Feature Definitions not Showing Up

Question

I am gong to try to word this the best way that I can, but since I am fairly new to InRoads and SS3, my question may be a bit clumsy. 
 We are running MS with Geopak SS3 to process survey and to do the corridor modeling (along with other tasks). We are using an XIN provided from our client that was developed from InRoads. When I get into the Project Explorer and go to Civil Standards>Feature Definitions, I can see the XIN with some, but not all the feature definitions. It seems like it only brings in the items that would pertain to the survey features. I know the XIN contains more than that because I used the same XIN in SS2 to create templates and there were numerous other features available. The problem also shows up when I go to create templates. I don't have any feature definitions to choose from. I can't tell if I am "attaching" the XIN to my project correctly, or if there is some other settings that I am not aware of. 
 Thanks, 
 Ken

Kevin McDonald · Accepted Answer

What you have described above is caused by the fact that there are really two different types of feature definitions, there are: 
 1.) Line/Point/Surface feature definitions that link directly to a DDB (GEOPAK) or XIN (InRoads) 
 and 
 2.) Survey feature definitions that are imported from XML/XIN. 
 The reason you cannot see Line/Point/Surface feature definitions from an XIN in GEOPAK is because GEOPAK commands can only link to a DDB for these feature definitions, and the InRoads commands can only link to an XIN. This is because the program maintains an active link back to these files to pull the current symbology settings. Therefore, any command that uses a feature definition with a Native Style defined is actually looking back to the DDB or XIN for the symbology for the elements it will create. 
 Survey feature definitions act a little differently. Instead of an ‘active link’ back to the XIN/XML, Survey does more of an ‘import’ of the feature definitions for use by the survey commands. This import allows Survey to use XML(SMD) or XIN in either GEOPAK or InRoads. Therefore, any Survey command that needs to place an element will look at the imported feature definition for its symbology.

Nico Roman · Answer

To do Geometry features, yes. Since you have the GEOPAK flavor of SS3 installed.