SQOTD: "My view is whacked"

This SQOTD is inspired by my buddy Rob C. who is a former co-worker and perpetual punk.

Q: All my layers are on, but I can't see all the objects I'm expecting to see in the drawing. It looks like I can only see zero-elevation stuff. What's up?

A: The fix - type PLAN at the command line. Then W for world. (If you are not a key-in person, go to View > 3D views > Plan > World). This will turn your UCS and your view to Top in relation to the world coordinate system.

When you are working in Civil 3D there are quite a few ways a person can accidentally whack out their view. In Civil 3D the most common culprit is jumping into View/Edit Corridor section view and for whatever reason C3D gets stuck in the temporary, unnamed UCS.

Another common culprit is accidentally using Shift-middle mouse wheel. Shift + select adds items to the selection set. Shift+middle mouse wheel gets you into 3D orbit mode. Your view is whacked, even if your coordinate system is still world.

So there you go: PLAN W
Memorize it.

Support Question of the Day: Proposed Profile After The Fact

Oh to be a full-time blogger. But then again, I wouldn't have the client interactions which keep me on my toes and inspire me to blog.



I've got a bunch of posts in progress but the following is a quickie that had me slack jaw for a few minutes.



Q: What happens if you create P&P sheets based off of an existing ground profile and want to add the proposed profile after the fact?



A: If you are creating P&P sheets in a separate drawing (which you ARE, AREN'T you???) and relying on the automatically created data references to pull data to your new drawing, any new profiles created will not automatically get added to the new drawing.



You have two options:

1) Recreate the sheets. (Which is a sucky option if you've gone and annotated and/or tweaked the P&P sheets.)

2) Manually create a data shortcut to the proposed profile.

1. In your main drawing, change your Prospector to Master View.


2. Find the Data Shortcuts area and right-click.


3. Select New Data Shortcuts Folder.


4. Create a folder for the data shortcut.


5. Right-click again and pick Create Data Shortcuts.


6. Put a check mark in the box for your proposed profile. Civil 3D will automatically grab the alignment too. That's normal.


7. Jump to your P&P sheet drawing.


8. In Prospector, browse to your data shortcuts.


9. Locate the design profile, right-click and select Create Reference


10. Repeat steps 7-9 for any additional P&P sheet drawing files.

Once the data shortcut has been made, updates will show up in the P&P sheet files as normal.

SQOTD: That Wagon Wheel Looking Thing in My Drawing

If you have a coordinate system turned on in Civil 3D 2009 or Map 2009 you will see this goofy-looking symbol in your drawing. It can't be selected and can't be deleted but you can just turn it off.

At the cad command line, type GEOMARKERVISIBILITY hit enter, then set the value to 0.

Goodbye wagon-wheel thingy.

SQOTD: Layer Toolbar Empty and Other Weirdness

Q: Hello,
I am having a few problems with my CAD right now.
1. When I click on any item in my drawings the layer manager does not tell
me what layer that item is on.
2. I can not edit the text in a Civil 3D general note that was just added to a
drawing.

A:
There are a few things to check:

1. Type PICKADD at the command line. The default value for Civil 3D should be 1. Generally people like this on, but if you are used to working with it off it would throw you off. If more than one object is selected, your layer toolbar will not show the object's layer (it will just be blank). It also would prevent you from editing a Civil 3D general note. If it is set to 1, hit ESC a few times and try again.
2. If that doesn't do it, check the PICKFIRST setting. The value for this should be 1.
3. If that isn't it, go into the full Layer manager and click Settings. Turn off the toggle for "Apply Layer Filter to Layer Toolbar". What this means is if you have a layer filter active and you click on something that is not part of the filter, your toolbar will be blank.
4. Next, check the Noun/Verb selection setting. In Options > Selection Tab make sure there is a check mark next to Noun/Verb Selection.
5. Lastly, if none of the above is the answer, run a repair install.

Note: In this situation the PICKFIRST variable was the answer.

SQOTD: Map and 64 Bit Machines

Today's support question of the day comes from....ME.

I am using a 64bit version of Windows Vista Business. So far the only thing I have not been able to do is insert a raster image. I do not have full Raster Design installed (yet) but I do have the object enabler. Sadly, when I attempt to insert a raster image (any png, jpg, SID, tif, you name it) I can't.

When in Civil 3D going to Map > Image > Insert and choose any image file. I got the following error:
Cannot open Frame
File.\acMapCoordinateTransform.cpp
Date: Mar 13 2008
Line: 221
Abort,Retry,Ignore

The answer from the folks at AutoDesk support:

Hi Louisa,

The issue that you are having is a known issue with the Map functionality on a 64-bit operating system. You can find this documented in the Readme file.

Unfortunately, if you do not have Raster Design installed (not just the Raster OE) your only other option is to insert an image into your drawing is to use the Add Raster Image or Surface Connection from the Map Task Pane:

• At the command line type MAPWSPACE
• Select the Data icon on the Task Pane
• Select the Connect to Data... option
• Select the Add Raster Image or Surface Connection option and the connection a name
• From the Source file or folder, browse to the directory that contains the imagery and connect
• Select the image(s) that you want to add from the list and select the Add to Map button
  

This should allow you to at least get the imagery into your drawing. I hope this helps.

---

Read the readme? Josh, you are too funny.
I guess I'll bite the bullet and install Raster Design 2009 now.

SQOTD: Two Common Questions

Q1: Why Can't I Find all My Style Settings?

A1: In the settings tab there are now multiple ways to "sort" the list of items.

If you want to see it all, change the settings drop down to Active Drawing Settings View.

Master View Shows you everything from all open drawings. You'd need this set to Master View to check things in and out of Vault. For people who don't use Vault - Master View is a tad confusing.
Active Drawing Labels Only is a subset of Active Drawing Settings View, minus things like Code and Marker Styles and Corridor Styles. Basically, this view omits all object styles.

Labels Only View will show omit object styles, and it will show you label styles for all open drawings. Kinda weird.

Long story short: You probably want to be in Active Drawing Settings View.

Q2: How can I turn off frequency lines without turning off the rest of the corridor lines?


A2: First, jump into your corridor properties and figure out what Code Set Style you are currently using. In this case, All Codes. Make a copy of All Codes and call it NO SHOW or something like that.



We will also need a _No Marker style and a _NO SHOW LINK Style.




In the Code Set Style dialog box, set all the link styles to the _No Show Link. Set all the Point styles to _No Markers.

Click OK a couple of times and your frequency lines should be hidden.

To get them back, just change the code set style.

Not bad.