Delete Duplicate Entities
Hi there! I've somehow managed to create multiple copies of some entities on my map - the compass rose, navigation lines, and two sets of text along a curve.
I need to delete one - and only one - of each of these entities. I've successfully used "List" to get the properties of each, but now I can't figure out how to select and delete only one of the two copies.
One other request. I noticed that in the "List" command the text along a curve were tagged with a group number. Is it possible to select one of the two "groups" for deletion rather than selecting each letter individually?
Thanks!
Comments
If you have entities that are completely identical (same position, same properties), you have to select them by entity tag number (scroll down a bit on that page to find the specifics for that particular one).
And yes, the group tags you see in the list output is also an entity tag number, so you can delete a whole group that way. (Individual entities inside a group can only be selected if groups are unlocked, and the group tags can only be selected if groups are locked).
Exactly what I needed - thanks, Monsen!
I have a similar question: I have two entities, exactly the same, on top of each other, and I want to delete one. (I've posted the first part of the text from the info below.) This is what happens: I select the "erase tool" and then the object. Command line displays "Select entities (2 picked)", I right click, move to "More" and then select "Entity Tag #", I type in either 68640549 or 68641547 into the command line and press "enter." Immediately after, the command line defaults back to Select entities (2 picked). What am I doing wrong?
+--Sheet: LAND ----------------------
|2D Polygon: color 0 (black) layer 25 (RELIEF/CONTOURS)
| line style 0 (Solid) fill style 390 (Land_MS)
| line width 0.00000 tag # 68640549 pen :0.000 mm 2nd color 0
| smoothing method: No Smoothing
| start parameter 0.00000, end parameter 75.00000
| length 1996.23401, area 122338.71094, with 76 nodes:
| node 1 at 22697.99609,7108.38086
|2D Polygon: color 0 (black) layer 4 (COAST/SEA)
| line style 0 (Solid) fill style 390 (Land_MS)
| line width 0.00000 tag # 68641547 pen :0.000 mm 2nd color 0
| smoothing method: No Smoothing
| start parameter 0.00000, end parameter 75.00000
| length 1996.23401, area 122338.71094, with 76 nodes:
| node 1 at 22697.99609,7108.38086
If I understand you right, the issue is that you select the item with your mouse first. Selections are cumulative, so what happened is that you selected both entities, then by using the entity tag method, you just selected one of them again, leading it to still be selected.
Two ways to handle this:
(You can also do a combine by Not, and remove one from the selection by using the other entity's tag)
you have to select them by entity tag number
Oh my God! I swear, I'm still learning something new about CC3 every single day -- but this is something that will save me a ton of future headaches. Thank you!!!
Everything you said makes perfect sense, so I feel like I'm missing something incredibly obvious. (I even went back to the exercise in the user manual that addressed this problem to make sure I was doing git right--haven't thought about it in a couple of years.) I've tried to make the selection both using "combine," then selecting "and" or "not, then moving to "entity tag." When I type in either entity tag #, the command line changes to (0 picked). I've triple-checked the shape info to ensure I have the right tag numbers. To ensure I'm not going crazy, I used the landmass tool to trace the entity. This gives me four entities on top of each other. I cannot seem to select any of them by entity tag #. I was able to select the coastline by color and move it away, but I cannot select it by tag # either. What am I doing wrong here?
Check that the layer it's on isn't frozen.
Also make sure you don't combine my instructions the wrong way. If you don't select anything with your mouse but then changes to combine-> and, you won't be able to select anything because that means it will only match one criteria, not both, so either:
Sue and Monsen, I appreciate the responses! I'm not sure exactly what went wrong. I was never able to select by entity tag number. I did get it resolved when I noticed that the entities were in different layers. I was able to select by layer and delete the unnecessary entities.
DELDUPS should remove duplicate entities from a map if they are exact duplicates.
You can also use a node edit or numeric edit command on the stacked entities, then ERASE select by prior. It will delete the lowest one.
I'm bookmarking this thread because this comes up for me all the time, and there are some really great suggestions here that I may not remember.
Wow I asked this question a year or so ago. No one had an answer. Had a map from like 2006 or so that had 6000 items stamped like 8 times.
I am going to try this later and see if that fixes it.
OMFG - deldups worked instantly.
One layer went from 10 000+ entities down to 2400
Another layer went from 17 000 to 4200.
The file size chopped in half, but I mean file size are so small anyways.
Managed to pare down so many things. The entities went from 55 000 down to about 12 000. I'm so happy, this is something I've wanted fix for AGES.
The problem probably stemmed from computers back in 2006. I recall trying to copy stuff and visually nothing happened. So it must have just stamped the copied items multiple times as I spammed the button.
Thanks so much Simon.
The problem probably stemmed from computers back in 2006. I recall trying to copy stuff and visually nothing happened. So it must have just stamped the copied items multiple times as I spammed the button.
Oh yeah, that happens to me a lot (though 2006 was a decade before I had even heard of ProFantasy). One common example for me: I will often have a magenta polygon on multiple sheets when I'm using the Color Key cutout effect. Sometimes it's because I had to create an acne mask sheet between a WALL sheet and a sills sheet below it. Sometimes it's because I'm using the Color Key effect for to cut through land to create a river, but I also want it to cut through multiple terrain sheets. And sometimes when I mess up, I end up with the magenta polygon half a dozen times on each of those sheets. It's generally not that big of a deal but it can add some size to the FCW file if it's happening a lot. So this will be very helpful!
I'm glad I'm not the only person who has done duping, but I think mine might be the worst case, in how many items I duplicated.