About External Files and Data that Require Attention

The following data sets or file types may require special attention when used in Autodesk Docs.

Files that must be managed manually:

Requires data to be shared manually and extracted locally:

Files that may cause synchronisation failure:

Survey Database

It is not currently supported to use survey databases in Collaboration for Civil 3D. As a workaround, the best approach is to create and path the survey database in Autodesk Docs using a mapped drive workflow .

Save all the files needed, for example, the survey point CSV, in Autodesk Docs before using a survey drawing.

Surface source LandXML files

For any surface you will create inside a drawing stored in Autodesk Docs, it is important that the surface's source LandXML is saved in Autodesk Docs prior to importing the LandXML file in a drawing. Once the source LandXML file is in Autodesk Docs, it will not create any related data in Autodesk Docs.

If your LandXML file is saved on a local drive, it will create a related data folder in Autodesk Docs. The workaround to this is to copy the related data LandXML file into a new folder inside Autodesk Docs and then open the surface DWG to re-path the source LandXML to a correct Autodesk Docs location, then you can delete the related data folder.

Quantity takeoff files

Note: Since Civil 3D 2020.5, QTO reference files are no longer uploaded automatically by Desktop Connector.

The best practice is to save source CSV and XML files to Autodesk Docs in a source folder.

Any DWT and DWG files that will need QTO will need to be re-pathed to the Autodesk Docs source folder.

If you save a drawing that has QTO files pointing to your local drive, it will create a related data folder in Autodesk Docs. The workaround to this is to copy the related data files and save them into a new folder inside Autodesk Docs and then on the command line type QTOMANAGER and update the path of your QTO files to point to the correct Autodesk Docs location, then you can delete the related data folder.

Reference templates

Template files of all kinds can be stored in Autodesk Docs. It is recommended that a project admin upload DWT files to a Templates folder at the time the project is created.

Reference templates that are already part of a Civil 3D project will automatically be uploaded with their host drawings.

You can use a configuration file to prevent reference templates from being uploaded to Autodesk Docs. For more information, see To Prevent Reference Templates from Being Uploaded to Autodesk Docs when Using Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D.

BAK files

If you are encountering an issue that drawings cannot be saved to Autodesk Docs, it might be due to the existence of BAK files. Using the MOVEBAK command to define a different location for all BAK files can prevent this issue moving forward.

If a cloud drawing can't be saved:

  1. Save the affected DWG to a local folder to keep a backup copy.
  2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the location of the file.
  3. Delete the BAK file associated with the DWG that cannot be saved.
  4. In Civil 3D, save the file again to the same location in Autodesk Docs.
Parent topic: Best Practices for Working With Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D