Civil 3D labels rotate back on save down

[Coolmo]

Is there a way to save down or export out Civil 3D drawings to an earlier version (non-C3D) and keep the rotation of all the C3D labels inside the viewports? Obviously the C3D labels connected to pipe layouts, surfaces, etc. rotate to the viewport no matter how it's rotated but when we have to save these drawings down to lesser versions to give to contractors or clients, the labels flip back to horizontal (model space) and really look crazy in the viewports now. Is there a nifty way to have it save the rotation or copy the "smart label" to another format to save it's location and rotation in the earlier version of AutoCAD?

[sinc]

How are you saving down?

You should not use the "Save as..." functionality to save down to a previous version from C3D. Use the "Export to..." options instead. The result is still a mess, but it's better than if you try to use "Save as..."

If you are trying to get to versions before 2007, it works better to do the export in two phases. Export to 2007 format first, then open that file and export to 2004 or 2000 format

Some people prefer to explode everything, then export directly to 2004 or 2000. I have had mixed results with that method. I've had C3D take forever on a drawing when I try to explode everything, but it will Export just fine. Other times, the Explode method seems to work fine, and is not as annoying as a two-phase export. Like many things in C3D, it can end up being trial and error until something works.

Also, if you have background masks, you may want to make sure you have a white background (for most people, this means switch to paperspace) before doing the export. Background masks in C3D are implemented with HATCH objects, and they take on the current background color when you export. So if you export while the background is white, they turn into solid white hatches, and everything still prints for the recipient. If you export from modelspace (with the typical black background), the background masks will turn into black hatches, and print as giant black blobs for your recipient.

Exporting data from C3D can be an unfortunately-troublesome experience...

[Coolmo]

I think you missed the point of my question. Saving down to an earlier version is not the problem. We always "Export to AutoCAD" when we save down. "Save As' creates all of the ARX errors. I simply need a method of saving down or a function before saving down that will hold all of the Civil 3D driven labels that have rotated due to a viewport rotation. When we save down to a version before Civil 3D, the labels and all C3D objects are turned into a AEC block of sorts that can be exploded and easily manipulated in the earlier version but the labels all rotate back to the Model space view rotation. I was hoping there was a utility out there that would capture the text rotation (as seen in Paper space) and explode the C3D label objects in their hard copy state before the save down... other than manually doing all of that.

[sinc]

Oh, sorry.

They explode to the orientation they have in model space. And once that happens, they are frozen in that single orientation.

If you have a bunch of viewports all with different orientations, then I don't think you have any way around it... Annotative dimension in base Autocad have that "Visual Fidelity" option, but I don't think C3D labels have an equivalent...

[Coolmo]

Oh, sorry.

They explode to the orientation they have in model space. And once that happens, they are frozen in that single orientation.

If you have a bunch of viewports all with different orientations, then I don't think you have any way around it... Annotative dimension in base Autocad have that "Visual Fidelity" option, but I don't think C3D labels have an equivalent...

I guess I gotta write a program that'll do it then...

[Coolmo]

Here's a cool and quick workaround (so far). I'm sure it's no secret but if you change your DVIEW twist in model space to the rotation of your viewport before you export the drawing out it'll turn all the text around the correct way in model space before it cuts off the Civl 3D rotate function. that way the text in model space looks correct when you view it through the viewport. Of course, if you have more than one viewport with different rotations you're back at square one.

[sinc]

That's actually what I was saying in my first response (although I was not clear about it)...

Then I thought you were saying that you had viewports in all different orientations, and you still needed to do the export. With that, there's a problem - there is no "Maintain Visual Fidelity" option for C3D labels. So the label in the export is frozen the way it appears in modelspace, which may work for some viewports, but not for others.

Similarly, things fall apart if there are viewports with different scales. When exported, C3D labels export according to the current Drawing Scale. So if you have a 100-scale viewport and a 20-scale viewport in your drawing, the export will create a funky result. All the labels in the export will be either at 20-scale or at 100-scale, depending on how you have the Drawing Scale set when you do the export.

[Coolmo]

Yeah, I've run into all of that. My way of fixing different, rotated viewports is to manually rotate Model space to the first viewport, explode just those labels and then manually rotate to the second viewport and explode those labels... and so on.... It doesn't seem to take that long and it definitely looks better than rotated labels everywhere. After all the exploding I THEN save down to the clients version. I guess you could change the scale of the drawing for each to get the same effect as rotating. Wow! This begs for a VBA program to do this but the labels list out as the structures and such they are attached to as opposed to a separate label of some sort. Way over my head.

[stephen.cowling]

Coolmo, you might be able to just explode them inside the viewport, instead of having to change the dview in model.

Sinc, thanks for the tip about the background mask.

Cheers
Stephen

[MHultgren]

How are you saving down?


Some people prefer to explode everything, then export directly to 2004 or 2000. I have had mixed results with that method. I've had C3D take forever on a drawing when I try to explode everything, but it will Export just fine. Other times, the Explode method seems to work fine, and is not as annoying as a two-phase export. Like many things in C3D, it can end up being trial and error until something works.

Also, if you have background masks, you may want to make sure you have a white background (for most people, this means switch to paperspace) before doing the export. Background masks in C3D are implemented with HATCH objects, and they take on the current background color when you export. So if you export while the background is white, they turn into solid white hatches, and everything still prints for the recipient. If you export from modelspace (with the typical black background), the background masks will turn into black hatches, and print as giant black blobs for your recipient.

Exporting data from C3D can be an unfortunately-troublesome experience...

Hi Sinc,
Does this happen when you do an eTransmit with Exploded AEC objects too (The background mask issue?)