Quick question re: block insertion

I'm going to sound dumb here, but I can't figure this one out using the normal Googly avenues. Sorry if I'm missing a thread and this is a duplicate.

Say I have some geometry that I want a 2D block of. So, I orient the camera, and use the FLATSHOT command.

The resulting block always has an insertion point of... how do I explain this? It's the same distance from the crosshairs as the origin was when the block was created. It's not AT the origin, it's at a certain distance away from the crosshair. So, if my geometry is far enough away from the origin, I have to zoom way out after creating the block just to be able to see where it is and be able to locate it with a final left click.

I don't get why this would ever be the case. In my mind, either a block is always inserted at the origin (or another specified point), or it's inserted at the crosshair. I don't understand how what's happening now would ever be useful.

Anyway, am I just missing some obvious system variable, or something?

Thanks in advance.

Dadgad: I think the OP is specifically referring to blocks created by the FLATSHOT command.

Perhaps you could explode the block and redefine it with the insertion point more to your liking.

The block is referenced to the UCS of the camera view plane that you used.

or skip explode and use the block editor.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. In this instance I guess it's fine to just consider blocks created through the FLATSHOT command.

Exploding a block, or using a block editor, would not work, because in my example the block hasn't been placed yet.

The steps are as such:

1. Isolate and orient your stuff.

2. FLATSHOT, enter.

3. A block appears in a weird location at some seemingly arbitrary distance from the crosshair. This is the issue. It doesn't appear AT the crosshair, it's somewhere else relative to it. (As a corollary, I'd really like to know why this would ever happen).

4. So, you have to zoom way out to see where it actually is to be able to locate it where you want.

5. Once you finally figure that out, you left-click to place it, then scale and rotate it as with a normal block insertion.

6. Only now can you EXPLODE or BEDIT... way after the problem has occurred.

I hope that's clear enough. It seems the insertion point of the block wants to be nowhere near where the geometry? It's tremendously obnoxious if you want the block you create through FLATSHOT to be close to the geometry in model space.

Editing the block was suggested because the block is not created the way you like it. It's an easy fix (workaround), if you cannot figure out how to create it as you desire it to be.

I think eldon kind of hinted at what the cause may be when he wrote..."The block is referenced to the UCS of the camera view plane that you used."

Relocate the UCS so that it is on the object, then use Flatshot.

It might save effort if you export the flatshot to an external file in the first place. You know it is the only object in that drawing. Then it is easy to fix the insertion point to your preference.

Ugh... duh. Thanks rkent and ReMark, again, as well as eldon and RobDraw. I should have been able to figure this out myself. I'm pretty weak on UCS manipulation, and what I was toying around with before wasn't really working. I was orienting the camera with the buttons on the view toolbar, which would reset the UCS to that view (which is annoying), so I would UCS -> W to give myself a normal coordinate system before I created the block. Clearly that is my "issue." I'm still not sure why anyone would want that, but that's neither here nor there.

Thanks again, guys!

OK, sorry, strike what I just said. I'm still having issues. Here's a photo album of what's happening.

This is where I begin, with a plan view of some wireframe geometry, which I have isolated. Nothing crazy. You can see how I've moved the UCS to one of the corners of the wall:

This is me starting the FLATSHOT command:

Command complete, awaiting insertion point. You can see how the new block is nowhere to be found:

Because I used REGEN before I started FLATSHOT, I can only zoom out so far. The new block is still nowhere:

I had to place the block first, and then zoom wayyyy out to be able to find it. You can see how far away it ended up:

So... yeah. No idea why AUTOCAD would pick that point that far away from the crosshair. I have got to be missing something super simple.

I was doing some experimentation and maybe have a better answer for you. I was able to create the same scenario you were seeing and then fixed it with a command I didn't know existed, REGEN3. So make sure there are no objects a long way from your model and then run the REGEN3 command and then try again. See help for an explanation of that command.

Thanks rkent, the online help for REGEN3 is a little confusing so I'll have to toy with this for a while. It's a pretty weird issue, though, right?