Trouble deleting layers

[YoderW]

Hello!

 

I'm working on a huge plan right now, and it's starting to run really sluggishly so I decided to take some time out to troubleshoot and clean up the file a bit. I've done a few suggested things (purge unused materials and CAD symbols, for example), and moved on to my layers. When I started the file, I imported all individual layers of the CAD file so I could work on the plan bit by bit, but it also resulted in a lot of unnecessary data being added to the scene. I'm trying to go through and delete all the layers I don't need or have finished with, but most of them won't let me. Some will claim there's still something on them despite nothing showing up when I hit Control+A, and others will switch to "Used in defaults," after I deleted everything on them. But I don't know what that means, and I can't figure out where in the defaults they're being used so I can turn it off.

 

The layers that claim they aren't empty when they should be are bugging me, too. Control+A, zooming out and dragging a box over the scene never select anything for me to delete, but they still say "in use." I may be able to provide a back-up if necessary, though I'm not sure my company will allow it and, again, it's a very large plan. Can anyone help?

[Renerabbitt]

40 minutes ago, YoderW said:

Hello!

 

I'm working on a huge plan right now, and it's starting to run really sluggishly so I decided to take some time out to troubleshoot and clean up the file a bit. I've done a few suggested things (purge unused materials and CAD symbols, for example), and moved on to my layers. When I started the file, I imported all individual layers of the CAD file so I could work on the plan bit by bit, but it also resulted in a lot of unnecessary data being added to the scene. I'm trying to go through and delete all the layers I don't need or have finished with, but most of them won't let me. Some will claim there's still something on them despite nothing showing up when I hit Control+A, and others will switch to "Used in defaults," after I deleted everything on them. But I don't know what that means, and I can't figure out where in the defaults they're being used so I can turn it off.

 

The layers that claim they aren't empty when they should be are bugging me, too. Control+A, zooming out and dragging a box over the scene never select anything for me to delete, but they still say "in use." I may be able to provide a back-up if necessary, though I'm not sure my company will allow it and, again, it's a very large plan. Can anyone help?

I would say don't bother..it only leads to madness and their is no current tool that helps the purge...it won't speed up your plan, best option I've found if you're hell bound on getting rid of them is o copy paste your updated plan into a new plan. This can be problematic if you don't have much experience with it.

[Renerabbitt]

 

[Dermot]

Control-A only selects the objects on layers that are turned on in the current view.  This is not going to find everything.

 

Layers can be used by objects in other views, such as other floors, cross sections, cad details, and even inside of cad blocks.  You could create a layer set with just the layer you are trying to find turned on, open up every view, switch to the layer set, and then do a Control-A to see if you can find the object(s).  This should find most of them (but still might not find layers that are hidden in cad blocks).

 

As for defaults, there are lots of defaults to look through when trying to find layers.  I would start with the Default Settings dialog and work your way through the list.  

 

Another thing to note is that if you are using a layer in a cad block that is not being referenced in the plan anywhere, this will probably be marked as being used in defaults.  You might want to purge any unused cad blocks to eliminate these.  Cad blocks are a common place where layers can be used but can be hard to find.  Cad blocks can be on one layer but can have child objects that are on other layers.  These child layers may not actually be used unless you explode the cad block which makes them particularly hard to track down.