136 — Space Census

A panel normally lives in model space, and the sheet on a layout tab shows it through a viewport. Once in a while a panel drawing turns up the other way round: the whole panel was drawn straight onto a layout. The Model tab looks empty, while the layout looks fine.

Space Census is the first step in sorting that out. It counts the objects in model space and in each layout, so you can see where the panel actually is before you change anything. The published runbook describes it as read-only: it changes nothing in the drawing.

Where it is

On the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar: Space Census, tooltip “Report which space (Model/Layout) holds this drawing’s entities”. You can also type CV-SPACE-CENSUS.

Use it on a panel drawing when the Model tab looks blank but a layout tab shows the panel.

The published troubleshooting guide gives the reading to look for: if a layout’s count is far higher than model space’s, the panel was drawn into that layout.

Try it on AAA039

  1. Open AAA039.dwg from the Arlington Airport A sample project.

  2. Click Space Census. Nothing opens; the counts print on the command line:

    [SPACE-CENSUS] AAA039.dwg  ctab=Model tilemode=1
  Model  = 347
  Layout1 = 0  (non-viewport 0)  nil
  Layout2 = 0  (non-viewport 0)  nil

What you see / Reading the result

  • The first line names the drawing and the tab you were on (ctab=Model).

  • Model is the number of objects in model space: 347 on AAA039.

  • Each layout gets its own line. non-viewport counts the objects in that layout that are not viewports – the ones that would be a panel drawn straight onto the sheet. On AAA039 both layouts read 0.

  • A healthy panel has almost everything in model space and very little in each layout.

  • A panel drawn into a layout shows the reverse: a small model-space count and one layout holding nearly all of the panel.

If the panel is in a layout

The published troubleshooting guide walks through moving it back. In short, in this order:

  1. CV-SPACE-RECOVER copies the panel from the layout into model space, an exact copy at the same size and position, then switches to the Model tab and zooms to it.

  2. Look at the Model tab and confirm the panel is there and correct. Nothing has been removed yet; UNDO puts the drawing back.

  3. CV-SPACE-FINISH removes the layout’s leftover copy and keeps the viewports. It refuses to run if the copy has not landed. Save the drawing.

What this lesson does not cover

  • Redrawing from a layout tab. On current builds, a redraw started from a layout tab switches to the Model tab first and says so: [CV-DRAW] switched to the Model tab – a panel is drawn in model space (you were on layout Layout1). On a drawn AAA039 copy the panel was then drawn on the Model tab and the layout kept its viewports.

  • Site drawings. The recovery steps are written for a panel drawing.

Watch the lesson

The video runs Space Census on AAA039 and opens the command history with F2 to show the four lines above. It names CV-SPACE-RECOVER and CV-SPACE-FINISH but does not run them.