Archive for August, 2006

You’ve heard the rumors. And yes, they are true.

CIVIL 3D AUTOSIZES YOUR TEXT ACCORDING TO YOUR VIEWPORT SCALE

So you throw away that leroy chart you had thumbtacked to your cube wall. And you dive in to Civil 3D. And then… what the heck???

She said it would resize! Why is it so big? RETURN THIS SOFTWARE JUNK.

Hold on.

Autosize does not mean MIND READ.

In the old world, you thought about your plotted text height- maybe say, 0.08″. Then you did some mental math based on your drawing viewport scale, the angle of the sun and your lunch tab to come up with a textstyle height in model space that would plot for you. Change the scale of the drawing? Then you needed to reinsert all that text. Or maintain a duplicate.

When I worked in the metric world in large neighborhoods, we maintained two sets of text. Text that was readable on 1:1000 drawings, and text that was readable at 1:500. Back here on the east coast with small sites, we varied from 1″=10′ to 1″=500′ and text was always an issue.

So what does autosize mean then, Dana?

Read the rest of this entry »

I crack me up.

Anyway, mea culpa, I was wrong. I’ll repeat that, I was wrong. The problems I ran into last week had nothing to do with the _recover file, but with the Pipe Network and Data References I was using.

At the time, I did speak with some brilliant guys, everything else seemed to be working, and the only culprit we could find was the use of the _recover file. A week later, things start going south again, we have a bit more time to investigate, and no _recover was involved. More conversations, e-mails and a full Vault shipment later, and it appears the pipes were the source of my problem. It would appear that the problems will be addressed in the SP2 release (No, I don’t know when,) and we’ll move forward.

In the meantime, _recover still gives me the creeps. If I haven’t done just a ton of work since my last save, I would simply go back to the last saved version, or to getting the Latest Version from the Vault. With that said…

If you’ve done a lot of work, and _recover is your only hope, then try this out. I don’t like the Naming Conflicts that arise, but I think I can work around them. This technique is a best guess! I don’t have a crash suspect handy, but I’ve moved data references using this technique before. Here’s how:

1. I have a drawing called PIPES.dwg. I’ve checked it out and in a couple of times, it has an alignment (LINE-A) and a pipe network (SANI). I manage to bomb out of Acad, and go ahead and create the PIPES_Recover.dwg. Remember that Vault has PIPES.dwg checked out to me at this point.
2. Open C3D backup, and open the PIPES_recover.dwg from your working folder. Perform a SAVEAS and overwrite the working folder version of your PIPES.dwg.
3. Delete the LINE-A and SANI from the drawing, then check it back in, but keep it checked out. This should remove the references to those objects in the Project.xml file.
4. Close (Autocad CLOSE) the PIPES.dwg and reopen the PIPES_recover.dwg. Because you have PIPES.dwg checked out, you should be able to now SAVEAS on the PIPES_recover.dwg and overwrite the PIPES.dwg file.
5. Reopen PIPES.dwg and check it back in. You should now be able to publish your LINE-A and SANI network without problem.

I cannot test this right now, it’s time to go push the kiddo on the swing. If you crash out, and recover is your hope, it’s worth a shot. Let me know how it works. If it doesn’t work, I’ll post that as well!

Well, it seems that wblocking a dwg with data objects in it is NOT the end of the world. My speculation was thankfully incorrect.

There does seem to be an issue the first time you try to check in a wblocked version of your drawing, but if yo uncheck the objects, check in the dwg, then check it out and in one more time, they appear to slide right in. More investigation is still in order, and the whole thing makes me nervous to be honest.

It works, but it’s an exciting ride….

Update Part 2:
_recover might not be the problem. Yep, I might be wrong. It’s been known to happen.

Right now we’re tracking down a problem with pipe networks and certain labels that might be the source of my fun. A full recant to come? Possibly, stay tuned, dear reader.

As Dana continues thrashing a road down the Civil 3D pipes path she managed to find another little gotcha in the export code. The images below should paint the the picture. I am posting an updated version that will deal with this as well.

Download the update here.

After months of prep work, testing and development, the Autodesk Civil Engineering Community is on the verge of going live. An exciting collection of tools, resources, tricks, hacks, and of course blogs will be available to all in the very near future.

With a front page full of useful information, extended profiles of members and direct feeds to the discussion groups, this might be the second most useful Civil 3D site on the net…after this one of course!

The team tells me that the site will go live soon, but here’s your sneak peek!

The Front Page. A quick listing of the top news, resources, activity in the discussion groups. All customizable and built just for your interests. How does it know your interests? Well….

You tell it about you on the Profile Page. Similar to the AU Online from last year, it lets you tell the rest of the community about YOU…down to how much you love movies and long windy walks.

My Network. This is your place to find your peers, pals, potential partners and resources for training or engineering!

The Dan & Dave Show Blog (Along with the great Anthony Governanti and links to peer blogs):

Great Articles on C3D from the rags and Tech Pubs:

So, there’s the 10,000 foot view of the CE Community coming soon from Autodesk. Keep watching, we’ll have some more exclusive sneak peeks as the launch gets closer!

And no, you can’t have the link yet.

Not nearly enough Civil 3D users frequent the Vault newsgroups yet. One of the Autodesk folks was kind enough to point out a Hotfix that most Civil users know NOTHING about…even though it has been out for over a month.

Hey Support guys, why don’t you add stuff like this to the C3D downloads instead of letting users find this stuff on their own?

Hotfix: Microsoft Word slow after Vault Add-in installation
Published date: 2006-07-19 ID: TS1057489
Applies to: Autodesk® Productstream™ 5, Autodesk® Vault 5
AND OH YEAH, all the C3D users using those who installed Vault

Issue
After you installed the Vault Word Add-in, you noticed that performance was slow when you were typing in Word. Performance degraded even further when you were working on documents that resided on a remote server or a slow network.

Solution
To install the hotfix:
Download and unzip the TS1057489.zip file into a temporary directory.
Double-click on the TS1057489.exe to install the update.

So, keep an eye on those Vault fixes. Even if you’re not USING Vault, it could be using you.

I received a drawing to look at this week for an unrelated reason, and I noted something that strikes fear into my heart.

In the Prospector Tab, there was a Site called “MIGRATED PARCELS”

It might as well have said “ANTHRAX SPORES”

Because that is how diseased migrated parcels are.

Perhaps, that sounds harsh. But let’s flash back to June 2005. Yes, June 2005. For those of you old enough to remember June of 2005, that was Civil 3D 2006 PRE SP1. And we all know that Civil 3D 2006 was a tough dinner date before Hot Fix 2.

I was working with a group who was new to Civil 3D. The idea of free form creation of parcels was a foreign one to them, and to be frank, to me as well. I was pretty new at this. Since they had a land desktop project that they had started with, and since there was a migration option for parcels under “Import Data from Land Desktop” it seemed a perfectly reasonable solution- let’s bring ‘em forward.

So we did.

All seemed fine. They were parcels like any other, you could apply styles… But then, the inevitable editing has to happen.

See, I get tricked into believing the Stone Sculpture people. They tell me- this site plan isn’t going to change. It’s locked in stone. No way no how. The county has approved it this way. The told is it will never change. Let’s just bring it in the easy way.

Then three days later- kaboom. Changes. So we try to grip edit these beasts and get the job done. It seems to go OK.

BUT-

I spent the next few weekends at their office in my sweatpants and ball cap trying to figure out why we couldn’t open these drawings anymore. It just seemed so unreal to me that a few weeks before, I had been at BootCamp with a gleam in my eye totally psyched to hit the streets with this. I had drawings in to Autodesk that came back with the “We’re sorry, it’s a known issue” response. What the heck? WHAT is a known issue?

Why didn’t this work?

I couldn’t tell you then. It took me until June 3, 2006 to truly figure it out and articulate it. (See Parcel Rules, Explained)

I also noticed the same thing happened when you brought Parcels in through LandXML, or defined side-by-side parcels from closed polylines.

Here is why: DUPLICATE EDGES

In Parcel Rules, we see that TWO LOTS share ONE LOT LINE.

When you migrate parcels from Land Desktop, it sees each one individually and NOT as part of an overall web of topology. LandXML does this to a lesser degree, but it still does it. Here are some examples:

Now let’s look at a LandXML example.

Here is the drawing as done in a Civil 3D Topology. I’ll export to LandXML and bring them back in.

It is a tight topology. No errors. Carefully constructed so that each parcel segment connects but does not overlap with another side geometry element.

LandXML Export- JUST the parcels.

New drawing (slightly different style template)
LandXML Import

The moral of the story:

Migrating Parcels from Land Desktop = NEVER

Migrating Parcels through LandXML = KNOW THE LIMITS

How do we do it then?

It is not as “instant” but the rewards are many if you use your old parcel linework as a guide and recreate those parcels using the layout tools. You can use free form create and just snap, crackle, pop through your whole site quickly.

Of course, this depends on good drawing geometry. But that, my friends, is the subject of another post.

Related posts:
Parcel Rules Explained
How to Corrupt a Civil 3D Drawing in one easy step
How to Approach Site Geometry
Site Geometry and Transitions

Sorry for the wordiness of this one, I don’t have pretty pictures, but carry on, faithful reader!

Years ago, Autodesk realized that their products would crash, sometimes with little warning. They got smart and began creating a _recover.dwg file as part of their error handling. This worked well, people could open the _recover, saveas, and get on with their lives. Nifty!

Here’s the kicker. Vault doesn’t like your _recover.dwg. Not one bit. Vault considers that file an interloper, a wrench in the works, a fly in the ointment, a pox on its house. Here’s a situation for you:

1. A wildly efficient (probably trained by EE!) Vault-using, data reference loving user crashes C3D for whatever reason. Acad engine asks if the user wants to create a *_recover.dwg. User answers yes. Vault has NO knowledge of the crash, drawing is still checked out to that user. OK so far.
2. User opens up Civil 3D, opens the _recover.dwg and performs a saveas to replace the original vaulted file in the working folder. This should be ok, right?
3. A right-click on the file name in Prospector presents Sync to Project (because the project has references,) and Add to Project (because the file info is different,) but NO check in option. Any attempt to Add to Project results in “File by that name already exists in folder XYZ, blah blah blah.” Essentially, the user cannot check in and overwrite the existing data. Uh-oh. This isn’t good.
4. The new drawing (from _recover.dwg) can be added if the drawing is deleted entirely from Vault. This DESTROYS the versioning, as well as any Civil 3D objects that might be sharing data from within that .dwg file. Bad idea, but maybe…?
5. If you do take that step, and get the drawing back into Vault by deleting the existing instance of that drawing from the Vault structure, you cannot check in any objects that were shared previously because of naming conflicts. The only way I was able to get those objects back in to the Vault Project and available for referencing was by hard hacking the project.xml to remove those item references. IE will show the file very clearly, but is non editable. NOTEPAD shows the file as one long line. This is not for the faint of heart, and could completely hose your project. Ugly, but doable.
6. Here’s the fun part, kids! If you do manage to get that file back in, with the objects now checked in and ready for references, ANY drawing that was referencing the original drawing and objects is now hosed. That drawing cannot be opened, recovered. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. It’s toast. And now the wheels are off the bus, you’re praying LDT still works, and it’s time to think about polishing up the résumé.

Moral of the story? Don’t use that freaking _recover.dwg, it will hose your Vault data. I can only say that I find this interesting since Autodesk wants to push people into Vault from all disciplines, yet one of their major recovery tools completely botches Vaulted data.

I bet this would also happen if you went to the wblock everything to a new drawing in cases of corrupt drawing files. The object handles change and that hoses so much within the Vault Civil 3D shortcuts. If you test this, let me know, it’s on my To-Do list, but I’ve not made it there yet.

Admittedly, much of this is conjecture, and I could be wrong. EE has spoken with Manchester about this behavior, and they agree with my theory. Here’s hoping it can be addressed in a future Service Pack or in 2008.

In the meantime…Don’t use the _recover. Save early, save often, and go back to the Working Folder copy when you do crash.

Based on great feedback, I’ve added a Mail this Article button to the blog. Click the little envelope down to the right here and you can send your favorite civil3d.com articles to your peers and friends easier than ever! Thanks for visiting and your feedback! JW

To celebrate our new digs, Engineered Efficiency, Inc. is presenting two advanced hands-on training classes on Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 for up to 18 PDH credits. Register for these Grand Opening classes and get up to $350 in FREE training per person attending. Call for info on discounts for multiple attendees from your organization. Call 630-773-TRAIN (8724) or e-mail to sign up. Classes will be held in EE’s new state of the art training lab, located in Itasca, Illinois. Click here for a map.

Advanced Intersections for Local Roads
August 29, 2006 (Tuesday)
1-day Civil 3D Advanced Intersections for Local Roads (Hands On Lab!)
GRAND OPENING DISCOUNT: Normally $425. This class $325. Save $100!
Includes one day of training; Courseware; Data sets; Free Continental Breakfast & Lunch

Class will be instructed by Professional Engineer, Eligible class participants will receive 6.0 PDHs

Advanced Grading for Residential Design
September 12 and 13, 2006 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
2-day Civil 3D Advanced Grading for Residential Design (Hands On Lab)
GRAND OPENING DISCOUNT: Normally $850. This class $650. Save $200!
Includes two days of training; Courseware; Data sets; Free Continental Breakfast & Lunch

Class instructed by Professional Engineer: Eligible class participants will receive 12.0 PDHs

Trainees who register for both courses will receive another $50 discount, for a total saving of $350

About the instructor:
Mark J. Scacco, PE has been a consultant in the land development and construction industry for over a decade and has experience in all phases of development, from conceptual preliminary design through final platting and construction. He has designed projects ranging from small 1-acre sites to 500-acre, multi-phase subdivisions and is still currently active as a civil designer. Mark received his BSCE from Purdue University and is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers; the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Geospatial Information & Technology Association.

Mark has been using AutoCAD since 1992, Softdesk since release 8 and the entire suite of Autodesk Civil/Survey products since their initial release in 1998 and he is an Autodesk Certified Instructor. Mark worked with Autodesk to create the Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert courseware and exam and has trained and tested Application Engineers from dozens of resellers from across the nation and in the Chicago area.

The question has been asked (quite frequently) about the “Line from End of Object” that was in Land Desktop in the past. How can we do that in Civil 3D? Today, once again, it was posted in the Wishes Discussion Group. Dana had a GREAT idea about creating an alignment and then exploding it, but Peter Funk of Autodesk won the “Techy Geek Hot Tip Of The Day” award with his suggestion, and I’m posting this here with his permission. Try it - you might like it. Read the rest of this entry »