Hello All,
I'm writing this post primarily to get the attention of Autodesk higher-ups to the severity of the on-going issues surrounding Site Designer and it's lack of functionality. I've been using Site Designer, and previously Site Works by Eagle Point Software before Autodesk purchased it for several years now. It has always been a buggy, quirky, unstable program, but it has some useful tools and functions that Revit, sadly, inherently lacks. In my experience, since Autodesk purchased the software, it has gotten worse in its stability.
With the most current version, every new project that I start I run into the same reoccurring issues with basic Site Designer functions causing Revit to crash with either a fatal or unrecoverable error. I get the option to save a recovery file if there's new work done prior to the crash. I've created case files with Tech Support, and have spent hours on the phone with showing them the processes I went through so they can re-create the errors themselves. Thus far no solutions have been offered.
I just started a new project and immediately upon using Site Designer I start getting the same fatal or unrecoverable errors that causes Revit to crash. I've tried for hours – now days – to trouble shoot where the problem(s) could possibly be, but to no avail. I have even started completely from scratch with the same error results;
I’m well aware of the various know incompatibilities between Revit’s native site tools and Site Designer, such as: no building pads, graded regions, or subregions. I’ve even tried using only a single toposurface (some projects require the toposurface to be split to create different phases, etc), and not using contour labels, but still I get the same reoccurring errors.
Another issue, seemingly unrelated to the problems I am currently experiencing that I have described above, is that using Site Designer tools creates warnings within the project, that grow exponentially with further use and development of the site. The warnings are identical instances of Toposurface Placement and Site Component Placement id’s. Even placing one single Site Designer element creates multiple warnings. After creating several Site Designer elements, the warnings number in the 10’s of thousands. Warnings equals impaired model performance, among other issues.
For past issues that Tech Support has assisted me on, they have reviewed my files and journals. The best that have offered is they have found errors within the toposurface, and suggest deleting it and starting the work from scratch. It’s unfathomable to me that this is offered as an acceptable solution to a problem.
This behavior and non-functionality is completely unacceptable. And at this point in time, with Autodesk having owned Site Designer for a number of years now, immediate actions need to be taken to correct these issues. I have spent countless days – yes, that correct DAYS, and not hours – trying to trouble shoot and recreate work that I have lost due to Site Designer not functioning. I am a single person office, and I am my own IT department. I don’t have resources and outside experts that I can turn to fix problems that I encounter. Autodesk can no longer ignore the deficit of site manipulation tools within Revit, and need to provide their customers with competent, reliable solutions.
For reference, this particular crashing issue with Site Designer has been logged with our developers. The following article has the current status of the issue (it will be updated as there are changes):
Revit Site Designer: Unrecoverable error placing Soft Terrain

Was there ever a solution for 2017? The knowledge article says to upgrade to 2018.1. That is not an option for us as we are mid-project. Autodesk? Dale
At some point in 2016, Revit 2017 was fixed and Site Designer has been working for me. I't still quirky, but for the most part it works, and I'm able to do some very nice grading with it.
The release notes in the link provided say that in R2018.1 the issues are fixed. However, when I open a copy of an existing project that I have been working on in R2017, using any SD tool causes the same crash as prior to the fix. Perhaps SD works in a brand new file, but for an existing files it does not. I'm not about to re-create all of the grading working that I already did once. When I start a new project I'll test SD in R2018.1 and see if it works.
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