# Can't delete referenced blocks

**URL:** <https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/cant-delete-referenced-blocks/91476>\
**Category:** Rhino for Windows\
**Tags:** blocks\
**Created:** [November 4, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/cant-delete-referenced-blocks/91476 "2019-11-04T14:45:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DuncanW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/duncanw/32/671848_2.png) [@DuncanW](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/DuncanW)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/cant-delete-referenced-blocks/91476/1 "2019-11-04T14:45:30Z")

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Use “insert” to bring in a 3DM “File 1” as an active block, that itself has referenced 3DMs “Files XYZ” as active blocks in it. If you then go to the Block Manager and delete “File 1”, “Files XYZ” (the referenced-referenced blocks) will stay and are impossible to delete.

When clicking “Show x referenced block definitions” in the BlockManager, you still see all those orphans. What’s worse is that they are then no longer possible to get out of the file, unless you recreate the 3DM from scratch, carefully re-inserting 3DMs step by step with the correct setup.

Is there any way to fix this?

Can there be a tree-type view of linked files and their sub-files in the Block Manager, please? Similar to how nested blocks look like inside “BlockEdit”.

Currently the whole Blocks System in Rhino is only useful if you don’t use more than one level of referenced blocks, which sadly limits there potential drastically, especially with bigger projects.

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**Author:** ![pascal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/pascal/32/479395_2.png) [@pascal](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/pascal)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/cant-delete-referenced-blocks/91476/2 "2019-11-04T16:53:03Z")

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Hi Duncan - that extra should go away if you close and reopen the file - I realize that is not what you want, but does it sort out the situation you’re reporting?

-Pascal

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DuncanW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/duncanw/32/671848_2.png) [@DuncanW](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/DuncanW)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/cant-delete-referenced-blocks/91476/3 "2019-11-05T15:06:58Z")

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Thanks Pascal, I can confirm this works. It would be much nicer to have this fixed, of course.

As a general question: how receptive are you towards user experience ideas for block handling in Rhino? Surely McNeel has their people for this, but since I’ve been using blocks heavily over the past three years in both Rhino5 and 6, I’d be happy to suggest and illustrate some ideas for improvement here.

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**Author:** ![pascal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/pascal/32/479395_2.png) [@pascal](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/pascal)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/cant-delete-referenced-blocks/91476/4 "2019-11-05T16:06:34Z")

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Hello - don’t hesitate to make complaints and suggestions - exactly what happens from there depends on a lot of factors but we do want to know what you need.

-Pascal