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Cleans up your drawing by removing unnecessary entities and fixes common problems
The command removes unnecessary entities from a drawing and fixes many common drawing errors and problems. This is most useful when a DXF or DWG file has been imported from another CAD or drawing program, or after doing certain kinds of edits in LAYOUT.
The command can also help avoid problems when using the Generate Tool Path and similar commands that need to interpret the intent of the drawing.
It is generally recommended to run Clean prior to generating tool paths, prior to rendering, offsetting, and other commands that need to interpret the drawing without distraction from drawing errors.
To open the Cleanup Drawing dialog box: on the Special toolbar to the right, click Clean.
Cleanup Drawing dialog box
Divide overlapping entities within tolerance of…
If two lines overlap each other (one line partly or completely covers another line), divides entities where they overlap. This allows the option to erase the duplicate portions. The associated tolerance value provides a means to specify a threshold of what is considered to be overlapping. A lower value provides a more restrictive requirement for an entity's features to be considered as overlapping another entity either partially or entirely.
Erase duplicate entities within tolerance of…
If two entities have exactly the same length and position (that is, one entity exactly overlaps another entity), one of the entities is removed. The associated tolerance value provides a means to specify a threshold of what is considered to be a duplicate. A lower value provides a more restrictive requirement for an entity's features to be considered as a duplicate to another entity.
Close gaps shorter than…
Sometimes an entity almost, but not quite, reaches another entity. They may look connected on screen, but in fact, there's a small gap between them. This option lets you choose to connect any entities that are closer together than the specified distance. In most cases, gaps are joined by extending the two entities until then connect, similar to a zero radius fillet.
Remove unnecessary "dots"
"Dots" refers to lines that are interrupted by a small gap. If the lines meet and are perfectly parallel, and the dot is not connected to something important like a lead, then the two lines will join together. This can help prevent some problems when using .
Before using "Remove Dots"
After using "Remove Dots"
NOTE: Remove unnecessary dots is disabled by default, but it is a good option to enable for most cases, as it can clean up some messy drawings.
Remove entities shorter than ...
Any entities shorter than the length specified here (0.0001 inches unless you change it) are removed. Very short entities are usually in error, either accidentally created, or created by importing a DXF or DWG file.
Remove unclosed paths within tolerance of…
This option removes any path that is not "closed" (meets itself). This is useful if a drawing has many unconnected elements. Since a tool path cannot be created for a completely closed path Tool paths that end where they start, at least a single line lead-in will need to be added before the tool path can be created. The associated tolerance value provides a means to specify a threshold of what is considered to be an unclosed path. A lower value provides a more restrictive requirement for an entity’s end points to be near other entity's end points.
Before (left) and after using "Remove unclosed paths"
Convert near circles to true circles
This tool is useful for automatically fixing geometry problems that might have been caused by events such as raster-to-vector conversion, 3D slicing of circular features from triangle-based 3D files, or DXF files imported as many line segments.
Its function is to convert items that are nearly circular into true circles composed of two precise arcs. The item could be a series of line segments, a polygon, an irregular circle composed of arcs and lines, a clean circle composed of many arcs, or a mix of these.
How does it work?
When a closed loop is detected, Clean fits a true circle that tests it for circularity. It then tests that true circle against the original loop geometry to see if that loop geometry is close enough to be considered a true circle. If so, it erases the original loop, and replaces it with the test circle. If not, it leaves the original loop as is.
Conversion factor
Tolerance is how close the finished part measures to the original drawing; it is exact. Conversion factor is relative to what the circle would have been if it were exactly one unit in diameter. It is a value that you make larger if you want to detect more circles, and smaller if you want to detect fewer circles. For Convert near circles to true circles, the tolerance value is automatically adjusted because small circles need a smaller tolerance than large circles.
Use the slider to adjust the value of the conversion factor.
[Convert fewer circles]
The clean command is prevented from removing items that are close—but not true—circles.
[Convert more circles]
The clean command finds more circle-like items to convert to true circles.
IMPORTANT:: Be cautious when using circle cleaning on mechanical drawings. It may remove the original intent of the drawing (such as a polygon-shaped tool). Accordingly, this check box is clear by default.
At the end of the clean process, the Information window displays how many entities were affected by the Clean command. Click OK to dismiss it and continue working with your drawing. The reported statistics are approximate and are not guaranteed to report every single change.
Start
Click to apply your chosen settings to the drawing.
Cancel:
Click to cancel the Clean command without running the command or saving the settings for the next time the command is used.
Defaults:
Click to restore the Clean command default settings. Note that after restoring to defaults, you may want to re-enable Remove unnecessary dots, unless you are working on drawings using 3D XData commands.
NOTE: Sometimes one stage of cleaning will create new geometry that will need to be cleaned up by another stage. For example, Divide overlapping entities may create new entities which will later need to be removed by Erase duplicate entities. The Clean command will therefore run multiple passes (shown as Iterations in the progress dialog) to ensure that newly created entities from a previous process are fully cleaned up.