Lost a whole day fighting a door schedule hiccup in AutoCAD

Spent 8 hours yesterday because a single block attribute wasn't updating in my door schedule, turned out the xref had a duplicate layer frozen. I double checked every setting before stumbling on a forum post from 2012 that finally pointed me to the frozen layer issue. Anyone else run into a drafting bug that took way longer than it should have to figure out?

3 comments

3 Comments

butler.brian1mo ago

That 2012 forum post thing hits too close to home lol. I spent 6 hours once trying to figure out why my door tags were showing "???" for height. Turns out my template file from 2015 had a visibility state that just straight up ghosted the attribute. Checked xref manager twice and still missed it because I was too focused on the block editor. Its always some dumb buried setting that makes you question your whole career for a minute.

jason_robinson1mo ago

Wait, you had a template file from 2015 that you were still using in 2021? That's insane to me, honestly. I cannot believe a visibility state from six years prior was just sitting there waiting to mess up your door tags. I've been caught by old layers before, but a hidden visibility state that old, that's a whole new level of buried settings. It makes you wonder how many other little time bombs are hiding in those old templates people just keep dragging along. I feel for you, because once you start looking at the block editor and the xref manager, that's usually where the problem is, but not this time. Stuff like that is why I try to start fresh with each new project version, even if it means more setup work up front.

wilson.emma1mo ago

Actually I'm going to push back a little here - this sounds like a classic case of not checking your xref manager first thing when blocks start acting weird. Frozen layers in xrefs are one of the most common causes of attribute wonkiness, and I've learned to always scan through xref layer states before diving into the attribute editor rabbit hole. Not saying the frustration isn't real, but there's a reason experienced drafters preach about checking xref settings before anything else.