A plane could not be traced – RealCAD / LANDWorksCAD / ArborCAD

Question

I am trying to fill a drawn plane with a hatching but getting the message ‘A plane could not be traced’

A plane could not be traced

Answer

There are some possible reasons why a plane cannot be traced.

Gaps between lines
Overlapped lines
…

To determine a trace of a plane, use Select Chain of Entities command under the Selection Masks.

Select Chain of Entities Command

If there is more than one path located, RealCAD / LANDWorksCAD will prompt with a dialog box. You can decide which path is the correct one.

In this example, RealCAD first selected a path that does not match with the plane we want to trace.

Select Chain of Entities Wrong Path

Selecting ‘No’, it will ask again, this time showing the one we want to follow. Click ‘Yes’.

Select Chain of Entities Right Path

Once the plane has been successfully traced, you can use Insert Plane Hatch by Boundary to fill the plane, or delete the ‘additional’ lines or entities that were interfering with the tracing of the plane.