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What is the most expedient way to "flatten" an existing drawing in DataCadd. In other words I would like to minimize the z height values of all entities in the drawing. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Try going into the change menu and change your z base and z height to 0

The only way I know is to:

Turn on all the layers you want to flatten,
Make sure your Layer Search is on and no layers are locked,
Go to Change, Z-Base, 0; Z-Height, 0;
Select everything by Area.

This should flatten all non-3D entities to zero. I have a Command Alias for this called Flat. You still have to turn the layers on and unlock them yourself but it sets the heights. It also sets your current Z-Base & Z-Height to 0.

[flat]
comment=flatten items
alias=^z^0$^0$^;^F0^S3^0$^S4^0$^F3^

Hope this helps.

Thanks that's just what I needed. I think I was unnecessarily complicating things. Still carrying my autocadd mentality of "never use the intuitive solution when you can complicate things with obscure commands."

Sounds like AutoCAD alright!

Hello Toby & welcome,

It sounds like you've got a great attitide: an open mind looking beyond the "standard" CAD! IMO this is the most important factor when making the transistion from ACAD to DataCAD -- it goes a lot faster and more smoothly if you are willing to get out of the ACAD rut.

Thanks, and I appreciate the DataCad community's dedication to the product and willingness to help others learn its finer points. I have found all of your suggestions on this forum very helpful.

Actually, I regretted writing that last sentence about AutoCad, becuase I dont think that comparison mindset is extremely productive. The programs are different approaches to the same result we all want, maximum quality in minimum time so we can devote energy to the parts of the job we love, mainly design. All that being said I'll look forward to participating and learning more in this forum as I get up to speed on DataCad.

Cheers,
Toby