then I specify the next point it resets my origin to that point, imagine trying to draw a line that allows you specifiy the first point but when you try to select the next point it makes that point your starting point....very annoying). It's not just lines, shapes also do not work.

I talked to a couple of CAD guys with more experience than me but they weren't able to figure it out. I'm hoping someone on here might have encountered a similar problem.

Thanks!

there are a couple of variables such as filedia? and pickfirst which usually cause all kinds of unusual problems like this

check your setvar are set at sensible settings

Compared the setvar with that of a good file and can't find anything that would make a difference. I've resorted to trying to find older verions of the file that aren't screwed up that I can edit. If anyone else has any other ideas please let me know.

with drawings which just WON'T behave, it's often possible to block them out to a new drawing

have you tried that?

Are you sure that your current layer is turned ON? Drawing on a layer that is turned OFF will yield these results.

Are you sure that your current layer is turned ON? Drawing on a layer that is turned OFF will yield these results.

How many times a week do you have to remind yourself of this?

For me it's about 0.25.

How many times a week do you have to remind yourself of this?

 

For me it's about 0.25.

For me? I never turn layers Off. I only Freeze and Thaw them as necessary, so this is never an issue. Although, I do get drawings from others with layers turned Off. It's very annoying when you try to draw something but all you get is a blank screen.

I don't know why Autocad allows you to draw on a layer that's turned Off? It seems kind of silly to me.

Yah, it's been confirmed, I'm a tool. The layer was turned off...ooops. THANKS!

This raises the age old question of 'What is the difference between Freeze and Off'. The only way to determine the difference is to know what is happening under the Hood of AutoCAD and its history.

From past History, AutoCAD basically has 2 Databases - the Drawing Database with your lines circles and arcs and the Display List Database - what you see on your screen. In the old days, AutoCAD's Display List could only hold 50 times your smallest view. In order for it to display greater than that or you wanted to zoom in to less that 1/50th of the Display List a Regen was required to rewrite the Display List.

In addition to that, if you froze a layer, it was flagged in the Drawing Database to tell it not to be included in the Display List (to make it smaller). To display a thawed layer, you had to carry out a Regen (Go through the Drawing Database top to bottom and rewrite the Display List). On the Slower machines, this meant it was coffee time!

Layers that have been turned off are flagged in the Display List only and told not to display. If you turned them back on, they would appear without a regen (No coffee required).

This explains why you can draw on a Layer that is Off - the objects can can be drawn into the Drawing Database, but it won't show in the Display List. Frozen layers won't allow you to write to the objects into the Drawing Database either, so it works the way you'd expect.

Today, your machine is so fast that you can't tell any major difference between a Redraw and a regen so there isn't that much difference between Off and Freeze on an operational basis. Also Autodesk increased the size restriction before a regen occured to something like 1/2000th (if I recall correctly) which meant a bigger display list was available for you to Zoom in and out of.

I'm with CAD64 with regards to using Freeze - Off doesn't even exist in my vocabularlary