Being Civil

AutoCAD Civil 3D Crashes When Rotating

Over the years on Being Civil we have written numerous articles about crashes and how and what caused them and how to avoid them, yet they still occur and we keep writing more and more. Just as a refresher I am throwing some links from this article: Troubleshooting 101

I am sure all of you out there have seen your fair share of crashes not only from AutoCAD but from other programs, too. Besides trials and errors it is really hard (and I think impossible) to come up with a silver bullet that resolves it once for all. It may happen one day, but most likely not in my professional lifetime. Until then we have to go back and investigate crash by crash, case by case. If you happen to get one, please don’t forget to send CER report and get familiar by it from this post: Reminder: The Importance of Customer Error Reports (CER)

So now, let’s see what’s “the crash of the day”.

One user reported that he was having some trouble with Civil 3D when trying to rotate views. Every time he attempted to rotate his view or change visual styles program would just collapse. Worth mentioning (and a good tip for us to narrow down the cause) is that this happened with some complex drawings and large files.

Why is this tip for us? Well, it seems that program was having hard time processing graphic changes caused by rotation since it involves regenerating everything. That gives us a clue that it may involve graphics hardware or driver especially given that simple drawings are performing OK.  

Generally, the issue of crashes when rotating large objects is due to the display issues, perhaps insufficient graphic card memory. Always a good place to start troubleshooting is by checking graphic card drivers and settings. Please see if you can go to the following link and see if your graphic card is listed there and if there is better driver for your machine. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/cert?siteID=123112&id=16391880. It is known that uncertified devices have stability and other issues such as missing cursors, View Cube, Smooth Display Issues, etc. 

 If your graphic card is supported and preferably certified and your driver up to date then see if you are using hardware acceleration. Also, see if you can contact graphic card manufacturer and see if they have better driver optimized for AutoCAD. 

1.     In command line type 3DCONFIG 
2.     Click on Manual Tune 
3.     On top of the next dialog check “Enable hardware acceleration” toggle
4.     Repeat step 1 and now go to “Check for Updates” and update driver if necessary 

This helped my customer, I hope it will help you too. If not, and you are Autodesk Subscription Customer you can always contact Autodesk Product Support. 

Why Can't I See My Custom Paper Sizes in Plot Dialog

Some of you that have dealt with our PSEB team know how good they are. Those are the same people helping you with various AutoCAD (and not only that), but other technical difficulties with a range from plotting to some other AutoCAD vertical programs. So they deserve a credit for this post, too.  So’ let’s get to the reason I wanted to share this finding.

One of our customers installed new Operating System Windows 7 64-bit, installed the latest plotter drivers he could find for his plotter, all Plotter paths in Options menu>Files tab were set to look for PC3, CTB, PMP files. But, he was unable to see custom plot sizes until the plot sizes were manually entered. Also other users pointing there could not see the sizes, as well. In short, that was the food-for-thought. 

Note: As a precaution, before you load the .reg file on the other machines, export their version of the registry key first, so that its settings can be restored if necessary. Off course read the red text below:

Warning! Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft provides a wealth of critical information that you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.

 Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined for your operating system in the Microsoft Knowledge Base and in the related solution, TS66513. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

This is what we did to resolve. As always:

• Ensure all machines have appropriate drivers for the type of OS they are using as well as have PC3 files set up and pointed to. Plotter manufacturer's web site is the best place for it.
• Go to Options menu>Files tab>Printer Support File Path and you will see 4 options. Make sure they are identical to all machines.

This is the area that in particular we needed to concentrate. It also validates the need for that disclaimer above. It appears that the paper seizes must also be written in a printer driver. There is a registry key which stores the information about pages. Verify that their registry keys on all the machines are the same.

1. To get into registry go Start and type REGEDIT
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Forms
3. If you notice a difference on the machines whose paper sizes don't match the model system, then right-click that registry key and export from the model machine
4. Copy the .reg file to the shared location on the network so others can access it
5. Go to each machine and double-click on teh .reg file to update that key for each machine.

You should be able to see your custom sizes.

 

 

Civil 3D Performance Part II–How Much RAM is Enough?

My second post in the series from my class at Autodesk University (CI3200-P Improving Performance with AutoCAD Civil 3D) is going to be dealing with memory and will put to bed a few myths and misconceptions.

As usual, follow the link for the full article!

Civil 3D Performance Part I - Memory Management and Your Operating System

In my Autodesk University class, I talked about operating systems and which one was best for AutoCAD Civil 3D. Of course we all know that the ultimate answer is “Windows 7 x64.” It just makes sense. But during a luncheon, I had a customer tell me “You know, common sense told me that Windows 7 x64 was the right operating system to use, but you really simplified it and told me why it was the right one.” I’d like to share with you why Windows 7 x64 is the best operating system to use for AutoCAD Civil 3D as well…find out the secret after the jump (teaser – I’ll be showing the infamous “school bus” graphic if you click the link to see the rest of the post!)

AutoCAD WS and the Civil 3D User

Most of us on the Being Civil team are gadget junkies and now that AutoCAD WS is now available for both iOS and Android mobile operating systems, I thought I would share my thoughts on both versions of this very useful mobile application. Although this application is not Civil-specific, nor can it edit or create Civil Objects, I still think this can find a welcome home with our Civil 3D users.

Having tested and used both the tablet version (for the iPad) and the smartphone version (Android HTC EVO), I can say that this is a pretty slick application that I could have seen myself putting to use back when I worked out in the industry.

First off, the tablet version for the iPad. You definitely get a lot more screen real estate to get a better “picture” of your project, and the same functionality found on the smartphone version. The potential downside I could see of the iPad or tablet for a civil engineer/surveyor/field crew would be that, at least in my experience, they generally go to “dirty” places when out in the field. Although it is not overly large hardware, it is still a 10” piece of glass that is not easily tucked away in a pocket. I would also be hard pressed to risk my shiny new $600+ gadget at a construction site or out in the middle of the woods with the potential for rain.

Next is the smartphone version available for both Android phones and the iPhone. Although you may be working with a much smaller screen, I definitely can see this being used out in the field more frequently. For the reason that many people (including myself), are not more than 2 feet away from their phone at all times. It is easily concealed from dirty, wet environments and can be carried around in your pocket. I can just picture myself entering in foundation dimensions in a freshly dug hole, or grabbing a quick survey monument description deep in the New Hampshire woods.

I would’ve saved a forest’s worth of trees if I had this when I would field check road jobs that I had previously surveyed. Back then I would have taken rolls of paper out just to ensure I had something like all the correct UP numbers entered during data collection. Then having the ability to save the edited .DWG and the drafting technician would have those edits almost immediately, could have potentially saved hours of time and gallons of gasoline considering I would not have had to drive back to the office to drop off the marked up plans.

These are just a few examples of uses I have thought about using this new technology for when I worked in the field. I encourage you to leave your thoughts or comments about how you could see this being used in our industry. I am interested to hear your thoughts!

NOTE: Don’t forget to set PROXYGRAPHICS to <1> in order to view your Civil Objects!

Update: Added this cool QR code to scan from any number of barcode scanner apps found on the Android Market:

 

Update 1, ViewCube, and other graphics issues

About a week ago I wrote a blog post about the ViewCube and the “white box” after installing Update 1. Many of you probably already know about this, and have already addressed the situation. For those of you who have not, I will recap and provided some additional information and issues.

You may or may not have noticed that after installing Civil 3D 2011 Update 1 that there is a “white box” around the ViewCube in the upper left corner of the application window. This is outlined in the Update README:

 

 

Known Issues in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Update 1

In some situations users may observe that the background area around the ViewCube has turned white. This issue is benign but can be resolved by turning video hardware acceleration on/off.

It has come to our attention, and I noticed on my machine as well, that you may also see some additional issues. The additional reported issues may include the following:

• Cursor flickering
• Poor display of Ribbon, or missing Panels
• General video degradation

All of these issues should be resolved by the above entry from the  Update’s README. Simply typing 3DCONFIG and selecting MANUAL TUNE will allow you to toggle the Hardware Acceleration. I would like to make it clear that this DOES NOT require you to turn off Hardware Acceleration, it just requires you to toggle on/off or off/on. Just ensure that when you toggle, you click OK to close the dialogs and retype 3DCONFIG to toggle it again.

Please note that if this is left unaddressed we have had users report that they will experience crashing of the application. We would recommend toggling the Hardware Acceleration to avoid this situation.

Also in certain instances if you find that the check box for Hardware Acceleration has become “grayed-out”. If you find this is the case on your machine, please check to ensure you are running the latest drivers available for your graphics card per our Update Graphics Card Driver instructions. This should allow the toggle to be made.

New Video: Understanding Performance using Civil 3D

Time for the monthly Product Support video over on the Autodesk YouTube channel.  This review of Performance covers a collection of topics including:

• RAM and Virtual Memory
• 32 bit and 64 bit Applications and Operating Systems
• Recommended Operating Systems
• Performance Tweaks

Then it ends with a few FAQs:

• When will we have a 64 bit version of Civil 3D?
• Is Windows 7 supported?
• I am upgrading my hardware, what should I buy?
• Task Manager never shows Civil 3D using all the available virtual memory, why not?

Please do have a look, comment and rate it - this is useful feedback for us, thanks.  And thanks to those who responded to the poll on video content - we are reviewing the results and seeing where we can make improvements!  I understand from the poll some of you are blocked from YouTube; I will create some posts to cover the major topics presented in the video wihin the next couple of weeks.

To see the collection of monthly videos, go to the general playlist here.

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.