Incompatibility Issues

[Alcapone001]

Hello

We are a team of 10 guys working on Civil 3D surfaces and alignments

So we recently sent our work to another guy for comments.

Now the problem is this guy did all his comments but apparently he was using Civil 3D 2017 while we have 2015.

Now we can no longer access the surface.

Our work generally revolves around surfaces

I have checked online but the solutions i have seen dont work and those which do( use of land xml) lead to loss of lots of man hours (5 months to be exact), since all the work has to be redone

So is it possible to unlock the proxy entities locked by Civil 3D 2017 so that we can use it on Civil 3D 2015

[SLW210]

This question seems specific to Civil3D so I have moved your thread to the Civil 3D & LDD Forum.

[CyberAngel]

Apparently you can't restore the original drawing, so we'll proceed on that basis. The next option is to have Comment Guy save his copy down to 2015. From what I understand, though, the file format didn't change until 2018, so you should be able to open the drawing properly. Of course, "should" and "can" don't always intersect in AutoCAD.

 

Another option is for Comment Guy to export the surface in LandXML format. You can then import the LandXML. Edit: sorry, didn't pick up on your remark about XML.

 

Have you tried the Proxy Object Enablers? TrueView conversion? They never worked for me, but who knows.

Edited June 28, 2017 by CyberAngel

[Aftertouch]

Upgrade to 2017?

[rkmcswain]

Yeah, there is no going backwards in C3D, except for the 2016-2013 versions. We got spoiled when that was possible.

 

You can LandXML out the surface, but of course that is the raw surface data, and you will lose any annotations, etc.

 

There is a very clear warning when opening a pre-2017 drawing in 2017. Unfortunately, most users do not read warning dialogs these days.

[BIGAL]

Following on from exporting to xml the surface, have had an instance where this method leaves a snail trail and in one case started to get lots of errors beacause the xml was saved on a local c: drive and not with the actual project on a server. Me personally I just display the surface mesh and export it, it makes 3dfaces then just read those into the surface. We read 3dfaces every day as its how we get supplied from one source our field data, this method has one advantage you can not screw up the surface by accidently modifying a point or breakline.

 

We are about to go to 2018 and this is the sort of headache we dont need when providing to extrnal contractors and we are now going to full 3d machine control and a lot of these guys want say 2004 version of surfaces hence 3dfaces.

[Alcapone001]

Hey

I have tried exporting to land Xml

The Problem is the drawing that gets exported still is locked and hence cant edit and save using a lower version

From Civil 3D 2017- Export Civil 3D Drawing

Drawing gets exported

From Civil 3D 2015- Open the exported drawing and try to save. Drawing still cannot be saved and is locked...

[Alcapone001]

Yeah I upgraded to 2017

But I realised too late the backwards incompatibility

All our clients and contractors use 2015 and below

So now we are working on drawings which other parties cant edit, let alone save.......!

So unfortunate

[Alcapone001]

Yeah

Unfortunately

[rkmcswain]

Hey

I have tried exporting to land Xml

The Problem is the drawing that gets exported still is locked and hence cant edit and save using a lower version

From Civil 3D 2017- Export Civil 3D Drawing

Drawing gets exported

From Civil 3D 2015- Open the exported drawing and try to save. Drawing still cannot be saved and is locked...

 

The DWG file will be fine, once you get rid of the 2017 AEC objects. You can't just export them out and then open the drawing in pre-2017. The 2017 AEC objects will still be there.

 

But it's a lot easier to just have all parties do the work in the same version.

[rkmcswain]

Yeah I upgraded to 2017

But I realised too late the backwards incompatibility

All our clients and contractors use 2015 and below

So now we are working on drawings which other parties cant edit, let alone save.......!

So unfortunate

 

You should always negotiate this up front before opening a single session of CAD.

Get all parties to agree on a version of CAD/C3D/whatever.

 

You can still use your latest current version + 3 versions back.

[Alcapone001]

Yes

We have downgraded to 2016

I had to manually downgrade all the 2017 Drawings though

Was the easier option...

Now everyone is happy