Contour interval changes as I zoom in and out

[ssonnen]

My Civil 3D suddenly decide to change the contour interval that is displayed as I zoom in and out of my drawing. Which would be fine except that it now will not plot those same contours from a veiwport in paperspace. They show up fine on my screen, but not in the plot preview or when plotted to a printer or PDF file. They will also plot fine from modelspace.

It was working fine until I tried to create a surface from a DEM. Ever since then it has had the contour interrval display issue. Another deisgner in our office said she has had the same issue since she tried to create a surface from a DEM. However the surveyors (whom have never created a surface from DEM) can open my drawing and it plots just fine, which leads me to beleive that something in the process of create a surface from a DEM has changed a setting in the program on our computers only.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Alfred.NESWADBA · Accepted solution]

HI,

looks like you have just found one of the new features in Civil3D2012 called LOD (level of detail), look >>>here<<< for details 😉

- alfred -

[ssonnen]

Thank-you, that was what happened.

However I do not understand why the contours would not plot when the Level of Detail was turned on. The User's Guide states "When you plot a drawing, the full detail of all objects will be included, even if level of detail mode is on. " but that wasn't true in my case. they did plot once I turned it off. Hmmmm....           

[klkline]

We're having that same issue... the contours not plotting when level of detail is on. Even after turning it off, they still don't print sometimes, or it prints most of them, but cuts them off halfway across the page while still printing the contour lables...

Not sure why though....

[ssonnen]

That is what ours did when we had it turned on. The contours would not show but the labels would....That's Helpful

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

I have not had this problem, so my question: can someone upload such a drawing where the problem is reproducable?

You also could first try:

a) look if the latest service pack is installed for Civil3D

b) does the problem also occure when you plot to DWF

- alfred -

[ssonnen]

It is not an actual drawing that does it, it is a setting on your computer that when set changes every drawing you open.

To turn on or off the Level of Detail view, click View tab, Then Views panel, then Level of Detail.

Then open a drawing with a lot of contours and zoom in and out in model space to get the effect we are talking about.

Be sure to shut off the Level of Detail button when done.