Topic: vba in civil 3d 2010 and now ?'s about why vba won't load for use in C3D 2011

[sourdough]

Hi all
    I have a surface that I created in C3D 2010 and now want to use in C3D 2011. I have loaded the VBA module from Autocad
and get this ? over and over that C3D wants to convert to .net content. Of course, when I did that and save in 2011 it was completely
unusable in 2010. Damn, I'm so tired of the compat. issues between versions, especially when it saves in the same format 2010. Is
there someplace in 2011 that says to fire up vba so that it won't convert, but just use the Surface I created. This whole ? goes back to
an old post about sharing with other companies and format and the upgrade to new versions and not having a clue as to what will work
between versions. I'm sure there is some Readme that says to beware before you save.

MJP

[Jeff_M]

I'm not sure I follow everything you're saying, Mike.

For starters, what does the VBA module have to do with the surface? The only VBA related messages I can think of have to do with PipeNetwork rules and Subassemblies. If it is something else, could you take a screenshot of the message?

Next, ALL C3D versions use the "Once you save in the new version it won't work in the previous version" methodology. What made you think 2011 would be any different? If you have SincpacC3D, there is an option to enable version locking to prevent you from saving an "old" drawing to the new format.

If you want to use a 2010 surface in a 2011 drawing without affecting the use of said surface in 2010, use a data shortcut & reference the surface into the 2011 drawing.

[mjfarrell]

...or export the surface using XML....and then import it into the new version...and data shortcut from there forward....

[sourdough]

I'm not sure I follow everything you're saying, Mike.

For starters, what does the VBA module have to do with the surface? The only VBA related messages I can think of have to do with PipeNetwork rules and Subassemblies. If it is something else, could you take a screenshot of the message?

Next, ALL C3D versions use the "Once you save in the new version it won't work in the previous version" methodology. What made you think 2011 would be any different? If you have SincpacC3D, there is an option to enable version locking to prevent you from saving an "old" drawing to the new format.

If you want to use a 2010 surface in a 2011 drawing without affecting the use of said surface in 2010, use a data shortcut & reference the surface into the 2011 drawing.

Hi Jeff
   I am using SincpacC3D and am pretty sure that is the problem with VBA right now. I do want to use a 2011 surface into a 2010 dwg. Maybe the wrong way to go. But, I was doing a huge surface for a project figuring that it might handle it better (memory usage). I still have a problem with the surface as a 2010 format not being compatible with between versions in the same format. Wonder which person thought that might me useful in the commercial world. I'm finding 2011 crashing alot right now.
    While I'm on the subject of surfaces. I have a large project. It was orginally a lidar with a X,Y,Z only point in a dxf format. I found no way to turn that into a point file without having to give each point a descriptor (that would take to long). I'm sure there might be a easy method to extract that points so it could be used in a cloud in 2011 C3D. If there is a direction or method to do this would you please point me in the right direction.

Thanks
MJP

[Jeff_M]

To use a 2011 surface in 2010, LandXML is probably the only option.

The LIDAR points are in DXF file that can be opened by AutoCAD? If so, I'd open it, use DataExtraction to export JUST the XYZ values to a csv file. Then that file can be used in the PointCloud creation. If you are on Subscription, you do know that Point Clouds can be used in 2010?

Could you post, or send, a portion of that LIDAR file?

[Jeff_M]

To clarify the Dataextraction part.... Turn off the columns for the Count & Description before writing the file. You will end up with an output like so:

Position X,Position Y,Position Z
4543.2671,5258.4903,0.0000
4534.7624,5228.0290,0.0000

then all you need do to make the file usable is delete the first line in the file. Now it's just a basic comma delimited XYZ file.

[sourdough]

To use a 2011 surface in 2010, LandXML is probably the only option.

The LIDAR points are in DXF file that can be opened by AutoCAD? If so, I'd open it, use DataExtraction to export JUST the XYZ values to a csv file. Then that file can be used in the PointCloud creation. If you are on Subscription, you do know that Point Clouds can be used in 2010?

Could you post, or send, a portion of that LIDAR file?

Thanks Jeff
   Here is a sample of the Lidar. I'll do a data extract. The big picture here holds about 4.6 million points. I was able to get
all the points into one file, but that was it, then Out of Memory. I picture of all of this is to do a Hydrology Analysis for Storm Water.
And also site development. I have subscription, but the business I'm working for hasn't used it yet. So, I'll have to press that.
and get that added.

MJP

[Jeff_M]

Sure thing, Mike. To use DE, type in DATAEXTRACTION, follow the wizard.....it really isn't too hard to follow along. Just be sure to only extract what you need. With the help file, I figured it out in less than 5 minutes the first time I used it. This is a base Acad command.

Based on your sample dwg, you should be able to do this in 2011 and write out the csv file, this can then be used in 2010 to create your point cloud and/or surface.... if using for a surface, remember that you can build the surface from an external point file, they need not be imported into the drawing.

[mjfarrell]

Or perform a query againts that file, and write the X,Y,Z out to an ascii file

or even use the surface points report to get the data out...of 2011

[mjfarrell]

To clarify the Dataextraction part.... Turn off the columns for the Count & Description before writing the file. You will end up with an output like so:

Position X,Position Y,Position Z
4543.2671,5258.4903,0.0000
4534.7624,5228.0290,0.0000

then all you need do to make the file usable is delete the first line in the file. Now it's just a basic comma delimited XYZ file.

as discussed here: http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=33381.msg387812#msg387812

[sourdough]

Sure thing, Mike. To use DE, type in DATAEXTRACTION, follow the wizard.....it really isn't too hard to follow along. Just be sure to only extract what you need. With the help file, I figured it out in less than 5 minutes the first time I used it. This is a base Acad command.

Based on your sample dwg, you should be able to do this in 2011 and write out the csv file, this can then be used in 2010 to create your point cloud and/or surface.... if using for a surface, remember that you can build the surface from an external point file, they need not be imported into the drawing.

Jeff
    While you responded I found a U-tube video that also used the command (eattext) and it worked as you mentioned above.
First timer on this, but the lesson is appreciated. Will experiment on the surface method for my own (what if I do it that way).

Mike
    Thank you for your point of view and help on this, it is coming together for using Lidar data and all is appreciated.

Thanks
MJP

[sourdough]

To all thanks, and one thing learned with this project I'm on. One Lidar panel I worked with and had about
896,000 points. By extracting the X,Y,Z points into a text file the Out of Memory Limit was reached with
C3D 2010, but not with C3D 2011. My first (that works) moment that I appreciated using Win 7 64 bit and the
64 bit version of C3D 2011. I'm also running a 8 Gig of memory.

MJP

[sourdough]

To clarify the Dataextraction part.... Turn off the columns for the Count & Description before writing the file. You will end up with an output like so:

Position X,Position Y,Position Z
4543.2671,5258.4903,0.0000
4534.7624,5228.0290,0.0000

then all you need do to make the file usable is delete the first line in the file. Now it's just a basic comma delimited XYZ file.

Hi Jeff
    I have one other ? now, the point file as you have shown won't let me input them within a surface Point File input routine. It says
"Unable to read file"

No matter what kind of point I use format wise it error's. Is there an issue here? Underneath the format it allows me to load and parse. But,
when I do the import, error mentioned.

MJP

[Jeff_M]

Oops, fogot about that part, Mike. For some reason the Dataextraction saves the file in UTF-8 format. Open it with Notepad or wordpad, use SaveAs and make sure to change the Encoding type to ANSI.

[sourdough]

Oops, fogot about that part, Mike. For some reason the Dataextraction saves the file in UTF-8 format. Open it with Notepad or wordpad, use SaveAs and make sure to change the Encoding type to ANSI.

Jeff,
   Thanks for the key to bliss.... Well, I got the original problem with VBA solved. It seems that I had a vba program loading in one of my
lisp routines, and the people that worked on my dwgs lately had a block that they applied some sort of VBA something to. I purged
them and updated my lisp routine by erasing the "vbaload" routine and it all opens fine now, but I did get a note from Richard (Sinc) that
there are some Sub-assemblies and pipe networks that can also do the Nag pop-ups. So, there you go. After days of some work and a whole
lot of help from here I have my answers. Again many thanks for these latest solutions.

A footnote about Surfaces and point clouds and using over 8 millions points (6 Lidar panels) in point cloud to make a surface that ended up only being
33 meg when processed, that was fast and very cool. The extraction from dxf was a bit time consuming using (x,y,z format)(6 Lidar panels with over
890000 nodes/each) , but worked flawlessly. I was also able to make a xml of this surface in 2011 and import the xml into 2010.

MJP