Part I: CAD and AutoCAD for the Theater

Chapter Fourteen: Cleaning Up and Archiving

Binge and Purge

All the little boxes

zip files
CDR

Binge and Purge:

If there are blocks or other drawing elements that you have created, but since eliminated, they are still taking up space in your drawing file. You may have several unused layer names from drawings that have been inserted and erased or entities that have been eliminated. PURGE erases unused blocks, dimension styles, layers, linetypes, shape files and text styles.

Before starting to PURGE, SAVE or QSAVE the drawing. Purging must be done immediately when you open a drawing. It will not be allowed after any changes are made to the drawing. In AutoCAD for DOS, END the drawing and reopen the drawing. If you are working in AutoCAD for Windows, OPEN the drawing that is already open (re-open). Type in PURGE and press Enter. AutoCAD will ask you which elements you want to purge, type [A] for ALL. One by one AutoCAD will ask you about all the unused blocks, line styles, layers, etc. Answer [Y] YES to purge or [N] NO to save. If you goof up, exit the drawing using the QUIT command so that nothing is saved and start the process again.

Purging only eliminates one level of elements at a time. If line types, typestyles, layers or other loaded elements are contained within another element, such as a block or layer, they will not be purged. Repeat the process outlined above several times, until AutoCAD reports that there are no unreferenced objects to purge. Two or three passes should do it unless you have nested blocks several layers deep.

chapter index.