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Convert Civil 3D to Version 2004

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Message 1 of 7
rcallison
888 Views, 6 Replies

Convert Civil 3D to Version 2004

I have a surveyor requesting that we convert our Autocad 2012 Civil 3D files to Autocad 2004 so they can use them to produce as-built drawings.  Is that possible?  The drawings include profiles and cross sections.

6 REPLIES 6
Message 2 of 7
tcorey
in reply to: rcallison

You can send a dumb drawing by using EXPORTTOAUTOCAD2004. This will explode your Civil 3D objects into AutoCAD entities.

 

If he needs the surface, alignments, etc., use LANDXMLOUT.



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 3 of 7
Neilw_05
in reply to: rcallison

I've been down this road and I'll forewarn you that exporting to 2004 has lots of issues. Before you commit make sure to run some tests.

 

Here are some of the problems you'll face:

 

1. 2004 does not support text masks. When you export C3D annotations that have masks they will come in to 2004 as MTEXT with the masks embedded. The only way to remove the masks is to explode the MTEXT objects. Of course it's a lot of work to explode and then recombine all those text pieces back to MTEXT. Too you'll have this problem with leaders and dimensions which you certainly don't want to explode. As a workaround you could remove the masks from all your label styles in C3D before exporting, but that is a huge job as well. Thankfully Jeff Mishler created a handy tool to disable all text masks in C3D. Here is a link to the tool: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Disabling-text-masks-in-all-styles/m-p/2984950#M15002.... Just run the tool before exporting and all the masks will be gone.

 

2. 2004 does not support annotation scale. If your C3D drawings have annotative objects or if you have labels displayed in multiple viewports at different scales, you will end up with multiple versions of the annotations in 2004, one for each scale used in C3D. Not only that but the exported annotations do not honor the rotation that was applied to them in rotated viewports in C3D. So you will have numerous pieces of duplicate text and at all sorts of unacceptable rotations. In my experience the amount of work to fix the mess is so overwhelming that I gave up attempting to use the exported file.

 

3. The exported file will contain numerous blocks named with an aecobjectexplode_sheet (n)_vport (nnn) schema. These blocks represent C3D objects such as profile views that appear at different scales and viewports in the layouts. The blocks bloat the drawing to a horrendous size and getting rid of them is a tedious nightmare.

 

4. 2004 does not support multi-leaders. I forget what the problem was but as I recall it had something to do with multiple duplicated leaders.

 

The bottom line is, depending on how complex the source drawings are, you may be in for a tedious and time consuming process (unless you can just dump it off on the surveyors and let them deal with it).

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 4 of 7
caddie99
in reply to: Neilw_05

I create a file. Like this for my architect clients

Explode all. 5x
Qselect hatch pattern name=solid. Erase
Saveas acad2000

You loose text masking. But it useable
Message 5 of 7
troma
in reply to: Neilw_05

I would say you can use this method no problem if you just want to give the surveyors the bare linework and minimal notes of what is there in the ground. If you want to send them a fully annotated and ready-to-plot presentable drawing you have a nightmare on your hands though.
Sometimes I've crashed when trying to export, so some warnings: beware of locked layers and locked cogo points. Locked cogo points don't explode in the export; they are still there as a 2012 cogo point in the 2004 drawing, so they show as "Civil object from newer version....." (possibly locked surfaces etc. too; I haven't dealt with those).
I've found it more stable to export to ACAD in the same release version as you're working in first. Then clean it up a little, then export to ACAD again back to where you need it to be.

Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 6 of 7
Neilw_05
in reply to: troma

I wasn't aware of the locked points issue. Good to know. I'll have to run some experiments with exporting to a newer version first. That might eliminate those troublesome blocks. Still I expect there will be significant issues with annotative objects.

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 7 of 7
troma
in reply to: Neilw_05

I've never gone back that far, and haven't dealt with annotative objects till recently, so I've not exported them either.
Coworker just spent a couple of hours trying to get a drawing exported. Run the command and it asked where to save, but didn't create a drawing. Ended up exploding manually, saveas etc.
Sometimes it seems there is no easy way out, it's just a slog. Still keeping my eyes open for suggestions too!

Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

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