Transparent Commands Messing Up

[Cadguru42]

I've run into an issue where at least two transparent commands mess up after the first one is done. For instance, I'm working with a profile view and want to move a label to a specific station and elevation. I select the label, grab the grip and type 'PSE (for profile, station elevation). It asks me which profile view to use, I select my working one, then the select the station and elevation. My problem is when I go to work on the next profile view. On the second view, when I select my label to move and type 'PSE, the command prompt immediately asks me what station instead of what profile view to use. No matter what the 'PSE wants to always use the first profile view and doesn't give me the option to select a new one. 

This also happens with 'SO (station offset). The first time I use 'SO it prompts for the alignment to use, but from then on no matter what if I use 'SO in another command I never get asked to pick an alignment. It always references the first one and I can't stop it. I've restarted C3D, but that only works on the first time I use a transparant command. After the first one goes through, I can no longer select a different alignment or profile view. Audit finds no errors and this happens in all drawings in the current session. 

This is extremely frustrating. Anyone else have a clue what's going on or know how to fix it? 

[Cadguru42]

This is still happening, but in different drawings. From what I can tell it's having two drawings open at the same time with both having civil objects that causes the bug to appear. 

I am unable to use 'SO nor 'PSE as long as two drawings are open at the same time and after I selected the first civil object. 

<FRUSTRATED USER>

[Cadguru42]

Here's another screencast showing it in action. I just opened the drawing and zoomed to the alignment I'm working on before the screencast starts. You can see that I can use the 'SO transparent command and that it asks for the alignment. If I use another 'SO I no longer get prompted to select an alignment; it always selects the first alignment. The only way to get it working again is to close the drawing and reopen it each time a new object is needed.

[dhenderhan]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but in the past I've had issues with drawing 3d poly's using 'PN for break lines in survey data. Turned out the you had to make sure OSNAP was off before beginning the 3d poly or it would jack it up. Not sure if this is the same thing or not, but just a thought.

[Cadguru42]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'm not sure if this will help or not, but in the past I've had issues with drawing 3d poly's using 'PN for break lines in survey data. Turned out the you had to make sure OSNAP was off before beginning the 3d poly or it would jack it up. Not sure if this is the same thing or not, but just a thought.

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I turned off OSNAPs and it still messes up. Below are the steps I took this morning to get the problem to show up again. 

1. This morning I opened C3D 2016 and used the Start tab to open my corridor drawing. Click on the Start tab again and opened my alignments_profiles drawing. I repeated this to open up my present layout and proposed layout drawings for a total of 4 drawings opened.

2. In the alignments_profiles drawing, I created two new proposed driveway profiles and saved the drawing. In the proposed layout drawing, I sync'd the data shortcuts and drew some polylines in the model space using 'SO without issue on two different alignments. I did a copybase on those new polylines, switched to the present layout drawing, pasted at 0,0, then saved.

3. Went back to the alignments_profiles drawing, reloaded XREFs, and edited two different road alignments. Saved the drawing. Switched to the present layout drawing and resync'd the data shortcuts. I selected one of the road alignments, on the ribbon clicked Add Labels>Single Segment, and created two labels for tangets on the roadway. I repeated this on the other roadway alignment without issue. Saved.

4. Switched to the proposed layout drawing, and repeated the steps above without issue. Saved.

5. Switched to the corridor drawing and reloaded XREFs. Was not prompted to synchronize data shortcuts. This one drawing never prompts me and I must always type the command to synchronize references. Saved.

6. Switched back to the alignments_profiles drawing. From the Home tab, Profile>Profile Creation Tools and selected my roadway profile view. I then clicked on the Draw tangets without curves button from the toolbar, then typed 'PSE. I was not prompted to select a profile view. The profile view selected is the last driveway profile view I used in step 2. Until I close the drawing and reopen it I am unable to use the transparent commands on any object that wasn't last selected. 

[Cadguru42]

This is a follow-up post. The problem still hasn't been fixed and was reported to development as a bug back in December 2015. Here's what we did to try and fix the problem. 

I uninstalled C3D 2015 completely, including all addons and extensions. Reinstalled C3D 2015, then service packs and the issue was gone for a while. It popped back up later and we narrowed it down to Vehicle Tracking 2015. After installing Vehicle Tracking 2015 the bug showed up again. I've done this twice and it has something to do with VT. This causes both C3D 2015 and C3D 2016 to have this bug even if VT 2016 isn't installed. 

I bring this up because it happened to me again today. I've got 23 driveway profiles to update. I have to edit three drawings and use transparent commands in them, so after doing a single driveway I have to close C3D, reopen C3D, reopen the drawings, do another driveway, then repeat. Here's a short screencast showing it happening again with 'SO. I'm never prompted to pick an alignment.

This is a HUGE productivity hit. I hope Autodesk fixes this with 2017, but I highly doubt it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone for tracking down this bug. It's been driving me crazy for a while now.

A workaround is to use 2 or more CAD sessions.

HTH

Jim

[EECylwik]

Facing the same issue still in 2016 with SP 3.

[Anonymous]

This is an issue that plagues our office. Has anyone found an actual fix yet? Currently using C3D2015.

[Cadguru42]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is an issue that plagues our office. Has anyone found an actual fix yet? Currently using C3D2015.

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The only solution is to either close C3D & reopen the drawings or uninstall Vehicle Tracking 2015. Autodesk knows about this bug, but like most things it probably won't ever get fixed. 

[EECylwik]

Hey,

Through a formal bug submission to Autodesk they were able to confirm the root of the issue is related to A360. If you are logged in to A360 in ANY autodesk program and then run the 'SO command it 'sticks' to the alignment selected upon first run. It seems like they just didn't reset the command variables after it finishes execution.

If you log out of the 360 services in Civil 3D, and don't have any Autodesk software open on your computer that uses the 360 connection. Then close and reopen Civil 3D - do NOT log in to A360. Then you can use the 'SO command without issue.

They've logged my issue as development defect CIVIL-19324. If you do open a ticket please reference that so they can build a case of how many users this particular issue is effecting.

Eric

[Hammer.john.j]

I tried that signing out of everything...... no dice.

hold on, nevermind.  when you draw a line and use 'so for example.  the first time you pick the station and offset it is picking the first point or "begin" of the line, then the next prompt is for the end of the line.

working as intended for me.

[Anonymous]

Just to confirm...I have occasionally had this same issue with transparent commands in all releases of C3D from 2015 through 2017.  I've tried all the other solutions, but the work-around of signing out of A360 is the only thing that has worked.  I call it a work around because I use geolocation images all the time and I have to be signed in to do that. Hopefully, they are working on a permanent solution...

[blippold]

I'm having the same problems. I am using Civil 3D 2017 SP 1.1

If I use the transparent commands 'SO or 'PSE it will ask for the first alignment or profile view and work as expected. But if I try to use the transparent command again, it will not prompt to select alignment or profile view and is locked to the previous alignment or profile view. I have tried previously posted fix about logging out of A360, but it still didn't work. The only solution at the moment is to keep saving and reopening drawing file. I also am running one occurrence of Civil 3d with at least two drawing files open.

Civil 3D 2017 SP 1.1

Windows 7 Professional SP 1

Intel Xeon CPU e5-2630 v4 @ 2.20 GHz

32 GB Ram

[Anonymous]

I am having this issue in C3D2018 Update 2. I am logged out of A360 and do not have any other autodesk application running and the problem still exists. Have to save close and reopen every time.

[PerigeeCivil]

having same issue with 2019. 

[awkeller88]

I can confirm the problem persists in 2019.

~Andy

[Drea_Mueller]

Problem still persists.  I am working in 2022 and if I use 'PSE on one profile view, I don't get the option to select another after.  Its extremely frustrating.  I tried to follow all the previous posts, but wasn't sure if there was a workaround posted.  Did someone find a way to at least get around this glitch?

Thanks, 

Drea

[JimsTools]

This problem persists in 2023! In fact, it's even worse for me. The only time it prompts me to select a Profile View is the first time, after that it never prompts me again. It used to do it only once in a while. This is using the 'STAE transparent command. Only way to fix is to close the drawing and open again.

Another annoying behavior is the C3D transparent commands do not restore your OSNAP settings. Instead of just turning them off (making the OSNAP var negative) it actually sets the OSNAP variable to 0. This has been a bad behavior for many versions (at least as far back as 2013 when I started using C3D). I made a toolbar button which sets my OSNAP to my favorites.

[rkmcswain]

@JimsTools wrote:

Another annoying behavior is the C3D transparent commands do not restore your OSNAP settings. Instead of just turning them off (making the OSNAP var negative) it actually sets the OSNAP variable to 0. This has been a bad behavior for many versions (at least as far back as 2013 when I started using C3D). I made a toolbar button which sets my OSNAP to my favorites.

I tested this in Civil 3D 2022 and do not find this to be true, at least with the 'SO and 'BD transparent commands (I didn't test them all). In fact, I typed in 'osmode in the middle of the command and it was unchanged.

Command: L LINE
Specify first point:
Specify next point or [Undo]: 'bd
Quadrants - NE = 1, SE = 2, SW = 3, NW = 4
>>Specify quadrant (1-4): 'osmode
>>Enter new value for OSMODE <5183>:
Resuming BD command.
>>Specify quadrant (1-4):
Current direction unit: degree, Input: DD° MM' SS.SS" (spaced)

[alistair.stewart]

I am using 2023 and have the exact same problem as listed above when using 'PSE command. Works fine with first profile view. It seems the command never fully ends before wanting to do the same thing with the next profile view. I have to close the drawing and re-open it for the command to work again as it should.