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cannot delete layers

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bearisle

Mechanical
Jun 2, 2004
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I have tried to delete layers from a drawing. some will delete fine and others give error message " cannot delete the following layer types.....layer 0 and defpoint...current layer....x-ref dependant layer...layers containing objects....I do not think any of these conditions are tru, but they still will not delete??????any ideas???
 
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Assuming that you're trying to delete a layer that you've created (either directly or as a part of your office standards) and not one of the cases directly mentioned (layer 0, defpoints, current, xref, etc)... Odds are that you've got a block defined somewhere in the drawing that contains an object on one of those layers. This can happen a lot when you do copyclips, the block names stick around even if they're exploded and can often contain lots of stuff that you've already deleted.
 
Purge the file (type purge on the command line). This will give you the ability to remove from your file everything that is not being used, including: blocks, dimension styles, layers, linetypes, & text styles. This should get rid of everything that is offending you.
 
I think I was having the same problem as you at one point. I belive I fixed this issue by going to the Options/Open and save window and clicking off the Show Proxy Information Dialog Box.
 
If you still have this problem, i suggest that you copy all the entities from your file to another file. Then purge the file.
 
When I am faced with a situation like this I do the following:

erase > all > r (for remove) > select what you want to remain in the dwg > enter

Sometimes I'll find empty attributes leftover from someone elses sloppy cad work. To do this type attdisp > ON and erase any you see floating in nowhere land.

This procedures almost always work for me. I have never (that I recall) resorted to copying and pasting or otherwise blocking out my drawing into a blank drawing in order to alleviate the burden of having extra unused layers in a dwg.
 
Ironically I was faced with a dwg like this after making my last post. I was informed that one thing that may fix it is to wblock out any 'unused' blocks > open the block.dwg(s) > purge it > reinsert into original dwg and redefine > remove and purge. I did this and it did partly fix the issue. I was able to remove a handful of the layers, but still some layers remained. I couldn't figure out why so then I was faced with blocking out the drawing. In this case it wasn't necessary as it was not a true working drawing, but an old .dwt that somehow got jacked up. At any rate here are a few other links you may (or may not) find useful...

 
To expand on EXXIT's comments, I use "laydel" also. However, after typing in "laydel", it will prompt you to "Select object on layer to delete or [Name]:" Enter in "n". A window will open to select the layers you want to delete. You can make multiple selections. Make sure that the layer(s) you are trying to delete are not current or locked or frozen. Also make sure you have "expressmenu" loaded.
 
Aside from the Def point and the "0" which can not be deleted, you should be able to delete all other layers if there are object in that layer. Even if you have a point that may not be visible in anyone of those layers, you will not be able to delete that layer until that point is found and erased. In the case of a point,you can easily find it by changing its shape and size.
 
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