C3D 2010 Ribbon glitch

[bpattengale]

I've been running C3D 2010 for a few days now after switching from 2009. I'm getting a reoccuring error wih the ribbion. The ribbon and quick access toolbar will stop working. They are still visible on the screen and C3D hasn't frozen or crashed I just can't select anything on the ribbon. I can still access commands via the toolbars and menubar. The ribbon will do this at random, however it seems to do this after Crtl-Tab switch between drawings the most(not everytime). I've tried to close the ribbon or switch drawings, but it still remains frozen. Currently the only way I've found to fix it is to restart C3D.

Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone know of a work around or think that a reinstall or repair may make a difference?

[doggarn1950]

I sent you an email from my hotmail account with a fix for Ribbonmania.
I Also have the zip file in an attachment as a toolbar/lisp workaround that is very fast for the most annoying things in 2009 and 2010 civil 3D. My take anyway. I'm a toolbar/command line junkie for my civil3d work.

Start Instructions:

To utilize this toolbar
Go to : E:\EngMaintenance\City E&I Autocad\Civil 3D Toolbar
and copy it to your C: drive
Open Civil 3D and go to options, then add the path to the Civil 3D Toolbar
and the Civil3D Toolbar/BMP file location. Then do a menuload from command line and
browse to the Civil3D Toolbar folder and load the Civil3DToolbar.cui file
and last, go to appload and add the Civil3DToolbar.lsp to your Startup Suitcase
and then close Civil3D and restart. That should make it active.



Mike Perry in NC



What will it do for you:



1. Make selecting viewports faster.

2. Make selecting points faster

3. Make zooms faster

4. One click Edit of General Note

5. One click Start a General Note

6. Turn on/thaw all layers

7. Purge and audit the dwg

8. One click to Point Groups

9. One click to Point Edits

10. One click to Alignment Edits

11. One click to Edit Network

12. One click to Connect a Part

13. One click to Edit Pipe Properties

14. One click to Edit Structure Properties

15. One click to Change Lable style

Edited by: MikePerry2765 on Jun 25, 2009 9:00 AM

Edited by: MikePerry2765 on Jun 25, 2009 9:02 AM Edited by: MikePerry2765 on Jun 25, 2009 9:04 AM

[Anonymous]

Attached is a picture of what keeps happening to me. This is getting
really annoying. When this happens the ribbon and application button
just lock up for 10 seconds at the least and sometimes up to 1 minute.
Can't do anything in Civil 3D 2010. I usually just surf the internet or
read the newsgroups while I wait.

I even updated to the latest Nvidia QuadroFX 550 drivers (186.18) that
were just released and double checked that I have .NET 3.5 SP1 and all
the hotfixes for it. This is absurd that the interface to a supposed
released program doesn't work correctly.

EB42
-----------------------------
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Intel Xeon Quad-core E5320
4GB RAM
(3) 250GB HDD
Civil 3D 2010

bpattengale wrote:
> I've been running C3D 2010 for a few days now after switching from 2009. I'm getting a reoccuring error wih the ribbion. The ribbon and quick access toolbar will stop working. They are still visible on the screen and C3D hasn't frozen or crashed I just can't select anything on the ribbon. I can still access commands via the toolbars and menubar. The ribbon will do this at random, however it seems to do this after Crtl-Tab switch between drawings the most(not everytime). I've tried to close the ribbon or switch drawings, but it still remains frozen. Currently the only way I've found to fix it is to restart C3D.
>
> Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone know of a work around or think that a reinstall or repair may make a difference?

--

[MarkPendergraft]

I don't think this is the same problem that the original poster (and myself) are having. The ribbon still shows up as it normally would, and the context sensitive ribbon displays when an object is selected. It is difficult to notice at first, because everything looks okay, but when you hover over a ribbon button, the button doesn't highlight, and you can't switch tabs (other than selecting an object and having the context sensitive options come up).

Autocad still functions as normal, the command line works, toolspace works, everything works except the ribbon!

Closing the program and reopening it solves the issue, but it's quite annoying when you are in the middle of something.

My computer specs:
Dell M6400 Covet
Vista Ultimate x64
8gb RAM
Quadro FX3700M (with latest drivers)

-Mark P.

[Matt.Anderson]

What are your display settings in 2010? Adaptive on or off? Directx or Autodesk?

[MarkPendergraft]

Adaptive Degredation on.
I have been using Autodesk primarily, and can safely say that I have had the issue using that driver. I can't say definitely that i've had the issue with the Direct3D driver, but i'm pretty sure i have. I only switched to Direct3D this week, and the issue i'm having seems completely random. I will see if it occurs again and update my post.
Do you have a recommendation for maximum stability?

-Mark P.

[thejac]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273276


For those of you with laptops that have NVIDIA graphics chips, I would recommend downloading and running this utility and setting it to:

Powermizer off AC / on battery

I have not had this problem on ATI, but NVIDIA's drivers are lame on notebooks because they downclock the graphics chip even when not on battery power. Not such a big deal on XP, but on Vista/7 it's noticeable because the graphics processor is used for displaying the desktop.


Dell Precision M2400
Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz
4 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M
Windows 7 RC1 (Build 7100)


(Many edits because I'm fumbling around getting used to this editor) Edited by: neovader on Jul 2, 2009 2:15 PM

[MarkPendergraft]

I'm not even sure this is a graphics card issue. I'm also not crazy about installing 3rd party apps for graphics cards when i'm using the Autocad certified driver for my machine.

-Mark P.

[thejac]

This isn't an app that you install that constantly runs. It's just a one time utility you run to change settings.

What it does is adjust the registry settings that govern at what percentage of speed the graphics chip runs. By default on laptops, NVIDIA's driver will lower the speed it runs at, which is great for saving battery power at the cost of responsiveness. On the other hand, it still does this even when it's plugged into AC power, which means your graphics chip is potentially running at 100%, 75%, or 50% of speed capacity. CPU's do the same thing, however, unlike the CPU's where it is virtually un-noticeable, I can definately notice when the graphics chip is "shifting gears" on my laptop.

With the default settings, if I grab a window of an open app and move it around, it's slow, and eventually speeds up a little. By contrast, after adjusting the settings with PowerMizer Switch, it consistently runs full speed and fast until you unplug from power, at which point it slows down to save battery power.

You can make a system restore point in XP or Vista/7 and try it out, if you don't like it (which I doubt), you can always restore back.


Another way to avoid this issue is to switch to Windows Basic mode, rather than Windows Aero mode.

[MarkPendergraft]

I would be far more inclined to just edit the registry myself.

[Matt.Anderson]

Adaptive Degredation off...

[MarkPendergraft]

Fair enough, i'll try it out for a while.
-Mark P.

[thejac]

Here's a tutorial for manually changing the same settings in the registry that the utility does for you. I started out doing it manually too, but it's nicer to have the utility do it for you quickly. Requires a reboot.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261929

[MarkPendergraft]

Those values aren't even present on my machine. I also don't notice the performance lag that you described in your above post.
Thanks though.
-Mark P.

[thejac]

Admittedly your graphics chip is much better than mine, so maybe it's not noticeable. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[doggarn1950]

Hey, I have a near Identical nvidia card and in the last week I had something happen that might explain what you are having. I put the same drivers on my machine and then found that with Automatic Updates on that my Update from Microsoft added a new driver. I tried it, and it started to act up. I wonder if you have microsoft autoupdate your card. Unfortunately it made all go to hell with that update. Check your microsoft update history and see if it did it to you too. I have to unload all my nvidia video drivers and reload the 186.16 again. Also, I found maybe another nvidia qwerk. I found that some fonts can make a dwg go bad. Don't know how to prove it, but I can say that I hard purged the fonts and reloaded them and everything worked again. Arial seemed to be a bit suspect, but again it could have been another as I hosed the whole lot and reloaded my styles. I also found that a bad profile did the same thing. There is a reset of the profile that my dealer told me about on Autodesk site. You might want to look into that as well. But, the driver thing just happened to me just after loading the 186.16 drivers and the Autoupdate from microsoft. The error from nvidia was that it mixed up the cpl file, and crashes started.

MJP

[Matt.Anderson]

Mark -

If you go to MSINFO - what date does it report for the display driver ? System Summary -> Components -> Display -> Driver.

I had the Quadro 540 chip on my desktops in the office. I had one machine that "had" issue - but the driver reported the correct version but the driver date reported by MSINFO was 4 years ago. I was able to unload it, cleaning the machine of the the NVidia driver and installing the new drivers that NVidia's "autoupdate" stuff reported that I should install - and the machine ran much better.

Matthew Anderson, PE

[pyroclast]

I have also experienced this problem with ribbons freezing from the first day using C3D 2010. I filed Autodesk a support request, but they closed it because I could not reproduce the error...First I thought it had something to do with the contextual tabs but now I think it more random when the ribbons freeze for me. I do not use a dual monitor setup but I use Nvidia (if it is hardware related).
I'm beginning to like the use of ribbons and I hope this could be solved soon....no solution except restart..

/Peter

Dell M6400
Intel Core 2 Extreme
Nvidia FX 3700M
Vista Ultimate 64

[jbadke]

I'm also experiencing this glitch. Try as I might, I can't seem to reproduce the exact circumstances that cause this and restarting Civil 3D seems to be the only reliable solution. A repair of my installation yielded no difference, and I'm not quite willing to do a full uninstall/reinstall at this point.

Getting used to the ribbons - starting to like them even - but this glitch is disenchanting. Hoping that it gets addressed in the near future.

Jeff B

Windows Vista Business 64-bit SP2
Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.67GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT 1GB (Driver Version: 8.15.11.8585)
4GB RAM
Civil 3D 2010, Raster Design 2010, Civil 3D LDC 2009, Raster Design 2009

[MarkPendergraft]

I checked my windows update installation history and couldn't find any nvidia related updates.
Is anyone having this problem who DOESN'T have an nVidia card? Perhaps there is a flaw in the driver causing this to happen.
You guys have posted the specs for your computers, but what 3d driver is everyone using? (type 3DCONFIG and go to "Manual Tune" and look under "Driver Name". For those using nvidia cards you should have Autodesk or Direct3D.)

-Mark

[corboto]

Yes, I'm having this problem with an ATI FireGL v7600. Although over the past two or so weeks my problem has almost gone away. I'm probably jinxing myself now but it used to happen every 30 minutes, now it might happen once a day. I don't know what might have changed.

I have noticed that most of the people having this problem are using Vista 64-bit, which I am. I wondered if this had something to do with this. The two computers in our office with Vista 64 are having this problem, the one machine with Windows XP is not.

Corbitt