AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

I've added spot elevation labels for a dref'ed surface in a number of drawing for a project. Some drawings open and display fine, others open but fail to update the labels with the surface elevation, leaving the label with ???'s in place of the elevation. If I force the Surface to Synchronize (even though it shows as being in-sync), THEN the labels will display correctly. I don't recall having seen this issue in the past, and I am not finding any previous posts about it, either. What's strange is that a drawing which exhibits this issue, will sometimes load and display correctly. So it's not a consistent problem, but enough so that I now know I will never be able to Publish these sheets. 

Has anyone else seen this? Know what to do about it?

Thanks!

C3D2012, SP2.1

[#2]

Oh, one other thing that I don't recall happenning before. When I do issue the call to synchronize the surface, if I am in PaperSpace I get taken back to ModelSpace. Really annoying....

[#3]

I've just semi-verified this as being an issue with C3D2012 SP2.1. I do most (ok, almost all, as in I hadn't fired up C3D on my desktop in ~6 months) of my work on my trusty laptop. This means that my office PC still has the Original install of C3D on it.

So I opened one of the problem drawings on it. Huh, what do you know, it opened just fine with the Dref surface labels displayed correctly.

Next step, close C3D and install SP1. Open same drawing, labels still appear just fine.

Next step, close C3D and install SP2.1. Open same drawing, labels now fail to update until a manual synchornize is performed. It should be noted that all of the Dref'ed alignmnets, profiles, pipes, and structures all get their labels updated when the drawing is opened, just the Dref'ed surface labels fail to do so.

Back on my laptop, the first drawing I noticed this in is no longer displaying the problem. But it is the only one to have apparenetly corrected itself. Also on my laptop, I can take the same drawings that do not get the labels updated in 2012 and open them in 2013 without any issue. But I cannot work in 2013 due to the need to share with others still on 2012.

[#4]

Gotta love Civil3D...

[#5]

Jeff,

I've been trying to replicate your issue and I don't seem to be able to, also running SP 2.1.  My sync seems to occur as needed.  I see the ??? prior to sync, but it resolves.  I tried several dwgs with several projects, spot elevations.  What does Adesk say?

[#6]

I haven't yet opened a support ticket for this,Lisa, so the only rsponses are what you see here. I have another project setup exactly the same as this one, whose drawings opens just fine. So I know it's not a consistently reproducible item. But I have confirmed that it's consistent on 2 pc's for at least this one project.

Here's how the project is setup:

Topo.dwg with EG surface shortcut created

Corridor.dwg, all alignments and profiles created in this dwg. Corridor surface pasted into a CorridorPlus surface in which I add valley gutters and parking bays via featurelines. Shortcuts created for all objects.

Grading.dwg in which I dref the CorridorPlus surface which is pasted into mey FG surface which includes pads and lot grading. Create shortcut for FG.

Pipes.dwg which has all the pipe networks which have shortciuts created. All alignments and the FG surface are dref'ed in.

Production dwgs have the Corridor and Grading dwgs Xref'ed. The alignments & profiles pertinent to each dwg, as well as the pipe networks, EG and FG surfaces are Dref'ed. All the labels which refence Dref'ed objects have the ??'s as the drawing loads then convert to the correct content, excet for the FG data which remains at ??? until a manual sync is invoked.

I've tried auditing which finds nothing wrong. I can add new labels, which allows me to select the FG surface, but they get added with thhe ???'s unless I sync first. Of course, this project is in "hurry up and get it submited" mode so I'm torn between troubkeshooting and just trying to work around it.

[#7]

Jeff,

That's an involved workflow, which I totally get and agree with, even though I don't do Pipes.  One thing I can offer, maybe in support, is that even though objects are supposed to sync automatically, I've always had problems with the corridor drawing.  Although no changes have been made to the corridor, when I open the drawing it shows that the corridor is out of date, which means that the corridor surface would be out of date as well (supposedly).

There is a command called AeccUpdateAllCorridors that in my Acad lisp file that loads with all drawings, to get around this issue.  Perhaps there's one for Syncing drefs that would work in a similar fashion like AeccSynchronizeReferences that could be loaded at drawing startup for force the sync.

[#8]

As a follow up... I uninstalled C3D2012. I then installed C3D2012 without any SP's (since I can't select the exe file I already downloaded), then installed SP1. Drawings open correctly now with all DRef data displayed as expected.

[#9]

John I agree with Lisa that's a pretty long workflow for grading. I did something similar with one of my drawing and I had nothing but problems. We have all our grading done in one grading base drawing. I build my corridor surface. Then I build a PG surface. I past my corridor surface into my PG surface. In addition, I do all my proposed design in my PG surface such as ditches, pad grading and fine grading. Then I data shortcut my PG surface into my overall base drawing. The whole time I only have 3 surface, EG surface, Corridor Surface and PG surface.  So far I have not had the problem you are face but hopefully this helps.

Tony 

CAD Manage

www.tonyscivil3dworld.blogspot.com

[#10]

Thanks for the response, Tony. This not merely for grading, it is a complete set of plans for a 135 lot subdivision with 12 streets, 22 intersections, and 4 park sites. It includes all grading, surface & underground improvements. What I described above is just 1 more surface than you use, and that is only because I placed the grading in a different drawing than the corridor due to the size of the dwg file.

This is the same workflow I've used in the past, with no problems at all. The only time I've seen a problem was after intsalling C3D2012's SP2.1. Going back to SP1 has solved the immediate issue for me, while leaving the other stuff not working correctly that 2.1 fixed.