alignment not recognizing shortcut or finding update in drawing

[patricia_palmer]

Hello.  Made an alignment in a drawing and created a shortcut to import into another drawing.  Someone else edited or created a new alignment with same name and saved the file with the original file name in the same location and replaced the original .  The shortcut seems to find the   file with the updated alignment but the drawing that had the alignment shortcut into says that the association is broken and needs repair.  When I try to associate it with the file with the new alignment it says cant find the object.  When I try to associate with the original file drawing (backup) it has no problems.  What has caused the link to be broken?  How does one prevent this from happening?

[ecfernandez]

Hi @patricia_palmer, welcome to the Autodesk Civil 3D forums. If this happens again, you have two options to fix it.

1. Use the  Data Shortcuts Editor.

Open the app, and inside, select the working folder for your project. Look for the broken data shortcut and redefine the path of the data reference. Copy and paste the complete directory path (including the file name and its extension dwg) in the space I point at on the second image. 

2. Go to the Data Shortcut manager inside the affected drawing (the one with the data reference that cannot be fixed). On the left-hand side of the window, you'll see the drawing objects (including your alignment, which has the broken reference). On the right-hand side, you'll see the data shortcut elements available according to the working and project folder you have active for this drawing. On this part of the window, look for the available data shortcut and select it (navigate in the alignment collections until you find it, and just click on it), then look for the drawing object (on the left-hand side), look for the alignment with the broken reference, and click on it. After that, click the button in the middle of both panels (encircled in red on the image), and Civil 3D will fix the connection between both elements (shortcut and alignment).

If you have any further questions, post them. It would be a good idea to share your file and data shortcuts folder so that I can provide more screenshots using your data for a better understanding.

I hope this helps. Best regards!