RegApps (File Corruption & Problem Drawings)

You have a problem drawing. It’s slow to respond to commands, it’s bogging down, and the visual content doesn’t justify the file size. It crashes for no apparent reason, you can’t nail down the problem, and it seems to be getting worse.

Computer hardware problems, power surges, user mistakes, or software problems can cause errors that prevent you from editing or plotting the drawing. By saving and AUDITing your work regularly, you can ensure a minimum of lost data if your system fails. It’s interesting to note, if you AUDIT a drawing, and the command hangs for no apparent reason, you may have the following issue:

RegApps
Some major programs on the market (not an Autodesk, Bently, or Carlson product) have a tendency to save registered applications with an invalid name, such as “##*a%”)?s*” in an AutoCAD drawing file (similar to an anonymous block). Anytime this drawing is used, even as an xref, new “##*a%”)?s*” RegApp entries will be added to the drawing referencing it, as AutoCAD doesn’t recognize that “##*a%”)?s*” is already registered in the current drawing; a “virus” is born. Invalid RegApp entries will balloon a drawing over time, Audit will report no errors, but at some point, the drawing will no longer open. You can check if the “bloating” is indeed caused by this “virus” by doing the following test:

Issue the following command at the AutoCAD command prompt:(tblnext “appid” 5)(while (print (tblnext “appid”)))

If this action produces a similar listing to the one below (often scrolling infinitely), you need to clean the infected drawing (“EP” is a reference to Eagle Point):

((0 . “APPID”) (2 . “EP##*a%”) (70 . 0))
((0 . “APPID”) (2 . “EP##*a%”) (70 . 0))
((0 . “APPID”) (2 . “EP##*a%”) (70 . 0))
((0 . “APPID”) (2 . “EP##*a%”) (70 . 0))
((0 . “APPID”) (2 . “EP##*a%”) (70 . 0))

If you enter -purge at the Command prompt, -PURGE displays the following prompt on the command line:

Enter type of unused objects to purge:

[Blocks/Dimstyles/LAyers/LTypes/Plotstyles/SHapes

/textSTyles/Mlinestyles/Tablestyles/Regapps/All]:

Enter “R” to purge unused applications. -PURGE removes only one level of reference. Repeat -PURGE until there are no unreferenced named objects. As an alternative, download the following routine (will clean an entire directory and any attached x’refs):

http://tinyurl.com/bbmkz

Thanks to James Maeding, Shaan Hurley and the Autodesk Developer Network for making this tool available! The tool can be used to purge unwanted Layer Filters and unnecessary REG APP IDs in DWG files. This tool actually purges any APP ID that is not needed, just like the -PURGE command does in AutoCAD. This tool works for AutoCAD 2000 up to AutoCAD 2005. I’ve tested it for clients in AutoCAD 2006, and while it’s slightly fussy, it does work.