ExportToAutoCAD Troubles

[BlackBox_]

I work with a lot of old school firms that REQUIRE that I export back to 2000... My own in-house Surveyor (and VP of the firm) uses 2000 daily.

Since ExportToAutoCAD is not smart enough to explode an Object/Label to its assigned Layer (when Style is Layer 0), I continually try to refine my Styles to be on specific Layers which is a complete PITA, because I now have multiple Styles where I previously had ONE for a given Label type.

That said, I need some help... I export my drawings back to 2000 format for my Surveyor, and he's having some trouble with the resultant drawings.

Turns out, that all of my Civil 3D Labels (i.e., Surface Spot Elevations, Alignment/Profile Labels, etc) are working fine, however... Wait for it... Multileaders aren't?

Opening a 2000 format drawing in 2016, results in valid Multileaders? 

Shouldn't they be MText/Block and 'dumb' Leaders?

ExportToAutoCAD is not exploding Multileaders, resulting in Proxy warnings in 2000... However, if I first explode all Multileaders, and THEN run ExportToAutoCAD, no issues.

While I'm glad to have a workaround, why isn't this being done during the export? 

Cheers

[pat.lowe]

Hi @BlackBox_

My name is Pat and I am with Autodesk Technical Support.  This multileader problem is due to the fact that Multileader's were not introduced until 2008.  This link here talks about this.  Multileader is a vanilla cad object so it shouldn't explode.  

[BlackBox_]

Hi @pat.lowe - 

If Multileader wasn't introduced until 2008, then Multileaders *SHOULD* be exploded when exporting to any version EARLIER than 2008, no?

From the article you cite:

"If you think about it, AutoCAD keeps improving their commands to make them easier and faster and hence, make AutoCAD easier and faster."

By NOT exploding Multileaders being exported to any version OLDER than 2008, you're intentionally providing an entity (vanilla, or otherwise), that the target version inherently cannot handle  -  which seems like something that was just overlooked with the advent of ExportToAutoCAD (things happen)  -  then you're also implicitly making the process more complicated as one now must go back, open the resultant exported drawing, explode all Multileaders manually (i.e., using QSELECT, LISP, etc.), before performing the export a second time.

This makes it really easy to provide others (internally or externally) invalid entities that their version does not support, which then too slows them down, as they cannot even properly freeze layers, etc. (which is the issue that put this on my radar today). 

This is a bug, and needs to be fixed.

Seems to me that the command should be updated to conditionally explode all Multileaders, only *IF* user elects to export to 2000-2007 version.

Cheers

[pat.lowe · Accepted solution]

Hi @BlackBox_,

Yes, I agree.  We have logged this now as a bug.  Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention!

[BlackBox_]

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@pat.lowe wrote:

Hi @BlackBox_,

Yes, I agree.  We have logged this now as a bug.  Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention!

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No, @pat.lowe - Thank YOU, and the entire Civil 3D team!

I could not have asked for a better response, and I appreciate your consideration.

Cheers

[BlackBox_]

Hi @pat.lowe - 

Not sure if this is related to the resultant Proxy issue or not, but I noticed that the drawing exported with Multileaders had additional (unnecessary) annotation layers, such as "SomeLayer @ 40" in addition to "SomeLayer", which just caused confusion.

Since first exploding Multileaders, and then exporting the drawing precludes this, I assume any corrective action taken in a future update will also mitigate this, but wanted to be sure to identify it for the bug notes.

Cheers 

[pat.lowe · Accepted solution]

Hi @BlackBox_,

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.  That could definitely be something that affects it.  I will be sure to add this to the bug report I submitted as well. 

[BlackBox_]

You're welcome, @pat.lowe; I'm happy to help.

I only wish that the AutoCAD Beta team were as interested in user feedback as the Civil 3D team has been; you guys are more engaging, actually have technical staff who understand the issues we present to streamline conversations, and well, Civil 3D team actually gets stuff done (like this thread shows, as one small example)!  

No wonder #IHeartCivil - please keep up the great work!

Cheers

[Jeff_M]

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@BlackBox_ wrote:

@Anonymous if this is related to the resultant Proxy issue or not, but I noticed that the drawing exported with Multileaders had additional (unnecessary) annotation layers, such as "SomeLayer @ 40" in addition to "SomeLayer", which just caused confusion.

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Could this be due to the Mleader/Mtext having been moved using a different annotation scale? Thus creating the different layer for the different location?

[BlackBox_]

Hi @Jeff_M - Good to see you, my friend!

I don't believe so, as the drawing(s) that I initially Exported only had a single Annotation Scale assigned to the Multileaders (40 Scale), as these were labels in my 'Sheet' drawings and not in my model drawings with multiple Annotation Scales assigned (if that makes sense).

Cheers

[BlackBox_]

Hi @pat.lowe -

Another issue with EXPORTTOAUTOCAD, is when you have COGO Points on a locked layer; they're precluded from the resultant drawing export.

A recent example: I have a survey/existing drawing with various trees as COGO assigned to a handful of Point Groups (one for each tree), but all trees initially on my 'TREE' layer. After initial proposed design, some now need to be removed and get moved to a 'TREE-D' demo layer (same Point Group for display).

I save my drawings with all demo layers locked for visual clarity using laylockfade sysvar. Problem is, any COGO on a locked layer are just NOT included in the resultant drawing export at all. 

If any any object is in my drawing, I expect it to be in the resultant drawing regardless of it being on a locked layer or not. 

Cheers

[BlackBox_]

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@BlackBox_ wrote:

You're welcome, @pat.lowe; I'm happy to help.

I only wish that the AutoCAD Beta team were as interested in user feedback as the Civil 3D team has been; you guys are more engaging, actually have technical staff who understand the issues we present to streamline conversations, and well, Civil 3D team actually gets stuff done (like this thread shows, as one small example)!  

No wonder #IHeartCivil - please keep up the great work!

Cheers

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Looks like I was a bit hasty to offer praise, @pat.lowe - this is STILL broken in Civil 3D 2018.1 - when will this be fixed?

Having to manually explode MLeaders prior to export is a PITA.

@peterfunkautodesk, please refer to this post above: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-forum/exporttoautocad-troubles/m-p/6731955#M324054

Cheers