Escarpment Tool in Civil 3D 2026 - odd behaviour

[neilyj666]

Anyone tried using the Escarpment tool in Civil 3D 2026?

I can use it once and the slope hachure shows but not on subsequent attempts which is really bizarre

[ChrisRS]

I see the same problem with Civil 3D 2026 Imperial (USA)

It works fine for Civil 3D 2025 Imperial (USA)

[neilyj666]

Thanks for confirming - it also works with no issue for me in Civil 3D 2025 (British English)

...and another Support Case on the way....the User Experience for Civil 3D 2026 has been abysmal so far....🙄

[neilyj666]

Bug confirmed by Autodesk support...but no timescale for a fix

[prowse_n]

Jumping in quickly - I ran into this bug and noticed that the command works as long as there isn't an existing block named "Escarpment1". If you rename the first block that is generated it will be able to create a second. Might be that it's not looking to name the next block as Escarpment "#+1" and gets tripped up when the name it wants to use exists.

[neilyj666]

@prowse_n Great catch and seems the logical conclusion but how could it be broken in 2026???

[prowse_n]

@neilyj666 that much is beyond me, but it could have been unexpectedly impacted by changes elsewhere. If there was a plan to directly alter the ESCARPMENT command I imagine they would have tested it and discovered the bug.

[ChrisRS]

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@prowse_n wrote:

@neilyj666 that much is beyond me, but it could have been unexpectedly impacted by changes elsewhere. If there was a plan to directly alter the ESCARPMENT command I imagine they would have tested it and discovered the bug.

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It looks like you may be new to the forum. Welcome.

You have a more vivid sense of imagination than I. 😁 

[kbrownEEUYJ]

I can confirm that this still doesn't work right and I highly suspect it never will. Escarpment is one of those forgotten commands, that should be native to civil 3D, but isn't.

To get around this I have made a quick lisp that finds, explodes, and purges the "escarpment1" block so that the command can be run again. I have replaced the custom button I made for the escarpment command with an action to run the lisp.

(defun c:EscarpmentRoutine ()
  ;; Attempt to find and burst all blocks named "escarpment1"
  (if (setq ss (ssget "X" (list (cons 2 "escarpment1"))))
    (progn
      (command "_.explode" ss)
      (princ "\nEscarpment1 blocks found and exploded.")
    )
    (princ "\nNo escarpment1 blocks found to explode.")
  )

  ;; Attempt to purge the block definition
  (command "_.purge" "B" "escarpment1" "N")
  (princ "\nAttempted to purge block definition 'escarpment1'.")

  ;; Run the escarpment command
  (command "_.escarpment")
  (princ "\nEscarpment command executed.")

  (princ)
)

[neilyj666]

@kbrownEEUYJ Great routine - works as expected...😊

Unlike AutoCAD and MAP where updates are installed without the requirement to explicitly install the base application, Civil 3D will not install AutoCAD Architecture updates unless Architecture is also installed which is bizarre considering Civil 3D is built on these platforms (but must have some deep seated coding reason) 

The fix for the inbuilt tool may (or may not) be in the next civil update—not in 2026.1 at least—reply from Autodesk below

[neilyj666 · Accepted solution]

AutoDesk have issued a hotfix for this - see KB article that requires replacement of an arx file

ESCARPMENT doesn't work in Civil 3D 2026

Just replaced the arx file and ESCARPMENT works as expected