2d drawings not flat on (X,Y) plane

[thomas.denney836893]

So the office I am at has a ton of previous projects drafted where nobody was paying attention to the fact they were drawing out of plane and there are a bunch of line points on various z-axis points. I'm wondering it there is a setting that is allowing this to happen or how do I train the staff to prevent this from a happening in the future?

[Ed Jobe]

You posted in the ACA forum. Are you using the arch features or just plain AutoCAD?

[thomas.denney836893]

You posted in the ACA forum. Are you using the arch features or just plain AutoCAD?

AutoCAD 2022.

[Ed Jobe]

It's hard to say how it got started. But copying work probably spread the errors. You can use the FLATTEN command to fix it. I would use ScriptPro to batch process a project. Once you clean up your projects, it's less likely to be repeated through reuse.

[Kevin.Sturmer]

Sometimes flatten doesn't capture the issue entirely. Using a script to collectively select all and change the Z value to 0.000000 has helped.

Note that an XREF may contain 3D objects and/or objects not on Z=0 which when referenced into a host file may cause the issue if when inserting other references or blocks they are placed by selection and not manually entering 0,0,0 for the insertion point

[ChaosSeekerAVE]

Aside from calmly YELLING at the team, I would suggest as mentioned previously by Ed, the FLATTEN command. If the drawings are Xrefed you could insert and explode then flatten. Doesn't work well if you are receiving updated files from others though. Another option is to use the PROPERTIES dialog (tool) box. Control 'A' then set Z to 0 for all arcs, lines, circles etc (a time-consuming act yes). Then PURGE if the drawing(s) are drawn in "3D".
As far as training, well have the person again do the PROPERTIES box and select all. Just to see if everything is on the same Z plane, especially when starting on the project.
Hope this helps somehow.