Disappearing 3d parts of 2d/3d symbols

[jwlyon1]

I have a drawing with several 2d/3d symbols. Some of them have all of a sudden lost their 3d elements.

Weirdly, when I cut the sections through the space, the 3d info still shows up. But that's in a separate file that references the file with the symbols, so maybe they're not updating in the elevation file.

Has anyone else had this happen? Any solutions? I don't want to rebuild all the symbols if possible.

Thanks!

[Christien]

I've had this happen with some trussing, and was told to try and just erase the 2d component completely, somehow it gets the two mixed and doesn't know what to show.

[Pat Stanford]

My experience is that when things disappear in VW it is usually a class visibility issue.

What happens if you turn on all of your classes and edit the 3D portion of the symbol?

Remember that Saved Views and Viewports can both change class visibilities. Also, by default classes created after a Viewport is created are treated as Invisible in those previously existing Viewports.

[michaelk]

I agree with Pat. This is usually a class visibility problem. Look in the 3D symbol definition to see what classes the objects are assigned to and make sure those classes are visible. In some cases (like multiple extrudes) you may have to check the classes of all the original 2D geometry.

hth

mk

[M5d]

Classes are a possibility but I've experienced a similar issue and generally just entering the object as though editing it and then exiting will make it reappear.

Edited March 25, 2011 by M5d

[michaelk]

It depends on what version you are using.

There was a bug that did exactly that: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=142074&page=1

It was fixed in 2010 SP4.

mk

[jwlyon1]

Lo! and behold! It was indeed a class visibility issue. What really threw me off was the VIP box saying it was just a 2D symbol when the 3D classes were turned off. That's when I freaked out.

Thanks so much for the feedback!

[Jim Smith]

I have been working through this today & to get around it I've removed all classes except None & Dimension. Some of the symbols I've in this file look to be from AutoCad & are made up of 3D polys with Z as zero. Furthermore, when I go to replace these symbols, a Custom Selection by name finds the symbol in the dialogue box but when returning to the drawing, the symbol has not been selected. This despite turning all layers on & scrolling through each layer.

Any thoughts as to where these symbols may have gone to?

[michaelk]

Nested inside other symbols?

[Jim Smith]

Yeah, that is part of it. What I don't get is the 3d symbol with 0 as the Z dimension.

[michaelk]

Do you mean the symbol has a flat Nurbs surface, 3D poly, extrusion of 0, or EAP with a line for a profile?

[Jim Smith]

Yes.

Seriously some are flat Nurbs but mostly these are 3D polys with an extrusion of Zero.

What is making this difficult to manage is there are symbols that are identical, save for the name. When I attempt a custom selection by Name or a combination of Symbol & Name so I can replace them, my search results in no selection.

-All Unused symbols & classes are purged ( I've converted EVERYTHING to None Class)

- If I select a symbol I can see the Name in the OiP

- Being 3D Polys they show up as 3D symbols despite having no Z value

Moral:

Legacy AutoCad Symbols (blocks?) are the devil.