one other thing I thought of. If you are plotting using paperspace, then click on your viewports and check thru the properties dialog box that all viewports are set to 'hide' you should be able to check this by doing a hide thru the viewport
pcw
I'm not fully conversant with what you are saying but check the command "hideprecision", this should be set to "1"or "on" . Hopefully this will assist your problem. Also check that the 2D mesh you have created is in the correct plane ,ie not to far forward or behind...
Does anyone have any spreadsheets for steel fabrication estimation? I have my own I have developed but am interested in any other ideas utilising excel.