Autodesk Civil 3D 2021.3 Update

Aug 2, 2021 – Autodesk releases Autodesk Civil 3D 2021.3 Update

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The Autodesk Civil 3D 2021.3 Update is available via the Autodesk Desktop App or via download from the Autodesk subscription site.

The update requires access to the original install resources.

A system restart is recommended after the install even if not prompted to do so.

Autodesk Civil 3D 2021.3 Update

The Update includes new and updated features, performance enhancements, and fixes for Autodesk Civil 3D 2021.

New Features

Gravity Network Analysis has a new setting called Pipe Length Type which you can use to specify the pipe length type to use for the analysis calculations

Updates have been made to the API to enable creation of cross section sheets and to enable creation of data shortcuts

Fixed Issues

There are many Civil 3D API enhancements included in this Update. The API updates are listed last here.

Alignments

  • Fixed an issue in which alignment minor station labeling did not work as expected.

ArcGIS Workflows

  • Fixed an issue in which files in the same folder as the drawing file would be removed accidently after publishing to ArcGIS.

Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D

  • Improved performance when switching data shortcut projects for projects that are stored in BIM 360, downloading source files only when required.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the host and consumer drawings in the cloud to be updated when dismissing the "Data shortcut definitions may have been changed" notification.
  • Fixed an issue in which the data shortcuts path shown in Prospector would not update when opening a cloud drawing.
  • Fixed an issue in which changes to the data shortcuts folders were not being saved and the ShortcutsFolders.xml file was not syncing.
  • Fixed an issue in which a file version was increased when uploading the file to Autodesk Docs using Desktop Connector if the file had a circular reference to another file.
  • Fixed an issue that caused drawings to become read only when opening them from Autodesk Docs.
  • Fixed a stability issue that would occur when starting Civil 3D due to a performance issue that would occur when setting or switching data shortcut projects with complex data.

Catchments

  • Fixed an issue in which the catchment exclusionary property would exclude catchments from other catchment groups.
  • Fixed an issue in which the value of catchment exclusionary property was always 'False' after reopening the drawing.

Corridors

  • Fixed a stability issue that would occur when trying to open the corridor Rehab Manager with the German Country Kit installed.
  • Improved stability when restoring corridor bowties.

Cross Sections

  • Fixed an issue in which parts of corridor section labels would be mislocated in a section view when the source sample line became skewed.
  • Fixed an issue in which the default label set for section view creation would not be held when switching to another alignment while creating section views.

Data Shortcuts

  • Fixed an issue in which a data referenced alignment that was used as a reference for a pipe network was not updated after the alignment name was updated in the source drawing.
  • Improved performance when switching data shortcut projects for projects that are stored in BIM 360, downloading source files only when required.
  • Fixed a stability issue that would occur if the _Shortcuts folder is readable, but its contents such as ShortcutsHistory.xml are not readable.
  • Fixed an issue in which data shortcuts were created at a temp address which was caused by an automatic save in AutoCAD.
  • Fixed an issue in which the surface definition source xml was saved at a temp address which was caused by an automatic save in AutoCAD.
  • Updated the Data Shortcuts Editor to show the variable DSSysVar in the path.
  • Fixed an issue in which ETransmit did not include Civil 3D data shortcuts.
  • Fixed an issue in which the referenced pressure network name changed unexpectedly after synchronizing data shortcuts.
  • Fixed a stability issue that would occur when saving a source drawing with a shared data reference, resulting in the drawing becoming read-only. The issue was caused by multiple Civil 3D sessions trying to read the data shortcut source drawing while it was being saved in another session. Please make sure the system variable DataShortcutsSourceCheck is turned off (set its value to 0) in Civil 3D on every computer working on the same project. Note that when the system variable DataShortcutsSourceCheck default value is set as 0, a notification will be displayed in the host/consumer drawing whenever the source drawing is saved, even without any entity/geometry change.
  • Fixed an issue in which the contextual ribbon tab would display "Pipe Networks" instead of "Alignment" when an alignment data reference was selected if the alignment was a Miscellaneous type.

Drawing Import/Export

  • Fixed an issue in which the Export to DGN setting "Use remapping file" would not work for Microstation Connection.
  • Fixed an issue in which nested xref drawings did not show exploded objects after using the Export to DGN command.
  • Added the ability to use Microstation Connect when exporting a Civil 3D drawing to DGN when both Connect and V8i are installed.
  • Added a new system variable named DGNOpenAfterCreation to keep Microstation open after a drawing is finished being exported to DGN.
  • Added the ability to use the user's UCF when exporting a Civil 3D drawing to DGN when Microstation is installed.
  • Fixed a stability issue that would occur when exporting a Civil 3D drawing that has xref drawings that contained points.
  • Added a setting to set a sleep time so that MVBA has time to run after exporting a drawing to DGN.

Feature Lines

  • Fixed a performance issue that would occur when selecting feature lines while the Properties Palette was open.
  • Fixed an issue in which feature lines that were used as corridor baselines and located in a site would disappear from the site.
  • Fixed an issue that caused invisible alignments to be created while updating a feature line which is the baseline of a corridor. Related to this issue, customers are encouraged to use the PurgeHiddenAlignsfromSites command on drawings that have feature line-based corridors. If you do not run the PurgeHiddenAlignsfromSites command prior to editing a feature line in a feature line-based corridor, and you subsequently have issues with the feature line that is used in the corridor (for example, it is missing and you can no longer select it), undo your changes or close the drawing without saving it, reopen it, and then run the PurgeHiddenAlignsfromSites command.
  • Errors that lead to missing feature lines are automatically detected and fixed when opening a drawing. This operation will only run when Civil 3D detects a potential error in the drawing.
  • Fixed an issue in which PI points would be added at incorrect locations of a feature line when using the _AeccFeatureLineCrossing command when the intersected point is far away from the feature line in 3D space.
  • Improved the display of glyphs that appear at the vertices of a feature line when the Grading Elevation Editor window is displayed. The display of glyphs is affected by the values of Resolution, Scale, and Layout in the Display Settings of Windows. The display is best when you use the recommended system settings and the quality of the display will decline as the value of Scale and Layout increases.

Hydrology

  • Fixed an issue in which a blue line was shown in the culvert analysis results in the Hydraflow Express Extension.
  • Improved culvert analysis performance in the Hydraflow Express Extension.

LandXML

  • Fixed an issue in which LandXML import would create an additional copy of an imported pipe network.
  • Fixed a performance issue that would occur when importing surfaces from a LandXML file.
  • Added an option to the LandXML Import Settings to control whether to add breaklines. Import performance is improved when the option is set to Off.

Miscellaneous

  • Fixed a stability issue that could occur when opening a drawing.
  • Support for Autodesk Docs and the new rebranded Desktop Connector has been added. The User Interface now refers to Autodesk Docs instead of BIM 360.

Pipe Networks

  • Fixed an issue in which velocity values reported in different tables in the gravity network analysis report were not consistent due to precision differences in the calculations.
  • Added a warning message in the Event Viewer when a structure height is edited so that the height is outside the allowed range specified by the part's Rim to Structure height.
  • Added the ability to store structure type and tail water data for a null structure.
  • Fixed an issue where the style, rules, and other settings could not be changed in a parts list for a null structure.
  • Fixed an issue in which the pipe network label anchor settings didn't work as expected.
  • Added the ability to select the pipe length for gravity network analysis.
  • Added the ability to change a structure type from "None" to "Outfall" when using the Analyze Gravity Network command.
  • Fixed an issue in which some of the output was incorrect in Analyze Gravity Network report.
  • Added the ability to support more anchor points in plan and profile labels for pipes.

Pressure Networks

  • Added the ability to clean up PVIs in overidden station ranges of a pressure pipe run profile.

Profiles

  • Added the ability to support pipe and pressure pipe expressions in profile view bands.

Quantity Takeoff

  • Fixed an issue in which Quantity Takeoff was affected by an empty material subcriteria setting.

Reference Templates

  • Fixed an issue in which Civil 3D would close unexpectedly or a code set style would be corrupted when attaching a particular template to a particular drawing.

Reports

  • Enhanced the AeccReportAlignPoints command so that using the NETLOAD command to load AeccTransportationX.dll and restarting Civil 3D is not necessary in order to run the report. You can also enter ReportAlignPoints at the command line to run the command.
  • Fixed an issue in which many design profile types were excluded from the Transportation Extension reports.

API

  • Fixed an issue in which a sample line could not be created at an alignment start station or end station using the API.
  • Data Shortcuts have been refactored away from ARX and moved to the DBX module level, in order to be moved by the API.
  • Fixed an issue in which the API sectionViewBandSet.ImportBandSetStyle would not import a band set style.
  • Added the ability to return 0 for Catchment TimeOfConcentration API.
  • Added a new API, SectionView.SampleLineId, to support getting the object ID of a sample line. Added a new API, SectionView.SectionViewGroupName, to support getting the SectionViewGroup name. Added a new API, SectionView.SectionViewGroup(), to support getting the SectionViewGroup object.
  • Added a new Expression.ReferenceString API to get the reference string of an Expression that can be used to create other expressions.
  • Added an API, GetDSProjectId(), to get the data shortcut project ID according to the project path. Added an API, AssociateDSProject(), to associate a data shortcut project to the current drawing.
  • Added a new API, SectionViewGroupCollection.Add(), to support setting section options when creating section views. The available section options in the API include: Draw, Clip Grid, Label Set, Override Style.
  • Added a new API parameter to the function SectionViewGroupCollection.Add() to support setting the section view style when creating section views.
  • Added a new API parameter to the function SectionViewGroupCollection.Add() to support setting the section view band set style when creating section views.
  • Added an API, RepairBrokenDRef(), to repair broken DRef entities in a host drawing. Added an API, GetReferenceInfo(), to get reference information on a DRef entity.
  • Added a new API, FeatureLine.CurvesCount, to support getting the curve count of a featureline. Added a new API, FeatureLine.GetCurveRadius(), to support getting the radius value of the curve in a featureline. Added a new API, FeatureLine.SetCurveRadius(), to support setting the radius value of the curve in a featureline.
  • Added an API, CreateReference(), to create a Data Reference entity at the host drawing according to the host and source database, entity name, and entity type of source drawing.
  • Added a new API, SectionViewGroup.UpdateLayout(), to support updating the layout of a section view group.
  • Added a new API, SectionViewGroup.ImportLabelSetForSectionsInGroup(), to support importing a label set for sections in a section view group.
  • Added a new API, SectionOverride.ImportLabelSet(), to support importing a label set for sections in a section view.
  • Added support for section corridor points labels in the API. Added a new label group SectionCorridorPointLabelGroup. Supported adding and removing corridor points label items in a section label set.
  • Added support for running a quantities report in the API as a new static method of the SampleLineGroup class.
  • Updated an API, CreateReference(), to create a Data Reference entity for a Corridor at the host drawing.
  • Updated an API, CreateReference(), to create a Data Reference entity for a Surface at the host drawing.
  • Updated an API, CreateReference(), to create a Data Reference entity for a ViewFrameGroup at the host drawing.
  • Updated an API, CreateReference(), to create a Data Reference entity for a SampleLine at the host drawing.
  • Updated an API, CreateReference(), to create a Data Reference entity for Pipe Networks at the host drawing.
  • Added an API, RepairBrokenDataShortcut(), to repair broken Data Shortcut objects in a Data Shortcut project.
  • Added a new API, Section.CorridorSurfaceId, to get the corridor surface object ID if section type is corridor surface.
  • Added a new data shortcut API, ExportableItem^ GetExportableItemAt(int index), to get the information of an exportable object. This includes the object and also its parent, direct children, recursive children, and dependent objects.
  • Enhanced the CreateReference() API to return a collection of ObjectIds, including all of the ObjectIds created.
  • Enhanced the GetExportableItemsCount() API to return SampleLineGroups but not SampleLines.
  • Added a new API, SectionCorridorPointLabelGroup.getDisplayedSubEntities(), to get sub-entity labels that are displayed in the drawing and have valid anchor info.
  • Added two new properties in SectionCorridorPointLabelGroup, StaggerLineHeight1 and StaggerLineHeight2, to support setting the stagger line height.
  • Fixed a defect in method SurfaceElevationLabel.Create(), where an elevation label created on XReffed surface did not appear.
  • Enhanced the CreateReference() API so that it does not return the DataShortcuts objects which are set as invisible.

See the Release Notes page.