Civil Digest

MAPIMPORT or MAPEXPORT doesn’t work in AutoCAD Civil 3D or AutoCAD Map 3D 2014

C3DIsh — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:41:09 +0000

If you tried to use mapexport or mapimport commands for shape files (.shp) or sptatial data files (.sdf) then you will notice that they do not work or error. This is a known issue with Autodesk and I believe that it will be fixed maybe with a hotfix or the service pack. Until then, Autodesk has released a workaround on it that is outlined here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21699992&linkID=9240697

Civil 3D 2014 Productivity Tools issues with installers

C3DIsh — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:01:06 +0000

Revision – Please check the Update on the issue posted below the original post.

Original Post

As Neil mentioned on http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Productivity-Tools-for-Civil-3D-2014-Fail/m-p/3924208/highlight/false#M204000 there are some issues with the new productivity tools in the fact that two of the installers can not install the product because the installer cannot find the target product installed on the machine.

Until Autodesk releases a fix to this issue there is the following workaround. In the example below I will use the Civil View tool.

1. Download the installer file that is an exe file.

2. use an unarchiver to extract the files from the exe file and then rename each of the file in the folder to get rid of the extras. You should have only xml, dll and pdf for Civil View Extension.

3. Copy the xml file to the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D 2014\enu\Data\Toolbox

4. Copy the dlls and pdf file to the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014

There you go, you should have it working.

Update

The issue looks like it is fixed and the installers are working as they are supposed to. As a mention even if this issue has been fixed I will keep this post up as a reference for similar future issues or as a guideline on installing other tools without the installers, since they seem to follow the same guidelines of installation. At least you get the idea of what usually happens behind the scenes when you install the tools

Civil 3D 2014 Bug: Surface Analysis is gone

C3DIsh — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:20:09 +0000

When you run a surface analysis, whether is elevation, slope, direction and so on, the analysis is supposed to remain on rebuild or synchronization. With this release of the Civil 3D this is not the case when the analysis is gone on rebuild or, if the surface is data referenced on synchronization. I will try to find a workaround and post it if possible, but for now the video below shows up the issue.

Update

I have received the answer from the Autodesk Support that this is not a bug, but an intended development change with the new release. Since there is a large debate regarding the change that would eventually ensue in a change to the original behavior, I will still consider this as a “bug” since for example a data referenced surface is always rebuilding on drawing opening, therefore you lose your analysis every time.

Civil 3D 2014 Bug: Layer State Manager Mess

C3DIsh — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:07:56 +0000

I like my software to be bug free, but in the real world that does not happen. As I don’t like to criticize too much, for now I have to say and that is my own opinion that with every new release of the software some issues are fixed, but on the other side features that worked fine before are messed up. With the 2014 release it looks like the trend continues. I will keep looking for issues and post them here so that you would be aware of them.

For now take a look at the video I made that shows the Layer State Manager issue. This is a comparison of 2013 vs 2014. Have to ask how many times do I need to edit a layer state to get rid of the layers that should be gone on the first edit? I will try to see if there is a workaround and update the post.

Also check this video that shows another side of the layer state manager when there are issues with layer states thru the xref.

IDS 2014 installation tip: Never run a junk files cleaner on your installation folder

C3DIsh — Sat, 04 May 2013 22:08:18 +0000

For the many people that use the huge unarchived installation folder to install the Infrastructure Design Suite and love at the same time to keep your drives clean on junk files as err, log .db , please don’t ever consider running the cleaner on hard drive space that includes your installation folder. I will tell you that if you do it, you will see some files disappearing that are required for the installation of the suite. I was lucky enough to have a second backup of the installation folder in order to retrieve the required files, otherwise I would have had another fun waiting on downloading the installer again. What I can tell you is that the installation saw as missing were the old and often not important Thumbs.db and some .err files.

So be advised and keep the cleaner out of the installation folder

Library could not be installed/uninstalled

C3DIsh — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:36:35 +0000

When you install newer version of the Autodesk products that require the base and medium image libraries after you have previously had older versions of the software that you uninstalled, sometimes it happens that you might the the following installation error: Library could not be installed/uninstalled. Once you get this error, the only way for the installation is rollback.
Now you could skip and not install the libraries, but most than likely you will need them in your workflow.
Having this issue I had to research it and found some other people with the same issue as seen here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2013-2014-DWG-Format/The-library-could-not-be-installed-uninstalled/td-p/3734652

I cannot pinpoint the issue, but I suspect the following: You will not get this error on a clean slate workstation install, you might not get this error if you install the new product side by side with other versions of the product that use older versions of the image libraries and you most likely will get this error if you completely uninstall every autodesk product on your machine to install the new one. Since for the Autodesk products there is no uninstaller that will uninstall the product and its components in reverse order of installation, then please pay attention and look for the workflows of uninstalling and the right order of uninstalling the whole product as outlined here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=2887771&linkID=9240617

Autodesk support does not provide to much information on how to fix it. Some people tried manual installation of the libraries, but even then they fail. If you try to find it in your Control Panel / Add Remove Programs you might not see anything to uninstall that would produce the fail behavior.
So the last resort is the registry cleaning. You will need to uninstall all the autodesk products and then go ahead and clean the registries. What worked for me was to clean the registries of anything that had “Autodesk” in it.
Now you might go haywire if you need to search for every single registry and click forever with the F3 key. Therefore I recommend get a freeware like regscanner from here : http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html . Using this software you will be able with one search to index all the “autodesk” keyword related registries and delete them with one click.
Then you can go ahead and install your brand shinny new Autodesk product and you should not have any issues.

As always working with registries might get your workstation in trouble, so make a backup before you start acting like the ultimate geek and trash registries.

Infrastructure Design Suite Premium 2014 available now on subscription

C3DIsh — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:02:32 +0000

For anyone reading this that does not know about the IDS 2014 or the Infrastructure Design Suite from Autodesk, please see this : http://www.autodesk.com/suites/infrastructure-design-suite/included-software . With the release of 2014 the subscription customers are given the chance to change their C3D subscription to IDS at a very small additional cost per seat, with the advantage of receiving a lot of software for that small cost. I don’t know about other companies, but for us it is an opportunity that we cannot pass on since with the world of BIM expanding, it looks like the today’s civil designer cannot rely only on handling C3D, but also having knowledge of other software that he will get into contact with working with his model and the clients.

This will be a short post on the matter with the experience I had installing it. First of all if you need to download it, make sure that you have enough space for its massive size. Though on the website it mentions being somewhere at 12GB for the x64 version and 15GB for the mixed x86/x64, the unarchived folder will be somewhere around 45GB. So make sure you have enough space. There is to be noted that you have three choices for download ( install now, download – using their download manager and browser download). The install now downloads and installs at the same time. The download option uses the download manager provided by Autodesk that you need to install, downloading while unarchiving the required installation files. The last option downloads the archived installer files. I used number 2 and was surprised as I mentioned to have a 45GB installation folder. So again, make sure you have enough space.

Now installing it might have its issues. Since I have to assume that most of you have the same OS as I do ( Windows 7), I will have to mention that for some of the people I know the installation went with no issues, while others, including myself, had issues. From installing it, I recommend first of all to make sure again you have enough space for the installation. Right of the bat the default configuration requires somewhere around 19GB for installation to be available. Now I have noticed an issue with the space requirement in the fact that if I expand the Revit Structure customization and don’t make any changes to the installation and then exit the customization, the required space suddenly increases to around 29GB. I don’t know if there is an issue with the installer, but that is what I noticed. So make sure let’s say that you have around 40 GB of free space on your HDD to install it. The places in the installation where it failed me were the Backburner for 3D Studio Max, The Geotechnical Module for C3D and the Subassembly Composer for C3D. The way I got it fixed was to run the installer again by selecting the setup exe file, Right click and Run as administrator. So I would recommend to run the setup as administrator (Right Click, Run as administrator) right from the beginning even if you are the Mega Administrator on the machine or domain.

This was my experience and the advice for this installation. Now I should get busy on testing it for issues since I want to deploy it soon to replace the 2013, since in my mind I think that 2014 is what 2013 should have been.

Move contour labels across surfaces and drawings

C3DIsh — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:00:38 +0000

If you are in the case of having to move the contour labels from one surface to another or move /copy across drawings the answer is that there is no command to do that, but with a little bit of work it can be done.

What does this involve:

1. In the case of moving the contours labels from one surface to another surface in the same file you will need to do the following:

Select all the labels that need to be moved
Change the properties for the contour labels to display the contour label line, by changing it in the Properties (Ctrl+1)

Explode the labels once to get to a block state and once more to get to the line state.
Create contour labels by selecting the desired surface, select multiple and then define by objects, the objects being the lines from the previous labels.

2. In the case of moving the contour labels from one drawing to another.

Select all the labels that need to be moved
Change the properties for the contour labels to display the contour label line, by changing it in the Properties (Ctrl+1)
Explode the labels once to get to a block state and once more to get to the line state.
Copy with base point the labels from the drawing you work on to the one you want the labels to be on.
In the new drawing create contour labels by selecting the desired surface, select multiple and then define by objects and select the lines that were copied.
If you want to just copy the labels, then don’t save the changes to the drawing you got the labels from. If you want to move them, then delete the objects that were exploded, or don’t save the changes, open the drawing again and delete the labels.

Civil 3D 2013 SP1 Now Available

C3DIsh — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:37:36 +0000

If you check your AutoCad Civil 3D right top part you will see that there is an update to the software. Yes, Civil 3D 2013 SP1 is available. I could not find it in the list of service packs to be downloaded yet, but I updated it thru the self update function of the software. Be sure to check the readme file for the issues that are fixed with this issue of SP. Trust me, there are lots.

Here is the link to the readme file: http://updatesdl.autodesk.com/updates/files/autocad_civil_3d_2013_sp1.htm

Circle TTR command and not really tangent circles

C3DIsh — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 19:35:09 +0000

When you work with linework and you need to add an arc in between two angled segments and for some reason the fillet command does not do it because of the direction of the segments, then you are forced to use the circle and the option for tangent tangent radius, a.k.a. ttr. Working with this for lots of times, it happened that the circle that was supposed to be tangent to the two elements, sometimes was not to one of the elements.

The issue seems to have to do with working in geographic coordinates that have large number values for x & y. Since in the civil engineering world we are using those on a daily basis, then we would most likely have this issue. When you have this issue, just move the elements that you need to add the arc (circle) in between to somewhere around 0,0 and you will not have the issue in making the circle to be tangent to both elements. Once you’re done, just move them back.