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Why can't I draw?

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 5:55 am
by Hickox
I have been using QCAD for years and I just ran into a unique problem. I opened a file that I created, maybe three years ago, and haven't opened until now. The drawing looks fine, but when I try to draw a line (any sort of line) nothing is shown. It isn't that the color is too dark to show on the background, or anything like that. And I can select, move, etc. normally. If I start a new drawing, everything is as always; so the problem relates to this specific drawing. Why can't I draw on this drawing?

Re: Why can't I draw?

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 6:47 am
by Husky
Is the active layer switched to invisible or locked?

If that doesn't solves the issue please attach the drawing. Thanks.

Re: Why can't I draw?

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:04 am
by Hickox
Okay, this is weird. First, I have an older version of QCAD. I opened the "problem" file with that, and it works fine. Following your suggestion, I opened the new version and looked at "Layers" and saw the buttons: "Lock all layers" and "Unlock all layers" "Lock all layers" was on, so I clicked on "Unlock all layers". Then, I could draw! But this is not the end of the story. I started the program again, and just tried to draw with a new, blank drawing. I could draw on that fine. So I looked at Layers, and "Lock all layers" was on! This appears to be the default setting, and it doesn't -- normally -- prevent drawing. So you were right that it seems to be a matter of having layers turned off or on, but that function seems to work differently with different files! As I said, I've never had this problem before and my QCAD folder has 269 files in it. Thank you for getting me to look at the layers, as I was able to solve the problem -- but I still don't understand the problem, or the solution.

Re: Why can't I draw?

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:29 am
by andrew
Hickox wrote:
Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:04 am
"Lock all layers" was on
"Lock all layers" cannot be on or off. This is a function that goes through all layers and locks them one by one while "Unlock all Layers" unlocks all layers in the same way. Each layers can be either locked or unlocked when a file is loaded. Hope that helps to understand things.