Large surface saved as .mms has proxy state error when reopened

[Anonymous]

I am working with a large set of contour lines and attempting to make a surface from them. I am able to generate the surface and receive the pop-up message stating the surface is too large for the dwg and will be saved as a .mms file. When I save and close the file and reopen it, I receive the error "This drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D, All entities created by Civil 3D within the drawing are in a proxy state. Additionally, all commands, settings, and displays of Civil 3D are disabled for this drawing".

I have been troubleshooting this problem for a few weeks now with no success. Firstly, the file was created from a new drawing in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 and all files are saved directly on my PC, with no one else or AutoCAD version having access to the files. I installed AutoCAD 2021, tried to open the file and received the same error. I recreated the surface in 2021 (saving as the 2018 dwg) and received the same error when reopening the newly created file using 2021.

[Wojtek_Garczewski]

@Anonymous 

Thank you for your post.

As I understood, you have created surface that produced *.mms file. Once you saved it and closed it, you are no able to reopen it correctly? Is this right?

When saving a drawing containing a large surface (generally, over 1 million points for a grid surface or a snapshot of a TIN surface, and over 2 million points for a TIN surface), the data pertaining to the large surface is written to a separate file that is saved in the same location where the surface
drawing resides.

Can you confirm that the *.mms file stored in the same location as the corresponding *.dwg file? Did you copy or move *.mms file? 

Otherwise, I would like to test it on my end. Can you share a drawing with contour lines, please?

Thanks,
Wojtek

[rl_jackson]

@Anonymous 

Your going to need to reduce the amount of data your using significantly. Most likely you've got drone data, which may or may not have have been categorized. If that is the case you have a few options.

1. Import the data to Infraworks, and then import the resulting surface to C3D, as IW does categorize the data, so that you use only ground points and also will let you set a density for the grid surface going to C3D.

2. Get DotSoft Lidar Tools from the AppStore its free and can do the categorizing and weed the date as well.

Either way your really going to need to get rid of some of the data, its just to much C3D to handle.

[Anonymous]

@Wojtek_Garczewski 

Yes, I can confirm the .mms file is stored in the same file location as the dwg. I cannot attach the files here because of the size limitation. Perhaps I can share the files with you via a cloud service?

Thank you for your response.

[Anonymous]

@rl_jackson 

It is not drone data, but it is LiDAR data. I can give this a try. I have attempted to weed the features in AutoCAD, however when I tried to do about 15% of the polylines at once, the computation lasted over 8 days and did not complete the weeding process.

[Wojtek_Garczewski]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Thanks for the answer.

Yes, please use any preferred cloud drive storage to share the link with us, if possible. 

You can upload it on WeTransfer.com
It would be helpful.

Thanks, 
Wojtek

[Wojtek_Garczewski]

Hi @Anonymous 

I've looked into your file, and here are some insights I've got:

• The area of interest is over 70 sq miles and contains a huge number of polylines with very dense vertexes, that can't be processed well in Civil 3D.
• To allow Civil 3D to consume such amount of data and produce workable surfaces is to make smaller chunks(probably over dozen). You can prepare square limited areas, and use MAPTRIM command to trim what's outside the boundary. I've tested it partially with only one layer of contours. It works, but it's very time-consuming.
• Also, I've discussed with colleagues, and they give me a hint to export the polylines to shape format (5-10 minutes), export all line vertices to ASCII text (used GIS program - I believe free QGIS could do it too - 6 minutes, 1.7 Gb), creat Recap Project from ASCII file (40 minutes). Use the ReCap project to create terrain from the point cloud in InfraWorks.

In any case, when working with such large data, my recommendation is to size down the file. Either by a number of objects or limiting the area of interest. 

If you need any additional assistance please respond and I will be happy to help.

Regards,
Wojtek
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[jsturnerRPH9M]

Hello, I am dealing with a somewhat similar issue in Civil 3D 2023. Trying to create and save a surface from a .tif file. Processing the surface goes well, it is a ~750 acre area so it does require an MMS file. After saving, closing, and re-opening the surface is converted to an ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY and I receive the "This drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D". Everything is saved and worked on locally so I am the only one with access to the files. 

I had a similar issue previously with a surface for a ~550 acre property, I eventually fixed it so that the surface no longer converted to ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY upon closing and re-opening but I unfortunately cannot remember what the solution was. (I know the acreage does not accurately represent the exact size of the surface but I wanted to provide some information to give an idea of the size of the surfaces I am working with). 

[chris_j_andrew]

Having the same issue now with Civil3D 2022.2.3. Found this on AutoDesk website that says it's fixed in 2022.2.2 and 2023 https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Large-Surface-disp...

Obviously not. Is there a hot fix that can be installed?

[caw]

This is still an issue with Civil 3d 2023.  Anyone come up with a fix?

[jbokic2F9MM]

I have a similar issue with Civil 3D 2024.3 Update.

If I have a surface as a data shortcut it works fine and the MMS file is around 600 MB.  If I need to promote the surface in a drawing to send to an engineer the design drawing gets an MMS around 1.3 GB and when I open up the drawing there is no surface just an ACAD PROXY entity.

[r.capper]

Same here with Civil 3D 2024.3 Update. 

Lots of warnings about ensuring the MMS File is saved with the drawing, but no indication of max file size and losing the surface on reopen. Given Civil 3D knows about the mms file (it creates) surely it could be more informative about reducing file size prior to closing the file.

[masterautodeskY46HZ]

Same with me in Civil 3D 2024 & 2025 updates.

MMS not load properly and popup message with "file created newer version and drawing under proxy state.

Admin, Any solution please.....

[rl_jackson]

The solution is to use a data set that does not create a mms file. You're wasting your time if mms come into play. The data need to decimated by 90%