Being Civil

Sharing Pipe Network Parts: 101

As is the case with other objects or files that are shared between users, (Hint: Xrefs, Data Shortcuts, Images, etc.) the drawing does not store these files/objects inside but rather remembers where are they coming from by using paths. It is important to know that Parts Catalogs are external to the drawing, too. By default all pipes are stored in this location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\C3D 2010\enu\Pipes Catalog.

This Catalog Manager (a person assigned to manage parts) can use different location and you, as user, can manually point to that location. That way you will always have updated version of catalog files. This task is easy to do. All you need to do is to select Set Pipe Network Catalog from Home ribbon.

 

This drawing was saved with an earlier version...

You most likely have seen this message before. It happens if you are opening a drawing that is created by the older version of Civil 3D. For instance if Civil 3D 2010 opens Civil 3D 2009 drawing. This message is called a “courtesy message” informing a user that drawing is created by the older version and that saving it will upgrade it. As you can see this message can be suppressed by checking the toggle.

 

If you accidentally or purposely suppressed it and then want to be able enable it again…That is where the problem starts. In the pretty impressive list of system variables in AutoCAD is is hard to find correct one that will do the job. So it took some teamwork from our team to come up with resolution. Knowing that most of you do not have a privilege to be surrounded with a large support team I will share a secret with you.

If you type AECFILEOPENMESSAGE in command line you will get a Yes/No option to display this message.

For more detail on drawing migration, have a look at our migration video on YouTube.

Video: Troubleshooting Tips for Civil 3D

It's that time again, for the monthly video over on the Autodesk YouTube channel.  As usual we create a Technical Solution in our knowledgebase that points to it, you can find it here.

This month features a review of Troubleshooting methods, helping you to pin down issues to one of the three main branches: computer, software or file.  While it is not offering some mind-blowing secret on any particular features in the product, what I think is more important is to review your general skills in troubleshooting - if you know how to do it and what to look for, then you are better at it every time.  If I just give you specific things (of course we already do this in the blog!!), then you aren't sharpening your skills, right?  So check it out and give us a review and some comments, thanks!

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.

Extracting Contour from Surface (Feature Line from Contour)

I was minding my own business today trying to troubleshoot this issue with a break in a contour line…but that is the issue for some future post if I ever figure it out (tips from you guys are very welcome). Then in the middle of my desperation IM from my colleague Seth came asking if we know how to turn contour into Feature Line. Off course, we immediately thought “Explode”. But there is more elegant way to do it which briefly crossed my mind (backflash from playing with with exporting points from surface). How about if we use Extract Objects command? To illustrate I selected my surface and from Contextual tab that appeared on top my Extract Objects command appeared.

 

"Don't forget your AutoCAD roots" - thanks Jack!

Hey all, today I wanted to highlight a simple tip provided by none other than "Junction Jack" our Autodesk Technical Consultant based in the United Kingdom.  His blog, co-authored with Ove Cervin, another Technical Consultant based in Sweden, is also great Civil 3D reference for you to keep track of (and is on our sidebar on the right).  

In general he is mentioning a simple but powerful tool on the snap menu that you may have overlooked (I know I didn't pay attention to this one!):

Check out his post for the full description, including a YouTube video.  Jack - the only problem I have with the included YouTube video, is that we don't get to hear you speaking the "other" English!

Check out his post for the full description, including a YouTube video.  Jack - the only problem I have with the included YouTube video, is that we don't get to hear you speaking the "other" English!