Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Read the command log first. GoSurvey states what it wants, what it did, and why it refused.
Press F2 for the full console and scroll back — most of the answers below are already in there.
Installation and startup
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| "Windows protected your PC" on the installer | The installer is not code-signed yet | More info → Run anyway, if you trust the release |
| The program will not start — missing DLL | The Visual C++ runtime is not installed | Install the Visual C++ Redistributable for x64 |
| Startup hangs on "Checking for updates" | Slow or blocked network | Press Continue without checking. Turn the check off in Settings → System |
| Graphics glitches, or the window is black | Driver or GPU incompatibility | Settings → System — turn off Hardware Acceleration, or tick Prefer the integrated GPU |
| The bundled template was not found | resources/ is missing beside the executable |
Reinstall. Resources resolve relative to the executable |
Files
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Opening a drawing did not replace the current one | Open always uses a new tab, by design | Close the tab you no longer want |
| Work was lost after a crash | There is no autosave and no recovery | Ctrl+S often |
A .gs will not open |
Truncated or hand-edited into invalid JSON | The log names the parse error. A .gs is plain JSON — a text editor will show you where |
| Preferences do not persist | gosurvey-user.json could not be written |
"Error: failed to write gosurvey-user.json (check directory permissions)" — the folder beside the executable must be writable |
| New drawings do not have my layers | No startup template | Settings → Files → Startup template (.gs) |
Drawing
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Typing a number does nothing useful | No bearing lock, Ortho off — the command has no direction | Lock a bearing with A, or press F8 |
| A line went the wrong way | Bearings are clockwise from north, not counter-clockwise from east | 90 is east, 180 south, 270 west |
@100<45 does nothing |
Polar coordinate entry is not supported | Use A 45 then 100 |
@100,50 is refused |
The prompt has no previous point | Use absolute X,Y at a first point |
| A hatch will not fill | The boundary is not actually closed | Zoom to the corners; JOIN the chain, or redraw with POLYLINE / RECT |
| A hatch pattern looks solid or invisible | The pattern scale is far off for this drawing | Adjust Scale in the Hatch ribbon section |
| Segments will not join into one object | LINE makes separate segments by design | Use POLYLINE, or JOIN afterwards |
| New geometry will not snap to old geometry | The work plane is raised | Check the status bar. UCS: Elev … means new geometry is not at Z 0. ELEV W to return to world |
| MIRROR does nothing | It is on the ribbon but not implemented | See Known Limitations |
Selection
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| The wrong object gets picked | Several overlap under the cursor | Use the SEL panel to toggle candidates |
| A modify command asks for a window when I already selected | Nothing was actually selected | Selecting first skips the window step; check the highlight |
| Quick Select returns nothing | The value does not match exactly | Use the dropdown values where offered; check the operator |
| DELETE does nothing in paper space | Paper-space DELETE needs a selection first | DELETE — select paper object(s) or viewport(s) first. |
| Objects disappeared | Isolation is active | UNISOLATEOBJECTS, or right-click ▸ Isolate Objects ▸ End Object Isolation |
Snapping
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing snaps | OSNAP is off | F3, or the status-bar OSNAP button |
| It never snaps to the feature I want | That snap type is unticked | Right-click OSNAP and tick it |
| It keeps grabbing the wrong feature | Two candidates are close, and the wrong one ranks higher | Shift + right-click for a one-shot override |
| Perpendicular offers nothing | No reference point in the running command | Perpendicular needs a previous point to be perpendicular from |
| Lines that cross in plan give no intersection | Different elevations — an apparent intersection, not a real one | Enable Apparent intersection, or orbit to check |
| The commit landed away from the preview | Previews follow the cursor; picks commit at the snapped point | Watch the snap glyph before you click |
| PDF snap finds nothing | The underlay's Lines toggle is off, or the raster DPI is too low | Check the toggle; re-attach at a higher DPI |
Coordinates
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Typed coordinates land in the wrong place | Typed values are always world coordinates | Check the status-bar readout |
| Imported geometry is miles from the points | Different coordinate systems | ALIGN with control pairs |
| The readout shows too few decimals | Display precision | UNITS → Length → Precision |
| Bearings display in a format I do not use | Display format | UNITS → Angle → Type |
| Points imported into a different county | Northing and easting are swapped | Re-import with the other column-order preset |
Survey calculations
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Traverse closure shows nothing | Not marked as a closed loop | Tick Closed Loop and recompute |
| A summary field will not accept typing | Summary rows are view-only | Expand the leg and edit the observation set |
| Vertical angles reduce wrongly | The Zenith° checkbox does not match the instrument | Checked = zenith (90° level); unchecked = elevation angle (0° level) |
| A slope distance is ignored | No vertical angle to reduce it with | Enter the vertical angle |
Least squares unavailable |
Not enough redundancy, or degenerate geometry | Add observations; check for a duplicated station |
| Std dev of unit weight is far from 1 | The a-priori standard errors do not describe the observations | Adjust Angle σ, Dist σ, Dist ppm |
| One residual is far larger than the rest | A blunder in that observation | Go back and check it — do not adjust it away |
| ALIGN left the drawing slightly the wrong size | Scale was applied when it should not have been | Undo; re-apply with Apply Scale unticked |
| A surface is stale after an import | Surfaces are not rebuilt automatically | Survey → Surfaces → Rebuild |
SURFELEV says a pick is off the surface |
It is outside the TIN, and the program will not extrapolate | Add shots, or pick inside |
| A point group stopped matching | The rule keys on description, which was edited | Key it on Raw description matches |
| A point group matches 0 points | An empty rule matches nothing, by design | Fill in at least one criterion; try *EG* |
Import
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| DXF import brings in nothing | Binary DXF | "Binary DXF is not supported — in AutoCAD use Save As → ASCII DXF." |
| DXF import brings in nothing, and the log mentions group 67 | The geometry is all in paper space, which is not imported | Move it to model space in the source program |
| CSV import brings in nothing | The column order does not match | Check the File preview and change Column order |
| Civil 3D points did not import | They are custom objects, absent from the DXF | Export a PNEZD CSV from Civil 3D |
| Point IDs collided | Two sources numbered from 1 | Choose Renumber in the duplicate policy, or offset at the DXF merge prompt |
| DWG menu items are greyed out | No converter installed | Install the free ODA File Converter, or set GOSURVEY_DWG_CONVERTER |
| DWG conversion timed out | A large file, or the converter could not start | Check the path; try converting to DXF outside GoSurvey |
IMPORTMODEL refuses the scale |
Zero or non-finite | Give a non-zero finite number |
| Part of an imported model is missing | Only geometry is imported | The log names what was skipped — "Not imported (geometry only): …" |
Export
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Some entities are missing from the DXF | Those types have no export branch yet | Read the DXF export — excluded … log line; see Known Limitations |
| Dimensions are not live in AutoCAD | Aligned dimensions export as exploded lines plus text | Expected. Recreate them in the receiving program if they must be associative |
| DWG export lost blocks and layouts | Documented; the dialog warns before writing | Use DXF where possible |
DXF export — could not open file for writing |
The path is not writable, or the file is open elsewhere | Close it and retry |
Display
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| The drawing looks stale | GPU cache | REGEN / RE |
| Zoom extents shows a huge empty area | An entity at a wild coordinate | The DXF import log prints both the full and the outlier-excluded bounding box — find and delete it |
| A surface is a mess of triangle edges | Surfaces are drawn as triangle edges in every visual style; SHADED does not fill them |
Expected. ORBIT to read the shape, SURFELEV for numbers |
| Diagonal lines look jagged | Line smoothing is off | Settings → System → Smooth line display |
| Panels are in the wrong place | Layout drift | View → Reset layout |
| The command bar is gone | Hidden | Ctrl+9, or View → Command line |
| Turning a layer On off changes nothing | On/Freeze/Lock are stored but not enforced yet | Use HIDEOBJECTS / ISOLATEOBJECTS, or VP Freeze in a layout |
Performance
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| The display is slow on a large drawing | Dense geometry or a big surface | Isolate what you are working on; lower Arc and circle smoothness |
| A large model import takes minutes | Expected, especially through the DWG converter | The log warns before it starts |
| The program feels slow on a laptop | The integrated GPU is in use | Settings → System — untick Prefer the integrated GPU |
| Measuring frame performance | — | BENCH, BENCH SURFACE, BENCH MESH |
Commands
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
<command> — finish or cancel the active command first |
Another command is running | Esc, then retry |
Unknown command. Did you mean: …? |
Typo, or the command does not exist | Pick a suggestion, or check Command Reference |
| A command runs but nothing happens | Its precondition failed | The log says which — read it |
| I cannot find the PLOT command | There is no typed PLOT command | Use the Layout ribbon button in paper space |
| The autocomplete popup blocks a click | Clicks on the popup are ignored by the viewport, by design | Esc to dismiss it |
Plotting
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| The Plot button is not on the ribbon | You are in model space | Switch to a paper layout |
| Text is far too big or small on the sheet | Annotation scale does not match the viewport scale | Set both to the same value, then recreate the text |
| Point labels moved after a scale change | Labels are placed in plotted inches, so they reposition by design | Set the plot scale before finishing the sheet |
| The viewport border prints | Its layer is plottable | Move the viewport to a non-plottable layer |
| A layer is missing from the PDF | Its Plot flag is off, or it is VP-frozen | Check the Layer Manager |
| Fonts look wrong in the PDF | A font could not be embedded | The log names it — "could not embed TrueType font '…'; substituted …". Use a different text style |
| Cannot write the PDF | It is open in a reader | Close it and plot again |
| Batch pages are in the wrong order | Pages follow layout order, not tick order | Reorder with Move or Copy… |
Still stuck
- Press
F2and read the log from the point where things went wrong. - Right-click the log ▸ Copy log to clipboard.
- Open an issue with the log, the version from Settings → System, and what you were doing.