Problem with measure area tool

[Mr.Alex]

Has anyone else found that in certain drawings, the measure area tool will just suddenly stop working? It's very odd. It let's me pick points, but won't let me press enter to see the total.

 

Closing and reopening AutoCAD doesn't help. It seems to be a permanent thing to the affected drawing.

 

It's happened to me in a few drawings, but only in those specific ones. Other drawings are fine. I'm guessing it's a setting I've changed somehow?

 

I've been getting round it by creating shapes using the polyline, and then looking at the area in the properties window. It's an ok solution, but not ideal.

 

I've spoken to one other person who has experienced this, but never found a solution.

 

I use LT 2013.

 

Thanks,

 

Alex

[nod684]

Has anyone else found that in certain drawings, the measure area tool will just suddenly stop working? It's very odd. It let's me pick points, but won't let me press enter to see the total.

 

Closing and reopening AutoCAD doesn't help. It seems to be a permanent thing to the affected drawing.

 

It's happened to me in a few drawings, but only in those specific ones. Other drawings are fine. I'm guessing it's a setting I've changed somehow?

 

I've been getting round it by creating shapes using the polyline, and then looking at the area in the properties window. It's an ok solution, but not ideal.

 

I've spoken to one other person who has experienced this, but never found a solution.

 

I use LT 2013.

 

Thanks,

 

Alex

 

TOTAL?

maybe you are refering to the DISTANCE command?

[Mr.Alex]

Sorry wrong word. I do mean the area tool. It allows me to pick the points that I want to measure, but it won't let me press enter to see the figure.

[nod684]

Sorry wrong word. I do mean the area tool. It allows me to pick the points that I want to measure, but it won't let me press enter to see the figure.

 

if you are looking for the area, i pressume your object is a closed polyline / rectangle

you can issue AREA command and under the options, select OBJECT so you don't need to pick the points

then just select your object and it should show the area in the command line..

 

(do you see a COMMANDLINE word in your command line?

if not muttering must be off, to turn it on type

 

NOMUTT then 0)

[Mr.Alex]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Measuring an object of a closed shape is no problem. But I often find it handy to roughly measure areas by picking points (I work in landscape architecture, and often need to measure areas of site plans, for planting etc). For this I use the the MEASUREGEOM tool, and use the area function. Then pick points, and press enter to get a figure. In most drawings, this works absolutely fine, but it certain drawings, this function seems to be broken.

 

I'm guessing it's a setting I've altered in those specific drawings, by accident. But I can't work out what!

[nod684]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Measuring an object of a closed shape is no problem. But I often find it handy to roughly measure areas by picking points (I work in landscape architecture, and often need to measure areas of site plans, for planting etc). For this I use the the MEASUREGEOM tool, and use the area function. Then pick points, and press enter to get a figure. In most drawings, this works absolutely fine, but it certain drawings, this function seems to be broken.

 

I'm guessing it's a setting I've altered in those specific drawings, by accident. But I can't work out what!

 

i see...have you tried checking the nomutt sys var?

[Mr.Alex]

Thank you for your reply.

 

When I put "NOMUTT" into my command bar, it says unknown command? Maybe that feature isn't in LT?

 

But my command bar seems to be active and working.

[nod684]

Thank you for your reply.

 

When I put "NOMUTT" into my command bar, it says unknown command? Maybe that feature isn't in LT?

 

But my command bar seems to be active and working.

 

hmmm..ok. cant thing of anything else as of the moment

am sure dadgad, remark and tiger have a solution for that

 

i will also check on other sysvar that could have cause your problem

[Mr.Alex]

Thank you for your help nod684, much appreciated.

[Dadgad]

Try entering PERSPECTIVE at the commandline, and make sure it is set to 0.

[Mr.Alex]

Thank you for your reply Dadgad. It is set to 0.

[Dadgad]

If instead of just hitting ENTER, expecting the default value prompt to be honored,

you enter T, before hitting ENTER does it work then?

 

I had been thinking it might be a UCS issue, but it seems to work just fine

for me, even with totally random Z values. Which surprised me.

 

The only way I CAN get it to fail is by moving the mouse, even slightly before hitting ENTER,

in which case it fails every time, because it is anticipating the entry of the next selection point.

[Mr.Alex]

Thanks for your reply.

 

That's odd. I'd not tried pressing T then enter before. Interestingly, it works in most drawings, but not in the ones I've been having problems with!

 

Regarding Z values, I've normally do it with snap off (roughly, by eye). So am I right in thinking z values wouldn't come into it if that's the case, i.e. it should be picking things all on one plane?

[Dadgad]

Thanks for your reply.

 

That's odd. I'd not tried pressing T then enter before. Interestingly, it works in most drawings, but not in the ones I've been having problems with!

 

Regarding Z values, I've normally do it with snap off (roughly, by eye). So am I right in thinking z values wouldn't come into it if that's the case, i.e. it should be picking things all on one plane?

 

What surprised me was that even with numerous points with different Z values, unrelated to the current UCS, it still worked fine.

To ensure consistent Z value you can set the OSNAPZ variable to 1.

Of course if you create a POLYLINE it will be flat too, but you want to pick random points, which essentially describe a region, and once again flat or not it seems to work fine for me, even with my OSNAPS off.

 

Have you tried using the -PURGE command on the problem drawing, and AUDIT?

[Mr.Alex]

Thank you, I didn't know about setting the OSNAP Z value to 1, that's very handy to know. It's given me a headache a couple of times before!

[Dadgad]

You're welcome.

For those working on a 2D drawing there is no good reason not to set the OSNAPZ variable to 1.

 

In the image OSNAPZ is shown as set to 0, as I work mostly in 3D.

[SLW210]

Can you post one of the drawing files that demonstrates this behavior?

[kmaro1973]

i found it! its the units command. when the units are milimetres autocad can calculate small areas. so try to turn it to meters without rescaling anything. it worked to me!

[Mr.Alex]

Thanks, if I have that problem again I will try it out! Interestingly, I haven't had that problem for a while. I wonder if using later versions of AutoCAD has helped!? I'm now using 2014LT.