I have read a number of forum post regarding disappearing feature lines, but have not had any luck finding a solution. Is there any progress on preventing this from happening as I have read on the posts that this has been a problem since 2007 and every version since.
This is a very costly problem due to time spent reconstructing the feature lines so if there is a fix or a way to prevent this happening could we please get an update.
Does it make a difference if the feature lines are Siteless (Site set to <None>) or in a dedicated site?
Tom Richardson
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.
Autodesk Certified Professional in Civil 3D for Infrastructure Design
AutoCAD Certified Professional
------------------------------------
Autodesk AEC Community Blog
Crossing the line with Civil 3D
Twitter | LinkedIn
------------------------------------
Austin CAD User Group Resources
Blog | Discord | LinkedIn
I have subsequently found out through a senior designer that it is related to a hard-wired error in Autodesks coding relating to the use of grading tools - lets just say if you have a gradings that have something crossing it (grading / feature) - you're about to have a very bad day.
The grading tools should ONLY EVER be used to initially create what you need and then you EXPLODE the grading and use the featurelines for your model to make sure this error never happens again.
In 20yrs time when Autodesk fix this error I may return to using the grading tools for an end product.
Grading Objects have gotten a little better. I instruct all the designers to never let them touch another grading object. I also never select the entire feature line. I always only do it along a portion. For example if I have a feature line that has parking islands, I would stop daylighting before it get to the island, then pick it up again on the other side.
Using these rules though I have found them to be much more stable.
I agree @vaughan.giles7AGEV . I too have noticed grading tools cause further errors and have adopted the "initial use, then explode" to avoid errors. The grading tools are handy at times, however these errors seem to happen later so I recommend "dumbing them down" to remove interactions before moving on to other tasks. Further to this I also avoid crossing feature lines (within same site), or when I do I ensure I insert a PI which seems to help.
Yes, @Anonymous have gotten a little better, never let them touch another grading object, and never select the entire feature line.
Thanks for your confirmations fine folk.
What annoys me greatly is that Autodesk have known about this in-built issue for many, many years and refuse to do anything about it.
I find the issue occurs when I need to replace a feature line link corridor, for example when an offset center island shifts, i just recreate the feature and associate it. And then the drawing deletes the feature lines.
They haven't fixed it because, well, they don't really have to. We're all locked in because the industry is all in with Civil 3D, and they have patents on their software ensuring that no one can create something better to compete with them. So they could fix it, and I'm sure if it wasn't as difficult problem as it apparently is, they would. But, at the end of the day, they can't seem to find an easy fix, so what do they care? We're stuck with their half-baked application, and they won't even bother owning up to its problems. Classic Autodesk.
Hi folks,
We have been following and researching this issue for quite a while. As has been mentioned in this thread, it is not an easy fix, primarily because we haven't been able to consistently reproduce the issue.
In the coming weeks, one of our development teams is going to further focus their efforts on this issue. Judging by the helpful comments on this and other threads, we should focus on a few areas:
To help us nail this down, would anyone please be able to provide:
We sincerely want to fix this issue. If you would be able to provide any of the above assets to us, it would be incredibly helpful.
@TimYarris, I can’t duplicate the issue yet, but past history has shown that using the UNDO command on feature lines will at some point cause FLs to disappear. It’s typically a delayed reaction and not noticed immediately after the undo command is used to restore deleted FLs. When the drawing is saved and closed, the thumbnail preview the next morning will show the FLs but when the drawing is opened, the FLs aren't there. This may have only been an issue with acad.dwt vs NCS template.
Tom Richardson
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.
Autodesk Certified Professional in Civil 3D for Infrastructure Design
AutoCAD Certified Professional
------------------------------------
Autodesk AEC Community Blog
Crossing the line with Civil 3D
Twitter | LinkedIn
------------------------------------
Austin CAD User Group Resources
Blog | Discord | LinkedIn
Thank you for the update, Tim.
Unfortunately, I no longer have access to the last project that this occurred on, and I've since completely forbidden myself from ever using feature lines as baselines again. I think I will try to duplicate it again myself with the same template as that project (which I do still have).
Edit:
C3D_TomR's comment above is absolutely correct. When editing feature lines, e.g. joining features, creating gradings on features, etc., using UNDO for these tasks has a very high likelihood of making the feature lines disappear with no way to recover them. It definitely has the feel that it could be directly related to the other cases where feature lines are disappearing.
Thanks for the tip regarding Undo, @C3D_TomR and @jameshitt . We'll add that to the list of things to focus on as we troubleshoot this issue.
I have been meaning to try to recreate the issue with 2021 to see if it is worth our Company going to 2021 yet. When I do that I will share the drawing. In the meantime the error is easy to reacreate (from memory):
@ODO18 & @TimYarris
As I've indicated before. This disappearing feature line issue does note require a corridor. I've never used a FL as a baseline. However, your other points about editing FLs having some influence over when they disappear seems to be valid. My co-workers and I agree it's FL's that interact with any other objects (Grading objects or other FLs) and then attempting to edit them, often causes errors... and then when the file is saved, closed, and re-opened... then sometimes (not always), the FLs disappear on the reopened dwg. We still use FL's... just avoid crossing (interacting) FLs at all costs until AutoDesk fixes this issue.
Good to know about the audits having influence in re-creation of FLs disappearing.
Cheers.
I have not had the issue of disappearing feature lines outside of using them as corridors. Also when I have used them as corridors they are not crossing or interacting with any other feature lines.
As far as issues you are having with them disappearing when they interact. I always put a PVI at the intersection of two feature lines. So no two feature lines are ever beginning, ending, or crossing each other without a shared pvi on all lines at that point. Not sure if that helps, but that is what I do and have not had the issue.
Thanks
Hi everyone,
We're finally able to consistently reproduce this issue using the following workflow. We've validated this in both Civil 3D 2020.4 and 2021.1.
If anyone else has anything else to add to that workflow (or other workflows we can use to consistently reproduce the issue), we'd appreciate any other clues. Now that we can reproduce it consistently, it should help us isolate the issue.
Thanks very much for your patience and the details you've all provided to date.
Hi Tim,
This sounds like it involves Deleting a Corridor to make the featureline disappear....?
What about all the "ghost" Corridor examples I sent you where there is still a Corridor, but the Baseline featurelines are all gone?
I rarely have to Delete a Corridor in my workflows, so the problem was especially conspicuous and frustrating. I then eventually came up with going with the Siteless option with better results, but still could get the behavior I describe, just less frequently.
Thanks for allocating development resources towards this now..
Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.