Being Civil

FDO Provider OSGeo.SHP.3.7 Not Registered

No need to panic here...

AutoCAD Map/Civil 3D 2014 shipped with some updates to the FDO Providers. Some of those updates were not reflected in the providers.xml file that comes with the program, so when some users run MAPIMPORT or MAPEXPORT, they get a FDO Provider ### Not Registered error message.

The current solution (and it seems to only affect users that have a previous release of Map/Civil 3D installed) is to replace your providers.xml file with the one attached here. Download providers.xml

File is generally located in:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D 2014\bin\FDO or
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014\bin\FDO

A Hotfix should be posted soon to autodesk.com.

Geotechnical Module Error Message

After reading Jack's blog post regarding the free training for this new tool, you might be inclined to go download it from Subscription Center and give it a try. After installing you may get this error message or something similar:

"Could not load file or assembly System.Data.SqlServerCE version 4.0.0.0"

This is typically due to the fact that the prerequisite Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 was not installed. This is listed right below the actual download of the module on Subscription Center under Civil 3D 2013 Productivity Tools. Please be sure you have this downloaded and installed prior to running the Module and everything should perform as expected.

Check Out features BEFORE you attempt to edit in bulk!

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally." Remember that from algebra class? This memory aid is helpful to understand the order of operations required to get the correct answer when solving algebraic equations.

Similarly, when it comes to working with FDO, sometimes, it's all about order of operations.

The following workflow, innocent as it is, will result in a freeze/indefinite hang:
1. Connect to an FDO data source in AutoCAD Map 3D.
2. Select many features (I selected 809 points)
3. In the AutoCAD Properties Pane, try to "globally" edit the value of one attribute for all of your selected features.

Sadly, even if Auto Checkout is enabled, you're just not gonna get anywhere. You'll likely have to End Process for acad.exe in Task Manager.

Now, augment your workflow by adding a step:

Photo © Eric Gevaert

1. Connect to an FDO data source in AutoCAD Map 3D.
2. Select many features (I selected 809 points).
3. Hit Check Out (same as running MAPCHECKOUT).
4. In the AutoCAD Properties Pane, try to "globally" edit the value of one attribute for all of your selected features.
Result: almost an immediate change!
Finally, be sure to Check In your features by clicking the button or by running MAPCHECKINALL.

Lesson: if you follow order of operations, you're almost guaranteed smooth sailing!

Computer Freezes After Open, Save As,...

Sometimes some issues should be classified in rather “bizarre” category if there is a tag for it. Many times hangs and lock-ups are bad signals that may be related to bad installation, application conflicts, graphic related issues or just bad files…but not always. A few days ago we have received one report from a customer who was experiencing lockups any time he tried to run OPEN or SAVE command. This customer did some homework and made sure the system is up-to-date, graphic drivers are also updated. CMDDIA and FILEDIA were set to 1 (you would be surprised how many of these we see).

So, what is bizarre about this one is that the issue is not with program, installation, bad driver or whatever,... but the fact that user was running multiple screens (very common these days) gave us this wild idea. One of the common reasons for dialogs not to show up, acting as there is a lock-up while in fact program is waiting for user response, is because the dialogs are displayed off screen. Put it this way, if you have multiple screens and you have different resolution settings, you may have your screens mapped differently causing some dialogs to show off screen.

So let’s see how we can check if this is the case.

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. 

Product Support: Help Us Help You!

When submitting a Support Request with us it is important to provide as much information up front as possible. We are going to ask most of these questions anyways so it will only benefit you when hoping for a swift resolution. When creating a case with us, if you could include the following:

• Detailed steps to reproduce
• What Product and Version you are using
• Specify if all Updates/Hotfixes have been applied
• Any data that is in question (if reproducible in a tutorial, please specify which one)
• Any visual aids (screen shots, videos, etc.) that may help us diagnose the issue.
• Submit any CERs that you may have received.
• Inform us if the issue is limited to a certain machine/profile.
• Any customizations to the installation or 3rd party applications installed.

Our goal is to assist you as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you provide these details up front we can expedite the process and in the end save your valuable time!

Workaround to clean and recreate corrupted drawing…

Hi everybody… Corrupted drawings…. This is an unfortunate situation that all of us have to deal with at some point.

Sometimes, we have a drawing that can give us a little headache, so here is a workaround that I use to recreate a drawing and keep all the information on it including your layout tabs. We are all familiar with the usual procedures when a drawing get corrupted - the RECOVER command, WBLOCK, INSERT to name some of them.  But what about all my layout tabs and regular ACAD stuffs (dimension styles, text styles, linetypes and others)?

Here is what you can do:

1. You will need to create a clean drawing (do not use your template if you have one) using the acad.dwt template for Imperial units or the acaiso.dwt for Metric.
2. Reset the Drawing Scales (SCALELISTEDIT) for Metric and Imperial.
3. Please make sure that if your original drawing has coordinate system assigned, you will assign the same coordinates to the new drawing as well.
4. Use the INSERT command and browse for the drawing with the problem.
If your drawing has CS assigned use the option “Locate Using Geographic Data”, if not use “0, 0, 0” and check Explode.
5. Now use AUDIT command, -PURGE (R) for Regapps and SAVE the new drawing to overwrite the old one, of course at this point this is entirely up to you.

At this point, we can do two different things:

5.1. You could use DesignCenter (ADCENTER), browse to your drawing location and drag and drop all your ACAD content... Or

5.2. Right-click on top of one of the Layout tabs and select the option From Template…; change the Files of Type to *.dwg and browse to the location of your original drawing.

5.3 Choose which tabs you would liek to insert and click OK

6. Do another AUDIT, -PURGE R and SAVE the drawing.

This seems like a long procedure, but it is really efficient and it will help you to recreate a drawing without losing all your data.

Quick Tip: FDO Transformation Issues in Civil 3D?

Have you noticed that your FDO connections are not transforming correctly? If so have a look at this post originally written by Almas, as the solution noted in this post about Missing Coordinate Systems seems to address a FDO transformation issue. Follow the above link and read about the possible corrupted file and how to resolve it.