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   All of my work (process piping) is 2D. I find that, when I xref a civil file, which is 3D, some of my elements spontaneously become non coplanar. I can even rotate & copy an element and the resulting element is not coplanar with the original. 

Some commands involving 2 elements do not work when the elements are non coplanar. For instance, you can trim or extend to intersection (strange), but you can't chamfer non coplanar objects. 

How do I avoid this phenomenon and how do I fix it when it occurs?

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hdchique Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 28.Dec.2009 Location: United States Using: AutoCAD2010, MicroStation V8, 2004 Edition Status: Offline Points: 5	Topic: How to maintain elements as coplanar Posted: 02.Mar.2010 at 17:37
	All of my work (process piping) is 2D. I find that, when I xref a civil file, which is 3D, some of my elements spontaneously become non coplanar. I can even rotate & copy an element and the resulting element is not coplanar with the original. Some commands involving 2 elements do not work when the elements are non coplanar. For instance, you can trim or extend to intersection (strange), but you can't chamfer non coplanar objects. How do I avoid this phenomenon and how do I fix it when it occurs?

CarlB Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 16.Oct.2009 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 321	Posted: 02.Mar.2010 at 18:55
	To avoid it (to some degree), set "osnapz" to "0" (I think; verify) To fix objects that have a z value other than 0, use the "flatten" command.

tulip3D Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 23.Jul.2009 Location: United States Using: AutoCAD2011, Inventor2011 Status: Offline Points: 427	Posted: 02.Mar.2010 at 20:50
	"I find that, when I xref a civil file, which is 3D, some of my elements spontaneously become non coplanar" This might be due to referenced/binded/attached blocks/elements or whatever in that civil file that have different global x,y,z locations coordinates as compared to your current settings. Wish I could offer more but Civil 3D aint my spec-e-ality lol, good luck!

MattMurphy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16.Feb.2010 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 4	Posted: 03.Mar.2010 at 09:54
	I've had problems before when XRefs don't have their BASE set to 0,0,0. Open the XRef then type BASE and change it to 0,0,0 if necessary. Might help........ --------------------------------------- 3D AutoCAD Pipework - http://www.HerculeDesign.com/ Edited by MattMurphy - 03.Mar.2010 at 09:57

deadguy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04.Mar.2010 Status: Offline Points: 3	Posted: 04.Mar.2010 at 17:20
	The quick fix is to select all affected lines, and change their properties in the property window so that Z=0 on the start and end points.. Though you might have to explode them if they're within blocks.

hdchique Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 28.Dec.2009 Location: United States Using: AutoCAD2010, MicroStation V8, 2004 Edition Status: Offline Points: 5	Posted: 04.Mar.2010 at 18:01
	Thanks for the suggestions. I have found - Flatten works, but some renegade objects remained non coplanar when I chose to do the whole file at one time. Warning!! - when asked if you want to remove hidden lines, say NO. Out of curiousity, I said yes one time and it changed all objects to continuous and then wouldn't undo. I tried setting OSNAPZ to 0, but it didn't seem to help. BASE was already set to 0,0,0 in all the files I am working with and objects were still non coplanar. Using Properties Manager to change all start Zs and end Zs to 0 works well. I was able to use it to changes multiple objects at once. I appreciate the help!

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How to maintain elements as coplanar

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