Crossing The Line with Civil 3D

How Do I "EXPLODE" a Group?

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:50:00 +0000

I was asked this question twice this week already so I thought it would be good to post the answer for others.

To "explode" a group, use the AutoCAD command: UNGROUP

Of course "exploding" a group may not be the best choice for every situation. In groups, if you just want to grip edit something within the group, set the system variable GROUPDISPLAYMODE to 0. This setting will display grips on all objects in the selected group. It will preserve the group while allowing you access to grips to make changes to individual objects within the group.

Here are a few images to show the difference between the three settings available in the GROUPDISPLAYMODE system variable. Each image shows a group consisting of an mtext object and a rectangular wipeout that has been selected within a drawing.


GROUPDISPLAYMODE set to 0

With GROUPDISPLAYMODE set to 0, the grips on all objects in the selected group will be displayed. Notice that I can adjust the limits of the wipeout or the width of the mtext object.

GROUPDISPLAYMODE set to 1

With GROUPDISPLAYMODE set to 1, a single grip at the center of the grouped object will be displayed. Notice the single grip at the center? With this setting I can't adjust the limits of the wipeout or the width of the mtext object.

GROUPDISPLAYMODE set to 2

With GROUPDISPLAYMODE set to 2, a group bounding box and a single grip at the center of the grouped object will be displayed. The only difference between this setting and the previous setting is that with the bounding box visible I can see the limits of the objects in the group.

Autodesk University 2012 Classes Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:08:00 +0000

The materials and recordings for the 2012 Autodesk University classes have been posted. You can access the class list here:

You must have an AU account to access the classes. If you don't have an AU account, you can sign up for one here.

Since the announcement about this just went public, you may notice the website being a bit slow to respond. Just be patient because there are so many good classes available. In case you feel overwhelmed when you see the class listing, just refine your search such as Software: Civil 3D. There's even a filter for Language: Portuguese.

Enjoy!

OSNAPZ to the Rescue

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Do you remember the Almond Joy/Mounds commercials?

(Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.)

The OSNAPZ command in AutoCAD reminds me of those commercials.

(Sometimes I want elevation, sometimes I don't.)

The OSNAPZ command is an easy way to switch between snapping to an elevation and forcing an elevation when creating or editing AutoCAD objects. When drafting in both the Civil Engineering and Land Surveying fields, both options are useful.

From the AutoCAD help documentation:

With OSNAPZ set to 0, OSNAP uses the Z-value of the specified point. For a polyline, the elevation selected for the first vertex will be assigned as the elevation of the polyline.

With OSNAPZ set to 1, OSNAP substitutes the Z-value of the specified point with the elevation (ELEV) set for the current UCS. With the system variable ELEV set to 0, the elevation will default to 0 for all selected points.

Now hopefully I can finally get that song out of my head.

Which Way is North?

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:59:00 +0000

Okay I admit it, the allure of one day being invited into the "Autodesk Expert Elite Program" has me checking the Autodesk Civil 3D Discussion Forums and blogging again. Since I'm only at the designated level of "Active Contributor", I have some work to do. Thanks, Autodesk!

The idea behind this post came from a question on the Autodesk Civil 3D Discussion Forums here. The issue is with a Civil 3D 2013 Dynamic North Arrow that is associated with a viewport with the UCS set to World, the dview twist angle set to "0", and the viewport set to plan. For some reason the north arrow was off by over 4.6 degrees. Bruce, a designated Autodesk "Expert Elite" himself, was kind enough to post a sample drawing to show the issue and here's what was discovered.:

Dynamic north arrows are associated with the

selected coordinate system in the Units and Zone tab.

When you place a dynamic north arrow in a layout and associate it with a viewport, the block reads the current coordinate system that is assigned in the drawing settings Units and Zone tab and adjusts the default rotation of the block based on that setting. Even if there isn't a rotation in the viewport, the north arrow won't be pointing due north as you might expect. Here's an example.:

In Civil 3D 2013, open an existing drawing or create a new drawing from scratch.
On the model tab (modelspace) draw a rectangle of any size.
In the Settings tab of Toolspace, right click on the drawing name and choose Edit Drawing Settings.
On the Units and Zone tab, set the Drawing Settings Zone Categories to No Datum, No Projection.

No Datum, No Projection

In a layout (paperspace), create a rectangular viewport from scratch. Make sure you can see the rectangle in the viewport to verify rotation throughout this example. You may need to zoom out if necessary to see the rectangle rotation better.
When you are in paperspace, there should be a Layout Tools ribbon tab available. Locate the Layout Elements Panel and select one of the built-in dynamic north arrows to place in the drawing.

Select one of the built-in Dynamic North Arrows
When prompted at the command line, select a viewport for the north arrow association.
Next you'll be prompted to select a location to place the north arrow.
The north arrow may be very small and hard to see. Set the x, y, and z scales to 20. Notice that it appears to be pointing due north when compare to the rectangle in the viewport.

North is North
To make sure we compare apples to apples, make a copy of the viewport in your drawing.
Back in the Toolspace, Settings, Drawing Settings, Units and Zone tab, set the selected coordinate system to WA83-SF, then OK.
Now place a new dynamic north arrow in the drawing using the second viewport (the copy) for the north arrow association. (Only one dynamic north arrow can be assigned to each viewport.)
Place the second north arrow near the first one and again set the x, y, and z scales to 20.
Notice that the north arrows don't point the same direction? That's because of the change made to the selected coordinate system.

Compare the Dynamic North Arrows

This is definitely something that you need to take into consideration when you use the dynamic north arrows in a drawing with an assigned coordinate system other than No Datum, No Projection. If you do need to rotate the contents of a viewport, just set the coordinate system back to No Datum, No Projection before making the change, then reset the coordinate system as needed.

Another consideration is to set the coordinate system in the base drawing and attach it to a separate sheet drawing for plotting. The sheet doesn't need a coordinate system assigned to it so there won't be a discrepancy between plan north and the rotation of the dynamic north arrow.

UPDATE: There is another solution that actually works better.

GEOGRAPHICLOCATION

In modelspace, type GEO at the command line then choose Remove the geographic location.

With the geographic location removed, you can keep the coordinate system assigned and the dynamic north arrow will point plan north as expected.

Slow Down and Render This

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 04:01:00 +0000

Yesterday, I received an email with an attached drawing. Verbally, the request was to determine why the drawing is so slow, especially when using the zoom extents.The email included the following additional information:

This file was messing up badly on Wednesday...crazy slow, etc.

This morning with my new reload of AutoCAD 2011, it wasn't as bad... but still has signs of corruption...

One thing that I noticed is that the TIN in the V-TINN-VIEW layer doesn't look right... the contours are fine... but I didn't know if you had a fix for that...

There are lots of things that can cause a drawing to be a little slow. I have a list of things I check in a drawing but I knew that many of those had already been checked by the owner of this drawing. The comment about the TIN not looking correct was definitely a clue to the problem as was the knowledge that the user had recently been working with point clouds including some third party software.

I knew the fresh install and absence of the third party software had ruled out that being the issue so my first option was simply to open the drawing. Here's what I saw in the bottom left corner of the application:

This is not the ucs icon that I typically see in my drawings. The thickness of the ucs icon elements was an indication to me that the visual style was set to something other than 2D Wireframe.

To verify my suspicion, on the View ribbon tab, I selected the dropdown on the Views Panel and found the visual style was set to Hidden.

I left clicked on the Hidden visual style and changed the visual style to 2D Wireframe.

Now the ucs icon looks as expected and the speed of the drawing has returned to "normal".

Now if you are using AutoCAD 2012 or later, take a look at the upper left corner of model space. There you should find the Visual Style Controls.

As you can see, the visual style in this drawing is now set to 2D Wireframe. Changing this setting from Hidden to 2D Wireframe greatly improved the speed of the drawing.

Don't Forget These Commands...Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Here's another system variable that I forget because I only seem to need it when working on drawings from others:

XCLIPFRAME

Here's the definition from the AutoCAD Help Menu:

When this system variable is set to 0 and you xclip an xreference drawing, you can't see the boundary of the xclip and therefor you can't invert the selection. We set this variable to 2 in our templates so that we can see the frame (for adjusting and inverting as needed), but the frame won't plot.

Quick Tip about Importing Styles and Settings

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

If you're using Civil 3D 2012, you've hopefully already heard about the ability to Import Styles and Settings. This new command is a real time saver but be careful, because you may not be getting everything you want.

Here are a few things you won't get by using the Import Styles Command:

Object Layer Settings (Use this workaround to transfer the settings to your current drawing)
Blocks and Layers not used in styles (Use Design Center to import all layers and blocks)
Description Key (Use old style drag & drop to import into your current drawing)

There may be more items that aren't imported, but those three items will definitely be missing if you use the Import Styles command.

Feel free to add comments for additional items that you find missing when you use the command.

What's Missing In the World of Civil 3D Points? Not This!

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:06:00 +0000

Sure there are feature requests that we all have for Civil 3D points such as having full functionality of dynamic blocks within a point style, but this post is actually about what is no longer missing.

This morning I was asked how to find ranges of point numbers that were not currently being used in a drawing. In older versions of Civil 3D, one might have tried to look at the All Points point group properties for a list of points in that group. Well, now there's an easier way to get the answer.

Beginning with Civil 3D 2011, we were given this nifty new command:

LISTAVAILABLEPOINTNUMBERS

This command returns a list of point numbers that are not in use in the current drawing. Now you might be thinking that is a really long command name to remember but don't panic. Here's a how you can access the command:

In Civil 3D 2011, at the command line, type LISTA then press tab then enter. Civil 3D will auto-complete the command for you.
In Civil 3D 2012, at the command line, type LISTA then press enter (no tab key required). Civil 3D will auto-complete the command for you.
In Civil 3D 2011 or 2012, select a Civil 3D point. On the COGO Point contextual ribbon tab, look for the COGO Point Tools panel . Left click on the bottom of that panel and a fly out will appear. Choose List Available Point Numbers from the list.

So now you know one thing that is no longer missing from the world of Civil 3D points.

It's an Excel-lent Round Up

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:01:00 +0000

When working in the civil engineering world, you sometimes need to round a number up. For example, if you're looking to size circular rcp storm sewer, then you will need to be able to round to the nearest half foot. When working in Excel, the formula =ROUND(Number, Num_digits) will not give you the desired result.

So instead you should use the Excel CEILING function =CEILING(Number, Significance). The Ceiling function allows you dictate your rounding to the nearest multiple of significance.

In the case of a value of 3.298 feet that needs to be rounded up to the nearest 0.5 feet, we would use the formula =CEILING(3.298,0.5) to return a value of 3.5. Likewise a value of 2.033 would return a value of 2.5.

This great tip was provided by Steve Zobal, a coworker of mine at MWM DesignGroup.

Multiple Offsets are Already Here

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted to offset a line multiple times within one command? See how after the jump...

We'll begin by creating a polyline in a drawing. To make this a real world example, we'll assume this blue polyline represents the face of curb.

Figure 1

At the command line, type the letter O and then press ENTER to execute the offset command. You can also use the offset tool in the ribbon. Ribbon => Modify => Offset

Figure 2

When prompted, enter the desired offset distance (0.5 for the curb we are designing) and press ENTER.

Figure 3

Next you'll be prompted to select the object to offset. Left click on the object to offset (blue polyline in Figure 1).

Figure 4

This is the tricky part here: Before you select the offset side, type the letter M at the command line and then press ENTER.

Figure 5

The command line will again prompt you to specify the point on side to offset, but this is the cool part: You can keep selecting sides to offset! You can also switch from one side of the original object to the other side. For this face of curb example, select one time near Selection Point #1 in Figure 6, then three more times near Selection Points #2, #3, & #4 as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6

When you've completed the offset side selections, press ENTER. You will then be prompted to select another object to offset. Proceed with additional offsets or press ENTER again to complete the command.

Figure 7

Now you have the offsets you need for the curb, but there's two extra offsets that need to be deleted. The extra offsets that need to be deleted are shown as magneta lines in Figure 8.

Figure 8

The final results should look like this:

Figure 9

Hopefully this multiple offset feature will help you be more efficient and productive on your next project.

Properties vs List - Same or Different?

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:30:00 +0000

Though the properties palette is packed with information, there may be something missing. Here's an example of information that the list command reports that isn't available in the properties palette:

In Figure 1.0, there are four feature lines. The three red feature lines have been added to the surface, but the fourth feature line (the blue one) has not been added to the surface. How do I know that? It's all in the properties...just not the properties palette.

Figure 1.0

Figure 1.1 shows the information that is available in the properties palette for a feature line that has been added to a surface (such as one of the red feature lines in Figure 1.0):

Figure 1.1

If I run the list command on the same feature line (one that has been added to a surface), Figure 1.2 shows the information that is provided in the command line:

Figure 1.2

Notice that for this Civil 3D object, the properties in the "General" section of the properties palette don't appear in the list command results. Though some of the "Data" section of the properties palette is being reported in the list command results, a very useful property, "Breakline Data", only appears in the list command results and not in the information reported in the Properties Palette. The "Breakline Data" property lists the surface that contains the feature line definition in it and the breakline set. This information could be important if you need to delete this feature line but want to know if deleting the feature line will affect your surface definition.

Figure 1.3 shows the properties of a feature line that has not been added to a surface (such as the blue feature line in Figure 1.0).

Figure 1.3

Notice that for this feature line, the "Breakline Data" property has been omitted from the list command results. That's how I know that this feature line has not been added to a surface definition in this drawing.

Get Those Child Styles Under Control

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:30:00 +0000

Have you ever created a child style, changed a setting on it, then wished that component property was still following the default setting from the parent style? This is especially apparent when changes are made to the Text Contents of a component. Before you go blaming the software for not working correctly, take a look at the style itself. It may be doing exactly what you told it to do.

Once you make a change to any part of a component of a style, an override is flagged on the Summary tab and that part of the component will no longer follow the changes made to the parent style. Here's a short exercise to show how it works:

Create a new drawing from the "_AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS template" in Civil 3D 2012.
In the Toolspace, Settings tab, locate the Structure Label Styles.

Expand the Label Styles and select the label style named "Data with Connected Pipes (Sanitary)", right click, and choose Edit... from the list.
After the Label Style Composer dialog box is open, select the Layout tab and verify that there are three components in this style: Structure Text, Incoming Pipes, and Outgoing Pipes.
Now close this dialog box by left clicking on Cancel.
Locate the Structure Label Style in the Toolspace Settings tab again. This time right click on the "Data with Connected Pipes (Sanitary)" style and choose "New..." from the list.

This will create a child style of the selected label style.
In the Label Style Composer dialog box, select the Information tab and edit the Name to: "Data with Connected Pipes (Sanitary) [Description Only]". You can also edit the Description for this label style on the Information tab at this time.
Now select the Layout tab, then in the Component name: dropdown list, select "Incoming Pipes".
Under the "General" section, locate the "Visibility" property . Change the value to False.
Repeat this process for the Outgoing Pipes component too.
Now select the Summary tab. In the Property column, left click on the by Component 2 to expand the properties of that component.

In the Override column there should be a green check mark in the box in the General: Visiblity row. This means that even if you change this visibility state in the parent style, such as setting the value to False, the visibility state of this component will not change. There should be a green check mark in the box in the General: Visibility row of Component 3 as well. Left click on OK to complete these changes to the style.

Now to see how this change affects the parent style, edit the original label style. You can do this by repeating Step 3, then selecting the Summary tab. Left click on the by Component 2 and you'll see a gray arrow pointing down in the Child Override column. This indicates that this property has been overridden in at least one child style. If you want to remove this override from all the child styles, left click on the gray arrow. A small red x will appear near the bottom right side of the gray arrow to indicate that you will be removing these overrides. Left click on Apply. The Summary tab will refresh at this point and all expanded properties will collapse. Left click on the by Component 2 again and there should no longer be a gray arrow in the Child Override column of the General: Visibility row. You can edit the child style to verify that the Visibility of Component 2 was reset to True.

The point of this exercise was to show you how and when the overrides are created so that if your child style isn't responding the way you expect when a change is made to the parent style, take a look at the Summary tab and look for Overrides.

Multiple Surface Dilemma (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0000

NOTE: This is Part 3 of the Multiple Surfaces Dilemma Series. You can view Part 1 of the series here. In Part 1 of this series, a surface named ComboSurface was created. Make sure you create that surface in your drawing before proceeding with these steps.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a visual representation of the target minimum depth in the profile view while you're designing your pipe network? Here's a way to make that happen:

Create a new surface in your current drawing and name it "MinimumDepth". You can use the same procedure as described for creating the "ComboSurface" in the original post of this series. Just as with the ComboSurface, this surface will not need to be displayed so set the surface style to "_No Display" as it's created.

To add some substance to the new surface, you'll need to paste the ComboSurface into the MinimumDepth surface. Again, use the same procedure described in the original post of this series except you'll be pasting a different surface.

Under the MinimumDepth surface definition, locate the Edits option, right click, and select "Raise/Lower Surface".

When prompted at the command line, enter -4 to lower the MinimumDepth surface 4 feet.

The last thing to do is create a profile based on the MinimumDepth surface:

On the home ribbon tab, locate the "Create Design" Panel, left click on Profiles, then choose "Create Surface Profile" from the drop down list.

In the Create Profile from Surface dialog box, select the alignment, select the MinimumDepth surface, then left click on Add.

Change the style of the newly created profile to a style called "Minimum Depth". This style places the profile linework on a layer that doesn't plot and has a forced color and linestyle to look different from all other profiles.

The final product looks like this:

Don't Forget These Commands...Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:36:00 +0000

Two AutoCAD Map commands that everyone should know:

MAPCLEAN - A powerful utility that enables you to delete duplicate objects, weed polylines, and do many other cleanup actions.

MAPIINSERT - Inserts a raster image at the location and scale specified in the image or in the associated world file if available.

Don't Forget These Commands...Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:30:00 +0000

So I know that I typically blog about Civil 3D, but after assisting with an issue in Microstation this morning, I realized that I should add this keyin command to my "Don't Forget" list.

The issue was that a linestyle looked fine in one drawing, but different when referenced into another drawing. I found some good information on the Bentley site with a quick Google search. Here's a direct link to that page:

http://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/setting-linestyle-scale-in-microstation-v8-cs.aspx

We used the keyin command window to set active linestylescale to 20 in both drawings and that fixed the display problem we were having.

So as not to disappoint the Civil 3D readers of this blog, I'll add these commands to the "Don't Forget" list as well. The descriptions are taken from the System Variables.:

LTSCALE - Sets the global linetype scale factor.

MSLTSCALE - Scales linetypes displayed on the model tab by the annotation scale.

PSLTSCALE - Controls the linetype scaling of objects displayed in paper space viewports.

I typically keep all three of these system variables set to 1.

Multiple Surface Dilemma (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0000

NOTE: This is Part 2 of the Multiple Surfaces Dilemma Series. You can view Part 1 of the series here. In Part 1 of this series, a surface named ComboSurface was created. Make sure you create that surface in your drawing before proceeding with these steps.

In this post, I'm going to assign the ComboSurface to the Pipe Network in the network properties dialog box.

Since the pipe network has already been created in my drawing, I just need to locate it in the Prospector tab of Toolspace, select it, right click, and choose Network Properties.
Set the surface name to ComboSurface.

Now as I place pipes and structures in this pipe network, the correct elevation will be used/reported (EG or FG) according to the location of the pipe or structure. Remember, you don't want this surface visible, just create it and select it from the list of surfaces when needed.

Taming a Feature Line Gone Bad

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:30:00 +0000

Feature lines in Civil 3D are incredibly versatile. You can use them for many purposes other than grading. Unfortunately, sometimes their complexity can cause problems.

What happens if one of your feature lines doesn't seem to be responding as expected? For example, what if I added an elevation point to a feature line that was part of a surface and even rebuilding the surface didn't show the elevation change. There could be several reasons for this including the possibility of the feature line being corrupt or maybe you deleted that point from the surface definition.

Whatever the issue may be, if you have a problem with a feature line, especially in conjunction with surfaces, give this a try:

First of all save the drawing.
Escape a few times then select the problem feature line.
List the feature line. Make note of which site (typically Site 1) contains this feature line because you'll need it for future reference.
Right click and select "Copy to Site..." or left click on Modify on the Feature Line Ribbon tab and select "Copy to Site..."
Select the "Temp" site then OK.
If you haven't created the "Temp" site yet, select the drop down arrow on the Site icon then select "Create New" from the list. Name the new site Temp then OK. It should look something like this:
Left click on the feature line you just copied and run the "list" command. Notice that the feature line you selected (the one on top of all others) is in the "Temp" site.
Select the same feature line, right click, and select Display Order, Send to Back.
Select the feature line that is now on top of the other objects and list it. It should be the original feature line in the original site (Site 1).
Escape three times then select the feature line again and delete it from the drawing.
Now select the feature line copy that is in the "Temp" site. If there are objects on top of the feature line, send them to back also.
After selecting the "new" feature line, right click and select "Move to Site" or left click on Modify on the Feature Line Ribbon tab and select "Move to Site..."
Select the site that contained the original feature line (Site 1).
If the original feature line was part of a surface, select the feature line, right click and select "Add to Surface as Breakline" or left click on "Add to Surface as Breakline" on the Feature Line Ribbon tab.

You now have a nice, clean duplicate of the original feature line.

Add Spice To Your Right Click Menu Options

noreply@blogger.com (Tommie Richardson) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:59:00 +0000

Well, technically I'm going to show you how to add Isolate/Unisolate Layers to your right click menu, but spice sounded better for the title...

Execute the CUI command.
Scroll down to the Shortcut Menus option and left click on the +.
Look through the expanded list and left click on the + by Context menu for edit mode.
Right click on Context menu for edit mode and select New Sub-menu.
Rename the menu item Menu1 to Isolate Layers.
Drag the Isolate Layers sub-menu to the location just above the Isolate Objects sub-menu.
In the Search box under the Command List section, enter layer iso.
Drag the Layer Isolate command onto the Isolate Layers sub-menu that you previously created.
Repeat steps 7 & 8 for Layer Unisolate.
You can change the order of the commands under the sub-menu if necessary.
You can change the display name of the command in the sub-menu if necessary.
OK to get out of the CUI editor and you're done.

In case you're still in doubt about making edits to the CUI, here's a quick video of the whole process. It takes just over a minute to complete the steps in the video.

Out With the Old, In With the New

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Fri, 27 May 2011 05:56:00 +0000

While reading discussions on the LinkedIn AutoCAD Civil 3D Users Group, I began typing this response that I later decided was worth sharing with others.

The discussion was on why firms are still using LDD instead of Civil 3D. The responses are typically:

cost of training
no time to learn it
"if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitudes
lack of initiative to make it happen

At the firms where I've been employed, I've seen several of these responses. It seems that because an individual knows exactly what workflow to use, then it must be the most efficient one. However, once the employee has learned how to use Civil 3D and begins to become efficient at it, they may actually dread going back to LDD to work on an old project.

Learning Civil 3D takes either enthusiasm to learn and embrace new software or a mandate from management to learn it. My current firm mandated the change and now my coworkers actually request making the change from LDD to Civil 3D on projects whenever possible. In fact, just last week I helped a coworker use Civil 3D to do something with surfaces that he was unable to do in LDD. Using LandXML and drawing objects, the procedure was done very efficiently in Civil 3D yet the final product is still in the original LDD project file format.

For Civil 3D, there are so many training aids available (many of them free, especially if you are on subscription) including a Home Use License, Autodesk University recorded videos and handouts, subscription training videos, YouTube, etc.

For me to learn Civil 3D, after a couple of employer paid training classes, I requested a Civil 3D Home Use License from the company's Autodesk contract administrator and spent hours learning to create a project from scratch with Civil 3D. Of course the time I spent at home was not paid, but it gave me an opportunity to learn the software better than anyone else at the company. Now with Civil 3D experience being a more valuable commodity in the workplace, the time I spent unpaid was well worth it. Also, the fact that I learned it before more and more features were added helped a lot too. Instead of learning EVERYTHING at once, I learned alignments, then profiles. Next I tackled surfaces, then pipes, etc. I suggest you do the same thing to learn the software. Don't try to swallow the whole bottle at once, it can be overwhelming. Take smaller bites and see how they taste.

Workflows for Civil 3D are so different than LDD. Until you can put that mentality aside, you will struggle to learn the software. As for the software not doing what you want from a surveying or civil engineering perspective, join the Autodesk beta testing community or post your feature request to the Civil 3D wish list on the AUGI forums. Not using the software because a feature doesn't exist won't get that feature there any faster. Besides, the feature may be there just in a different format than where you expect. This is where local Civil 3D User Groups or discussion forums can be a great asset.

As a great man I know once said, "Don't give me problems, give me solutions!" I think we should all take this approach more, so here's my possible solution for you:

First get a copy of the software to begin your training. Download Civil 3D from the Autodesk website and begin your 30 day product trial or request a Home Use License from your contract administrator if you are on subscription. Of course you'll need a computer that can run Civil 3D. If that isn't a possibility, set aside a few hours a week to stay late, arrive early, or train through your lunch hour on your work computer.

Start with an existing project. Begin creating that project from scratch. This way you're not facing deadlines or trying to learn the software and design at the same time. Get the whole team together and work through issues of how to complete a particular task. Watch some training videos at home after you put the kids to bed. Take notes then duplicate the procedures at lunch the next day.

Another thing that will help with implementation of Civil 3D is to create templates for your firm. Yes, there's an NCS standard template that's provided with Civil 3D out of the box, but let's face it, there's not a single box of chocolates that pleases everyone and templates are no different.

Create a CAD standard and setup your templates to implement those CAD standards. If you get rid of some of the up front work, you'll be surprised how much easier it is for users to become efficient with the software and comply with CAD standards at the same time.

Here's an example: Our firm has a template setup just for existing utilities. It already contains pipe networks for each existing utility with all defaults set. You can be up and running and creating pipes and structures with this file in minutes. You don't have to go through the trouble of setting up the pipe network parts list, the pipe network itself, the default layer names, default pipe and structure names, default pipe and structure styles and labels, etc. It's incredible how much time this will save you and how much you don't have to know about using the software because it's already done for you.

Here are a few more suggestions for learning to use Civil 3D:

First of all USE THE SOFTWARE! If management provides training and you don't use the software, then you're probably going to struggle to remember what you learned.
If you don't have time to create templates yourself, then pay someone to do it for you.
Set deadlines then enforce them. Request a progress set on the pilot project as if it were a real project.
Work with your employees to get the most from them. Offer an incentive to completing their first project using Civil 3D.

I think many firms overlook the value of using the current software as a tool instead of as a crutch. Don't be one of those firms!

Don't Forget These Commands...Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:30:00 +0000

There are so many commands in AutoCAD and Civil 3D that we use every day. Some of them are available via toolbars, menus, or the ribbon, that you only have to learn where to find them, not memorize them.

In my case, there are a few commands or system variables that just get lost in the deep void of space inside my brain. Here's a few of them:

LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP - Creates a boundary around a selection set of objects.

MELLIPSE - Setting this variable to 1 will draw an ellipse as a polyline.

FILEDIA - This variable gets set to 0 during some commands and/or lisp routines. If AutoCAD crashes, you may have to reset it to 1 to display dialog boxes instead of command line prompts.

'STAE - Transparent command for Civil 3D to select station from the parent alignment of a profile view.

'SSE - Transparent command for Civil 3D to select station from the parent alignment of a profile view and elevation from a surface.

'PSE - Transparent command for Civil 3D to select station and elevation from a profile view.

'ZTP - Transparent command for Civil 3D to zoom to a point or range of points.

There's plenty more to add to this list, but it's a start.

Water Structures in Profile View

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Fri, 06 May 2011 03:18:00 +0000

You know that special symbol for water valves and fire hydrants that the engineers want to see in profile views of water lines? Ours looks something like this:

If you think it's a structure style, then you're wrong. It's actually a label style that uses several custom expressions. I use a block that is a rectangle on a no plot layer for the structure in profile view. You can leave the no plot structure visible, or you can turn off the display of the structure in profile view once you've added your labels.

This label will move with the structure, adjust to the size of the structure, and adjust to changes in the surface referenced in the structure. Adjusting the custom expressions, you can control how far all four sides of the rectangle are from the center of the structure based on the size of the structure.

Now if only we could assign a default label style to each structure in profile view I could finish my P&P sheets even quicker. For now, I'm just happy that I don't have to place a dynamic block at each structure then remember to go back and move it as my structure moves to an updated location.

Multiple Surface Dilemma (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 03:49:00 +0000

Have you ever needed to create a pipe network that involves two different surfaces? Well, I'm going to show you a workflow that could make this situation a breeze.

In this example, I'm working with an alignment that crosses both an existing ground surface (EG) and a finished ground surface (FG). I've already created the alignment and I've added both surfaces via data reference. Here's how it looks so far:

Now, the pipes in this drawing will need to stay a minimum distance below the existing ground surface (EG) until the alignment crosses into the finished ground surface (FG). At that point the pipes will need to stay a minimum distance below the finished ground surface. So how can I do that? I'm going to make a surface that is a combination of those two surfaces.

The first thing I'm going to do is create a surface called ComboSurface. In this case, I don't need to see the final product of the combined surfaces, so I'm going to set the surface style to _No Display.

Now I need to add some substance to this surface. I'll do that by pasting the existing ground surface (EG) and finished ground surface (FG) into the new ComboSurface.

It's okay to select both surfaces at once.

When pasting surfaces into another surface, ORDER IS EVERYTHING! That means I need to make sure that the order is correct. Open the Surface Properties for the ComboSurface and select the Definition tab.

As you can see, the EG surface is at the top of the list and the FG surface is second in the list. This is exactly what I want for this surface. If the order is incorrect, select the EG surface and then left click on the "take me to the top up arrow" to send the EG surface to the top of the list.

Next, I need to make sure that this surface is set to Rebuild Automatically. To do this, I select the surface in toolspace, right click, then look for a check mark by Rebuild - Automatic. If there is no check mark (), I left click on Rebuild - Automatic to enable this feature. If the check mark is there (), I press ESC to cancel the change.

Now I have a surface that can be used for all the pipes and structures in my network!

In Part 2 of this series, I'll show you how to use this new surface in your pipe network.

3D Faces to 3D Lines

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:56:00 +0000

There are many ways to share surfaces between civil software packages. I prefer to use LandXML, but what if that isn't an option? What if the recipient wants the tin to be lines with 3d elevations?

If you export a Civil 3D surface to AutoCAD (or explode it twice), you are left with 3d faces. You can explode them as many times as you want, but you're still left with 3d faces.

Thanks to Google, I found the solution: Regions

In the AutoCAD drawing that contains the 3D faces, execute the region command and select the 3d faces. Now explode the regions that you created and you'll have lines with 3d elevations.

Yes, it's really that simple.

Thanks to Mike Perry for sharing his knowledge on the AUGI forums.

The Edit Geometry Panel...It's Not Just For Feature Lines

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 02:57:00 +0000

For those of you that haven't made the jump to Civil 3D 2011 yet, here's a tip for you.

We'll start by drawing a polyline roughly in the shape of a W.
We will now remove the PI inside the red circle.
Select the Modify Ribbon Tab.

Now locate the Edit Geometry Panel.

Left click on the Delete PI icon. The command line prompts you to "Select object:", so left click on the polyline to select it. The polyline you select will now have triangles at each PI. These triangles will be gray by default.

The command line now prompts you to "Specify point:". As you move your mouse near a PI, the gray triangle nearest to the mouse cursor turns green to indicate which PI will be selected.

Move your cursor inside the red circle and left click to select the PI you want removed. The selected PI will immediately be removed from the polyline.
The Insert PI command works on polylines too. In fact, you can even insert PI's at a specific distance or at a specific increment along the polyline.
This command sequence works in Civil 3D 2011 too, but there are new enhancements with polylines in AutoCAD 2011 that you might prefer.

Transfer Object Layer Settings Between Drawings

noreply@blogger.com (TommieR) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:32:00 +0000

I found a nice "undocumented feature" in Civil 3D 2011 today. I found this totally by accident and though I lost a couple of minutes worth of changes to a template, I know that this find will save me a lot of time in the future, especially when a drawing is started from the wrong template.

One of the frustrating things about working with old drawings is that everything gets placed on Layer 0. Some of this can be corrected by using commands such as AECIMPORTSTYLES and AECCIMPORTSTYLESANDSETTINGS as posted by Scott McEachron of the I.II.I consortium. I haven't had great success with those commands yet, but as Scott stated, the commands are undocumented and unsupported.

Well here's another undocumented and unsupported feature (some might even call it a bug):

You can copy the Object Layers settings from one drawing to another...in seconds...FOR FREE! Want to know how? Here you go:

Before you begin, I will state that I'm using Civil 3D 2011 on the Windows 7 64-bit OS. I can't guarantee that it will work on older versions of Civil 3D or on a different OS.

Create a drawing from a template that contains the correct Object Layer settings. I'll call this drawing "TEMPLATE".
Now open a drawing that doesn't have the correct Object Layer settings. I'll call this drawing "BLANK".
Make Toolspace visible (type showts at the command line or locate the toolspace button on the Home Tab of the ribbon).
Select the Settings tab on the Toolspace palette.
Set the view dropdown to Master View.
Make sure that the "BLANK" drawing is current (it's shown at the top of the list in the Settings tab).
Now scroll down until you see the "TEMPLATE" drawing in the Settings tab.
With your cursor positioned over the "TEMPLATE" drawing name, right click and select Edit Drawing Settings... from the list.
Select the Object Layers tab and verify that these are the object layers that you want used in the "BLANK" drawing.
Now all you have to do is left click on OK.

Voila! You have just changed all the default Object Layers in your current drawing, "BLANK", to those in the "TEMPLATE" drawing. Feel free to check for yourself.

I'm interested in hearing if this trick works on older versions of Civil 3D and/or other operating systems, both 32-bit and 64-bit so please leave me a comment.