AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

I am running into a problem where Civil 3D is creating multiple point groups of my 4 existing groups (the original group names are Topo, Existing Ground, Hide, and All Points).  The new groups seem to be copies of the originals in terms of styles but do not include the points  that were designated in the originals (no points are assigned in these copies).

The groups appear some time after I create the surface.

I've also noticed that this occurs in my list of grading criteria as well. 

Any help you can offer (or if you have even heard of this problem) would be appreciated.

--

Joshua Adam

Uintah Engineering

85 South 200 East

[#2]

That's a weird one, Josh. Post your drawing and maybe someone can figure out what's happening here.

[#3]

Here is the drawing including the error.  Hope this helps.

[#4]

I have seen that happen when you insert another drawing with the same groups in it.  Could you have a block that has duplicate information in it?

[#5]

I haven't inserted any drawings or blocks from anywhere.  There are quite a few blocks stored in the drawing but those came from the template. 

I did import a point file (pnezd format) but the groups did not appeared until sometime after that.

[#6]

Hi Josh,

The only thing I see out of the ordinary is that you are double-specifying your inclusion criteria. For example, you have the Topo group set to Include Raw Descriptions Matching a couple of values, and then you also create a query on the same values. You don't need to do that.

I don't know if this is in any way related to the issue of the duplicate point groups, but it's the only thing I see that isn't totally kosher.

You don't happen to be using Vault, do you? If so, maybe the point groups are locked in the project so the program creates a new one in the drawing if the group needs to change?

Maybe you're using a Survey database with Survey Point groups? Any chance of this?

I have been supporting this software since it came out and have never seen anything like this.

Here are some questions ot ask yourself: Have you ever seen this happen in a different drawing? If you delete the point groups, do they come back? Are you able to tell me what you were doing immediately before you noticed this issue? Do you have any third-party apps running on top of Civil 3D? Have you used command line version of Purge (-purge?) Recover? Audit?

What's the origin of the drawing file? Was it created from your standard template, sent from outside your company, an old Land Desktop drawing?

Have fun with this one. It's perplexing.

Tim

[#7]

Just an update and response to Tim,

I haven't been using Vault, third party apps, or a survey database (not that I know of anyway, I just imported the points from a .csv, comma delineated file).  I have since deleted the point groups and they have not come back but the drawing drags and runs slow causing CAD to crash about 2-3  times an hour.

The drawing is coming from a new template that me and several others in the office are using.  We have noticed that this does not happen every time. It occurs about once every three of four drawings, and always soon after the existing ground surface is created from the existing ground point group. 

[#8]

Josh, I'm sorry, but I don't know what's causing this. It's very strange.

If you're on subscription, you should send this in to Autodesk tech support. If they are able to give you an answer, please follow up to the group.

If I have some sudden inspiration that provides and answer I will do the same. Don't count on it, though.

[#9 · Accepted solution]

Hi Josh-

Personally I have seen this issue occur a few times in the past, mostly with grading groups. For some reason the .1, .2, .1.1, etc. suffix gets added to the existing grading groups as they get duplicated in the drawing. If I recall correctly this was traced back to a corrupted drawing, and moving the data to a new clean drawing resolved the issue.

Have you confirmed that this is happening in multiple drawings? If so were all the drawing exhibiting the issue created from the same template?

[#10]

It seems like Seth may have been right on this one.  I've been able to clean up the template and have been using it for a week and haven't had any new problems come up.  I used some help from Shawn Herring from prosoft to clean up the corrupted file.  Here is his advice:

I analyzed your file and found a lot of corruptions.  Perform a clean up in the DWG file, as described below:

- Open the files in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 with Recover;
- Apply the command "-purge", and select Regapps;
- Apply the comand "-scalelistedit", and select Delete
- Run the command Overkill;

Then, delete the duplicated Point Groups, leaving just the desired groups (Topo,  Existing Ground, Hide, _All Points and _No Show) and save as a new file.

I recommend to perform a' Recover' and 'Audit' procedures regularly to avoid new corruptions.

This worked for me.  Hope it helps someone else in the future.