Elevation Ranges Disappearing

[ksorsby]

Morning all,

We've reluctantly had to upgrade to 2014 from 2013 and I've noticed that in my model, the ranges applied to volume surfaces keep on resetting themselves.

For example I can apply 15 bands, say, to a volume surface, colour them up and set the elevation parameters as normal. The surface displays fine, I can add a table which displays fine, and all seems good. I'll save and go out of the drawing but when I next open it up, it briefly flashes the ranges I specified earlier then reverts to basic 'red' shading and the table loses the banding data. Upon interrogation, the surface analysis tab no longer has any of the range data i lovingly typed in.

Any ideas on this, fixes or workaround? Is this a new feature that Autodesk are touting?

When I get 5 I'll try with other templates, surfaces etc. but so far it has happened on all volume surfaces in 2 drawings on my job. I'm just about to explain to the director why I have to spend another hour re-banding all our earthworks before printing.

Ta,

Kevin

(C3D 2014 SP1, i7 8 core, 16Gb RAM, Win 7)

[jporter]

Is your style possibly set to "reds " vs. "rainbow" in your analysis tab? I've not had this issue, but I only do elevation banding once in awhile. I'll check it out when I get to the office.

Also, is this happening in every drawing or just this one? What happens if you do this from a drawing 100% created in 2014?

Jason

[ksorsby]

Hi Jason,
It's definitely set to 'rainbow' but the ranges disappear under the 'analysis' tab.
On a related note, under the Style 'analysis' tab, changing to 'range interval with datum' and using 'reds' and 'greens', say, then applying this under the surface properties 'analysis tab' doesn't change the banding colours to reds/greens. It just puts them as shades of blue.

I will do testing under a 2014-created template and on other machines but so far, it happens in all drawings.

Kevin

[ksorsby]

Just to confirm, it also happens on a completely separate job on a completely separate machine with a completely separate user.

Kevin

[jporter]

Just curious . . . what template are you using?  I only ask because it’s not happening on my end and, off the top of my head, the only difference that I can quickly think of between you and I would be the template.  Here’s what I’ve done:

Scenario 1

1. In C3D 2013 begin a new drawing with the standard NCS template. 
2. Import data and built a surface
3. Applied elevation banding and ranges. 
4. Closed the surface properties dialog box.
5. Reopened the surface properties dialog box – banding ranges remain.
6. Save the drawing
7. Close the drawing
8. Reopen the drawing
9. Everything appears as it should and the elevation ranges appeared correctly in the surface properties dialog box. 

Scenario 2

1. Took the above saved drawing and opened it in C3D 2014
2. Upon opening all appears as it should.
3. Everything appears as it should and the elevation ranges appeared correctly in the surface properties dialog box.

Scenario 3

1. In C3D 2014 begin a new drawing with the standard NCS template. 
2. Import data and built a surface
3. Applied elevation banding and ranges. Now by default in 2014 the ranges were set to blue so I had to go back into the surface style and set them to rainbow. 
4. Closed the surface properties dialog box.
5. Reopened the surface properties dialog box – banding ranges remain.
6. Save the drawing
7. Close the drawing
8. Reopen the drawing
9. Everything appears as it should and the elevation ranges appeared correctly in the surface properties dialog box. 

[ksorsby]

I will check these procedures out - in the meantime, if you're bored and want to see if you can replicate this problem, this is the current template we use. It's evolved over the last few releases so I'm in the process of rewriting a fresh one for the 2014 version.

Kevin

[jporter]

I'm getting the same results. However, this is not a DWT file.  Are you beginning your drawings with this file and doing a SAVEAS or are you beginning your drawings with a specific DWT file?  The latter is highly recommended.  Also, I'm missing some of your xrefs.  I don't think that should matter but you never know.  What happens if you begin a new drawing one of the standard DWT files?

One weird thing. . .when I created the elevation ranges using your drawing I initially set it to 8 ranges. But it always gives me 9.  I can set it to any other number and get the set number, but 8 will always default to 9. 

An AUDIT on your drawing found 3 errors. 

Try running a RECOVERALL on your drawing so that it recovers and fixes any errors in your drawing and in your xrefs.

[mathewkol]

The hotfix and service pack fix this problem (assuming I understand your problem correctly). Make sure you at least have the first hotfix installed.

[ksorsby]

Thanks Matt,
I have SP1 installed but not the hotfix. I'll take a look at it.
Kevin