Opening AutoCAD 2016 files in 2012 with Shade

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

I have a problem where anytime a file I made in 2016 is opened in 2012 (which a lot of our clients whom we send files to still use) it gives a fatal error. It seems to only happen when shade mode is applied. If the file is opened and defaulted to wireframe, no problem. But as soon as I hit the shade button it crashes. My clients are having the same problem where if they xref it in and its defaulted to wireframe it's fine. But as soon as they shade to check clearances with buildings or whatever, it crashes. We've tried with multiple files and it happens the same with all of them. Opening the files in AutoCAD 2014 seems to work fine. It's just something between 2012 and 2016. Has anyone else had this problem and possibly know how to fix it?

Thanks!

[pendean]

Turn on PROXYGRAPHICS and turn off SAVEFIDELITY and LARGEOBJECTSUPPORT in 2016, then get in the habit of using -EXPORTOAUTOAD command (there is a dash in the command's name, don't skip it) to properly knock the file down to 2012 format rather than rely on SAVEAS or just changing the SAVE format in OPTIONS.
Then test with your client.

[Anonymous]

It still crashed. Just to check that I did it correctly, I set Proxygraphics to 1, set savefidelity to 0, and used -Exporttoautocad and set that to 2010. Is that the steps? If it helps any, the error message I'm getting is:

"FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0000 Exception at 9e262a0h"

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

can you upload a file that your created/modified with 2016 and that can't be used in 2012 with a visual style <> "2D-Wireframe".

Then we can look into the file, what's in the file and if it crashes on our workstations too.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Sorry our files are all confidental so I can't post anything

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

can you create a sample file? Just a box or sphere, and do the save procedures like your projects. If that crashes too then upload that sample.

If that does not crash then you have something special in your project files and that will be hard to identify without looking into them (maybe you can erase the security parts from your real files and upload that?).

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hi Alfred,

I've created a file with just a sphere and am running into the same problem. Its been saved as shaded so I can't even get it open in 2012 before it has a fatal error. Please find it attached.

Regards,

Kathryn

[Anonymous]

Hi Alfred,

I've created a file with just a sphere and am running into the same problem. Its been saved as shaded so I can't even get it open in 2012 before it has a fatal error. Please find it attached.

Regards,

Kathryn

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

I can re-create your crash, so your file is in a state that results in troubles for AutoCAD 2012.

The question for me at the moment is: how do you get a visual style "Current"? I have no idea what I have to do to get "Current" displayed for the visual style in the Viewport Control (but such a visual style does not appear in the list of visual styles in the drawing)  ... Display in Visual Control as shown here:

The reason why I ask that is simple: when I turn that to any other predefined visual style like "Conceptual" or "Realistic", I can save your drawing back to 2010 and opening that file with AutoCAD 2012 works well then.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hi Alfred,

We have a custom visual style that we use when we print to PDF and that's likely what it's set to for current. It's very similar to the default shaded visual style with a few values changed. We were having the same problem though with the default shading mode so I'm guessing its not something to do with our custom set up. 

Regards,

Kathryn

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> We were having the same problem though with the default shading mode

Can you try (with the previous file) to open it, change the visual style to "Realistic", save the file in DWG2010 format and open that file with AutoCAD 2012 ... for me that works well.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hi Alfred,

I can open it with a realistic visual style. Its only with the shaded mode (which unforunately a lot of our clients as well as the rest of our company use) that it crashes. I just took a look at the setting differences between them and the only thing I could see that might possibly cause a problem is the material display? 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I can open it with a realistic visual style

That's what I got as result too, and this makes me thinking it's depending on Visual Styles.

>> Its only with the shaded mode (which unforunately a lot of our clients as well as the rest of our company use) that it crashes.

I'm not sure to understand what you mean by "shaded mode".

My problem with your drawing is that in the Viewport Controls a Visual Style "Current" is shown, but there does not exist such a style, have you ever tried that after changing your details (can you show them, which ones that are?) to save this as new style with a special name and then try the save and open in 2012 again.

>> the only thing I could see that might possibly cause a problem is the material

Depends on the material maybe, but the visual style "Realistic" also shows the material and that can be opened with 2012.

So it might be one puzzle of more, at least yes, the renderer in 2016 is different to 2012, so the handling of some specific materials is different too and may be one of the possibilities.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hi,

We've opened a ticket with Autodesk as this is most likely a programming issue. I will update this thread once I hear back from them.

Regards,

Kathryn

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi guys,

AutoCAD has responded and said that there is a known bug when saving with materials applied in 2016 and opening in anything 2012 and below. They will be fixing it in either a service pack or a hotfix. If anyone else has the same problem, the current work around is to dxf out as a 2010 file and then don't resave that file in 2016.

Regards,

Kathryn

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Thank you for your feedback! - alfred -