AutoCAD: How to Fix Zoom Extents & Drawing Disappears! - 2 Minute Tuesday

Hey Everybody,

Brandon here, back with a new 2 minute tuesday video! In todays video I go over a common issue and question I get about what happens when you zoom extents and all of your linework and drawing disapears!

This issue in autocad when you zoom extents and your drawing disappears, is actually a pretty common on, and luckily it's typically a really quick fix.

check out my go to fix for the issue in the video and make sure you let me know how it works for you!

Cheers and thanks for watching

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[Cadintentions]

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[AintBigAintClever]

Your 2 Minute Tuesday just fixed my five minutes of swearing at the screen. Thanks. :)

[mosesngala]

I had a design to prepare for a client and was using a template. I couldn't fix my viewport extent for my drawing. Your 2 Minute Tuesday just fixed my hours of frustrations.

[igupandreaa.]

You just saved me! Thank you! I literally freaked out when the drawing suddenly disappeared! I owe big to you! 😭

[chocolatteu]

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 😭😭😭 I have a deadline in a few hours and my drawing was almost finished when this happened to me and panicked for a good 30 mins. Good thing I found your video! You're a lifesaver thank you!

[nikolechaves]

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU DONT HAVE IDEA HOW THIS HELPED ME A LOT. I WAS STUCK IN A PROJECT AND NOW IT FIX. THANKS

[itzyourbwoytchybooxuur]

Select -> All;
did not work in my case. Mine was a little drawing I was trying to adjust. And like you said, a block object at a very distant coordinate point was the cause. I deleted the object from viewport and double-tapped the mouse wheel to zoom extent and it worked.

[JamesConnolly-ntuw]

Thank you! That did not solve my complete problem but it made a HUGE improvement! You were right.... it was tiny little mysterious blocks way in the background. I am flagging this vid and subscribing!

[gideonmoyo]

You saved my day after I lost all my night trying to figure out why I couldn't draw a line ( zero length line created at coordinates (7.8E-37, 8.6E+48, 0) (very weird drawing coordinates were showing). Simply followed your instruction to select all and delete all
then zoom extent. now I get the normal 99958.3, 4405.4, 0)

[wholeart]

Thanks for your video. But I have a different problem. I couldn't find the plumbing fittings when I tried to drag one symbol such as Hose Bib into my CAD MEP drawing. They are totally invisible, including all other fitting symbols. Don't know if you happened to know any clue about it. Thanks!

[sharonkinya]

Thank you so much. I was panicking and this reaaallly helped

[lordofseas]

Thank you. This finally solved the headache i had for days.

[mmizin]

zoom -> extends This is awesome, thanks a lot man 💪👌

[grandmasterplank]

I'll add into the mix what might be some secret sauce, and which I hope will help some of those who've tried all these very helpful hints from Brandon, and all the other offered solutions, but are still having issues.

It centres around Hatching [you know, that critical part of AutoCAD that Autodesk STILL hasn't fully sorted after 40yrs of development]. And there are two main issues I've discovered over the years which can cause hell in your drawing:

*Hatch Origin*
Ensure the origin for all Hatches is set to somewhere within your drawing work (not necessarily 0, 0, as this might be miles away from your drawn geometry).
1. Choose a point in the middle of your drawing work. Note down the X and Y coordinates. If you can find see them: ID > Enter > Choose a point to be the origin (X and Y coords will be shown on screen and/or on command line).
2. Right Click (in blank space) > Quick Select > Object Type > Hatch > Operator > Select All > OK (now all Hatch's should be selected)
3. Properties Palette > Origin X (add X coord noted) > Origin Y (add Y coord noted)
4. Zoom Extents (Z > E) to see if this has resolved the issue. If not, try the next step.
[As an aside, you can get very strange results from some detailed Hatch patterns when the origin is miles away. The above process can help to solve that issue also.]

*Hatch Boundary*
Ensure the boundary that was used to create any hatch (or even a tiny portion of a hatch) was not formed using Splines, even if it was a single line within the boundary. If it was, this can cause untold issues, although some use Spines for this without issues.

There's a bit of trial and error in this, and not all stages will likely apply.
1. Do a Save As to create a backup copy, just in case
2. If you don't have hundreds of separate hatches, or know which is definitely the culprit: Select a single hatch entity > Delete > Z > E
3. If it fixes the issue, you have your culprit (go to 5.) If not, continue to do individually delete hatch entities and Zoom Extents, and this results in just your drawing work showing on screen as required. You now which Hatch entity is causing the issue
4. Undo / Ctrl-Z until you get back to the start of the process as point 1. above
5. Then, Hatchedit > Select offending Hatch > Recreate Boundary (Use Polyline option) > OK
6. Boundary now recreated, but not all parts will be polylines, as the Spline boundary elements will still be recreated
7. Select offending Spline > Right-Click > Spline > Convert to Polyline > Precision (I use 1 to keep Vertex numbers low as poss)
8. Repeat this for all of the separate Spline entities which formed the boundary
9. Once they're all Polylines, I usually Join them together, but this isn't essential
10. Join > Select all boundary polylines > Enter
11. Note: If you're recreating a Solid Hatch, the polyline boundary needs to be closed: Select boundary Polyline > Properties Palette > Misc > Closed > Yes (if set to No)
12. Hatchedit > Select the offending Hatch > Remove boundaries (as it remembers the previous Spline-infected boundary) > Select old boundary > Add: Select objects > Pick new all-Polyline boundary > OK
13. Zoom Extents (Z > E) to see if this has resolved the issue.
14. If not, sorry, I'm all out of ideas.

Finding these issues out through grinding trial and error a few years back, and on a drawing I was simply not just going to leave in a mess, has proved to be time well spent as it's been a game changer at times, and a huge time-saver. Just wish I discovered this years ago, I might have more hair now.

Hope this helps.

[ertugrulunal]

Thanks a lot. You solved my problem. God bless you.

[valerijasmiljanic]

I really liked it! Regards from Serbia

[Cadintentions]

Thanks for watching! Don't forget to Subscribe to keep up with new videos and leave a comment with what you'd like to see in an upcoming tutorial!

[PntballLIF]

I have a question someone sent me a template and I cant see the content sent to me on the page tab. I have the layers and they are viewable, but I cant get them to show up actually on the page. Any thoughts? THANKSS!

[Joe-owrz]

Thanks Brandon. This problem always finds its way into my dwg's.

[jermelwilkinson]

Hey thanks bro!!! This video really helped