C3D compatibility

[cadtag]

We jumped from 2017 to 2019 to 2021. (I think Corporate dislikes even numbers), I've got a project coming up where the final deliverables has to include DWG files and C3D models, in either 2018, 2019, or 2020 formats. I would rather _not_ do my work in 2019, so am looking for insight on an incompatibility issues with 2021 Civil #dD objects and Civil3D 2020. Generally I try to avoid mixing and matching versions, but would much rather work in 2021 than 2019.

[Opie]

I think surfaces are good. I just installed 2022 and testing out the Grading Optimization tool from it. Pasted the optimized surface into another surface and created a data shortcut. Opened 2018 and referenced the container surface with no problems.

I haven't tested any of the other object types yet, though.

[BlackBox]

Not sure that I understand; Civil 3D 2019 & 2021 (versions) both use the same 2018 DWG format.

That said, the only version incompatibility issues I know of are:

Vehicle Tracking Incompatibility

Language Pack is causing fatal errors; I don't understand this one, but I'm told its a known issue and something related to the fact that Civil 3D supports UK English, but AutoCAD does not.

Your potential use of a custom Part Catalog that is not provided as part of the deliverable (or the recipient's use of same, without providing to you to do the work)

This one is more of a workflow consideration for you... Corridors with Feature Lines as baselines that disappear while you use 2021; this is related to Civil 3D not actually supporting Feature Lines as baselines. Under the hood, each Feature Line added as baseline creates a hidden Alignment & Profile that is in turn linked to the Corridor as baseline. Each subsequent edit to a given Feature Line used as baseline, results in a new hidden Alignment & Profile to replace the previous pair, but the previous pair(s) weren't being cleaned up at drawing save. So, Autodesk has released a new PurgeHiddenAlignsFromSites Command:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...ure-lines.html

[cadtag]

Good to know -- I've been bit in the past with compatible files formats and incompatible c3d objects, and would rather not have a special installation of 2020 just to work on one job. I can always guarantee that someone will open those job files in the wrong version and save to a new version. [probably me ]

Vehicle tracking won't be an issue -- If and exhibit needed for DWG purposes I can explode the heck out of them and not deliver that portion of the models. Owner is ACOE, so language will be US English --

[BlackBox]

Good to know -- I've been bit in the past with compatible files formats and incompatible c3d objects, and would rather not have a special installation of 2020 just to work on one job. I can always guarantee that someone will open those job files in the wrong version and save to a new version. [probably me ]

I 'spose just have a convo with client letting them know that your & their versions use the same DWG format and see what they require thereafter.

*IF* you do happen to need specific version for single project, I was successful at doing so and Mr. Kasha issued a blanket authorization to office brass & regional IT allowing me to have any version(s) I requested (then and future), after demonstrating that client required it by contract (admittedly back when C3D Object compatibility was a significant issue), and their not providing it in a timely fashion (they took weeks!) was impacting the project deadlines outlined in said contract. I assume he still works waaay up there in Practice Technology group; liked that guy a lot. Haha

Vehicle tracking won't be an issue -- If and exhibit needed for DWG purposes I can explode the heck out of them and not deliver that portion of the models. Owner is ACOE, so language will be US English --

No worries; just be mindful that exploding the AVT Object may not necessarily purge the AVT data written to DB; consider running PURGEVEHICLETRACKING Command.

Cheers

[rkmcswain]

That said, the only version incompatibility issues I know of are:

Vehicle Tracking Incompatibility

That ^^^ makes little sense. If they can make Civil 3D backwards and forwards compatible between versions, why does VT have to be a pain about it?
Not caring, or not paying attention or what?

[BlackBox]

That ^^^ makes little sense. If they can make Civil 3D backwards and forwards compatible between versions, why does VT have to be a pain about it?
Not caring, or not paying attention or what?

I'll have to actually install AVT to dig into this more; this is the best I recall right now:

https://forums.augi.com/showthread.p...=1#post1348617


If I had to guess, it's due to the language in which AVT is coded (ARX? which is inherently version dependent) - Autodesk bought VT, like Project Explorer and Alias|Wavefront's Maya before them both, the latter is where things like Toolspace and Viewcube came from - in any event, methinks the developer hard-codes a 'version' somewhere that's written to DB in the above-linked DB location, even without an AVT command being invoked by user, which is what technically causes the issue.

Not sure there's actually an AVT 2021 to AVT 2022 Object compatibility issue, per-se (if that makes sense?), but this is kind of ridiculous to still be dealing with it, when Tim has addressed it Haha:

2021-05-13_10-56-48.png

[rkmcswain]

It was more or less, a rhetorical question. They could easily fix it if they wanted to. I'll stop there.

[jessevas656864]

That ^^^ makes little sense. If they can make Civil 3D backwards and forwards compatible between versions, why does VT have to be a pain about it?
Not caring, or not paying attention or what?

I remember once upon a time, when coders used to write application calls to some sort of "current version" rather than "R##.#". I also recall that it made things difficult once computers were capable of carrying multiple versions of an application at once. Nowadays, I suspect that it's more profitable to write application code that needs to be re-purchased every year or two. There's a word for that. Starts with an 's'. What was that...?🤔

- - - Updated - - -

More seriously, though. I've had C3d2016 files work just fine in 2019. Just not the other way around.

[mjfarrell]

I remember once upon a time, when coders used to write application calls to some sort of "current version" rather than "R##.#". I also recall that it made things difficult once computers were capable of carrying multiple versions of an application at once. Nowadays, I suspect that it's more profitable to write application code that needs to be re-purchased every year or two. There's a word for that. Starts with an 's'. What was that...?🤔

- - - Updated - - -

More seriously, though. I've had C3d2016 files work just fine in 2019. Just not the other way around.

It's the Backward Compatibility that is ALWAYS disabled...as then one must upgrade at some point as all the others do so.