Is it 2D or 3D

[mmiles]

I am working with files from another architect, and while I was told they were 2D drawings by the third party who gave me the drawings they clearly have a 3D quality to them. If I select a line and look at the properties, it shows that that there is a Z value of zero, and a Delta Z of zero (grayed out). But using the view cube to rotate the view, one can see that most objects (lines, polylines, circles, etc) project upward. See attached, what is going on here?

[MMccall]

The thickness is 8'-0"

Bottom line of the General section of the properties.

[mmiles]

HUH? I don't get it. But thanks for pointing that out.
Never noticed non-polylines had that property.

[rkmcswain]

I believe all normal entities (line, arc, circle, text, etc) have a Thickness property.

[mmiles]

In my experience the thickness usually made a line FATTER. I didn't realize it went vertically, too.
When I got these drawings, I was told that the architect would be using Revit - so maybe these are Revit exports. I thought Revit flattened everything when exported. Can anyone support that idea?

[rkmcswain]

The AutoCAD thickness property has always been the same, a change in height, not width in the XY plane.

When AutoCAD introduced lineweights, a lot of people started using the term "thickness" for lineweight.

[mmiles]

started using AutoCAD around 1994; polylines are the only "things" that I have applied a thickness - hence my reference to fat lines. Because that is why the thickness was changed from 0, to get a fat line on the printed page.
Otherwise, I never noticed the thickness, nor considered using it in a three-dimensional way.

[MMccall]

I've always used the Global Width for polyline fatness and Thickness for any needed vertical dimension.

[mmiles]

YEP. I just realized that myself - global width. I claim total ignorance on "thickness" in AutoCAD.

[cadtag]

thickness has been around since '85 -- when Acad was legitimately a 2 1/2 d program. One of the nastiest files I ever had to deal with was from an architect that year -- somehow he set the elevation property to 20', and the thickness to 8". The placed his stippled ceiling hatch --- 20 minutes for a Redraw on the hot-rod IBM AT compatible I had back then,

Even worse, it was a for a jail, and he drew all the bars on all the cells as pline donuts, also with elevation and thickness......

[rkmcswain]

..... he drew all the bars on all the cells as pline donuts, also with elevation and thickness......

That ^^^^ is awesome :-)