Seems to me there’s always one more important thing you forget to mention whenever you talk about anything in AutoCivil 3D. Survey Figure generation is no exception. In my last post I brought up the ongoing big ones that seem to puzzle and perplex many surveyed users. I forgot (maybe on purpose?) to mention one.
That Funny Thing About…Survey Attachments
People often wonder why their Survey Points sometimes seem to mysteriously become unconnected COGO points. Their Survey Db connected Figures also seem to suffer from the same chronic ailment at times. The current drawing representations somehow become separated from their Survey Db parents.
“I didn’t do a thing.”
Sometimes that feels a bit like losing track of your kid at the County Fair or in a busy store in the Christmas season.
“He was right here a minute ago!”
You turn your back or look away for a second and your whole world changes. Even the best and watchful parents experience some form of that sense of eternal PANIC. My kids at least were and are extremely curious about almost everything. In retrospect sometimes I swear my son did it to me on purpose. A free ice cream cone with the guys in the cool police uniforms was a benefit to him apparently.
My wife reminds me this was a child who started and drove a car into our garage at the age of two. The car keys were well hidden away and out of sight. Both house and car were locked. A jailbreak to visit the neighbors at any time of day or night was already his favorite pastime. One fine day he sought the freedom of the open road on his own. Unfortunately the garage door was closed – It was only a small oversight for a rookie car pilot and first time driver.
“Age of driver?”
“2”
“Excuse me did you say two?”
“Yes.”
“You must be kidding?”
“No. I’m not.”
Oops. I better get back on topic or Child Protective Services may come knocking on my door like Barnacle Bill the Sailor. Worse – the next thing you know we might have a California ballot initiative requiring leashes on children in public places for their/our protection.
Am I the only person who has developed a facial tick every time I hear the word “election”?
Lost to the Survey Db
Your Survey Db connections to their Civil 3D Feature representations can get lost because of both AutoCAD UNDO and OOPS commands. For example you ERASE connected Points or Figures and immediately or later reconsider the decision and try to reverse your actions.
We expect the connections to the Survey Db to get automatically restored too.
Its’ reasonable maybe, but it’s simply not true.
AutoCAD doesn’t know a thing about the Survey Db connections. The connections are a Civil 3D thing and AutoCAD has no built-in way to repair the connections up to this point in time.
Then again maybe this bad Pointy and Figurery behavior is another undocumented AutoCAD Civil 3D product feature and benefit that we can take advantage of once in a while.
Disassociation from parental authority can be occasionally very useful.
A Hidden Promotion
I call this process “the hidden promotion” in AutoCAD Civil 3D.
I explain it works this way because many survey folk don’t want to be promoted out of the field into the office full time anyway. The software behavior simply reflects their own behavior. :-)
In any case, please remember…
There’s a Funny Thing About Surveying Children and Parents.
Attempting to reverse you parental mistakes may get you the results you least expect.
It's the Laws of Human Gravity at work so...