The Purge Function

This tech tip tutorial explains the different ways to purge a drawing of unused objects.

Have you ever wondered how to:

• Delete unused layers?
• Reduce the size of a drawing file by removing unused objects and duplicate entities in the drawing?
• Clean up unused styles or blocks in your drawing?

One way to do this is to use the Purge function.

How to Purge the drawing

In the CAD menu, select Tools > Purge. The Purge dialog will open:

All unused objects (layers, styles and blocks) are listed below their parent object type, which displays a count of the unused objects of that type (eg: 'Layers (2/20)' as above. This means that 2 out of the 20 layers in the drawing are unused). Too many unused objects can slow down the performance of the program.

You have a few options for removing the unused objects:

Purge Selected

Click on an object to select it, then click on Purge Selected to purge (delete) it.

In order to select multiple objects to purge click on the first object you want to select, then press and hold the Shift key down while you click on the next object. Then click on Purge Selected to purge the selected group.

Multiple objects can also be selected by holding down the Ctrl key and then clicking on the objects to add to the selection, one by one.

Purge All

The Purge All function deletes all the unused objects (layers, styles and blocks) listed in the Purge dialog.

You might notice that more unused objects appear after you Purge All. These are objects which were referenced by the objects you just purged, and have become unused as a result of your Purge. Click Purge All again to remove these 'newly unused' objects. Repeat as necessary until your object list looks like this:

Purge a specific type of object

You can purge a specific type of object by right-clicking on the object type header in the list, and then selecting 'Remove all unused XXX' from the pop-up menu, where XXX is the object type.

For example, to remove all unused text styles from the drawing, right-click on the 'Text Styles' header in the list, then select 'Remove all unused Text Styles' from the pop-up menu:

Purge Duplicate Entities

This option removes all the duplicate entities from the drawing. It is the same as the Tools > Remove Duplicates function.

Following the action a dialog box will display the number of objects removed.

Purge Unused Blocks

This option deletes all the unused blocks in the drawing.

A dialog box will indicate the number of blocks that have been removed.

Note: There is no 'Undo' for the Purge function. Once you Purge layers, styles or blocks from the drawing, they are gone.

Purge Annotation Scales

Some drawings may have accumulated a large number of annotation scales.

Unused annotation scales can be purged in the Annotation Scales dialog:

Select Settings > Annotation Scales from the CAD menu

Click the Reset button in the Annotation Scales dialog. The program prompts to confirm reset. click on Yes.

All unused annotation scales will be removed, and any missing 'default scales' will be added. Click OK to save your changes to the annotation scales.