The Problem
While on tech support I came across a case where a surface was not automatically updating when opening a sheet drawing. The person had created a design sheet set using the Civil 3D sheet creation function. He then had an issue with the surface contours and labels not automatically syncing when he batch plotted. The plot would be missing the surface contours and labels. He would have to go into each sheet drawing and manually synchronize the reference, which for a few files is fine. When you have upwards of 5 sheets, it is a pain to have to open each drawing and synchronize the surface reference. It’s much easier to just run a batch plot. Unfortunately, it is a known issue with Civil 3D that the Autodesk development team is working on. In the meantime, there is a work around.
The Solution
What you will need to do is add “SYNCHRONIZEREFERENCES” command to the startup lisp routine (ACADDOC.lsp). The ACADDOC.lsp file is invoked every time a drawing is opened, and thus the synchronize references command will run each time a drawing is opened. The acaddoc.lsp is something that needs to be created because it is not out-of-the box customization. You can use notepad to create this file if it was not already created by your company as part of the software install. It requires lisp coding. I recommend putting the file in the following folder location "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2015\Support”.
Additionally, you cannot run a batch plot in the background for this solution to work.
Information about Auto-Loading and Running AutoLISP Routines.
More information from Autodesk support.
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