Pedit problem.

[Laurel]

Hi

 

I often receive drawings that I am required to modify, where I need to join various geometry into a polyline. I generally use the pedit command, select multiple lines, convert them to polylines if necessary and attempt to join them.

 

I am coming across a good deal of examples where, regardless of the FUZZ option I use, I cannot seem to join them into a single polyline.

 

Please find attached an example that I have been unable to join.

 

Can anybody explain why I have this problem and the easiest way to resolve it?

 

Thanks

POLYLINE.dwg

[ReMark]

I was able to do it but first I had to run the OVERKILL command to rid your drawing of the six overlapping lines. Attention to detail is critical.

 

PeditProblemSolved.dwg

 

Drawing saved in 2010 file format.

[Laurel]

Thanks for your reply.

 

I completely agree that attention to detail is critical. Unfortunately I have no say in the (sub)standard of the drawings I receive to edit.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have the OVERKILL command installed, and I am unable to do so any time soon, if at all. I have since read up on OVERKILL, and as I understand it, it will remove any duplicate lines. You also mention that you used it to remove 6 such lines from my example.

 

Please can you explain where these lines are? As you can see from the attached screenshot, I can only detect the 6 polylines that I am trying to join.

 

Do you have any suggestion about how to resolve this WITHOUT overkill on AutoCAD 2010?

 

Thanks.

[ReMark]

First. If you have AutoCAD 2010 you have access to the OVERKILL command if you bothered to install Express Tools.

 

Second. OVERKILL did not remove six duplicate lines it did however find and fix six over-lapping lines.

[nestly]

If you look at the PLines in the Properties Palette, they're all already "Closed", and you can't join to a Polyline that's already closed. As Remark indicated, this is because it's basically a double object that's folded back on itself. OVERKILL should work, FLATTEN should work (remove hidden lines), and EXPLODE should work also (after you erase 6 of the 12 resultant objects)

[SLW210]

See if THIS THREAD helps you.

[Laurel]

First. If you have AutoCAD 2010 you have access to the OVERKILL command if you bothered to install Express Tools.

 

 

Second. OVERKILL did not remove six duplicate lines it did however find and fix six over-lapping lines.

 

 

Sounds like you're having a bad day. Thanks for taking the time to reply anyway.

 

 

NESTLY:

 

 

Thanks for your help. This isn't something I've come across before, so I welcome your explanation of why I was having the problem. Unfortunately, the (autocad) installation I have pre-dates my arrival at the company, and does not include the Express Tools. I have little chance of getting it installed, so I'm unable to use Overkill or Flatten. I did try explode before I posted, but I'd still need to remove the offending lines (I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible, so that I can pass this on to colleagues.)

 

 

I've attached a new drawing of another loop that I wish to pedit into a continuous polyline. You can see that the existing plines are NOT closed, and yet it STILL does not join all the segments up. Why not? Please can you suggest an easy resolution that doesn't involve Express Tools?

 

 

Thanks in advance.

POLYLINE2.dwg

[ReMark]

I have no idea where you got that bad day idea but your wrong. I solved your problem by proving the lines could be joined using Pedit and I told you something you did not know re: Express Tools and the OVERKILL command. You don't want to accept that fine with me.

 

Express Tools can be found on the installation CD/DVD for AutoCAD 2010. It would take less than 5 minutes to install it.

[SLW210]

Did you even bother to look at the thread I linked?

 

Newest drawing doesn't have endpoints exactly snapped, working with the Fuzz Factor helped, but manually snapping to endpoints it all joined up. Fuzz Factor can be weird sometimes, where .1 doesn't work, .01 will and similar strangeness.

[Laurel]

See if THIS THREAD helps you.

 

Thanks SLW - It doesn't appear to help me with the post above, but thanks anyway.

 

 

Did you even bother to look at the thread I linked?

 

Newest drawing doesn't have endpoints exactly snapped, working with the Fuzz Factor helped, but manually snapping to endpoints it all joined up. Fuzz Factor can be weird sometimes, where .1 doesn't work, .01 will and similar strangeness.

 

Thanks for the reply. I didn't see your post until after I had posted my previous post. I understand what you are saying, but I've never had a problem like this (with pedit and 'fuzz') before.

[ReMark]

Here you go. Happy New Year.

 

PlinePeditFixed.dwg

[Laurel]

Thanks, that doesn't help me.

 

 

Whether you think so or not, your posts could be considered to be more than a little abrupt and matter of fact. I'm sure you've replied to some of my previous posts, and I've always appreciated it. Thank you.

 

 

 

I never disregarded any help you had to offer however. I've said a couple of times that I don't have Express Tools and can't get it. The fact you can do it without explanation doesn't mean I am able to.

 

 

 

Peace.

[ReMark]

The method was explained by both nestly and SLW210.

 

What do you mean you can't get Express Tools? Someone in your company must have the installation media. Or maybe it was installed and someone unloaded it thinking it wasn't needed. Search your hard drive for acetutil.arx.

[nestly]

With regard to the first issue, unfortunately, I don't have good suggestion that doesn't involve an Express Tool (BTW, Express Tools are just lisps that were created by users that Autodesk collected and offered as a bonus,) It would probably not be difficult to find/install them "IF" you can gain permission to do so.

 

With regard to the 2nd issue, there are small gaps between the ends of the polylines (may have to increase the precision in UNITS to measure them) Perhaps try the BOUNDARY command (BPOLY) which will create a new closed polyline from the loop/enclosed area on the current layer, so that should help with having to go back and delete the original geometry.

 

[ReMark]

How to install Express Tools into AutoCAD after the fact is covered in this article.

 

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-install-Express-Tools-into-AutoCAD.html?v=2013

[Laurel]

ReMark:

 

Thanks for the suggestion. The PC's (and software) in my company are maintained by an external company. They are difficult to get hold of at the best of times. I've searched for the file (acetutil.arx) but it appears to be missing from my hard drive, although I don't have the required PC permissions to install it if it was there, so your link on how to install it won't help. Very much appreciate the suggestion tho.

 

 

Nestly:

 

Thanks very much. The Boundary (bpoly) command is exactly what I need! My company receives many files that have (apparently) been created on 3rd party software. A major part of the work my dept. does is to make changes which involve producing a continuous pline (for CNC purposes). Up until now, my colleagues have been picking each endpoint and snapping it manually to the adjacent point. The bpoly command allows us to skip all this, and do the task with one command. You've helped no end. Thank you!!

[nestly]

Cool. If BPOLY works for the enclosed loops, perhaps you could use it for the first example as well by drawing temporary lines between the endpoint(s) of your open curves, create a new "boundary" then edit to remove the temporary segments.

 

Also, if you want to try OVERKILL without installing the Express tools, you can load it temporarily by simply downloading the attached lsp file to your computer, then drag/drop the file onto your AutoCAD window. All the necessary code will load into AutoCAD's memory without making any permanent changes to your AutoCAD installation. If you find it useful, you can set it up to load automatically so it will always be available as well.

overkill.lsp

[Laurel]

Thanks again, Nestly.

 

I can't try the lsp file because of my limited PC admin priviledges, but the suggestion regarding the first example will do the trick. Thank you!

[nestly]

Ok, one last tip then. BPOLY works much like HATCH, whereas it may fail if it finds a gap in the geometry. If it does, like Hatch it will draw temporary red circles at the gap(s), and like Hatch, sometimes zooming out without doing anything else and re-executing the command will cause AutoCAD to ignore the gaps if they're small enough.

[ReMark]

I don't understand how your system would be locked down so tight you could not run a lisp program since they are native to AutoCAD. Did you mean to say you are prohibited from downloading the program perhaps?