Civil 3D 2015 Suddenly Non-Responsive to Keyboard Commands

[caddhead]

Caddhead here. Long-time reader, first time writer. 

I just cannot get over this glitch that interrupts my workflow. I am plowing through a CADD exercise, falling behind schedule, but finding a rhythm with the trackball and keyboard. My practice is to mouse with the right hand, keyboard with the left. I am a convert from the days of Softdesk and LDD. The autocomplete feature threw me for a loop when I first started, but one Civil 3D pro already pointed out to me that the autocomplete feature can be set on a delay to avoid banging out the wrong command in a hurry.

We are, however, scratching our heads over Civil 3D 2015's sudden non-responsive to keyboard commands. As I am heating up the keyboard with a flurry of commands and shortcuts, the keyboard is suddenly, inexplicably non-responsive. Nothing shows up on the command line when I type. I tap, nothing. I repetitively hammer letter and number keys and still nothing. The keyboard commands are not working. The design process fails, and I forget what I am doing.

Typically with two tabs open, I switch over to the next tab, and then back again. Keyboard responsiveness returns, and after I remember what I am doing, then I continue until the next cyberfreeze. 

Anyone else encountered this phenonmenon and broke through it with a different work-around? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Caddhead

[jmayo-EE]

A quick google search indicates that it may be limited to C3D. I did not see any links with the issue in AutoCAD.

[KirkNoonan]

It seems like the dynamic input method at the cursor (DYNMODE) is unaffected by this issue.

[liuja]

Please try to run "LevelofDetailOff" to turn off LOD if you don't need the feature.

It works for me.

[baldema]

I have tried turning off the dwg display tabs as well as turning off the NEWTABMODE system variable. I am still running into a non-functional condition with C3D not being responsive to keyboard commands with 2 or more files open. Also, no amount of cycling between open dwg's seems to get me out of this predicament! Any advice would be be much appreciated. 

[JamesMaeding]

We need to all do subscription support requests on this, hammer Adesk!

James Maeding
Hunsaker & Associates
direct voice (949) 458-5448
fax (949) 583-0759

[TorgEng]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I find that selecting objects before executing commands seems to cause this problem to occur more frequently. Entering the command first has helped, although not a full workaround.

If you have the RAM, you can open 2 sessions of C3D and switch between them. Of course, when you want to open 5 or 10 drawings, that's not much help...

[cak]

type "levelofdetailoff" in your command line

[Josh_Ory]

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@Anonymous wrote:
type "levelofdetailoff" in your command line

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You are the second person to suggest this.
Just did it, will keep you all posted on my success.

[caddhead]

How is the levelofdetailoff working for you? I will try this command, and thereby effectively reduce the power of the product to utilize the large surfaces I generate from LiDAR. In reducing the functionality and turning off bells and whistles that we pay for, whether as a stand-alone or subscription program, we should receive at least a partial a refund.

I did submit feedback (2x) to Autodesk regarding this issue but, have not heard back. I also worked through our subscription management company, and, given a day and extensive documentation, they were not able to re-produce the problem. The effort that I am required invest to prove this issue is just too much, and, of course, non-billable. 

Thanks again for everyone chiming in. Still, I am hopeful for a fix.

[caddhead]

Our subscription management company referred me to the following troubleshooting page: Autodesk Responded to Keyboard Failure a couple of weeks ago. 

The first suggestion is to apply the "levelofdetailoff" command, and the next is to fix a possibly corrupted user file. 

[JamesMaeding]

That is not acceptable, as Autodesk does not know the problem.

Come on, LOD or corrupt profile??? "Its either your toenail, or left ear..."

We have tried both as we are well versed in resetting ande turning things off after 20 years of dealing with Autodesk products.

Clipping nails and scratching ears did not help any better.

The corrupt profile issue is tangled in the way they have acad and verts as one install, as they confused raster design and the VBA enabler in the registry.

We have dealt with all that and the keyboard problem persists.

Have others found the LOD off does not help?

[Civil3DReminders_com]

I think with all of Autodesk's UI changes sometimes it doesn't recognize the change to a different tab. I get the programmers difficulty in reproducing it, but Autodesk really needs to have a programmer work on the product for a week or so they can observe the issue. I was getting an exception in 2014 that says it was out of wack, it looks like Autodesk suppressed the error without fixing the issue and now we are stuck with an enviroment that becomes unstable. 

[Cadguru42]

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@Joe-Bouza wrote:
Most issues are usually found between the keyboard and the chair

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I know! My desk is always causing me issues. 

[marj.olson]

We just had this issue in Autocad 2013 and weren't even able to save and close the file.

[JamesMaeding]

Autodesk must not confuse this specific Civil3d 2015 issue with general lockups, as Molson1 seems to be talking about.

If you are claiming its not a general lockup, but a focus issue like this thread is about, you need to say, and if you mean civil3d 2013 or not please.

[marj.olson]

This was not a general lockup.  We lost the cursor in the window and could not type commands in the command line.

Antoinearch had asked if this was a problem isolated to Civil 3D and I replied because it appears to be the same problem I have had in Autocad 2013.

[htls69]

any progress on a permanant fix to this issue

[KirkNoonan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

any progress on a permanant fix to this issue

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We're the beta testers - not the fixers.

[Josh_Ory]

I feel like my software has been fine until late last week.

All of a sudden, the issue returned, and I had to toggle between drawing tabs to gain back the commandline.

[htls69]

 i feel someday i never see the error and then other days like today i have it happen 35 times an hours (it feels like that many times)