Zoom scale error

[Julesagain]

This error has me stumped. I'm using Acad (vanilla) 2011 on a brand new machine. I've had numberous display, speed and crash issues, that seem to get better when I turn off the properties and layer palettes, however I use those constantly, so that's only a help when I'm publishing, printing or e-transmitting. The update helped the speed of opening a drawing and switching from model to paperspace, but this is a new one to me.

I have an xbind file from a customer, and we've inserted our blocks onto their floorplan on our own layers. Copied and modified 4 layout tabs from another drawing of the floor below as they were all lined up on the same matchlines. All hunky dory, I only had to make the most minor adjustments in the viewports. Back to model space to zoom extents and save. Z, E, blackness. Yikes ... did I accidentally erase everything? Undo. The entire drawing slides back into place, so I realize it didn't get erased, I somehow zoomed way out of sight. Z. E. Blackness. Ack. I can't see my cursor in model space while it is in this zoomed out mode, and it doesn't really want to show up on the buttons and menus around the model space window either.

Z, P (previous). All is well. I start zooming out a little at a time to try and find some object out in space. All layers were unlocked, unfrozen, turned on, btw. I keep zooming farther and farther, but can still see my drawing as a little speck, but no luck finding some other thing out there hanging around. I spend a good 20-30 minutes trying to figure it out as well as find whatever it is, I get another emergency, and then when I go back to it I realize I've closed the drawing. Oh well, maybe exiting the drawing, and AutoCAD, will fix the issue. It did not.

I was able to zoom back by using zoom/center and just picking a value out of the air, but I have no idea what I did, or why it worked, and how it got zoomed out an exponential number. Any ideas? All I found on this was an old thread referencing Acad2009.
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=33693&highlight=zoom+error

Opening an AutoCAD 2000 format file.
Autodesk DWG. This file is a TrustedDWG last saved by an Autodesk application
or Autodesk licensed application.
Command: _vscurrent
Enter an option
[2dwireframe/Wireframe/Hidden/Realistic/Conceptual/Shaded/shaded with
Edges/shades of Gray/SKetchy/X-ray/Other] <2dwireframe>: _2
Command: '_3DFOrbit
** Orbit commands cannot be used at this scale **
Regenerating model.

Command: '_zoom
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: 2x
Regenerating model.

Command: '_zoom
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: _c
Specify center point: 0,0

Enter magnification or height <1.1196E+99>: 200
Regenerating model.

Holy cow. OK so my drawing is "back", and I decide to try and draw a line from zero (near the middle of my customer's drawing) to where I end up when I zoom, to see how far and which direction I ended up.

Command: z
ZOOM
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: e
Regenerating model.

Command: l LINE Specify first point: *Cancel*
Command: ucsicon
Enter an option [ON/OFF/All/Noorigin/ORigin/Properties] <OFF>: on
Command: l LINE Specify first point: 0,0

Too many objects selected for INTERSECT

What?? I didn't select an object, I specified a point.
Anyone have any idea what I did to end up so far out in space? As a general rule, we all save extents whenever we exit the drawing, so this is something I did in this drawing session. Any ideas how to find an object hiding way out in space when you're so far away you can't see it? Not even a speck?

Also, if someone can decipher the 1.1196E+99 I'd appreciate that, too.

I finally just cut and pasted the visible part of my drawing into a new drawing, did an Erase, ALL and pasted it back into my drawing to save my tabs.

:beer::beer::beer: for the brilliant person who can explain this one! If only they could be real ones, because I'd be that grateful :)
Jules

[scott.wilcox]

There may be objects spaced far apart in model space that are getting zoom --> extents.

Perhaps your drawing has wipeouts that are not visible. Type TFRAMES to turn image frames on and zoom --> extents. You may see the image frames now.

Also, remember that AutoCAD will zoom --> extents to objects on OFF layers, so check if you have any layers OFF.

You can type CTRL + A to select all objects in model space, and see how many objects are being selected. Then, set your GRIPOBJLIMIT to a number larger than that value (up to 32767). CTRL + A again and AutoCAD will show grips for all objects (as long as there are fewer objects than your gripobjlimit value).

[cadtag]

1.1196E+99

All that means is that you're zoomed out far enough that the visible height of the display is 11,196(followed by 96 zeros) drawing units (whether feet, furlongs, milimeters, or parsecs)

probably not what you want unless you're modeling a spiral arm for a galaxy... If you've still got the drawing, try turning QTEXT mode on, and see if any blips show up out there in the ozone.

Otherwise, while zoomed in try using the SELECT command and window everything visible, and then zoom out and do a LIST<enter> ALL <enter>R <enter>P and see if there's anything left.

[Richard.Kent]

Zoom and pan so that all of your model information shows that you want shown. Use Erase, All, remove, crossing window around your model information, enter. The object way out in space will be erased and your model will still be in the drawing. ZE should work the way you expect now. You may want to thaw and turn on all layers just to have a look prior to the above, and maybe do the above on a copy of the file.