The workings under the hood in the Subsurface Utilities is complex, bringing together Cell libraries, Feature Definitions, Feature Symbologies, and Element Templates together in both the 2D design plan and the OpenRoads managed 3D model. Troubleshooting issues within this system is often a complicated process. Recently, while troubleshooting a SUDA configuration I encountered an issue with my cells “blowing up” showing the various meshes and solids incorrectly sized and disconnected.

The issue here is related to the location of the elements in the cell model found in the library. Despite being properly modeled, the distance from the model origin of the elements is translated incorrectly in use by SUDA.

Original Model Location    Corrected Model Location

Moving the elements in the cell model closer to the origin and updating the design in the Subsurface Model remedies the issues occurring when the cell is used.