diappearing viewports

[John K]

I am new to the concept of viewports but with one exception, it seems like a very powerful tool that I've been wanting for years. I have a file with a site plan sheet containing a viewport of the site plan layer - the viewport is at a 1"=20' scale & site plan layer is at 1"=40'.

Twice in the past week, the viewport has disappeared from the file, including all the annotations that were included in the viewport.

This bug is pretty serious - the only way I am able to recover info is to use my backup system to restore last night's data, recreate the viewport, copy the lost annotations and start over.

Prior to this happening, my site plan sheet showed multiple copies of the same viewport, each one slightly offset from the others. The multiple copies actually exist because you can select them independently.

When I delete the "extra copies" I think that I'm actually deleting the original one. But there seems to be no other way to get rid of the extra images. Screen redraws and closing the file don't eliminate them.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or is tech support looking into this bug?

[Robert Anderson]

Here's almost certainly what's happening: Your viewport objects (and all contents) are in a class that has inadvertantly been hidden. So, turn on all your classes, set the class of all viewports to None in the Object Info palette, and things should get better. HTH. Post back if you are still having problems after doing this.

[jfmarch]

i have never lost viewports, be i have misplaced them. you should check your class settings, just in case. viewports can have their own class, can 'see' different classes, and can be effected by the class setting of the sheet view they are on...

[John K]

I think the problem is more about the appearance of multiple copies of the same viewport than about "disappearance". When I choose the Site Plan Sheet, often I see 2, 3 or 4 copies of the same viewport, each one slightly offset from the others. I have selected & deleted all but one, only to later discover that there is none left. I've verified class settings as you suggest & that is not the problem.

I believe that by deleting the phantom copies, I am inadvertently deleting the original viewport, even though each copy is selectable and appears to be a real object.