Civil3D 2018 command line not accepting text

[Anonymous]

A forum search has not turned up any results so here goes;

This problem has only occurred after switching to 2018. Several times a day and in different files, my command line stops accepting text. Regardless of whether I start typing or click in the command line then start typing, no text appears in the line and I cannot key in commands. The only solution I have found is to close the drawing and reopen. This problem has only been happening for a couple of weeks; I have been using 2018 for almost 2 months now. My coworkers are not familiar with the issue. 

Any help is greatly appreciated. 

[BushW]

Hello @Anonymous

Please read <<this>> AKN article that is related to your issue of the command line not excepting text. The causes could be related to "Level of Detail" is turned on or Possible corrupt user profile.

Solutions are to try turn off the level of detail using the "LevelOfDetailOff" command or please try resetting user profile. Please refer to AKN article on how to reset user profile. I hope this information help solves your problem.

Please select the ‘Accept as Solution’ button if my post solves your issue or answers your question so, other Community members may benefit and thank you for doing so, and I'm here to help.

Best Regards,

Wendell

[cvlci_CAD]

Do you have multiple files open at once in the same session of CAD? 

We have issues where the command line will become active in another drawing, not the file you currently have on your screen.  Using the drawing tabs at the top to switch to the drawing where the command is active and hitting escape fixes the problem...  This allows you to switch back to the "broken" command line drawing and it will work.  Normally the problem goes away for a few weeks after a full system reboot.

I have noticed this problem in 2016 and 2018.

EDIT:  Sorry, I didn't read the link above before posting.  Our issue is similar but not exactly as described in the AKN.  Switching between drawings DOES fix the issue for us.  No immediate crashing.

[rkmcswain]

 Just adding that I witnessed this on a user's PC running Civil 3D 2017 yesterday. Another side effect was that the plot preview was not showing all of the entities in the drawing (when LevelOfDetail was enabled).

Turning off LevelOfDetail solved everything.

I can't think of a good reason to ever enable LevelOfDetail !

It seems like another feature that was given to us, although nobody was asking for it.

And it's been broken for 3+ years now.

[rkmcswain]

@rkmcswain wrote:

I can't think of a good reason to ever enable LevelOfDetail !

It seems like another feature that was given to us, although nobody was asking for it.

And it's been broken for 3+ years now.

Make that 4+ years (have not tested C3D 2020), since it was broken (and supposedly fixed) back in C3D 2015.  More user thoughts on it here. Autodesk, can you please listen to your customers and either fix this, or remove it? 

@Mike_Hurtado  @dana.probert @muriel.a 

[tcorey]

I saw this error during a training class today. We had the student close his open drawings, other than the current, and the command line typing back.

[rdbailey]

I am having the same problem in Civil3D 2020.  The text has stopped working three times today and I have to close out of my drawings and then reopen.  Very annoying and time consuming ($$$$$).  

[brad.nz]

---

@rdbailey wrote:

I am having the same problem in Civil3D 2020.  The text has stopped working three times today and I have to close out of my drawings and then reopen.  Very annoying and time consuming ($$$$$).  

---

If you switch to the drawing where the text is appearing, hit cancel, jump back into the previous drawing, it should come back.
We have this happen multiple times a day.

[rkmcswain]

@rdbailey wrote:

I am having the same problem in Civil3D 2020.  The text has stopped working three times today and I have to close out of my drawings and then reopen.  Very annoying and time consuming

Did you turn off LEVELOFDETAIL ?

[lynn_zhang]

Hi @rdbailey 

Just checking if you're still having the problem. Have you tried the suggestions above?

[milandrimuller]

Good morning

well this is a first for me.

I have tried all the LEVELOFDETAILOFF and still the command line does not except my commands

Is there any other variable that we can use?

[rkmcswain]

@milandrimuller  - So LevelOfDetail is off, and you've restarted Civil 3D, and you only have one document open?

[milandrimuller]

Yes I did all of that and still didn't work. even restarted the pc

[rkmcswain]

Might be time to open a support case with Autodesk. 

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

happening in 2022 - so seems it's still an issue.  Will Admit, Levelofdetail does affect working on a surface which is what i'm doing right now.  Gotta love CAD's improvements

[rkmcswain]

I have not seen one case where I needed LevelOfDetail enabled, even if it didn't include the bugs it does.  It's quite baffling why this is such a technological challenge. ESRI and I'm sure others have been doing this for decades?

[rkmcswain]

I'm kind of surprised it's still an issue in 2022.  We have several seats of 2021 out there and I have not had any (internal) reports of it. Thanks for reporting this.

[tfordKC7JP]

This is truly irritating when I can be working in a drawing and then all of a sudden "bam!!" not able to type anything. In order to turn "levelofdetailoff" I have to close my drawing, reopen it, and THEN I can type the command to get my command line to working again. Why can't Autodesk create an icon that we can toggle on and off, so that we don't have to close, reopen, then type that long command to turn it off? That is, IF when I reopen it I can remember to do all of that because it seems I am always in a hurry and always trying to beat a deadline. Autodesk, is there an icon for this command since the command line stops working and in order to get it to work it has to be typed in? If there is an icon, I cannot find it. If there is not an icon, then we NEED it to toggle this on and off, so that it stops affecting our productivity. Multiple times a day this happens on various drawings I am in. I am constantly closing, reopening, and typing out that long command...right now for example I had to do it on 2 drawings just this morning. I have fought this for months. So frustrating after so long, that I am now posting a comment about it. Again, taking away from my productivity, but it is so often that something needs to be done to fix it. Thanks for listing to my rant... going back to work to try to find ways to over come my productivity crash right now.... 

Tina

[rkmcswain]

@tfordKC7JP - just turn it off. Done. It doesn't become reactivated by itself.

Also, when the problem rears itself, the command line input is simply being redirected to another open drawing. You should be able to find it and interact there. No need to shutdown.

[tfordKC7JP]

It does reactivate it self in other drawings, or whenever I reopen Autocad for another drawing. I don't just work on one project drawing in one day.

I will try inputting the command in another drawing and see if that works for the one that I cannot input anything in the command line. I never tried that before. Thanks for the suggestion!

Tina