Land Desktop Terrain Model Explorer and locked surface

We use AutoCad 3D Land Desktop Companion 2009 in the office where I work,we have around 40 network licenses. Sometimes when a surface is created in a drawing on one computer, that surface becomes locked by that user and cannot be edited in any way on any of the other computers in the office. My question is twofold: first how do you create a surface without locking it, and second how do you unlock a locked surface?

I am having a problem with one certain drawing right now where even if I open the drawing on the computer that the surface was created on I still get the message that the surface is locked by so-andd-so and cannot be edited. Even if the user who created the surface trys to edit the surface it still remains locked. It will not even let me delete the surface. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Congrats on your first post, and welcome to the forums!

I also use LDC 2009 at work, and the answer to removing the file lock on the surface, is for the person who has accessed the surface to right click said surface in the Terrain Model Explorer, and select close. This will remove the file lock, and enable others to open the surface with write privileges.

If that still does not work, then you'll need to remove the file lock manually by going to Projects > Project Manager > File Locks and delete the file lock with the surface.

:: WARNING ::

Deleting all file locks will cause others who have accessed alignments, etc. to lose write access, and should not be done without notifying/checking with coworkers first.

Hope this helps!

Hello there,

I am using AutoCAD LDD 2007.

I have this same issue, and after trying these steps I am still having a problem with this lock issue. I can right click on the surface in the Terrain Model Explorer, and close it to unlock it, then I can pick create contours, and it will say that the surface status is unlocked, but then when I click on OK I get the error "surface has not been built" "surface load failed". Then the next time I go to look at the surface its status is locked.

Also if I go into the file locks it has that same file lock listed a few times. Even if I delete these entries it creates another as soon as I do anything with the surface again.

By the way I created this project on my local system to make sure there was no other access and the only person touching the file is myself, and it is a fresh file with no terrain work done on it at all.

If anyone has any suggestions for me I would very much appreciate it.

Igot this reply from Renderman, I found it helpful

RenderMan has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Land Desktop Terrain Model Explorer and

locked surface - in the Civil 3D & LDD forum of AutoCAD Forums.

I also use LDC 2009 at work, and the answer to removing the file lock on the surface, is for the person who has

accessed the surface to right click said surface in the Terrain Model Explorer, and select close. This will remove

the file lock, and enable others to open the surface with write privileges.

If that still does not work, then you'll need to remove the file lock manually by going to Projects > Project

Manager > File Locks and delete the file lock with the surface.