"This drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D" on a drawing created yesterday, sole object in drawing converted to proxy state.

[jsturnerRPH9M]

Working in Civil 3D 2023, I created a new drawing yesterday and processed a surface in it. As of COB yesterday the only thing in this file was a surface large enough to need an MMS file, and some polylines. I was the only one in this file for certain as it is saved locally.

I go to open the file this morning and it gives me the "this drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D...all entities...are in a proxy state" error.

I've seen this before so I run the QSELECT > Object Type = ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY etc etc.

It shows 1 object selected and of course it's the surface. I go to delete it and CAD shuts down. 

Is this current file salvageable? I would like not have to process this surface again but between closing the file last night and opening it this morning it was converted into a proxy state. 

If I'm being honest this is not the first time this has happened to me but it initially occurred so long ago I don't remember how I fixed it...just that it was a very long process and I had to re-process the surface at the time several times to get a file that worked. 

Thank you.

[Valentin-WSP]

@jsturnerRPH9M ,

Try:

• Optimizing drawing files in AutoCAD with Purge, Audit & Recover

[jsturnerRPH9M]

I tried PURGE and AUDIT in the problem file. It told me there was nothing to Purge and AUDIT made passes without finding/fixing anything. I will try recover and see if that helps.

I am wondering if there is something I need to do when creating a file like this before I save and close for the first time...? Several google searches seem to indicate that it could be the large MMS file that is causing this kind of error but I don't know how to work around that? I am working with very large surfaces and need an MMS file. 

[jsturnerRPH9M]

RECOVER did not work. A message popped up saying no issues/errors detected and I still got the "This drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D" error pop-up when RECOVER finished. 

I think unfortunately this file may not be recoverable. At this point I'm trying to figure out if there are any settings I need to change/edit when I first process this surface before saving/closing the file for the first time. My PROXYGRAPHICS was set to 0 but I recreated the file, set PROXYGRAPHICS to 1 and then back to 0 to see if that helped. I also saved the surface as a data shortcut.

Neither of these did anything and the second iteration of the file gave me the same "newer version of civil 3d" error upon saving, closing, and reopening. 

[jsturnerRPH9M]

I feel like this autodesk article depicts what I'm dealing with. However I am working in a local directory so none of the offered solutions appear to apply. The MMS file and the DWG with the corresponding surfaced are saved locally in the same directory. 

[jsturnerRPH9M]

This forum discussion makes me think it's truly a size issue? The area of the surface I'm trying to use is around ~750 acres which is substantial. I am going to try and trim the surface to only the areas I absolutely need and see if that helps. 

Edit: this area is not suitable to be trimmed....I need all of it. 

[Valentin-WSP]

@jsturnerRPH9M 

Try the suggestion from the links below: Simplify the surface

Whenever possible, reduce the amount of data in the surface definition to avoid the creation of a cache file

(GRS for Grid and MMS for TIN surface).

Refer to these resources to simplify the surface definition/geometry:

• Civil 3D Help: To Apply a Data Clip Boundary to Imported Surfaces.
• Civil 3D Help: To Simplify Surfaces.
• Civil 3D Help: To Weed Feature Line Vertices.
• Civil 3D Help: To Simplify Data Display

[jsturnerRPH9M]

Thank you, the Simplify Surfaces tool looks promising. 

A work-around I found out in the meantime is to build the surface from GIS contours derived from the TIF file. Fine for conceptual-level tasks, but I will need to experiment more with the Simplify Surfaces to see if any of those options help me. Unfortunately this will take some significant time as I will have to re-process the surface every time it does not work. I plan to test this out in the near future when I have some more time on my hands. Thank you in the meantime. I will do my best to report back if any of these options helped!