36k Hidden objects...WHERE?

[mvsawyer]

There are 36k hidden objects that I just can't find...Can you?
Any ideas where they came from? I received a dwg from a client that received it from a client...and so on. I blocked out the first drawing into a clean template, erased all selectable objects and saved. Then I did a recover. The objects are still there and not selectable. Please help.

temp.dwg

[mvsawyer]

There are 36k hidden objects that I just can't find...Can you?
Any ideas where they came from? I received a dwg from a client that received it from a client...and so on. I blocked out the first drawing into a clean template, erased all selectable objects and saved. Then I did a recover. The objects are still there and not selectable. Please help.

temp.dwg

I was able to DXFOUT to a 2000 DXF, audit DXF file; found and fixed 37k objects. Save as DWG and dwg size is normal again...

[dgorsman]

There's AEC and third-party content in extension dictionaries; these are considered "objects" but not "entities" so they can't be selected on-screen (can only do that with entities). Somebody has also tried to be very clever (or absent-minded), as there are a large number of line types converted from Microstation in this file. They can't be normally purged, if you search there are a few user-created tools for forcibly removing these.

[mvsawyer]

Thanks for the reply. Glad to know where they came from. IME it's not usually awareness that gets these objects into a drawing.

[FabriCADed]

Look for SuperPurge, this will allow you to do a hard purge of all the objects in the drawing.