How to break Civil 3D 2013

In Civil 3D 2013 (with or without hotfix 2.1), use the PLOT command and use the Window option. While being prompted for the window corners, use the middle button mouse wheel to zoom to locate the exact point you want. Civil 3D then enters a loop in which it displays:

Document “drawing name” has a command in progress.
Hit enter to cancel or [Retry]:

At this point, the user can do nothing with the program. Hitting Enter, Esc, R, etc. or doing more all do nothing except cause the message to be redisplayed. Picking a point or further wheel zooming does nothing useful. Using the application’s red X, or attempting to use the Taskbar to close it are equally ineffectual. The user has no alternative but to terminate Civil 3D using Task Manager, losing all unsaved work in all drawings.

This happens for me in Windows 7 64-bit. It does not occur using AutoCAD 2013 on the same system. Does it happen for you?

This entry was posted in Bug, Civil 3D and tagged , , , on by .

About Steve Johnson

Steve is the owner of cad nauseam, has been a CAD specialist since 1985. His roles have included CAD management, development, consulting and technical writing. Steve has also been a contributing editor for Cadalyst magazine, President of the Western Australian AutoCAD User Group, and a Vice President of CADLock, Inc. He is also an international veteran fencing champion.

6 thoughts on “How to break Civil 3D 2013

  1. R.K. McSwain

    Steve, I’ve known about this bug since we started using C3D2013, but it doesn’t crash the program for me.
    I just tested it again after reading your post, and I just have to press ESC a couple of times to cancel the PLOT command after the error is displayed.

    Reply
      1. James Maeding

        I thought I was locked by this too, but held down that esc key and it eventually got out.
        This was all on a blank drawing. Bricscad looks better every day.

        Reply
    1. James Maeding

      R.K. check my reply on the switching bug.

      This 2013 plotting bug sounds very familiar to me, it has shown itself in the past so I don’t think its new. I just tried it and can repeat the problem in 2013 c3d.
      Stinkorama…am getting close to choosing 2013 or 12 so stuff like this can be a big deal.
      I am also seeing odd pauses by 2013, seemingly at random times.
      I am wondering if this is related to the command line improvements I turned off in first minute of use.

      Reply

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