Scalelistedit affecting AEC Content

[Anonymous]

I have a very odd situation that I've never encountered before.

I have 2 files, A100 and C100, with C100 being xrefed into A100.  Both have a few other xrefs in them, being used for whatever reasons, and must stay.

If you open either file without the other being present, they open fine, but if they can find each other there's a 20-40 minute lockup.

C100 being a civil drawing, I thought the problem was one of the missing .shx files.  So after spending countless hours trying to track it down, I finally noticed a warning when trying to open the files together that C100 had 2200+ scale lists. I love you, civil guys.

Using 2008 in the office, scalelistedit gives a runtime error, as well as the 2008 install at home.  Using 2010, scalelistedit is successful in solving my 20-40 minute problem. (I did save back down to 2007..)

However.

Now, back in 2008, the Style Manager won't open, as it says there is content from a newer version in the file.  Also, any xrefs with AEC content, walls etc, come in without displaying said content.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be going on?

[David_W_Koch]

Opeing and saving in 2010 will convert AEC objects to the 2010 format.  Saving back to 2007 format does not convert AEC objects back to the 2007 version.  If you need AEC content to work when using the file in ACA 2008, you will have to go back to a version of the file prior to opening in 2010, if you have one.

[Anonymous]

We did keep backups before taking the files into 2010 and deleting the 2200 extra scales, but then we're still stuck with the 20-40 minute wait times for the files to load on opening.

Is there any reason why running scalelistedit in ACA2008 would throw an Unhandled Exception error? Or any ways around it?

[David_W_Koch]

I cannot think of one in particular, other than having that many scales overwhelmed your computer's capacities.  Perhaps some of the data is corrupt.  I am afraid that the causes behind unhandled exceptions are generally beyond my humble computer skills.

Can you post a ZIP file that contains the file that needs to have the scales reset?  Perhaps someone else will be able to open it in a 2007-based version, reset the scales and post the file back.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I'm 'not allowed' to post them, which I know limits the amount of help I can get.

I have found out that the Unhandled Exception only happens with the files from this particular project.  Other files on other projects can edit their scale lists freely.

Thanks for your help though.

[MarySeufert · Accepted solution]

Being one of those annoying civil people, I know the answer to this one! If you thought you had it bad at 2200, feel my pain at over 15k of those _XREF_ BS scales.

Use '-scalelistedit' for the command line version. Enter R, Y, E. It will take a little bit of time depending on your processor speed, but you shouldn't get the error. I eventually added this to my startup routine to save me time.

Luckily Autodesk has fixed this very annoying _XREF scale propagation. I jumped from 2009 to 2012, so I don't know when it got fixed.

~ Mary

[Anonymous]

lol I'll pass this on and see if it solves the problem.

The 2200 was me giving 'you guys' the benefit of the doubt.. at just a glance, and at my wits end, it was either 22,000+ or 2,200+, I can't recall, though if I HAD to pick, I'd go with the higher one.

Thanks again, and I'll update this thread once I know for sure it fixed the problem.

[Anonymous]

Miscommunication..

Updating soon.

[Anonymous]

Still don't know what was causing the problem, but your suggestion fixed it!

Many thanks!

[MarySeufert]

I don't know why the dialog box version of the command errors out either, but this was a known issue with the 2008/2009 versions. Haven't had the issue in 2012 yet. It has a limit to the number of scales that it can process. At least the command line version works. You would think that the two versions of the command would call the same code!

I can tell you that the _XREF propagation caused me at least an hour of down time everyday until I found this solution. It is like a virus. The _XREF multiplies and compounds upon itself with every occurrence of a particular scale in a reference file. Civil drawings are most prone, since we have to reference in everyone's drawings. And even if you detach the Xrefs, their scales remain!!! At the apex of my frustration, the _XREF_XREF_XREF(to seeming infinity) would fill both of my 30" widescreen monitors every time I would touch the Annotation Scale pick box. My base file for this project contained 15-20 Xrefs at any given time. My ultimate solution included detaching every xref, going into each to clear out the lists, then reloading the references after every drawing in the plan set had been cleaned up. And adding the command as lisp to my startup.

Autodesk hasn't actually fixed the propagation of scales, but now they can be hidden! Yippee, now you don't realize your drawing is clogged up until you've wasted hours trying to figure out why it takes so long to open up your drawing.

[Anonymous]

I have been having a problem with drawings opening slowly in ACAD 2010 and their size becoming quite large. I was able to open them fine in Civil 3D 2010, save them, and they would return to a normal size. Running the -scalelistedit command appears to be resolving the issue with drawings opening slow and their size. I am curious as to why they would open well in Civil 3D but not in ACAD - would the scalelistedit command work differently in Civil 3D? (Weird question huh?)

Thanks

Bob