I just had to remember how to convert contours from a SHP file to Microstation.  Fortunately I was able to find this post to help me along the way...

http://www.thecadmasters.com/wordpress/index.php/2011/03/16/assign-elevations-to-contours-from-an-esri-shape-file/

Speeding Up Civil 3D 2009

I have found a few things that can help the performance of Civil 3D 2009. Please consider these options:

1.) Upgrade to Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 – I found this one most beneficial. I immediately saw my system performance improve after installing it. Download it from here.

For those interested, here is the technical scoop for item #1:
It improves memory usage and WPF graphic speed. WPF is what Autodesk uses for their toolbar/menu's in 2009 products

Excerpt from Microsoft's .NET website:

>>> [i]"The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 delivers:[/i]

>>> [i]Performance increases between 20-45% for WPF-based applications – without having to change any code "[/i]

Autodesk built the 2009 products using WPF for the interface. So if you have .NET 3.0 installed on your computer from 2009, then installing .NET 3.5 SP1 should make things a little smoother.

2.) Update your video driver
Use Windows Update. Use the “Custom” option, then select from hardware update. Windows Update can be found in Internet Explorer. You can also go to the manufacturer's web site to see about updates as well. We run nVidia cards at my office (nVidia Quadro FX 570).

3.) Set LAYERDLGMODE =0. This will set the Layer Dialog back to “classic” mode. The new Layer Manager can be a drain on system resources if you have a lot of layers (+1000).

4.) Turn off “Show Rollover Tooltips” if you don’t use them. This can be turned off in “Options” (see image below)



5.) Make sure you have Civil 3D 2009 “Version 2” installed. To check, open Civil 3D, go to the ‘Help’ menu, select the last item “About AutoCAD Civil 3D”, select “Product Information…” on the splash screen. You should see that the Product Service Pack is listed as “Version 2".
To be quite honest, I’m not sure how I got Version 2. I was expecting to see “Update 1” instead. If you have “Update 1”, you should be fine as well. In any case, the item should not be “blank” or read “0”.

Grading and FATAL ERRORS - C3D 2009

I've had a lot of problems with FATAL ERRORS lately within my grading projects. It seems like after a few days of editing and re-editing the grading file, the drawing comes to a point of critical mass where the internal errors start stacking up. If you run the "AUDIT" command, you'll see. But it doesn't seem like AUDIT ever repairs the errors it finds as it reports. And sometimes there comes a point where you can't even run AUDIT or even save the drawing, which renders the drawing session useless. I can't remember right now the exact error message in the dialog. I'll make sure I post a screen cap next time it happens. But I do know that when that dialog appears, you can do nothing except CTRL-ALT-DEL out and end the AutoCAD session with no save. Then restore your last previously saved file. Not fun.

I don't have any magic remedy for this here. The advice I received from Autodesk was to take the previously saved drawing, run "-PURGE", then run "AUDIT". Works for a little while until I get the previously mentioned dialog box again. It usually happens within a few minutes of editing the drawing, usually when editing a feature line or grading.

So what I've done is to redefine the "QSAVE" command to run "AUDIT" before the save. This seems to help cut down on errors created by editing feature lines, gradings, etc. I use this QSAVE often when editing grading files, especially before a "major" edit.

Here is the simple AutoLISP code that you may copy to a .lsp file, then load into your startup application suite "APPLOAD".

(command "_undefine" "_QSAVE")
(defun C:QSAVE()
(command "audit" "Y")
(command "_.QSAVE")
(princ))

Civil 3D 2009 - Missing Arrowheads

Are you missing arrowheads on dimensions, as in can't see them on-screen or can't plot them? Then more than likely you're also using Raster Design with Civil 3D 2009, right? Autodesk has issued a HotFix for this bug. It can be found at Solid Filled Filled Hotfix.

Civil 3D 2009 Network Deployment Install Issue

I ran across this yesterday while helping out one of my co-workers. Civil 3D 2009 will not install from a network deployment if Autodesk DWF Viewer 6.5 or prior is installed. The Hydroflow products and the Survey Link install, but then the setup ends suddenly and without warning. We didn't know what the issue was until we tried installing C3D directly from the DVD. The DVD setup showed that the install could not continue without uninstalling DWF Viewer 6.5. It worked fine after that.

Sick all week at AU

Well my AU this year was a wasted week. Tuesday night I acquired what can be called "Montezuma's Revenge - Las Vegas style". I was laid up in my hotel room from Wednesday morning for the remainder of my stay until Sunday night when I left. The stomach bacterial battle of my life. And my poor wife flew in Friday to have a fun weekend but I was in no mood. Furthermore, she got what I had when we got back home on Monday and has been fighting the beast virus all week with me.

So needless to say my week in Vegas was a complete waste besides giving the lame healthcare providers in the city my $50 co-pays for 2 emergency urgent care visits and helping to keep Walgreens pharmacy on the south strip in business.

So for those of you who I meant to meet during the week, sorry, maybe next time when AU is NOT in Vegas. Maybe one year it can be held on the east coast again.

At least I got a wizard's hat at the subscription booth Tuesday night. That was my highlight.

Single Drawing Compatibility Mode in 2008

Earlier this week one of my co-workers had a problem after they had crashed out of Civil 3D. When he reopened AutoCAD, he could only open one drawing at a time. Well this was familar, but where to go change the setting back was not. In older AutoCAD versions prior to 2007, there was an area in OPTIONS to toggle Single Drawing Compatibilty Mode off and on. Well, in 2008 this does not exist in OPTIONS. You can toggle this mode by typing SDI at the Command line and change it to either 0 or 1. Setting to 0 enables you to have multiple drawings open (default).

So if for some reason if you have a fatal error in C3D (which BTW is becoming less frequent of an occurance with SP2 applied) and you find that you can only open 1 drawing at a time, then check the SDI setting.

Annotative Scales - "XREF XREF XREF etc..."

Have you seen this problem in 2008 with the annotative scales list?
Click pic to see a larger view...





Good grief... As we bring our 2007 AutoCAD drawings into the 2008 world and xref them into new drawings, the annotative scales list becomes outrageously HUGE! The list becomes so large over time that the dialog box for the "SCALELISTEDIT" command will not even open.

But there is a solution. You can use the command "-SCALELISTEDIT" to (R)eset the list to the original preset list. Don't forget the "-" dash before the command; this will temporarily disable the dialog box and forces command line prompting. Doing this removes the unwanted "Xref" scales and restores the original scales list. Thanks to Almas at Autodesk for the support tip.

I've actually added a line to the S::STARTUP section of my ACAD.lsp file to automatically delete (reset) the scales for me. Here's the LISP string



(command "-scalelistedit" "r" "y" "e")



Happy annotating!