Civil 3D Command Line Not Working for Typed Commands

July 24, 2023 Ryan Wunderlich

Issue:
Command typed into the command line of the active window do not appear when two or more drawings are open at the same time in Civil 3D. 
These conditions may also occur:

  • The command may randomly stop working leading to the program freezing up and/or crashing.
  • The typed command may appear in the command line of an inactive drawing. 
  • Flipping back and forth between drawings several times or trying to copy an object from one to the other results in the program crashing

Causes:
This problem has been a defect in Civil 3D for a while.  It generally occurs when an open, but not active drawing incurs an Autosave and steals the active command line to that drawing.

Solution:
Below are the possible solutions to this specific issue:

  1. Make sure the software is fully updated.
  2. In each drawing you have open, type in the command LEVELOFDETAILOFF.  You must do this is every drawing you have open
  3. Turn off the Autosave (SAVETIME = 0) – this is NOT recommended, as you will not have any autosave files is Civil 3D crashes
  4. You can go into each active tab (all open drawings) and attempt to steal focus back to the one you are working on.
  5. Reset Civil 3D back to the defaults and see if the issue remains (https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Resolving-user-specific-issues-by-resetting-Civil-3D-to-defaults.html)
     

About the Author

Ryan Wunderlich

Sr. Technical Support Specialist<br><br>An AutoCAD Certified Professional, Ryan is responsible for taking client cases and assisting with issues with the software - everything from regular glitches to software deployments and whatever else goes wrong. He's proficient in AutoCAD (including customization), VBA, LISP, and Civil 3D.

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