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Unable to delete layers

KeesW
Advocate
I have a large project containing layers created from a surveyor's autocad drawing. This drawing was imported into my AC14 drawing because I used the survey for creating my site contours. I am now unable delete any of these layers.

Any suggestions?

Layer box.JPG
Cornelis (Kees) Wegman

cornelis wegman architects
AC 5 - 26 Dell XPS 8940 Win 10 16GB 1TB SSD 2TB HD RTX 3070 GPU
Laptop: AC 24 - 26 Win 10 16GB 1TB SSD RTX 3070 GPU
12 REPLIES 12
Anonymous
Not applicable
from the image it looks like the layers are associated with an Xref - there's a separator between them and your project layers. you have 2 options here - hide the layers using the layer filter (blue funnel shaped button at the top of the layer dialog) or detach the Xref in the Xref manager - File>External Content> Xref Manager. Detaching the Xref will remove it from the project. you could also open the DWG in a separate archicad and change all the layers to a single layer that works with your layer setup, then save it as a DWG and attach that to your drawing. or detach the Xref and place the drawing a a 2D External Drawing - File>External Content>Place External Drawing.

hope that helps..
KeesW
Advocate
Thank you Mark. Unfortunately, I am unable to access the Xref Manager - it is greyed out. I must have something missing in my Add-Ons or in my AC's work environment configuration. I've looked once but will try harder to find the correct configuration to enable the Xref Manager.
Cornelis (Kees) Wegman

cornelis wegman architects
AC 5 - 26 Dell XPS 8940 Win 10 16GB 1TB SSD 2TB HD RTX 3070 GPU
Laptop: AC 24 - 26 Win 10 16GB 1TB SSD RTX 3070 GPU
Anonymous
Not applicable
it's greyed out when you're in 3D window, not sure why it would be greyed out otherwise
vfrontiers
Advocate
Just a follow up here... I am having the same issue, but in Xref Manager there are NO x-refs attached. An it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to delete the layers....
Duane

Visual Frontiers

AC25 :|: AC26 :|: AC27
:|: Enscape3.4:|:TwinMotion

DellXPS 4.7ghz i7:|: 8gb GPU 1070ti / Alienware M18 Laptop
vfrontiers
Advocate
And a follow up to the follow up...


These layers can be deleted in ATTRIBUTE MANAGER...


(it was TOO easy)
Duane

Visual Frontiers

AC25 :|: AC26 :|: AC27
:|: Enscape3.4:|:TwinMotion

DellXPS 4.7ghz i7:|: 8gb GPU 1070ti / Alienware M18 Laptop
Anonymous
Not applicable
Yes, that's it , delete the layers in Atribute manager.

This happens, if you attach an Xref, en afterwards, you select it in plan, and delete it.
If you want to delete an Xref, you must 'detach' it in Xref manager.

Normaly, if this happens (layers from Xrefs you can't delete, while there's no Xref anymore), you can also RE-atach the same Xref, and then, Detach it again from the Xrefmanager. Than these layers must be gone too.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Having the same problem, and don't see the layers in my attribute manager. These layers are not accessible anywhere but in the Layer manager, and like the first post, the delete button is not an option.

They are like ghost xref layers, with no ability to manage them.
Da3dalus
Enthusiast
I think this may still be a bug. I had several DWGs imported as Drawings, not XRefs. I Exploded one, and told it to use the elements' original layers. Instead of adding the new layers to the layer list to be edited, it simply added them as uneditable Xref layers. I checked the Xref Manager, and there are not, nor were there ever, any Xrefs. It is not behaving the way I expect, and I need to keep all of these new lines on separate layers. My intent was to Delete and Replace each AutoCAD layer with my standard ArchiCAD layers, but I can't do that, even in the Attribute Manager, which only deletes the layer and all of it's elements!

One theory... The embedded AutoCAD layers appear to have been Bound from a previous Xref, so they read like "Filename|A-Door". I wonder if that character is confusing ArchiCAD? Has anyone seen this behavior? I will go back to AutoCAD and see if I can fix that.
Chuck Kottka
Orcutt Winslow
Phoenix, Arizona, USA

ArchiCAD 25 (since 4.5)
Macbook Pro 15" Touchbar OSX 10.15 Core i7 2.9GHz/16GB RAM/Radeon Pro560 4GB
Da3dalus
Enthusiast
OK, I answered my own questions. Upon looking at the drawing in AutoCAD, I discovered that I had actually linked a DWG that contained a real Xref. Since ArchiCAD didn't complain, I assumed the DWG was self-contained.

The part that I was trying to Explode was indeed an embedded Xref, and though it did seem to Explode, it created uneditable layers. THis is still a bug, but it has a work-around. The solution was to delete everything by deleting the layers in the Attribute Manager, and then bring in the ACTUAL DWG file that I wanted (which had been Xreffed) as a Drawings, and Explode that. It worked as expected.

So the moral is, beware of AutoCAD files with embedded Xrefs!
Chuck Kottka
Orcutt Winslow
Phoenix, Arizona, USA

ArchiCAD 25 (since 4.5)
Macbook Pro 15" Touchbar OSX 10.15 Core i7 2.9GHz/16GB RAM/Radeon Pro560 4GB