Being Civil

An “assortment” of errors when installing Update 2

We have gotten a handful of user who have reported getting error messages when trying to install Update 2 for Civil 3D 2010.  These Windows Errors include 1321, 2318, and the ever-popular 1603.  The first one is even scarier because it uses the phrase “Geospatial Coordinate Systems.”  Eeek! That is not an error message you want to see during an update!

So what is going on?  Not to worry, it’s quite simple.  During the install, you may be asked for Disk 2.  If you mistakenly put in Disk 1, you will be prompted with the above errors, and then backed out of the install.  Once it finishes, you can go back and install Update 2 again – this time remembering to put in the correct disk. :)

Installation Error: Invalid Installation. Program Ending.

When trying to launch any of the Hydraflow applications from within Civil 3D 2010 program showed splash screen followed by "Invalid installation. Program ending" message.

 

This is caused by missing HHApps directory within user profile most likely caused by installer not creating thes files or by some unwanted work of some clean-up tool. In some cases resetting user profile was still unable to pupulate missing entries. To confirm if this is the case first go to following locations and check if Express, Hydrographs, StormSewer directories exist in the HHApps directory.

For XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\C3D 2010\enu\HHApps

For Vista:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\C3D 2010\enu\HHApps

In some cases it is enough to reinitiate secondary installer to restore these missing files while in some other cases repair installation helped resolve this issue.

If none of that worked you may also try manually copying missing directories and files. To resolve this issue copy HHApps directory from any working machine and paste it in the location mentioned above and then restart Civil 3D 2010.

Error importing TIN from Land Desktop

Creating surface from TIN is very easy process unless there is a problem with .tin file or when .pnt file is missing. I’m sure some of you out there have seen this message when trying to create new surface by importing TIN file.

This is typically the case when a surface is created in Land Desktop and the same data is used in Civil 3D. In order to import TIN file and create surface from it, this file must be accompanied by .pnt file and exist in the same directory. So, try to locate the .pnt file with the same name as .tin file and place it in the same directory as .tin file or ask your contractor to provide you one.

As an alternative, the entire project can be imported from Land Desktop via Insert tab > Land Desktop or (IMPORTLDTDATA).

Tips: Section View label display and Plot to PDF missing symbols

I got few minutes and just wanted to share a couple of useful tips with you. The tip number 1 is showing why centerline band labels shows wrong data that looks like it’s using metric units while the rest of the drawing is in feet. Situation looks like in the figure. Grid shows range between 90–110 feet while band label shows 33.15:

 

Sometimes The Answer Is Not Staring Us In The Face

Sometimes cases come in that are pretty easy to resolve – I can’t count the number of times that I’ve run around my office giddy with excitement when a FILEDIA=1 question comes through the pipes. But occasionally, answers tend to hide out a little more and it takes time to find them. In this post, I am going to walk you through the steps that I took during a particularly difficult case that finally reached a resolution. The answer was so simple, but of course it was the last thing we checked. Follow the link to find out some of the thought processes that we go through during some cases.

Vault Error: The request failed with HTTP status 417: Expectation Failed

You were all excited to continue working on the Vault project and came energized to fix those intersections and once and for all to solve that QTO puzzle. But... before you even accessed your drawing you were greeted by Error: “The request failed with HTTP status 417: Expectation Failed" on login. Last thing you remember is that it was some windows update your IT guy installed. To translate it into plain English your Vault is saying:” I don’t know what you did but something prevented me from connecting to the page you asked for”. That something is in many cases Proxy Settings in Internet Explorer or Firewall blocking famous port number 80. In the case I handled recently this is what helped my customer move on with his project:

1. On the client machine, In Internet Explorer go to Tools>Internet Options
2. Under Connections tab click on LAN Settings
3. There uncheck “Automatically detect settings”
4. Uncheck Proxy Server’s “Use a proxy server for your LAN” 
   Note: If you have Proxy server enabled you may choose to set exception for your Vault (ADMS) Server.
5. When you try to login next time this message should be gone.

Now you are on your own to finish designing that intersection!

Performance issues due to Annotation Scales

This one is the one that could easily be in the category of “back by popular demand”. Recently I had number of new reports of performance issues with Civil 3D drawings. They go as far as user not being able to copy simple polyline to not being able to add new objects such as feature lines or issues that cause software to not respond quickly. The issue is often caused by the “annotation scales,” a list of predefined scales). This list can also be seen if you type AECDWGSETUP in command line and check Scale tab. In many cases these annotation scales are coming from XREFs and they multiply inside of your drawing causing it to behave as described before.

So as a good practice for any drawing suspicions to me I check for presence of extensive annotation scales. Often I am surprised to see them and often they are the cause of the issues. So to resolve this all we need to do is to type SCALELISTEDIT or –SCALELISTEDIT and choose Reset option and save the drawing. Try these any time you notice slow responses from commands, disappearing objects or slow opening or saving of the drawing and see if resetting annotation scales helps.

Unknown command when Importing Google Earth Mesh

In 2010, if you tried to import a Google Earth Mesh from the Ribbon, you may have been greeted with this:

Not to worry, it’s an easy fix.

1. Open your CUI
2. Expand Ribbon > Tabs > Civil 3D Insert
3. Click on “Civil 3D Insert Import & notice the Preview appear on the right side
4. Click on Google Earth on the right side
5. Back on the left, click on Google Earth Mesh
6. Now back to the bottom right, you can see the Command name and Macro
7. Change the macro and remove the AECC so that it just reads:
   • ^C^C_ImportGEMesh
8. Hit Apply and then OK.

That should do it!