topic Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation in Civil 3D Forum

Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:32:23 GMT

I have an inherited drawing based on a survey, rotated to state plane coordinates that I CANNOT get an aerial map to link. What I do get is this strange image of someplace, but its (a) not around or behind my survey, and (b) its of some coastal area near St Augustine FL (my site is in georgia). The drawing shares the same coordinates as the original survey. Geomap works fine in the OG survey file. State plane Northing Easting labels match in both drawings. I can copy and paste the drawings on each other and they overlay perfectly using 0,0 as a base point.

Whats going on here?

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Pointdump — Thu, 07 May 2026 15:47:41 GMT

Hi Charles,
"rotated to state plane coordinates"
More details please on that. Can you post both drawings?
Dave

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 15:51:38 GMT

Poor choice of words.

I do not feel comfortable uploading project files.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

chriscowgill7373 — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:08:59 GMT

What does the transformation tab of your Drawings settings show in this file? It feels like it may be being transformed to a different coordinate system.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Cadguru42 — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:13:33 GMT

What is your drawing's UNITS set to? Remember, the ACAD UNIT is separate from the C3D drawing settings. The ACAD unit of Feet is International Feet, not US Survey Feet.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:24:17 GMT

Ok, so the design file I inherited has different transformation settings. What's the purpose of these settings?

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Pointdump — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:18:04 GMT

Charles,
How about if you draw an area of interest circle and then erase everything else in both drawings?
Dave

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

chriscowgill7373 — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:24:49 GMT

Both of those screenshots are the units and zone tab. The transformation tab is the one to the right, are they identical as well? if so, that would throw out my theory.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:24:56 GMT

Please review my transformation settings above. This has got to be it.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Pointdump — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:28:00 GMT

Charles,
What happens if you uncheck "Apply transform settings" and REGEN?
Dave

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

chriscowgill7373 — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:28:02 GMT

If you uncheck the transformation, I would think it would fix it. Or it really isnt shot in state plane, and someone transformed it so it would be at state plane coordinates. which would cause the image to move. (Sorry i dont know which file is which)

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:28:13 GMT

I was too quick to respond, see my revised post. They are in fact different. How to I correct this? Why would someone set those settings in the transformation tab?

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

chriscowgill7373 — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:30:22 GMT

Isnt real time user support great? We're responding over each other. see my response in message #11 for why it might be this way.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:31:07 GMT

AND that corrected it. What an odd setting in that file. It was in my design file I inherited, not the OG survey map. Would any correlation to Revit cause this?

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:31:36 GMT

Stop talking over me! LOL

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

chriscowgill7373 — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:34:05 GMT

lol. I'm not sure, it is possible that shared reference point might, but I havent used that feature enough to know if it causes that in an export or not.

Re: Assistance with a drawing not cooperating with geolocation

Chaznsc — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:36:45 GMT

We do not use Revit but have an architect who is insisting that they do, and they exported one or more files to us, some of which were trashed from a coordinate standpoint. And this didn't really cause me any design or even display issues, it just drove me nuts I couldn't figure it out.