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How to maintain elements as coplanar

Printed From: CAD Forum
Category: EN
Forum Name: AutoCAD
Forum Description: Discussion about AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, viewers, DWG and DWF formats, Design Review, AutoCAD 360, add-ons
URL: https://www.cadforum.cz/forum_en/forum_posts.asp?TID=3273
Printed Date: 16.May.2026 at 11:11


Topic: How to maintain elements as coplanar
Posted By: hdchique
Subject: How to maintain elements as coplanar
Date 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?


Replies:
Posted By: CarlB
Date 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.

Posted By: tulip3D
Date 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!

Posted By: MattMurphy
Date 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........
 

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Posted By: deadguy
Date 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.

Posted By: hdchique
Date 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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