Section 03 40 00Resources › Division 03 Projects
Health, drift, and existing drawings
Health compares the sheets against the model and the template and lists what has drifted: a missing north arrow or scale bar, a viewport someone resized, an alignment that moved away from its tiles, a deleted layout, a reference that changed since the build. Each warning names the button that settles it, and Auto Repair handles the common ones. Layouts you drafted by hand can be adopted and checked the same way, without rebuilding them.
Before you start. Health opens from the Health button in the project management section of the palette. Full Health runs every check, Auto Repair fixes the common ones, and the context buttons named below only appear while the issue they address is present.
What Health checks
Health compares the sheets against the model and the template. It reports on what SheetAgent for Civil 3D created; what you drew yourself is not audited. The full list:
- A missing north arrow or scale bar, per layout. PDF detail sheets are exempt, since they carry neither.
- A viewport moved, resized or rescaled by hand: a scale changed by more than 2 percent, a rotation changed by more than half a degree, or a tile grown past its viewport slot. Settled by Normalize VP, which asks which side wins.
- An alignment that moved away from its tiles, tracked per alignment. Settled by Update Tiles, then Update Sheets.
- Tiles modified since preview, meaning the tiles were moved rather than the alignment. Settled by Retile, then Update Sheets.
- The viewport size changed since preview, so the set is still tiled to the old size. Settled by Retile.
- Template position drift: the north arrow, scale bar or key map label moved on _TEMPLATE_TB since the last build. Settled by Update Sheets.
- A reference that changed since the build, the title block XREF included. Reload it and press Update Sheets; press Set TB again if the title block itself changed.
- A layout that has been deleted, and a count mismatch between the sheets built and the preview tiles. Update Sheets puts the layout back.
- A north arrow, scale bar or attribute block that was never configured. Configure it on _TEMPLATE_TB and Update Sheets backfills it; Auto Repair covers the missing support blocks.
- Layers that differ from the loaded company standard, with Standardize offered. On an older drawing that is expected, not an error.
- On Key Plans and Project Control: a subset saved after the last scan, a profile tile moved by hand, and Profile Split Sync Required when the tiling changed after a split.
- A drawing that is a clone, or carries duplicate identifiers after a copy or WBLOCK.
- Match lines drawn in paper space, which are approximate.
On demand: Gap Preview marks coverage below your minimum, and Verify North Arrow compares the arrow against computed north.
What Health does not check: the text inside your title block fields. It checks that the sheet number and sheet name attributes exist and that the attribute block is configured. The values themselves are kept right by the renumber cascade, and a sheet name typed over by hand is corrected at the next update, on purpose. Everything you drew yourself, your own layers, and the content inside the viewports are yours to review.
Full Health runs every check. Auto Repair fixes the common ones: stale checksums, missing support blocks, and warnings left over from changes already made. Context buttons such as Update Tiles, Retile and Normalize VP appear only while the issue they settle is present; if one is not there, that issue is not open.
What the health colours mean
The coloured word on each tab is a one-word summary of the project.
Green, healthy: nothing needs attention.
Orange, warning: the smaller things. A missing north arrow or scale bar, a count mismatch between the sheets built and the preview tiles, or a sheet whose layout has been deleted, which Update Sheets puts back.
Red, critical: an alignment that has drifted from its tiles, or a key plans scan that has gone stale.
The tab shows only the word. Open Health for the full issue list, where Full Health runs every check and Auto Repair fixes the common ones, such as missing support blocks and warnings left over from changes already made.
Context buttons such as Update Tiles, Retile and Normalize VP appear only while an issue they can fix is present. If one is not there, that issue is not open.
Which layers are managed
Only the layers SheetAgent for Civil 3D creates itself are managed: the sheet, viewport, match line and key map layers it generates. Their colour, plot and lock state are set on build and on update.
Your own layers are left alone, along with their colours, linetypes and plot styles.
So is the layer freeze and thaw you set inside each viewport: an update keeps it. To make one viewport's layer state the rule for every sheet, copy it across with Apply Layers.
When the alignment changes
Tiles are placed against the alignment at preview. If the alignment geometry is edited afterwards, the tiles no longer match it and Health raises a drift warning, tracked per alignment.
Step 1. Open Health and press Update Tiles. The tile positions are updated to the new geometry. The button only appears while the warning is active.
Step 2. Press Update Sheets on your workflow tab so the layouts follow. Only the changed tiles are updated.
Step 3. Press Refresh on Health.
If you edited the viewports on purpose and want those edits kept, use Normalize VP rather than Update Tiles.
A different warning, that tiles were modified since preview, means the tiles were moved rather than the alignment. Press Retile on Health, then Update Sheets.
When viewports snap back: Normalize VP
Normalize VP appears in Health after viewports are moved, resized or rescaled by hand, or when a tile grows past its viewport slot. It asks which side should win, and settles the mismatch in one of two opposite directions.
Choose Viewports, the default, to snap the edited viewports back to the size and position the program set. The manual viewport edits are discarded.
Choose Model tiles to adjust the model space tiles to match the edited viewports. The manual edits are kept and become the new baseline.
Any tile larger than its viewport slot is resized down to the slot maximum.
Once normalized, the related warnings clear and Update Sheets works from the new baseline, so the viewports stop snapping back.
For profile tiles on plan and profile sheets the equivalent is Accept Profile Positions.
Stale reference before build
This indicator is protective. A baseline of the title block and other references is recorded when you build. If a referenced file changes after that, the stale-reference indicator is raised rather than letting sheets quietly plot from an outdated XREF.
Step 1. Reload the changed reference if AutoCAD has not picked it up yet.
Step 2. Press Update Sheets so every sheet is regenerated against the current reference. The indicator clears.
Step 3. If the title block itself is what changed, press Set TB again so the _TEMPLATE_TB XREF, and every sheet inheriting from it, is refreshed.
Adding blocks to sheets that are already built
You do not have to rebuild. If you configured a north arrow, scale bar, attributes, match lines or key maps after the sheets were built, Update Sheets backfills them onto every existing sheet.
Step 1. Configure the item on the _TEMPLATE_TB layout first: Config North Arrow, Config Scale Bar, Config Attributes, Match Line Style, and so on.
Step 2. Press Update Sheets. It copies the configured support blocks, attributes, match lines and key maps to every sheet.
The pass is add-only. It places what is missing and leaves your existing sheet content alone.
If something is still missing afterwards, open Health and run Auto Repair.
Adopting layouts built by hand
Adopt Existing Layouts, on the Welcome tab, brings sheets you built by hand under SheetAgent for Civil 3D's management.
Step 1. Press Adopt Existing Layouts and let it classify the layouts.
Step 2. Confirm the title block and the viewport it detects on each one.
Step 3. From then on, use Update Sheets. Give a few sheets a look before relying on it.
If there are no existing layouts to adopt, pick a workflow on the Welcome tab and start from Create Preview instead.
Where project data lives
Project data sits in three places.
Inside the drawing itself: the workflow, the naming convention and the viewport size travel in the drawing file, and each tile stays linked to its layout. Because it lives in the file, copying or moving the drawing keeps the project intact.
Next to the control drawing: a Key Plans project is saved as its own file alongside the control drawing. Keep the two together when folders move.
With the source drawing: a profile split setup, meaning the anchor, the source profile view and the coverage, is remembered with the source drawing. Save that drawing after a split.
The reset buttons clear this data for a fresh start.
Resetting a project
Reset Project Data clears all SheetAgent for Civil 3D data from the drawing: the saved project setup, the _TEMPLATE_TB layout and the title block reference. Use it for a clean start, or to unlock the tabs once a workflow is locked in.
Step 1. Press Reset Project Data in the project management section. On the Multi VP tab it is called Reset Project.
Step 2. Confirm. Your sheets and tiles are not deleted, but the project link is gone, so the rebuild starts again from Create Preview.
End of section 03 40 00
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