Converting Eagle Point Drawings to C3D

[Iceberg]

Does anyone have any experience converting old Eagle Point projects into Civil3D? I have a couple of old projects that I need to generate a new job from however they were created using Eagle Point software. Since Eagle Point is no longer supported in CAD, the drawings will not open up. I have tried to insert the drawings into a new project. I have tried to open the drawings in the TrueViewer program. Nothing seems to work.

I am trying to salvage what I can from the drawings to limit what I need to recreate.

Any thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Opie]

Typically, all drawings that were associated with Eagle Point were just drawings with xdata attached to the many objects it placed in the drawing.

Have you tried recover?

[Iceberg]

Yeah.... I tried that after I posted and it wouldn't let me do that either.

When I try to open the drawing it loads up to like 90% and then just hangs there, then I have to do a hard reboot on my PC because it locks the whole computer up.

[Iceberg]

This is one of the drawings that I am working with.

Xrefing the drawings does not work either. The survey department still uses Eagle Point so they were able to get me the linework for the project so that I could start setting up the drawings that I need.

[Opie]

Remind me to read the entire thread before opening anymore of your attachments. That's two reboots.

Have you asked Autodesk to check it out?

[Iceberg]

Yeah, I will let the IT guy take a look and send it over. Thanks Opie for looking at this.:beer:

[Opie]

I tried to look at it. It didn't like my setup either. ;)

Please keep us updated on what you find out. It may help others in the future.

[cadtag]

Interesting, and potentially highly problematic. Engineering/survey jobs never really get finished; there's always the potential for a next phase, modifications, or even worse, litigation. If your organization is unable to access the original drawings, that could become a huge problem.

My suggestion is to take the fact that the drawings cannot be opened in current versions of CAD to management. It may be a sound business decision to simply ignore the issue. conversely, depending on the potential for future work/liability exposure, the smart move may be to bite the bullet and convert the existing stack of archives to a current version of vanilla dwg.

(other semi-random thought..... IIRC EaqlePoint had issues with arx and regapps not behaving nicely - maybe try opening in Draftsight or some other simple dwg editor vs using an Adesk product? )

[Iceberg]

Still am working on this but this is the initial feedback received from the claim that I have in. Didn't really answer the concerns that I have that cadtag stated above but it was still something worth passing along.

I think you should look at exporting the dwg from Carlson into a more widely used format.

Carlson has LandXML import and export functionality, can directly convert Land Desktop points and contours into Carlson points and contours and also imports a Civil 3D surface as elevated contours.

Regardless of the civil/survey software being used, LandXML is the best mechanism to import/export a surface model because it maintains the TIN lines of the surface.

[Iceberg]

I just got back this lovely email. Does anyone else see what is wrong with the statement. I think its hilarious.

If it is not associated to a database you should be able to explode all the data and bring it into a dwg. Any CAD program should open that. Did Eagle Point give you any direction? You may need to call them directly, because I don’t think this is an Autodesk issue.

[Opie]

Still am working on this but this is the initial feedback received from the claim that I have in. Didn't really answer the concerns that I have that cadtag stated above but it was still something worth passing along.

I think you should look at exporting the dwg from Carlson into a more widely used format.

Carlson has LandXML import and export functionality, can directly convert Land Desktop points and contours into Carlson points and contours and also imports a Civil 3D surface as elevated contours.

Regardless of the civil/survey software being used, LandXML is the best mechanism to import/export a surface model because it maintains the TIN lines of the surface.

How did Carlson get into this discussion? Do you even have the LandXML file? I know I do not have that file for all of the Eagle Point projects we worked on in the past.

[Opie]

I just got back this lovely email. Does anyone else see what is wrong with the statement. I think its hilarious.

If it is not associated to a database you should be able to explode all the data and bring it into a dwg. Any CAD program should open that. Did Eagle Point give you any direction? You may need to call them directly, because I don’t think this is an Autodesk issue.

Any CAD program should open it, but it doesn't. Were they not willing to even look at the file to suggest options?

[Iceberg]

How did Carlson get into this discussion? Do you even have the LandXML file? I know I do not have that file for all of the Eagle Point projects we worked on in the past.

My IT guy got me on the phone with tech support at Microdesk which is our CAD provider and main tech support for everything CAD. They said that they would search there database to find a solution to the problem. Some where between that comment and hanging up the phone is when they replied back with there solution. Your guess is as good as mine about Carlson.

[Iceberg]

I just got back this lovely email. Does anyone else see what is wrong with the statement. I think its hilarious.

If it is not associated to a database you should be able to explode all the data and bring it into a dwg. Any CAD program should open that. Did Eagle Point give you any direction? You may need to call them directly, because I don’t think this is an Autodesk issue.


Any CAD program should open it, but it doesn't. Were they not willing to even look at the file to suggest options?

I thought the funny thing was asking Eagle Point for tech support, Eagle Point was bought out to my knowledge.

Yeah not sure about that either.... I am gonna try a different route with this and see how that fairs.

My question was simple... How do I open a CAD drawing that used an eagle point database that is saved in version 2006 in Civil3D2014? Here's the drawing that is giving me issues. Please review. You saw what I got.


DraftSight opened the drawing for me. I have saved it and exported the drawing out. I will give that a try in a minute to see if I crash.

[Opie]

I had not heard of Eagle Point getting bought out, so I am not sure on that one.

I guess I need to look into DraftSight for any troublesome files. :roll:

[cadtag]

Eaglepoint is still in business, but are no longer trying to compete with Softdesk/LandDesktop/Civil3d. They now do training and add-ons to civil3d, along with their LandCADD add-on for irrigation and landscape architecture.

When 800lb chimpanzees climb up into the vertical trees, the smaller colobus monkeys go far away to survive.

[Iceberg]

So apparently the issue is not a compatability issue between Eagle Point and Civil3D. There was apparently corrupted data in the file that was causing an issue. Since I couldn't run recover to fix the error the drawing would not open. However, I was offered this solution to the problem.

1. Launch Civil 3D and start a new empty drawing
2. Use the map query tool to query in layers. Query the layers in small groups and when the query fails you'll know the corrupt objects are part of the last query set you ran.
3.Then run the query again using a small subset of the layers that failed, continue that until you find the "bad" layer.
4.The unfortunate side to doing this is that you'll end up losing everything on the "bad" layer.

Not sure if there is a more practical way to fix the problem but this seem to work

[nelson]

Did you try the RegApp Cleanup Utility (http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/downloads/caas/downloads/content/regapp-id-cleanup-utility-autocad-20132014.html)?

I know in the past we have dealt with EaglePoint survey's and had many crashes at random points. Using the Regapp Cleanup Utility I cleaned out the current drawing and all drawings that had xref links to it. It might not be that drawing your opening, but a xref drawing? Regapps are like a virus in a dwg, once a drawing is xref'd in it brings its regapps to the current drawing, then that drawing is 'infected' even if xref is removed.
(Record so far is 60,000 regapps, and typical acad dwg has less than 20.)

Rouge regapps also have caused issues coming from sharing of drawings from client who used some 3rd party "gis" addon for Autocad (I think Munsys?).

Install of the RegApp Cleanup Utility (http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/downloads/caas/downloads/content/regapp-id-cleanup-utility-autocad-20132014.html) is very simple. Just make sure that you grab the right version for your current Autodesk product. It will open old drawing, just if it meets criteria, it will save in that version.

I think I have done a whole project of 196 dwg files in less than 40 minutes, and it kicks out a nice CSV, so it's a nice tool to have. Other wise, how long would it take to open, purge, track down xref links, and save a 196 drawings?

[rkmcswain]

Eaglepoint is still in business...... They now do training and add-ons to civil3d, ......



...and generator of boatloads of advertising emails....

[BlackBox]

...and generator of boatloads of advertising emails....

As I've mentioned elsewhere, we've just upgraded from Land Desktop 2004 to Infrastructure Design Suite (IDSP) 2014/2015... However, our Surveyor who also happens to be the VP here, still to this day works in vanilla AutoCAD 2000 + Eaglepoint via RDP from his new 64-bit Win8.1 PC into his old 32-bit WinXP box. HaHa

[cadtag]

Maybe get him som literature on Carlson -- I suspect he'd be happier, and the rest of you would also.

[BlackBox]

Maybe get him som literature on Carlson -- I suspect he'd be happier, and the rest of you would also.

Meh - We already have the license of IDSP 2015 installed on his new workstation - Instead I'm setting up the necessary descriptions keys, Styles, pre-defined Point Groups, and Surfaces so he can just import his raw data and done.

He's not doing Corridors, Parcels, or even Surface manipulation, let alone Pipe Networks, Profiles, Profile Views, nor View Frame Groups... Just processing for subsequent design, plat and stakeout.

[rkmcswain]

Meh - We already have the license of IDSP 2015 installed on his new workstation - Instead I'm setting up the necessary descriptions keys, Styles, pre-defined Point Groups, and Surfaces so he can just import his raw data and done.

He's not doing Corridors, Parcels, or even Surface manipulation, let alone Pipe Networks, Profiles, Profile Views, nor View Frame Groups... Just processing for subsequent design, plat and stakeout.

How does the company justify a $7k program for processing raw data into points only?

[BlackBox]

How does the company justify a $7k program for processing raw data into points only?

Firstly, 'he' only needs to process points... I and others do all surfaces, volumes, corridors, pipe networks, profiles, profile views, etc. for plans production, and estimates respectively.

Second, if anyone is paying that much for a new seat, they've really got to find themselves another re-seller.

My and another's seat were BOGO +/- 7 months ago (before I even accepted the employment offer; the owner hedged his bet that I'd accept, and he wa$ right :beer:), and Autodesk just ended a trade-up special offer (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?155897-Trade-in-your-2008-or-prior-releases-and-save) where it was only +/- $5K for a new subscription for each turned in copy of 2008 or older (up to 5 seats?).

Most of our seats were in place prior to my arrival - somewhat the catalyst for recruiting me, as they paid for all new software, sent the staff away for 3-days of training, and they were still hand drawing profiles, using attribute definitions as spot elevation labels (in paperspace), and scaling their paperspace titleblocks up so that viewports were set to be 1:1 in Land Desktop 2004 as AutoCAD (no external database, etc.)... I conveniently neglected to re-install 2004 when upgrading the company to Win8.1 x64 as part of our dual migration from Windows Server 2003 SBS x86 to Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 with a brand new server installation, only installing IDSP 2014 (for daily production), and IDSP 2015 (to give them an opportunity to familiarize).

Production is up, clients are getting their submittals earlier, and we have less production staff than when I started. :beer: