Clicking on a block produces large number of boxes in a DWG

Issue: You open an older drawing (or a drawing saved by an older version of AutoCAD), and when you click on a block reference, you suddenly get a large number of boxes appearing in your drawing:

Cause:  In the past, Autodesk used to create frames with blocks, so what you are seeing are all the frames associated to this older process.

Solution:

You have two options to correct this behavior:

  1. The simplest way to correct this issue: Type in FRAMESELECTION and set that to 0 (zero).  Now when you click on the blocks, the multiple frames that appear should no longer do so.
    This is a system variable, so once you set it to Zero, unless you change it back to 1, it should stay at zero and not give you any further issues.
  2. Each time you select a block that does this, you can explode them to remove those Frames. (This method is not ideal, as it may cause the file size to grow - but will strip them out permanently)

About the Author

Ryan Wunderlich

Sr. Technical Support Specialist<br><br>An AutoCAD Certified Professional, Ryan is responsible for taking client cases and assisting with issues with the software - everything from regular glitches to software deployments and whatever else goes wrong. He's proficient in AutoCAD (including customization), VBA, LISP, and Civil 3D.

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