Fields not updating

[gbiagi]

I have a large drawing file (~20MB) that has a few hundred fields in tables that are calculating values based on expressions - basically like a spreadsheet.

Everything worked great for weeks, but then at some point the fields stopped updating after a REGEN. I have searched the community high and low, but have not found anyone with a similar issue. I understand that date fields do not update automatically, but these are not date fields.

Running a REGENALL, or UPDATEFIELD <all> will not force the fields to update. Using UPDATEFIELD and choosing one individual field will update that one field, but none of the others that reference it.

I have checked the following variables, but they all seem to be set properly:

FIELDEVAL = 31

DEMANDLOAD = 3

Under TOOLS, OPTIONS, USER PREFERENCES, FIELDS, UPDATE FIELD SETTINGS, I have all of the boxes checked (open, save, plot, etransmit, regen)

I have tried saving my large drawing as a new file, cutting and pasting small portions of my large drawing, to new drawings, opening the drawing in 2016 (I'm currently running AUTOCAD MECHANICAL 2014), tried on a co-workers machine, but nothing seems to work. It is as if the tables no longer think/know that their fields are supposed to be updating????

What does work, is that I recreated a very simple new example of what I am doing (DWG attached) and it works as intended. Why won't my old fields update????

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

as expected your sample dwg works for me, so it's hard to see now what happened to your original drawing.

I would start first counting the number of fields. As you mentioned you have hundreds maybe you reached a magical number like 256 or so, something which might be a limit out of performance reasons (if the developer is afraid of endless loops).

Also a good point is to run command _AUDIT and see if there are any errors in the database.

>> Everything worked great for weeks

Do you have any idea what happened to this drawing when the problem raised? Was anything inserted from external dwg's or from old dwg's or from old AutoCAD Mechanical versions?

Sorry to not have now the "hidden sysvar" which turns all that on magically.

- alfred -

[pendean]

Are you sure it fails in the sample you posted in your AutoCAD session?
Can you confirm if the test sample you posted fails both in MECH2014 and "2016" whatever that is?

If the sample you posted is irrelevant (you did write "it works as intended") can you post a sample DWG file where the failure actually occurs?

[gbiagi]

The first example I provided works like I want it too.

I have now attached an example that shows how it does not seem to be working. I created this example by copying and pasting just a small portion from my large drawing. If you stretch one of the dimensions in blue, or change one of the values in the red boxes, then the fields in column "F" should update automatically.  Some of them do, but the result in cell F12 (yellow) will not update using REGEN or UPDATEFIELD <all>. Note, after changing a value and running UPDATEFIELD <all>, the message is "32 fields found. XX fields updated", but the fields aren't actually updating.

The only way I can make cell F12 update is to choose the UPDATEFIELD button from the TABLE toolbar and it will recalculate, but then it stops working again. This isn't a practical solution on my "large" drawing as I have hundreds of cells referencing each other.

Thanks for your replys!

[gbiagi]

Thanks for your reply.

I ran an _AUDIT and did have some errors that I fixed. But the issue with the fields did not resolve.

I did consider that I hit some sort of "magic number", but when I copied just a small portion over to a fresh drawing (then even closed and restarted autocad inbetween) the issue remains (see the attachment "2" on my other post). One clue is that my REGENs were taking forever, but at some point started to go quickly - it's almost as if the UPDATEFIELD command is just not working anymore on this drawing (or in these tables) despite the sysvar settings.

Just tried something else - I created a new table in my large drawing with new fields and expressions, and they do update with a REGEN, so it definitely seems like the fields in the older tables have just quit updating for some reason. I tried to look at the properties of the cells/fields specifically, but I don't see any setting that would cause them not to update.

It's also possible that I did insert something into the drawing from an older version (I've been adding to this drawing for months), but again, when I copied and pasted just the affected table to a fresh drawing, the issue remained.

Thanks again.

[pendean]

I deleted your field in the 'yellow' cell, replaced it with a new SUM formula from the Table menu, it now sems to work well. I can't get it to fail.

Your thoughts?

[gbiagi]

Yes, that does seem to work. However, as I mentioned before I have hundreds of calculated fields (maybe more than 1000) that I would have to go back and redo all of them. Two big concerns would be that I not miss any, and that it doesn't happen all over again... I'm still hoping to figure out if there is another way to "kick-start" all the fields.

[pendean]

All I can suggest, based solely on your sample, is that something somewhere broke your SUM code in the cell and replacement may be the only fix.

Please wait for others to chime in if you don't need a solution more quickly.

[Anonymous]

Hey, did you eventually find the error?

[john.vellek]

Hi @gbiagi,

Did this issue ever get resolved for you? Your sample file did behave properly for me.

Is it possible to send me a sample of the damaged file? I can provide a private and secure location for uploading if that is necessary.

[sdvannelli]

Has anyone ever resolved this? I have basically the exact same problem. I opened a drawing this morning and worked on it for a couple of hours and then realized that all the field I had set up before this morning no longer updated. Any new ones I made did, but all the ones before this morning lost their ability to update. Similar to the original example from the OP, I am using a table cell as a field that is linked to a dimension. Stretching the object and the dimension updates the "Length" cell. Any of the new ones I added this morning work fine. Anything from yesterday does not. As an additional bit of information, if I open up my backup of yesterday's file, it still works. Attached is a sample drawing. The top pieces were created yesterday and have lost their update ability. The bottom pieces were created today and are fine. Only the "Length" dimensions are fields. I'm not sure how to track down what caused it, but am more interested in if there is a way to fix it. My feeling is that it would not have happened if I didn't have the field in a table, so I'm thinking the problem lies more within the table than the field, if that makes sense. If you click on one of the "Length" fields in the upper tables and right click to edit field, you can see that the field is still pointing to the dimension. It just will no longer update. If I click on the field in the top one and update it, it regains the connection, but I have too many to do that to all of them.

As a last bit of info, I went back through all my autosaves and they were all originally working this morning, but then stopped at a certain point. Unfortunately I can't trace what may have happened to cause it.

Any thoughts on how to update all the fields at once?

[pendean]

@sdvannelli If you use UPDATEFIELD command to select your table, do all the fields update after your select the table?
and does REGAN update those fields in that table after that?

[sdvannelli]

It does not. I had tried that, but it just selects the entire table and doesn't actually update it. An odd thing is that the table only has 2 fields in it (that I created), but when you type UPDATEFIELD and pick the "broken" table, the command line says (12) fields found, (0) fields updated. If you pick the working table, the command line says (12) fields found, (2) fields updated. No idea where it's getting the 12 fields from.

[aitorm]

I am experiencing exactly the same problem as this user had 2 years ago. I am using autocad 2025. Do anyone know already what the problem is?

@sdvannelli @gbiagi