Data Shortcuts & Server

[yzhu4P2NB]

We recently had a problem on one project that causing Civil3D to shutdown without even through unhandled exception.

After several trails we were able to reproduce the problem and realize there might be something to do with the data reference being on our server.

We have two files and data shortcut on our server

File A.dwg - contains original file contains 141 alignments as well profiles data

File B.dwg - contains all the 141 alignments and profiles referenced in from File A

User D is working in File B while another user B is in File A. When user B finished and save the File A, the Civil 3D application will be freeze and shut down on user D. The message on the right bottom corner saying "data shortcut is out of date" didn't even show up on user D's Civil 3D.

We also tried to bring all files and data shortcut folder to local drive and tried on open both file and save File A, the message on the right bottom corner will pop-up and Civil3D didn't shut down.

In this case I assume there's something on the server that limits the communication between data shortcut files, but I'm not sure how exactly how it works. We are trying to test out on our server about the maximum number of data shortcuts can be store in one file that won't cause another file to crash when save.

Is there any suggestions on this? 

Thanks

[rkmcswain]

Is this Civil 3D 2019? If so, what update(s) are installed?

This was a known issue prior to Update 2 I believe.

Update 3.1 is the current level.

Ref:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/civil-3d-forum/civil-3d-2019-session-disappearing-without-error-data-...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/civil-3d-forum/pipe-network-data-reference-sync-and-crash-issues-on-c...

[yzhu4P2NB]

We are using 2018.3

[BlackBox_ · Accepted solution]

Civil 3D isn't smart enough to only update what's changed (yet)... So when a DREF source drawing is saved (even if only 1 minor thing is changed for a single DREF), the entire set of DREFs derived from that source drawing are flagged to be updated, which is a huge waste of otherwise billable time. 

The fix for that is to have fewer DREF source objects in each source drawing but that inherently means managing multiple source drawings, however, that also means fewer users being locked up to sync ALL drefs... Everything has trade-offs. 

You will have to find that tipping point for your work, balancing how many source drawings vs DREF sync Autodeskruptions, based on your workstation, network and server performance (sometimes a network/server bottleneck can be mitigated by upgrading 1Gb network to 10Gb network, depending on server's RAID array, as example). 

HTH

[lynn_zhang]

Hello @yzhu4P2NB ,

Did the response from @BlackBox_ help answer your question? If yes, please click on the "Accept as Solution" button in his reply or let us know if you still need help. Thanks!

[yzhu4P2NB]

Yes, it helped, but I don't want you to click the button for me

Thanks,

[Sinoj.Ravindran]

Hi, going through your issues, just to understand the scenario about your working,

For the next revision of design changes how will you update the data short cut?

Thank you

[yzhu4P2NB]

For the 2 example files mentioned in original post

We found that as long as no one is opening the File B.dwg while someone else (including you) is saving the File A.dwg on the sever, it won't cause any problem.

So saving File A.dwg and open File B.dwg later, all data shotcut will be synchronized.