Best Practice: Do not manually copy a Design File with a Drainage and Utility Project to create a New Design File

Jonathan Smith — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 07:58:38 GMT

Current Revision posted to OpenRoads | OpenSite Wiki by Jonathan Smith on 1/14/2022 7:58:38 AM

Product(s):	OpenSite, OpenRoads, OpenRail Designer
Version(s):	10.08.00 +
Area:	Drainage and Utilities

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:

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
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.

Tags: crash, Avoid, corrupt, D&U

Best Practice: Do not manually copy a Design File with a Drainage and Utility Project to create a New Design File

Beebe Ray — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 18:24:33 GMT

Revision 2 posted to OpenRoads | OpenSite Wiki by Beebe Ray on 1/13/2022 6:24:33 PM

Product(s):	OpenSite, OpenRoads, OpenRail Designer
Version(s):	10.08.00 +
Area:	Drainage and Utilities

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 imbedded 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. 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 performing a function like Place Node, the user will manually copy an existing Design File that already contains a Drainage and Utility project. The reason why is that when you create a Drainage and Utility Project, the software creates two databases (one for Utilities and one for Drainage). Each database has a unique GUID, and that's how the graphics know what database they're linked to. If you manually copy a Design File, then the GUIDs for the databases are not unique - they're duplicates. If you then reference the copied Design File into the original Design, then the software in effect has to talk to two sets of "unique" databases. So it can very well read/write to the wrong databases.

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 there's now two sets of databases in the Windows temp folder, and data can be written to or read from the wrong one.

In 2021 Release 2 (10.10.20.xx), a change will be implemented in the software to stop loading of referenced databases by default, which will help, but manually copying a Design File that contains Drainage and Utility data, in Windows Explorer or ProjectWise, must be avoided.

So to effectively stop this from occurring the user should not Manually Copy a Design File that contains the Drainage and Utility Project and Reference the original Design File back to the New Design File.

Some suggestions on starting a new file and bringing Drainage and Utility Data forward may be to use the Export/Import Submodel process.

If the Civil Product is running then File>Save As is an option as well because the software has code in place to handle that event. When the Civil Product is not running there is nothing the software can do to handle it.

Tags: crash, Avoid, corrupt, D&U

Best Practice: Do not manually copy a Design File with a Drainage and Utility Project to create a New Design File

Beebe Ray — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 18:22:42 GMT

Revision 1 posted to OpenRoads | OpenSite Wiki by Beebe Ray on 1/13/2022 6:22:42 PM

Product(s):	OpenRoads Designer
Version(s):	10.00.00 +
Area:	Drainage and Utilities

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 imbedded 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.

Some suggestions on starting a new file and bringing Drainage and Utility Data forward may be to use the Export/Import Submodel process.

Tags: crash, Avoid, corrupt, D&U