Extremely slow FBK import?

[Sinc]

Anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

I have one machine that's an Athlon64 4000+, and it imports FBK files pretty quickly. However, the much-faster Intel E6700 Core 2 Duo takes FOREVER. Going to a third machine -an Athlon X2 4600+ - I also get very slow performance.

Any ideas why? Did I make some configuration change to one machine that I missed with the others? I haven't been able to track this down...

I haven't tried repairing the installation yet. But since I see the same problem on two computers, I'm thinking it's a configuration issue, and not an installation issue...

[Anonymous]

Are they all on the same Service Pack? There were some serious performance
enhancements in field book import in one of the SP's.
Nick
wrote in message news:5415319@discussion.autodesk.com...
Anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

I have one machine that's an Athlon64 4000+, and it imports FBK files pretty
quickly. However, the much-faster Intel E6700 Core 2 Duo takes FOREVER.
Going to a third machine -an Athlon X2 4600+ - I also get very slow
performance.

Any ideas why? Did I make some configuration change to one machine that I
missed with the others? I haven't been able to track this down...

I haven't tried repairing the installation yet. But since I see the same
problem on two computers, I'm thinking it's a configuration issue, and not
an installation issue...

[Sinc]

All on 2007 SP3.

[Sinc]

It appears to have something to do with having the Survey Database on a network drive.

We have Gigabit Ethernet here, so it doesn't seem like it should make much difference. But for some reason, FBK files seem to import at least 5x faster if the Survey Database is on a local drive, vs. on a network drive.

[Anonymous]

Maybe your virus scanner is hitting it when you access it.

Shawn

[Sinc]

That seemed promising, but no dice. I completely disabled all virus scanning on both machines, and no difference.

[Nrhoads]

One problem I've noticed is that the Survey DB filesize almost doubles when you re-import the fbk into the DB. For instance, I have to import the fbk and usually get "spider web" lines crossing each other. I will go through the drawing writing down the problem points and descriptions. Then I go to the fbk and fix the problems and re-import, overwriting the original fbk. I just noticed my Survey DB is 64 MB and decided to delete it and start over. I imported the fbk into the new DB and WOW, only 5.5 MB. A huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

With typical database behaviour - delete/erase means change a logic toggle
from "not deleted" to "deleted" The database does not change in size.

Add new data and that's just what you do - increase the file size.

Although I haven't looked for it Access must have a "File Pack" process
which removes deleted records as happened with the Pack Database command for
the Land Desktop Points Database.

If pack database is not in the R2008 version, it's certainly a valid request
item from Autodesk.

Opening the database with VBA and running code like the following pseudo
code :

For each table in database ' Implementation of this line is a bit more
complex than I've shown
Create RecordSet with "SELECT ID from table where DeletedFieldName =
True"
RecordSet.MoveFirst
DELETE from table where RecordSet!ID
For i = 1 to RecordSet.RecordCount
RecordSet.Movenext
DELETE from table where RecordSet!ID
Next i
Next table
--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au
www.civil3Dtools.com
wrote in message news:5495953@discussion.autodesk.com...
One problem I've noticed is that the Survey DB filesize almost doubles when
you re-import the fbk into the DB. For instance, I have to import the fbk
and usually get "spider web" lines crossing each other. I will go through
the drawing writing down the problem points and descriptions. Then I go to
the fbk and fix the problems and re-import, overwriting the original fbk. I
just noticed my Survey DB is 64 MB and decided to delete it and start over.
I imported the fbk into the new DB and WOW, only 5.5 MB. A huge difference.

[Nrhoads]

As someone has said before, I only use the DB for importing the FBKs for now. I know the DB is more useful than that, but for me it is a hinderance, especially since I do not use Vault nor am I importing FBKs created from RAW data. My FBKs are from PNEZD files, which render the DB useless. It locks my points in as survey points, meaning I can only edit them in the survey tab with the DB opened among other reasons, I just don't like it.
Also, if I delete something, I want it deleted, not toggled off. I like small compact files rather than having everything I have ever done stored in a file. I have benn bite by doing things this way before but I am way more organized than those who have backups and copies of copies all over their computer. It's a toss up but this is MHO!

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Why are you importing PNEZD data from a fieldbook?
What advantage for using the data do you get compared with simply importing
it as PNEZD file?
If you need the data to build a DTM why would you do anything but attach a
PNEZD file directly to the DTM?

The Toggle method is of deleting records is standard database behaviour, not
something designed by Autodesk to make your life inconvenient.

If you want to erase the records from the database, I've already indicated
how you can do this. Personally I would never put them in it in the first
place.

--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au
www.civil3Dtools.com
wrote in message news:5497902@discussion.autodesk.com...
As someone has said before, I only use the DB for importing the FBKs for
now. I know the DB is more useful than that, but for me it is a hinderance,
especially since I do not use Vault nor am I importing FBKs created from RAW
data. My FBKs are from PNEZD files, which render the DB useless. It locks
my points in as survey points, meaning I can only edit them in the survey
tab with the DB opened among other reasons, I just don't like it.
Also, if I delete something, I want it deleted, not toggled off. I like
small compact files rather than having everything I have ever done stored in
a file. I have benn bite by doing things this way before but I am way more
organized than those who have backups and copies of copies all over their
computer. It's a toss up but this is MHO!

[Sinc]

I know we've been including figure information encoded into the Point Descriptions. This makes it easier to use our old data collectors, which aren't as friendly as we'd like to Civil-3D's setup.

It also means that we can use our other software to reduce GPS data to CSV files, which are converted to FBK files and dumped into C3D. I haven't even started trying to get GPS data into C3D without using some intermediary software - there are a lot of more-critical things going on. So the fact that we can continue to use our old software for reducing data, while devoting time to solving other problems, has come in handy.

We notice many features in Civil-3D take quite a while to get working. It's often hard to tell when a problem is being caused by incorrect configuration or usage, or by a bug in the software. A lot of the time it ends up being the latter. So not having to worry about getting this working in Civil-3D, while we're still fighting the software in many other places, has been useful. Later, when we finally reach the point that Civil-3D problems stop eating up our project budgets, we'll probably go back and look at the Survey Database some more.

[Nrhoads]

Laurie,
The only way I know of to get the figures to draw is through the fbk. That is the reason I am not "just importing the PNEZD file". If a simple import woul bring in figures, I'd be all over that method. If my project has no figures in it, I do not waste my time with a fbk file. This is also why I've been ranting about a decent PNEZD file to FBK converter. Stringer connect and carlson connect work fine for "SOME" raw data types, but they do those using PNEZD file no good.
Thanks for you time,
Nick

[Anonymous]

Hi Nick,

1 The full Stringer program is designed to create linework from Points. As I
often note the stringing functionality of this process is far easier to use
and far more powerful than the Autodesk figures commands. The only reason I
would ever use a fieldbook is where there was a need to do traverse
adjustments with Civil 3D and fieldbooks are the only practical way of
creating the necessary data.
That said, I've been working on a program to make manual creation of
fieldbooks easy for users starting with cadastral plans/electronic data, so
they can link field observations with paper data and this will become
available in due course.

2 Stringer Connect is merely the File conversion component of Stringer in
EXE format - about 5% of the overall functionality of Stringer. It handles
all ASCII raw files in all formats which we have been asked about. If it
does not handle a raw data format (and the data format is ASCII) then
forward the file(s) to CADApps and most likely Stringer Connect will be able
to handle it within a few days.

--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au
www.civil3Dtools.com

wrote in message news:5500022@discussion.autodesk.com...
Laurie,
The only way I know of to get the figures to draw is through the fbk. That
is the reason I am not "just importing the PNEZD file". If a simple import
woul bring in figures, I'd be all over that method. If my project has no
figures in it, I do not waste my time with a fbk file. This is also why
I've been ranting about a decent PNEZD file to FBK converter. Stringer
connect and carlson connect work fine for "SOME" raw data types, but they do
those using PNEZD file no good.
Thanks for you time,
Nick

[Nrhoads]

Laurie,
Just in case you email "spam" blocker gets me, I'll post here to let you know that I emailed you a sample txt file and fbk file. Could you pass them on to the person at cadapps that can add the PNEZD file type to stringer connect?

[Anonymous]

Hi Nick,

I've passed the files onto the Development Team.

I'll let you know when I get feedback.

--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au
www.civil3Dtools.com

wrote in message news:5519638@discussion.autodesk.com...
Laurie,
Just in case you email "spam" blocker gets me, I'll post here to let you
know that I emailed you a sample txt file and fbk file. Could you pass them
on to the person at cadapps that can add the PNEZD file type to stringer
connect?

[Nrhoads]

Thanks Laurie, I appreciate your help. If they need anything else, let me know.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! That would be great! IS that something simple they can add in the stringer connect program?

and that is the free one, right?