Best Practice - Avoid Copying a Design File with a Drainage and Utility Project.

The following workflow can cause a problem with a design file that has a Drainage and Utility Project in it and should be avoided. This workflow can cause the contents of the graphics and the embedded Drainage and Utility databases in the design file to not match. This can result in a crash when a design file with Drainage and Utility data is opened.

Here is the workflow: 

1. Instead of using the software to create a new design file (File>New) and the traditional method of creating a Drainage and Utility Project in that new design file such as using a tool like Place Node, you manually copy an existing Design File that already contains a Drainage and Utility project
2. You then reference the copied Design File into the original Design File

When you create a Drainage and Utility Project, the software creates two databases (one for Utilities and one for Drainage) in the Design File.  Each database has a unique GUID, and that's how the graphics know what databases they're linked to.  If you manually copy a Design File, then the GUIDs for the databases are not unique - they're duplicates - so the software now has two sets of databases with the same "address".

In versions up to 2021 Release 1 (10.10.01.03), the software automatically loads the databases from referenced Design Files, for drawing production purposes, so both sets of databases are opened, and data can be written to or read from the wrong ones.

In the 2021 Release 2 (10.10.20.xx) version, a change will be implemented in the software to stop it loading referenced databases by default. While this will help, manually copying a Design File that contains Drainage and Utility data, must still be avoided.

To effectively stop this problem from occurring you should not Manually Copy a Design File that contains a Drainage and Utility Project. This includes Copy/Paste in Windows Explorer, and similar processes in ProjectWise.

If you have any Design Files that have been created in this way, then you could open them in the Civil product and do a File>Save As, to create a new Design File. The databases in this file will have unique GUIDs. You can also export data from a file using Export Submodel, then import it into a new design file.