So does anyone else explode Civil 3d objects for production?

[28.8k]

So my company and I have been using Civil 3d for the past half year or so now and we love it.

However when we're trying to translate our Civil 3d work into production drawings for submission, we run into unforeseen problems such as:

• Pipe labels dissappearing in section view
• Dissappearing, reappearing pipes and labels in profile view
• etc etc.

For the problems described above, we end up exploding the profile and labels for our final production. I just wanted to get a 'feel' of what others are doing. 

Do you keep your production drawings as 'civil 3d' as possible? Or do you end up exploding everything when it comes submission time?

My gut feeling is Civil 3d is great for anaylsis but for production, it's almost perfect but not quite there as 90% of the line work and text is done but it won't able to handle the little things.

I end up having a 'master file' for which keeps everything civil 3d and then I would a 'save as' or export and explode everything for production.

[dgordon]

I rarely have to explode any c3d objects for production.   I keep finding more and more ways to keep the c3d stuff intact.

[wfberry]

I have basically  no problems with things disappearing, unless I do it to myself.

Questions like this are useless without all the facts.  Look at the information below my name.  This can be placed in the above "My Settings" one time. 

Thanks,

Bill

[owenmull]

For my plan production, I never explode anything. Many a Cad master will tell you that the explode command is evil and not to be used.

As far as why your labels and pipes are not always coming through, there could be a number of reasons why that is. It could be a style issue, could be that when you created the sheets, you did not select the option to copy pipe network labels, etc. etc.

I keep everything C3D because later down the road, when a client invariably changes his/her mind, it makes updating a snap.

[rjairath]

I never explode for production stuff, (like said earlier), I keep finding more annotation and other tools to make procduction easier.  Things not appearing in plan sheet has lot to do with page setup manager, ie, if your drawing is metric and your paper space is imperial,  text will not be visible. it is still there jsut scaled down so small you cannot see it.  this is what first came to my mind when I read your post about labels disappearing/appearing.

carefully documents yours error, describe behaviour in model space and paperspace, take screenshots, attach files, etc and users on this forum will be better able to assist you.

[28.8k]

Hey Folks,

Thanks for the replies and tips.

I'm finding when I have a short stretch of road (say under 1km) I can keeping my objects as civil 3d with no problems. I understand the power of it and that changes are real time and everything updates it's self such as annotation.

The problems start to occur when I have a long stretch of road, say 4km filled with pipes, catchbasins and structures to make one mind's boggle.

I've googled these problems before and they seem legit as other people have them.

i.e annotation lost in section view:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Pipe-Labels-Disappear-in-Section-View/td-p/2539463

Also for labels and structures lost in profile, sometimes the audit/recover process works and sometimes it doesn't.  I also find myself replacing or swapping parts in and out because the structures aren't behaving. It's very annoying. 

Maybe it's due to lack of experience. Would anyone have a good workflow or online lesson for inserting pipes and structures 'properly'? Sometimes I just feel like it's those darn germlins that gets the best of us come crunch time.

Thanks

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

Some of these issues may have been resolved in more recent versions of the program.  I know that doesn't help you at the moment, but it may give you a reason to migrate.  If you're on subscription, you already have the latest.  

I know there are many more considerations to upgrading, but I often find that problems that have been resolved, or new features, often make it worth it.

Just a thought.

[Jeff_M]

In addition to Lisa's comments, even if you must stay on 2011, be sure you install the Service Packs. I think that the disappearing pipe labels in sections is something that was been fixed in one of the SP's.

[rdlongbow]

Sometimes I make a copy of a drawing and explode it to speed up plotting, such as for cross sections, which I then run a lisp routine I wrote to do the plotting. Much faster. In one case, I plotted 110 sheets to a finished PDF in PDF Creator in 4 mins. flat. That was with just a border, no title block.

As far as missing labels, if you are exploding just one object, say a pipe network or alignment, explode the labels (and ticks, in the case of alignments) first. Since they are based on the object, if you delete the object first, all the labels are lost.

[28.8k]

This is truth.

My network isn't the fastest, so when I'm datashort cutting my crazy pipe network it takes forever to open a file.  Making the pipes into simple line work makes my computer happy and the files seem to cooperate.

Thanks for the replies folks. I'll ask IT to look into installing the SP updates.