Part suddenly has no endpoints, can't be dimensioned

[DDoerschuk]

Part suddenly has no endpoints, can't be dimensioned

I'm running Expert version 10,0,1,10059. I've got a part that has gone through many revisions. I only edit it in 2D sketch mode. It has always been well behaved. Suddenly, it's acting very strangely:

1) All the existing elements (lines, arcs, etc.) have no end-points. The little blue dots, right? Not there. If I randomly draw a new line, it appears correctly with end-points.

2) Nothing can be dimensioned. Try to dimension an existing line, and the line highlights, but never dimensions. A new line, with end-points, dimensions fine.

3) Drawing new lines, where you start by connecting to an existing intersection, produces wildly varied results: sometimes the line ends up starting somewhere else, sometimes it starts OK and then tries to align with something in the sketch that doesn't seem visible to me.

I have hopefully accidentally set some configuration option to a crazy value during this prolonged editing session. I've rolled back the repository version several days, and rebooted the machine, but to no avail.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks so much!
Dave

 

[wathavy4]

Did you set your view to perspective projection?

 

[DDoerschuk]

Re:

Did you set your view to perspective projection?

No, still in orthographic. Thanks very much for trying to help, though!

A couple more symptoms of the problem:

1. When opening the part, it has started to give a message: "Warning - Problems encountered loading - <followed by the repository path & filename>". Not a very informative message, but it must mean something.

2. I've opened 7 or 8 other parts in this project, and (THANKFULLY!) they are all working normally.

I'd really like to know what's gone wrong; redrawing the part is always an option, but it would be better to know what the heck I've done wrong!

Thanks very much for the help!
Dave

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

Can Alibre use Layers when doing a sketch for a 3D model? Perhaps by some catastrophic goof-up all the lines ended up on another layer that you don't have activated.

I wouldn't know, I've never really used Layers in any of my CAD work :?

 

[DDoerschuk]

Re:

Can Alibre use Layers when doing a sketch for a 3D model? Perhaps by some catastrophic goof-up all the lines ended up on another layer that you don't have activated.

I wouldn't know, I've never really used Layers in any of my CAD work :?

Hi Mike,

You're bringing back bad memories of Autocad! As far as I know, parts don't have layers in Alibre, only drawings have layers. Good thought, though, and thanks for looking at my problem!

One more symptom I forgot to mention:

A Sketch Analysis finds Disjoint Ends on every single endpoint intersection. Lines, arcs, etc. that previously were connected and usable in an extrusion boss have suddenly been found to have disjoint ends.

Thanks for helping!

Dave

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

Can Sketch Analysis Heal the disjoint ends? That's the easiest thing for Analyze to fix.

Incase you don't know, all Disjoint Ends means is you have two endpoints in exactly the same point in 2D space, only they aren't connected. It happens often whenever you're adding to a sketch, and they show up everywhere on imported sketches. The Analyzer's Heal ability makes quick work of them.

 

[DDoerschuk]

Re:

Can Sketch Analysis Heal the disjoint ends? That's the easiest thing for Analyze to fix.

Normally I'd agree with you completely. However, something screwier than just "real" disjoint ends is going on here. It's like the lines are missing their endpoints. Selecting Heal doesn't fix the problem, in fact, even Analyze itself doesn't think the problem is fixed since it points out disjoint ends again after the Heal process.

Thanks very much,
Dave

 

[MilesH]

Dave,

Seems like it's got corrupted, somehow...

What happens if you save the Part as Alibre STP and then open that?

 

[DDoerschuk]

Re:

Seems like it's got corrupted, somehow...
What happens if you save the Part as Alibre STP and then open that?

Miles,

Excellent idea, but no success here. I am surprised, really: to have some sort of corruption translate to the .stp file, and then back again, seems to be a stretch.

Thank you for looking at my problem!

Dave

 

[wathavy4]

Dave, if that is the case, I bet that could be support issue.
Do you want to upload the part(s) you are working on to the binary?
The best thing is to reproduce the procedure you might have done.
I suggest you to upload the original part, and the corrupted part.
Of course, you may have only corrupted one, now.
But you may be able to make the part which you had originally, if the part is not too much complicated.

Anyway, I personally, don't know what kind of problem you have with your part right now.