Draw order - Useless

[SamuelAB]

AutoCAD was invented in 1982 and almost 30 years later, the draworder function still does not work.

I have to specify the order almost everyday, sometimes I press the buttons and nothing happens. Lately, I've been using the DOBYLAY function, it works for a bit, but then the order changes. I close the drawing and reopen it and the order changed. I fix the order and go to print and the order changed already...

Has anyone found a way to not constantly babysit the draworder?

[arshiel88]

As long as SORTENTS=127 and DRAWORDERCTL=3, Usually, a REGEN can fix a draw order display problem easily. I highlighted the "display" because when it's fixed by a regen, you will know that it is in the right order, just not displaying correctly.

[BlackBox]

I have NEVER experienced this behavior before.

Are you the only user at your company that is experiencing this?

Are the entities 'being changed' the same each time?

Is there any identifiable pattern that can be observed (i.e., specific commands being issued, etc.)?

Do you have any errors (at the command line) during startup?

I *believe* AI_DRAWORDER (the LISP function responsible for all draw order functionality) is loaded with acad####doc.lsp... you might check to make sure it has not been modified. Unfortunately *some* CAD leaders/managers insist on modifying this AutoCAD defined file, instead of using acaddoc.lsp which is a user defined file. Just a thought.

[SamuelAB]

@ Archiel88, both of these setting are set to these numbers. Regen does not fix the issue.

@ Renderman, I've experienced it many times at school. We used AutoCAD at least 20 hours a week including homework for 3 years. I think this is just something that people have decided to live with since it rarely does any major harm to the drawing. However, it is vital once you start using WIPEOUTS or text masks. I remember having to redo the orders at least twice a week when my gridline blocks had WIPEOUTS in them.

The other user in our company is not a reliable CAD information source.

I use AutoCAD MEP, so depending on the user profile, I can use the ribbon or the right click. We have a very simple system, basically almost just two layers. One layer for xrefs and one layer for our blocks (there are also layers for annotations and grids) . I send the xrefs to back and the blocks to front.

The issue is mostly with the xrefs in front the the blocks, especially since the xrefs contain masked text room titles. Often, sending the xrefs to the back does nothing if you do not send the blocks to the front and vice versa.

There are no patterns for how long the draw order is respected. I find the biggest wild card is closing and opening the file. SOmetimes I will fix it all and by the time it's printed (to PDF), the order is wrong again.

There are no errors at startup.

I did not touch the AI_DRAWORDER

[jpaulsen]

Rarely I experience the problem where Send to Back does not work but Bring to Front does or visa versa; however, I have never experienced the draworder changing on it's own. Hopefully you can figure out what is causing this on your system.

[BlackBox]

Agreed.

I cannot comment on your school's AutoCAD environment, but suffice it to say that I've been working professionally with AutoCAD products a lot more than you stated. In my *limited* experience, I have only rarely shared Jeff's noted *intermittent* failing.

I learned long ago that things (within AutoCAD) do not act on their own... usually there is some sort of poorly written LISP, etc. responsible for the *ghosts*.

[SamuelAB]

At school we had a ghost image of AutoCAD load up every morning. So it was basically a fresh install everyday. Been doing CAD for over 10 years btw, now going (running) towards Revit.

I've got two senior CAD people here in the forum telling me they never see the draw order move...

I will let you know if I can find a reliable way to document this and perhaps make a video.

[BlackBox]

Just to be clear - I wasn't knocking your experience, nor claiming any form of *superiority* - I'm just a guy who knows a lil' about AutoCAD. That's it. I meant no offense.

I am genuinely perplexed by your issue. I have always found the *draw order* functionality extremely useful, minus the occasional fail noted.

That said, and perhaps because I delve into the development side of AutoCAD, the only time any entities within my drawings seemingly changes draw order *on their own*... is when a Reactor's Callback function (which I wrote the code for) makes it so.

For example, when I XREF a drawing, it (the XREF) is programmatically moved to the back.

In any event, I sincerely hope you find a resolution to your issue. I am sorry I cannot be of more help.

Good luck!

[SamuelAB]

No offense taken.

Draw order is pretty vital in AutoCAD. I've not dwelved in the programming side of CAD yet, I've programmed some VBA pseudo databases beore but I've had no need to program ACAD yet. Perhaps Revit in a few years.

It's good to know that the code seems to be somewhat simple and in order. I will come back with a more detailed scenario when it arises. (We are slowly moving away from the project with the draworder issue).

[Tom Beauford]

Try this link: Wipeout in Dynamic Blocks
Draworder works pretty good now, but still has trouble with objects in X-ref's. Wrote the routine in the link years ago before draworder was around, but it still comes in handy when nothing else does the trick.