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Training Materials and Videos
Civil 3D Level I
Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 - Introduction......................................................................................................................... 7
The Civil 3D Environment Environment .............................. ........................................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ....................... ......... 8 Ribbon.......................... ........................................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ......................... ........... 8 Toolspace – Toolspace – Prospector and Settings..................................................................................................... 9 Toolbox.......................... ........................................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ......................11 ........11 Survey Survey .......................... ........................................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................11 ..........11 Drawing Settings Settings .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ......................12 ........12 Saving Back .......................... ........................................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ...............13 .13 Project Exercise - Import Data from from Land Desktop .................... ......... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............14 ....14 Styles............................ .......................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................15 ..........15 Templates Templates ............................ .......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .................16 ...16 Sharing and Copying Styles .................................................................................................................17 Project Exercise - Copy styles between drawings ................................................................................18 How Do I? (FAQs) ................... ......... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ................19 .....19 How do I change the scale of the drawing and Civil 3D objects? .................... .......... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............19 ....19 How do I turn off the Event Viewer? ...................................................................................................19 How do I clear the entries in the event viewer? ...................................................................................19 How do I turn off tooltips? ..................... .......... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ....................20 .........20 How do I export my drawing to (vanilla) AutoCAD?..........................................................................20 How do I export data to Land Desktop? ..............................................................................................21 How do I grab a zero elevation while using OSNAPS on an a n object that has non-zero elevation? .......21 How do I create a template? template? ........................... ......................................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .................21 ...21 CHAPTER 2 – 2 – Sharing Project Data.........................................................................................................22
Data Shortcuts ..................... .......... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........23 23 Accessing Data Shortcuts......... Shortcuts...................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ..........................2 .............24 4 Data Shortcut Folder Structure ............................................................................................................24 The XML file .......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ..........................2 .............26 6 Manage Manage Data Shortcuts Shortcuts ............................ ......................................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................27 ..........27 Project Exercise - Data Shortcuts ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ....................28 .........28 Autodesk Vault ..................... .......... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........30 30 Vault Implementation Implementation ........................... ......................................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ..........................3 .............31 1 Data Shortcuts vs. Autodesk Vault ..................... .......... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ............32 ..32 Data Reference Workflow ...................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............33 ....33 External References ...................... ........... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ............34 ..34 External Referencing of Civil 3D Objects ...........................................................................................34 Labeling Objects through an External Reference ................................................................................35 How Do I? ................ ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........36 36 How do I synchronize/reload a data reference? ...................................................................................36 How do I promote/bind a data reference? ............................................................................................36 How do I find the Source drawing for a data referenced object? .........................................................36 How do I automatically set the working folder and data shortcut folder? ...........................................37 How do I associate a drawing to a Data Shortcuts Project Folder? ...................... ........... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........37 37 How do I Repair a Data Shortcut when the source drawing has been renamed or moved? .................39 CHAPTER 3 – 3 – Points Points .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ......................40 ........40
Creating and Editing Points .....................................................................................................................41 Project Exercise - Create Points Manually ...................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ................42 .....42 Point Groups ............ ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........44 44 Project Exercise - Create a Point Group ..............................................................................................45 Point Styles and Point Label Styles ............... ...................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ................46 ......46 Project Exercise - Apply Point and Point Label Styles ........................................................................48
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Description Keys................ Keys..... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ............50 ..50 Description Description Parameters Parameters ............................ ......................................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................51 ..........51 Project Exercise: Create Description Keys ..........................................................................................52 Project Exercise - Import Description Keys from from Land Desktop ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............55 ....55 Description Keys vs. Point Groups ......................................................................................................59 Importing and Exporting Points .................... .......... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ................60 .....60 Point File Formats Formats .......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ...................60 ......60 Project Exercise - Import Points ..........................................................................................................61 Import Options Options .......................... ......................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................65 ..........65 How Do I? ................ ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........67 67 How do I edit a point? point? .................. ............................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ......................67 ........67 How do I rotate points (marker/node) and their labels? .......................................................................67 How do I change the datum for a set of points? points? ..................... .......... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ....................68 .........68 If you want to change the datum for a particular set, select the points in either the drawing, the point list on the Prospector tab of Toolspace, or in the Panorama window. Right-click, then click Datum…. This will change the datum for only the selected points. ........................... ......................................... ........................68 ..........68 How do I set elevation points based on a surface? .................... .......... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ................68 .....68 How do I prevent points from being modified? ...................................................................................68 How do I set a default description or elevation when creating points? ................................................68 How do I check the slope between two points? ...................................................................................68 How do I control points by layer? .................... .......... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ....................69 .........69 CHAPTER 4 – 4 – Surfaces Surfaces .......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .................70 ...70
Introduction ..................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............71 ....71 The Surface Surface Object .......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .................71 ...71 Surface Definition Definition .......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ...................71 ......71 Surface Best Practices........................... ......................................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ..........................7 .............73 3 Project Exercise - Create a surface from points ...................................................................................74 Surface Surface Styles........................... ......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ .................75 ...75 Project Exercise - Create a Surface Style with Only Triangles ............................................................76 Breaklines ..................... .......... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................77 .......77 Project Exercise - Add Add breakline data to a surface surface .................... .......... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ................79 .....79 Contours Contours ........................... ......................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................80 ..........80 Supplementing and Weeding Factors .......................................................................................................80 Weeding Factors .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ......................80 ........80 Supplementing Factors .........................................................................................................................81 Project Exercise - Create a Surface Surface from Contours Contours ..................... .......... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............83 ....83 Boundaries ...................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ................84 .....84 Non-destructive Boundary Breakline ..................... .......... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..............84 ....84 Surface Surface Edits............................ .......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .................85 ...85 Project Exercise - Surface Edits ...........................................................................................................86 Surface Surface Labels ........................... ......................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ...............88 .88 Project Exercise - Label Slope and Spot Elevations ............................................................................89 Project Exercise - Label Contour Elevations .......................................................................................91 Surface Surface Analysis Analysis .......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ..........................9 .............92 2 Project Exercise - Create a Slope Analysis ..........................................................................................93 How Do I? ................ ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...........94 94 How do I remove points from a surface definition above or below a certain elevation? .....................94 How do I remove triangle lines from a surface definition that are over a certain length? ...................94 How do I add text as a suffix or prefix onto an individual label? ........................................................95 How do I change the precision of the labels?.......................................................................................95 How do I minimize flat areas resulting from contour data? .................................................................95 How do I change the contour line interval? .........................................................................................96 How do I smooth contours? .................................................................................................................96 How do I grip edit my contours?..........................................................................................................96
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How do I hide the contour label line? ..................................................................................................97 How do I trace the path of water across a surface? ..............................................................................98 How do I find drainage areas for my surface? .....................................................................................98 How do I create AutoCAD objects from my surface without exploding the surface object? ..............98 How do I erase a surface I cannot see (distinguish) in the drawing? ...................................................98 How do I reduce the number of points in my surface to make the file size smaller? ...........................99 CHAPTER 5 - COGO ...............................................................................................................................101
Create Lines .......................... ........................................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ..........................1 .............102 02 Create Curves.......................... ........................................ ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................10 ...........103 3 Create Best Fit Entities Entities ............................ ......................................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ......................104 ........104 Curve Calculator Calculator .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ....................104 ......104 Project Exercise - Create lines by bearing and distance distance ..................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ................105 .....105 Project Exercise - Best Fit Line .........................................................................................................107 Project Exercise - Best Fit Arc ...........................................................................................................108 How Do I? ........................... ......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ...............109 .109 How do I use Degree Minutes Seconds for angular units? ................................................................109 CHAPTER 6 - Parcels ...............................................................................................................................110
Creating and Editing Parcels .................................................................................................................111 Sites........................... .......................................... ............................ ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ........................11 ...........111 1 Project Exercise - Create Parcels from Objects .................................................................................112 Project Exercise - Edit Parcels ...........................................................................................................113 Project Exercise - Create Parcels by Layout ......................................................................................114 Project Exercise - Create Parcels by Layout (Subdivide) ..................................................................116 Parcel Styles and Parcel Label Styles ........ ..................... .......... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................117 .......117 Project Exercise - Parcel Styles and Area Label Styles .....................................................................118 Project Exercise - Parcel Segment Labels ..........................................................................................120 Gathering Information from Parcels ......................................................................................................122 Project Exercise - Parcel Area Tables and Reports ............................................................................123 Project Exercise - Parcel Line Tables ................................................................................................124 How Do I? ................ ..................... ........... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ...................125 .........125 How do I renumber parcels? ..............................................................................................................125 How do I erase a parcel? ....................................................................................................................125 How do I change a parcel to belong to a different Site? ....................................................................125 How do I create a “span” label? .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ........................... ........................12 ...........125 5 How do I renumber parcel line or curve tags? ...................................................................................125 How do I sort a tag table? ................................. .............................................. ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ..........................1 .............125 25 How do I reverse the value of a bearing label? ..................................................................................126 How do I flip a label .................................... .................................................. ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... .................126 ....126 How do I check whether a label has been reversed or flipped? .........................................................126 CHAPTER 7 - Alignments ........................................................................................................................127
Creating an Alignment ............................................................................................................................128 Creating an Alignment ............................................................................................................................128 Sites........................... .......................................... ............................ ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ........................... ........................12 ...........128 8 Project Exercise - Create an Alignment from a Polyline ...................................................................129 Project Exercise - Create an Alignment by Layout ............................................................................130 Editing Alignment Geometry ....................... ............. ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ................133 .....133 Project Exercise - Edit Alignment Geometry..................... ........... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..........133 133 Alignment Styles ....................... ............. ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ..................... ..............134 ....134 Project Exercise - Set Alignment Styles ............................................................................................135 Alignment Labels .................... .......... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... ...................... ................136 .....136 Label Sets............................ .......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ...............136 .136
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Station/Offset and Segment Labels ....................................................................................................136 Project Exercise - Alignment Labels..................................................................................................137 Project Exercise - Alignment Labels..................................................................................................138 Gathering Information from Alignments ................................................................................................141 Project Exercise – Alignment Area Tables and Reports ....................................................................141 Project Exercise - Alignment Curve Tables .......................................................................................141 How Do I? ..............................................................................................................................................143 How do I reverse an alignment? ........................................................................................................143 How do I change an alignment's reference point location and/or corresponding station value? ........143 How do I delete an alignment segment? ............................................................................................144 How do I delete a single label that is part of a label set? ...................................................................144 How do I reset the labels after deleting a single label (re-station the alignment)? .............................144 How do I move a label to avoid a conflict?........................................................................................144 How do I select the PI point of a curve's tangents? ............................................................................145 How do I change PC and PT labels to read BC and EC? ...................................................................145 How do I get perpendicular station labels to read with the + sign centered? .....................................145 How do I create a best fit line or curve that maintains tangency? ......................................................146 CHAPTER 8 - Profiles ..............................................................................................................................147
Profile Components ................................................................................................................................148 Profiles ...............................................................................................................................................148 Profile Views .....................................................................................................................................149 Project Exercise - Create a Profile from a Surface .............................................................................150 Profile Styles ...........................................................................................................................................152 Project Exercise – Set and Change Profile Styles ...............................................................................153 Project Exercise - Draw a Finished Grade Profile .............................................................................155 Profile Transparent Commands .............................................................................................................158 Editing Profile Geometry ........................................................................................................................158 Project Exercise - Draw Vertical Curves ...........................................................................................160 Project Exercise - Edit Vertical Curve Data.......................................................................................161 Profile View Style ...................................................................................................................................162 Project Exercise - Edit a Profile View Style ......................................................................................162 Profile View Bands .................................................................................................................................163 Profile Band Styles ............................................................................................................................163 Project Exercise - Add Profile View Data Bands ..............................................................................164 Label Sets................................................................................................................................................165 Station Elevation, and Depth Labels ..................................................................................................165 How Do I? ..............................................................................................................................................166 How do I change the vertical scale of a profile view style? ...............................................................166 How do I display the title of my profile views? .................................................................................166 How do I copy an existing profile to use as a design profile? ............................................................166 How do I draw two profile lines on top of each other? ......................................................................167 How do I delete a profile segment?....................................................................................................167 How do I delete a single label that is part of a label set? ...................................................................167 How do I reset profile labels after deleting a single label? ................................................................167 How do I move a label to avoid a conflict?........................................................................................168 How do I change the length for a vertical curve segment? ................................................................168 How do I run reports? ........................................................................................................................168 CHAPTER 9 Corridors ............................................................................................................................169
Corridor Prerequisites ...........................................................................................................................170 Assemblies ..............................................................................................................................................170 Project Exercise: Creating an Assembly ............................................................................................171 Editing Assemblies and Subassemblies ...................................................................................................175 Project Exercise: Name the Subassemblies........................................................................................176
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Project Exercise: Create a Corridor....................................................................................................177 Editing Corridors ...................................................................................................................................180 Editing Corridors with the Ribbon .....................................................................................................182 Project Exercise: Create a Corridor Surface and Boundary ...............................................................183 Viewing and Editing Corridor Sections ..................................................................................................185 Project Exercise: View Corridor Sections ..........................................................................................186 Corridor Utilities ....................................................................................................................................187 How Do I? ..............................................................................................................................................188 How do I mirror a subassembly? .......................................................................................................188 How do I reposition a subassembly if it has been placed incorrectly (e.g. the wrong marker was selected in the process of attaching it to the assembly)? ....................................................................188 How do I copy subassemblies to another assembly? .........................................................................188 How do I copy an assembly between drawings? ................................................................................188 How do I stretch/transition a corridor with targets? ...........................................................................188 How do I automatically add a corridor surface boundary? ................................................................188 CHAPTER 10 Sections ..............................................................................................................................189
Sample Lines...........................................................................................................................................190 Sample Line Groups ...............................................................................................................................190 Project Exercise: Creating a Sample Line Group...............................................................................191 Editing Sample Lines ..............................................................................................................................192 Editing Sample Line Groups ..............................................................................................................193 Creating Section Views......................................................................................................................194 Editing Section Views ........................................................................................................................195 Project Exercise: Creating Section Views ..........................................................................................196 Project Exercise: Generating Volume Reports .......................................................................................197 How Do I? ..............................................................................................................................................201 How do I erase all my section views? ................................................................................................201 How do I add an additional surface to my section views? .................................................................201 How do I change all the labels for my section views? .......................................................................201 How do I place my sections on an appropriate sized sheet? ..............................................................202 How do I make my sample line orthogonal to the alignment direction? ............................................202 How do I change the swath width on sample lines that are already created? .....................................202 How do I control how sections of projected AutoCAD solids are displayed? ...................................202 CHAPTER 11 - Grading ...........................................................................................................................203
Creating and Managing Sites .................................................................................................................204 Creating and Editing Feature Lines .......................................................................................................204 Drawing or Converting Objects to Feature Lines ............... ...................................................................205 Editing Feature Lines .............................................................................................................................206 Feature Line Behavior ............................................................................................................................208 Project Exercise - Create a Feature Line from an object and set the elevation .....................................209 Grading Best Practices ...........................................................................................................................210 Creating and Managing Grading Groups ..............................................................................................211 Grading Object...................................................................................................................................213 Project Exercise - Create a Grading Group and Grade to a Surface...................................................214 Project Exercise - Use feature lines to model a finished ground surface ...........................................217 How Do I? ..............................................................................................................................................219 How do I trim a feature line? .............................................................................................................219 How do I edit grading? ......................................................................................................................219 How do I combine existing and finish grade surfaces (i.e. merge a finished surface into an existing surface)? .............................................................................................................................................219 How do I calculate cut/fill volumes? .................................................................................................219 CHAPTER 12 - Labels ..............................................................................................................................220
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Labels .....................................................................................................................................................221 Label Styles .............................................................................................................................................221 Editing Label Styles ...........................................................................................................................222 Dragged Labels ..................................................................................................................................222 Components .......................................................................................................................................223 Component Attachment .....................................................................................................................223 Contents .............................................................................................................................................224 Project Exercise - Create a Custom Label Style ................................................................................225 Expressions .............................................................................................................................................228 Project Exercise - Create and Use Expressions ..................................................................................228 Project Exercise - Create a Dragged Label with No Leader ..............................................................230 Reference Text ........................................................................................................................................231 Project Exercise - Create a Label for Alignment Intersections ..........................................................231 Label Civil 3D Objects Through an Xref ................................................................................................234 Project Exercise .................................................................................................................................234 How Do I? ..............................................................................................................................................236 How do I change the text style of a Civil 3D label?...........................................................................236 How do I change the layer property of a label? .................................................................................236 How do I change the text size? ..........................................................................................................236 How do I change the justification?.....................................................................................................237 How do I change the precision of my labels? ....................................................................................237 How do I drag my labels so that there is no leader and the text does not rotate? ...............................237 How do I control the capitalization of my labels?..............................................................................237 How do I edit individual labels that belong to a label set? .................................................................238
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CHAPTER 1 - Introduction Thank you for choosing CAD Masters, Inc. to provide training for AutoCAD Civil 3D. Using AutoCAD Civil 3D for your survey and civil engineering projects can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Attending a training course was a good decision. AutoCAD Civil 3D will help you and your team complete a wide range of civil engineering projects faster, smarter, and more accurately. At the core of Civil 3D is dynamic modeling which automatically outputs updated plans. This allows you to evaluate multiple design alternatives quickly and minimize manual edits. You may be migrating to this software from Land Desktop. If so, you will find that Civil 3D functions quite differently. We urge you to leave Land Desktop behind as you embark on this journey with Civil 3D. This way, the process of learning Civil 3D will be smoother. Note: AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 is supported on 64-bit editions of Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems.
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The Civil 3D Environment As you go through the training exercises in this manual and in the class, you will be instructed to browse, click, and expand such things as Toolspace, Prospector, Settings, Panorama, Tool Palettes, Toolbars, etc. The purpose of this section is to introduce you to these terms and the Civil 3D environment.
Figure 1.1: AutoCAD Civil 3D Environment
Ribbon The ribbon is an alternative way to access commands in Civil 3D. It is not required to use the ribbon. Type RIBBONCLOSE to disable it, and RIBBON to enable it. If you want access to the classic style menus, set the MENUBAR variable to 1.
Figure 1.2: Civil 3D Ribbon (925) 939-1378
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Toolspace – Pros pector and Settings
Note: If the Toolspace is not visible on screen, access it from the Home tab > Palettes > click Toolspace or from the General Menu, and click Toolspace.
Figure 1.3: Toolspace Tabs – Prospector Tab (left) and Settings Tab (right)
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The Toolspace has two main tabs: Prospector and Settings. The Prospector tab provides tools to work with: 1. Objects: points, parcels, alignments, profiles, etc. 2. Projects for sharing project data via Autodesk Vault. 3. Data Shortcuts for sharing project data. 4. Drawing Templates (*.dwt files). The Settings tab will set: 1. Styles for objects and labels. 2. Drawing Settings like scale, coordinate system, abbreviations, and object layers. 3. Feature Settings for predefining object creation defaults. 4. Command Settings for predefining command defaults. At the top of the Toolspace, in both the Prospector and Settings tabs, a drop-down allows you to filter the amount of data shown in the Toolspace.
Figure 1.4: Prospector Tab View Options With Master View, you can view and work with all open drawings. In setting this view in the Prospector Tab, one can browse the current drawing’s Data Shortcut Project information, and access Drawing Templates. In setting this view in the Settings tab, one can access all drawing settings content for all open drawings, thereby facilitating the transfers of styles and such from drawing to drawing. With Active Drawing View, only the current drawing’s data is accessible. This view also disables access to Drawing Templates in the Prospector tab. Note the two additional view options available in the Settings tab, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 1.5: Settings Tab View Options (925) 939-1378
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Toolbox Reports Manager
The Reports Manager is in the Toolbox tab of Toolspace. It is used to generate reports for any Civil 3D information in the drawing. On the Home tab, Palettes panel, click Toolbox to show/hide the tab in Toolspace. For more information on running reports, see page 122, Gathering Information from Parcels. Miscellaneous Utilities
This section contains Corridor Solids and CAiCE™ Translator. When using the Extract Corridor Solids command, there are three types of AutoCAD entities you can extract from a corridor, AutoCAD Bodies, AutoCAD Solids, and AutoCAD Swept Solids. With the CAiCE™ Translator, you can import CAiCE Projects, Cross Sections, DTM Triangles, DTM Points, Alignments, Project ASCII, Survey and Survey to Text. The file formats you can import include the following: .PT4, .EAR, .TRI, .XY, .HA, .KCP and .SRV.
Survey Civil 3D’s Toolspace also has a Survey tab. This book will not discuss the Survey Toolspace.
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Drawing Settings In Toolspace, in the Settings tab, right-click the Drawing Name. Click Edit Drawing Settings.
Figure 1.6: Drawing Settings – Units and Zone The Units and Zone tab specifies the drawing units and the drawing scale. Vertical scale is not accessible here. You will set the vertical scale for profiles and section views via object styles. You can also specify a coordinate zone here.
Figure 1.7: Drawing Settings – Object Layers The Object Layers tab specifies default layers for objects. You can append object names to their corresponding layer names as a prefix or a suffix by entering an asterisk (*) symbol in the Value field, and selecting the desired prefix/suffix Modifier. For example the default layer for alignments is C-ROAD. If a suffix of “-*” is added, an alignment named Main St would go on a layer called C-ROAD-MAIN ST. (925) 939-1378
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The Abbreviations tab specifies abbreviations for features like Tangent-Curve Intersect (PC) and Grade Break (GB). The Ambient Settings tab sets units and decimal precision for specific measurements like Angle, Elevation, Distance, and Coordinate. Online Map Imagery can be inserted into the drawing after the coordinate zone is set. Go to the Geolocation tab Online Maps panel map type drop-down select Aerial, Road or Hybrid. Sign into Autodesk 360. The map should then be generated and displayed in the drawing. To plot the map, you have to first Capture Area and choose a polygonal area to plot.
S av i n g B a c k In previous versions of AutoCAD Civil 3D, drawing (or .dwg) files could not be saved back to previous versions or opened with previous versions of the program. However, with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014, 2015 & 2016 there is now interoperability between these versions and the 2013 version of Civil 3D. You can open a 2014, 2015 or 2016 version .dwg file in the 2013 version and still be able to save the drawing file.
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Project Exercis e - Im po rt Data from Land Deskto p In this exercise, you will import data from an existing Land Desktop project. NOTE: The class tutorial files were provided either on a CD or electronically. Copy the entire folder to your hard drive (C:\Civil 3D Projects) and open the sample drawings in the examples from this folder. 1. Open drawing Intro-1-Import.dwg. 2. On the Insert tab, Import panel, click the Land Desktop icon. For the Land Desktop project path, browse to the location of the Project folder in the class files. For Project name, select DesignComp. Select the objects as shown below. Click OK .
Figure 1.8: Drawing Settings – Object and Label Styles 3. Click OK to verify that the data migration completed. 4. Zoom Extents to see the objects imported. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Surfaces and Alignments to verify everything has been imported
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Styles In order to create a quality set of construction documents for your civil engineering projects with proper and consistent labeling, lineweights, and linetypes, you will use styles. Whereas the dynamic model is the core of AutoCAD Civil 3D, styles are the key to expressing that model in a set of construction documents. Changing the definition of a style will change the appearance of all objects or labels in the drawing using that style. You can also use styles to assist in developing company standards that will give all of your projects a clean and consistent look. You can access styles via the Settings tab of Toolspace. You will work with both Object Styles and Label Styles. The figure below shows an example (at right) of an alignment object, with labeling, and the corresponding styles it is utilizing.
Figure 1.9: Drawing Settings – Object and Label Styles
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Templates When you use an older drawing that was created in AutoCAD or Land Desktop, the drawing will only contain a minimal collection of styles. It would be much more efficient to start with a Civil 3D template that has pre-configured Civil 3D styles and settings. There are two ways to create a new drawing from a template: 1) Application Menu: a) On the Application Menu, click New. b) Choose a dwt file. Click Open. 2) Toolspace: a) In the Prospector tab (set to Master View), expand Drawing Templates. b) Right-click a dwt file. Click Create New Drawing. A company standard template should be developed to suit your needs. We recommend starting with one of the following templates and customizing it as necessary: _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS.dwt
By default, templates are found in the following path: Windows 7: C:\Users\\appdata\local\autodesk\c3d \enu\template The above paths are typically workstation-specific settings and can be verified in the Civil 3D program by the following: 1. Type OPTIONS at the command line. 2. On the Files tab, expand Template Settings. 3. Expand Drawing Template File Location.
In a multi-user office environment, it is best to set the above path to a location on your network, thereby fostering standardized use. Place standardized drawing templates in this network path, and set the Drawing Template File Location path on all workstations to this path. It is also a good idea to change the Default Template File Name for QNEW to callout the company’s standard template.
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S h ar i n g a n d C o p y i n g S t y le s If you open a drawing created in AutoCAD or Land Desktop, or if you start a drawing with a “non” Civil 3D template, you will notice that only Standard exists for most styles. To address the lack of styles in such cases, it is typically best to start a new drawing from a template that contains pre-defined styles, and then copy the linework into the new drawing. As an alternative, you can also import styles into a drawing using the following methods: 1. Copy individual styles between drawings. By this method, styles can only be transferred between drawings one at a time. 2. From within the drawing into which the styles are required, execute the Insert command, and browse and select the drawing file which contains the desired styles. All styles from the source drawing will be brought in. 3. From the Manage ribbon tab, Styles panel, use the Import command. Of the options stated herein, this method provides the most comprehensive functionality for managing styles. Be careful when using these methods. Users should also consider the need to set up the drawing settings, as discussed on page 12. When starting off with old non-Civil 3D drawings or drawings based from the acad.dwt template, the drawing scale will likely be 1:1, and another side-effect is that all Civil 3D objects will be created on layer 0.
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Project Exercis e - Copy s tyles between drawing s In this exercise, you will copy styles from one drawing ( Intro-3-Surface Styles.dwg) to another (Intro-2-Styles.dwg). 1. Open drawing Intro-2-Styles.dwg. 2. Open drawing Intro-3-Surface Styles.dwg. 3. In Toolspace, make Intro-2-Styles.dwg active by selecting the Prospector tab, then right-click Intro-2-Styles. Click Switch to. The text Intro-2-Styles should now appear in bold, and move to the top of the list of open drawings. NOTE: CTRL+TAB can be used as an alternate method to switch between open drawings. Make sure your cursor is active in the drawing area, and NOT on top of the Toolspace palette. 4. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab, select Master View, expand Intro-3SurfaceStyles, expand Surface, expand Surface Styles. 5. Drag Contours 0.2’ and 1’ Existing into the drawing area. 6. Drag Contours 0.2’ and 1’ Proposed into the drawing area. You have now imported and applied two styles from Intro-3SurfaceStyles.dwg to Intro-2-Styles.dwg. The entire Surface Styles folder can be dragged as an alternative to steps 5 and 6. This method will copy all surface styles. Steps 7-9 below confirm that the styles have been transferred. 7. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand Intro-2-Styles, expand Surfaces, right-click Final. Click Surface Properties. 8. On the Information tab, change the surface style to Contours 0.2’ and 1’ Proposed. Click OK . 9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for the surface OG and use Contours 0.2’ and 1’ Existing. For more information on surface styles, see the Surfaces chapter.
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How Do I? (FAQs) At the end of each chapter you will find a section called “ How Do I?” This section contains questions that people frequently ask. Some of the questions that appear here are more advanced than the other topics in the book. Some might give you ideas on new things to try. Let these questions increase your curiosity and hopefully they will spark your own “How Do I?” questions.
How do I change the sc ale of the drawin g and Civil 3D objects? The scale of Civil 3D objects inside of the model tab is dictated by the drawing scale. 1. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, right-click the DrawingName. Click Edit Drawing Settings. 2. On the Units and Zone tab, change the scale using the box under Scale or type a custom scale. Note that the Annotation Scale setting will also control the scale of objects in the drawing. The two methods above control the same setting. The scale of Civil 3D objects within a paper space viewport is dictated by the scale of the viewport. When the viewport scale is changed and the viewport is regenerated using the REGENALL command, the Civil 3D text and annotation will resize based on the new scale and the settings in the styles.
How do I turn o ff the Event Viewer? The Event Viewer in Civil 3D records messages and errors during a Civil 3D session. It can be useful for identifying problems in your Civil 3D objects, but in many cases, the information in the Event Viewer can be ignored. Follow these steps to turn it off: 1. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, right-click the Drawing Name. Click Edit Drawing Settings. 2. On the Ambient Settings tab, expand General, change the value for Show Event Viewer to No.
How do I clear the entries in th e event viewer? The Event Viewer will keep a running log for the entire Civil 3D session, until the drawing is closed. To manually clear the Event Viewer, without exiting Civil 3D, in the Event Viewer, click Action, click Clear All Events.
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How d o I turn off tooltips? In Civil 3D, when the crosshairs hover over, or are adjacent to Civil 3D objects, a tooltip window will appear, providing contextual information pertaining to the objects. Figure 1.10 shows a tooltip window that is referencing six separate Civil 3D objects. This may be too much information.
Figure 1.10: Tooltips Follow these steps to globally turn off Civil 3D tooltips. 1. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, right-click the DrawingName. Click Edit Drawing Settings. 2. On the Ambient Settings tab, expand General, change the value for Show Tooltips to No. To turn tooltips off individually for each object, deselect the check box for tooltips in the properties window for each object. For Example, 1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand Surfaces, right-click on a surface. Click Surface Properties. 2. On the Information tab, clear the Show tooltips check box .
H o w d o I ex p o r t m y d r a w i n g t o (v a n i l la ) A u t o C A D ? If you give a Civil 3D drawing to another user who is not using Civil 3D, they will not be able to see the Civil 3D objects unless they have an object enabler or unless you use the Export to AutoCAD command. Access the command via the Application Menu Export Export to AutoCAD, and click the desired file format. This command will explode all AEC Objects down to simple AutoCAD entities. For example, a point object will become basic lines and text. Likewise, the eTransmit command has options for converting Civil 3D content in the current drawing and all xrefs to basic AutoCAD objects in the Transmittal Setups. Lastly, Object Enablers can be downloaded f rom Autodesk’s web site. (925) 939-1378
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H o w d o I ex p o r t d a t a t o L a n d D e s k t o p ? There are two methods to export Civil 3D data to Land Desktop: 1. LandXML is an open source data file format for land data. Civil 3D, Land Desktop, and other software packages can read LandXML files. LandXML is also useful for the LandXML Reporting program that comes with Civil 3D. On the Output tab, in the Export pannel, click Export to LandXML. There are various versions of LandXML - for older versions of Land Desktop, use 1.0. The resultant LandXML file may then be imported in Land Desktop through its LandXML importing routines. 2. Use EXPORTLDTDATA to export Civil 3D Data directly to a Land Desktop project. Be careful with this command as it is easy to overwrite existing Land Desktop project information. Note that the command IMPORTLDTDATA may need to be invoked first before the EXPORTLDTDATA command becomes available.
How do I grab a zero elevation w hile using OSNAPS on an o bject that has n on -zero elevation? When you run commands and use OSNAPS, the coordinate point of the OSNAP selection will include the object's Z elevation by default, which may be undesirable (e.g. when laying out 2D/Plan linework). To counteract this, AutoCAD has functionality to control how OSNAPS behave in the third (z) dimension. Set the OSNAPZ system variable to a value of 1 to ignore the Z coordinate of objects that are snapped to - the resultant Z that is used is 0. Inversely, an OSNAPZ setting of 0 will utilize the Z value of the object being snapped to.
How do I cr eate a temp late? A template file (.DWT) is exactly the same as a drawing file (.DWG). It will hold all drawing objects, layers, and styles just like any other .DWG file. The file extension causes the program to treat the file differently. 1. To create a new template file, on the Quick Access Toolbar or Application Menu, click Save As. 2. For the Files of type, choose AutoCAD Drawing Template (*.dwt). 3. Type a file name. 4. Click OK . NOTE: Create a standard template for your company by starting with one of the Civil 3D templates that ships with the software such as _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt.
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CHAPTER 2 – Sharing Project Data In Civil 3D, it’s typically not feasible to place all data for a single project into a single drawing. You want to keep drawings small and modularized for several reasons: 1. Team Collaboration – Multiple team members may need to work on a single project. User A may need to work on an alignment for Ridge Road. User B may need to work on the corridor for Ridge Road. 2. Speed and Performance – Speed and performance are critical when working with drawings. Small drawings with minimal data will outperform large drawings with lots of data. 3. Project Stabilization – Distributing your work over multiple drawings will single out any corruptions that may occur, hence “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” With this in mind, how do you share and reference data between drawings? If you create an alignment for Ridge Road, how do you use that alignment to create a corridor in a different drawing? How do you do this while maintaining the integrity of the dynamic model and avoiding duplication of data? In Civil 3D, there are three team collaboration tools available: 1. Data Shortcuts 2. Autodesk Vault 3. External References
The first two tools work similarly in that a single instance of a Civil 3D object, such as an alignment or surface, can be shared by many users for the purpose of design or construction documentation. With external references, you cannot access Civil 3D object data in the same way that you can with Data Shortcuts or Autodesk Vault. However, you can label Civil 3D objects through external references and accordingly, should include this functionality as a data sharing option.
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In this chapter, you will learn about the following:
Data Shortcuts vs. Autodesk Vault Using Data Shortcuts The XML file used with data shortcuts. Using external references in Civil 3D.
Data Shortcuts Data shortcuts are used as a means of facilitating data references. The following Civil 3D object models can be data referenced between drawings via data shortcuts: 1. Surfaces 2. Alignments 3. Profiles 4. Pipe Networks 5. Pressure Networks 6. View Frame Groups You cannot use data shortcuts to share Points. Data references work much like external references with a child (drawing with actual data) and parent (drawing that references in data) relationship. The more recent terminology of ‘source’ and ‘consumer’ drawings is likely more intuitive. For example, a source drawing might have an Existing Ground (EG) topo surface. This surface object can then be data referenced into other (consumer) drawings for various purposes, such as calculating volumes, cutting cross sections, etc.
EG Topo.DWG
Align/Prof.DWG
Corridor.DWG
Source
Source/Consumer
Consumer
Grading.DWG Consumer Figure 2.1: Sharing data for a surface object (925) 939-1378
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A c c e s s i n g D a ta Sh o r t c u t s Data shortcuts are accessed via Prospector.
Figure 2.2: Data Shortcuts via Prospector From the Prospector, you can perform almost all of the necessary tasks to work with data shortcuts: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Set the working folder Create or set a project folder current Create and delete data shortcuts Create references Open source drawings
Data Sho rtcu t Folder Struc ture
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Figure 2.3: Data Shortcuts file structure Figure 2.3 shows an example of a directory structure that can be implemented for managing data shortcuts. The Working Folder is the directory that holds Civil 3D data shortcut Project Folders. Within a given Project Folder, Civil 3D will automatically create a folder named _Shortcuts. Within the _Shortcuts folder, sub-folders for the aforementioned data shortcut types are likewise created automatically (i.e. Alignment, Pipe Networks, Pressure Networks, Profiles, Surfaces, and Viewframe Groups). It is in the Alignment, Pipe Networks, Profiles, Surfaces, and Viewframe Groups sub-directories that corresponding data shortcut files are stored and accessed from. There are a number of ways to create and establish a data management structure when it comes to Civil 3D data shortcuts. The previous example shown in Figure 2.3 is the simplest form since only one Working Folder need be established. Alternatively, there are essentially two other formats noted below, each growing in complexity in terms of the folder structure and the effort that would be needed to be mindful of establishing the correct path settings in order to access the desired data.
Figure 2.4: Data Shortcuts – Multiple
Figure 2.5: Data Shortcuts – Multiple
Working Folders with multiple Project Folders
Working Folder Scenario, one for each individual Project Folder
Figure 2.4 shows the next alternative, based upon something along the lines of a year based project system. Figure 2.5 shows the last alternative, in which by virtue of the depth of the Project Folder in the directory structure, a Working Folder must be established within each project.
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The XML file When using a data reference, the method by which a consumer (parent) drawing initially pulls Civil 3D object data from a source (child) drawing is by means of an XML file. This XML file is essentially the Data Shortcut file, which is what is viewed in the Data Shortcut list within Prospector. A given Data Shortcut file provides the reference information for one Civil 3D object model. It dictates where the source drawing is located, and what object within it a consumer drawing can reference. It simply contains 'link' information. It does not contain any Civil 3D object data itself. The schematic process of creating a data shortcut in a source drawing (and corresponding XML file) is shown by steps 1 and 2 below. The process of accessing a data shortcut, and creating a reference from a consumer drawing is shown by steps 3 through 6 below.
Figure 2.6: The XML file Note that as stated above, Data Shortcuts are used as the initial means of establishing a data reference. Once a data reference has been established in a consumer drawing, the link information to the source drawing is saved in the consumer drawing itself. Warning: If an object’s data shortcut file is deleted, and another object is created with the same name and a new data shortcut file created, data references that were established with the older (deleted) data shortcut may cease to work . Use of Civil 3D’s Data Shortcut Editor program may be helpful in remedying such issues.
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Manage Data Shor tcuts Ribbon Manage tab Data Shortcuts panel Manage Data Shortcuts.
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Project Exercise - Data Shortcu ts In this exercise you will set a working folder, create a new data shortcut project folder, create a data shortcut, and create a data reference to an existing ground surface. 1. Open drawing DS-1-Child EG.dwg. 2. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, right-click Data Shortcuts. Working Folder…. Browse to C:\Civil 3D Projects and click OK .
Click Set
3. Right-click Data Shortcuts again. Click New Data Shortcuts Project Folder…. For the name, type 2016. For the description, type Tutorial Project. Click OK .
Figure 2.7: New Data Shortcut Folder Window
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4. Right-click Data Shortcuts a third time. Click Create Data Shortcuts…, Select EG and click OK (see Figure 2.7 below):
Figure 2.8: Create Data Shortcuts Window 5. Save and close DS-1-Child EG.dwg. 6. Open drawing DS-2-Parent FG.dwg. 7. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand Data Shortcuts, and expand Surfaces. The EG surface should be available for reference. Right-click EG, and click Create Reference…. Click OK in the Create Surface Reference Window. 8. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Surfaces. If you see
, then you have successfully created a data shortcut.
In this exercise you created a data shortcut for a surface. This enables you to use the surface in the consumer drawing for design purposes. As you go through the book, you will create many Civil 3D objects. The exercises from this point forward in the book do not use data shortcuts. This is so that you can do each example with a fresh start. This does not mean that CAD Masters, Inc. does not think that data shortcuts or data sharing are important for successfully completing projects in Civil 3D.
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Autodesk Vault With Autodesk Vault, a “Vault Server” acts as a central repository for drawings and data. Vault provides similar functionality as data shortcuts – the ability to reference data from different drawings. However, Vault is more robust. Drawings and data are stored in a database driven filestore. You can use Vault for data management, version control, and archiving. Vault is a lot like a public library. With a library card you can check out books. When you are done, you would return the book and check out others. When you check out a book from the library, no one else can check out that book while you have it. When you return the book, you are allowing others to check the book out. Vault works just like this.
plan.dwg
Eg.dwg
Vault Server
grading.dwg
Figure 2.9: Data Sharing with Autodesk Vault You can use Autodesk Vault to share the following data: 1. Survey Data 2. Points 3. Surfaces 4. Alignments 5. Profiles 6. Pipe Networks 7. Pressure Networks 8. View Frame Groups
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Vault Imp lementation If you decide to use Autodesk Vault for data sharing, you need to consider and plan for the following: 1. Vault requires a server. Will you use an existing server or a new server? What are the required hardware specifications? 2. How are projects currently organized and how will Vault fit into this directory structure? 3. Using Vault will require a shift in understanding where drawings are located and how they should be opened (checked out) and closed (checked in). Are your users prepared for this change? 4. How will images and external references be affected by the implementation of Vault? 5. Do you need to purchase SQL Server or can you use SQL Server Express? 6. How will Vault be backed up, archived, and purged? Who will handle this IT maintenance? What is the disaster recovery plan? 7. Who will create and maintain the SQL maintenance plans? You should consult CAD Masters, Inc. to help answer these questions and plan your Vault implementation.
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Data Shortcuts vs. Autodesk Vault Should you use Data Shortcuts or Autodesk Vault for data sharing in Civil 3D? This is not an easy question to answer. It will depend on many factors: 1. How large are the projects that you generally work on? 2. How many people will be working on a project? 3. Do you have remote offices with users that need to work on the project? 4. Do you have full-time IT staff available for implementation and maintenance? 5. Are you interested in some of the other features of Vault? Version Control? User Permissions? Milestone establishment? Generally, Data Shortcuts and Autodesk Vault work similarly. Vault is a more comprehensive solution that packages the data reference process nicely, but requires more overhead. If you are part of small company with 10 or fewer users and you do not have in-house IT staff, data shortcuts may be the better solution. If you are part of a large company with multiple offices and full-time IT staff, Vault may be a better solution. Consult CAD Masters, Inc. to determine the best solution for you.
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Data Reference Workflow When an object is data referenced via Vault or Data Shortcuts, the object exists exactly like it does in the source drawing. The only difference is that it can only be modified in the source drawing, not in the consumer. Different styles and labels can be applied to the Civil 3D object. The object can also be used in calculations. For example, if the object is a surface, volumes can be calculated from the source drawing surface. You may be wondering how external references fit into the data sharing process. Why do you have to worry about Vault or Data Shortcuts? See the next section on External References.
Figure 2.10: How to choose a reference type
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External References External references (XREFs) can be used as a data sharing mechanism, but with limitations. With external references, you can do the following: 1. Relate one drawing to another. For example, externally reference a base map in a design drawing so that you can reference existing information. 2. Create sheets for construction documentation. Externally reference design drawings in sheet drawings for printing and presentation. 3. Label Civil 3D Objects through an external reference. You may want to label an object differently in one sheet drawing vs. another. 4. Create sections from an externally referenced corridor object. You can reduce drawing size and increase performance by placing your sections in a different drawing from the corridor. External reference functionality has been available in AutoCAD for years, and the first two items reflect this. But the last two items are specific to Civil 3D. Accordingly, you should identify how the Civil 3D Features can fit into your workflow.
External Referencin g of Civil 3D Objects Civil 3D works with objects. These objects are like very smart blocks. Typically, Civil 3D objects have subcomponents that are created on layers. These layers typically dictate the properties of the objects. This means that if you externally reference a drawing with Civil 3D objects, it’s similar to externally referencing a drawing with blocks. In AutoCAD, for an AutoCAD object
In the consumer drawing o The external reference itself will be on its own layer.
In the source drawing o The Block will be on its own layer. o The AutoCAD entities of the block will each be on their own layer. This may or may not be the 0 layer.
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In Civil 3D for a Civil 3D object
In the consumer drawing o The external reference itself will be on its own layer.
In the source drawing o The C3D object inside the external reference will be on its own layer. o The components inside of the C3D object will each be on their own layer. This is typically not the 0 layer.
When externally referencing a drawing with Civil 3D information, you will not be able to use styles to control visibility. You will have to use the Layer Property Manager. In conclusion, externally referencing Civil 3D drawings for pure linework can be done. However, if you need to modify the properties of the referenced objects and/or labels, please be aware of how these properties are managed in the source drawing(s). You may want to consider placing linework and objects in separate drawings. This way you can externally reference the linework and data reference the objects. By data referencing the objects, you will have ultimate flexibility in displaying objects and labels.
Labeling Objects th rou gh an External Reference With Civil 3D, you can label an object through an external reference. This functionality gives you flexibility in how you share your data and organize your project.
If all you need to do is label an object, you can do it via external references. If you need to use the object for design, modeling, or volume calculations, then you must use data shortcuts or Vault.
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How Do I? How do I sy nc hron ize/reload a data reference? One of the great benefits of Civil 3D is its dynamic capabilities in modifying Civil 3D objects. If such objects are modified but have already been data referenced into consumer drawings, then such references need to be updated in the consumer drawings. Known as data synchronization, the process is similar to reloading external references in AutoCAD. First, note that just like XREFs, data references are automatically synchronized when opening a consumer drawing. Otherwise, if a data reference is known to have been changed while the user is already in a consumer drawing, then the data reference may be updated as follows: Toolspace Prospector tab Browse through the drawing's content to the desired data reference object Right-click on the object and select Synchronize. This will update the object model to reflect its current state in its source drawing. Usually when a data reference object has been modified in its source file, a balloon notification will appear as shown in Figure 2.11. Click on the Synchronize link to update the data shortcut.
Figure 2.11: Synchronization warnings
How do I pro m ote/bind a data reference? In the same way an XREF can be inserted/bound into a consumer drawing (thereby breaking the link to the source drawing), a data reference can be "promoted" via: Toolspace Prospector tab Browse through the drawing's content to the desired data reference object right-click the data reference object and select Promote. A promoted data reference becomes a fully editable object in the current drawing. This should only be used for good reason.
How do I find the Source dr awing for a data referenced ob ject? The source drawing for a data referenced object can be determined via the Prospector. Toolspace Prospector tab Data Shortcuts Browse to the object's corresponding data shortcut entry Right-click the entry and select Open Source Drawing...
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H o w d o I a u t o m a t i c al l y s e t t h e w o r k i n g f o l d e r an d d a ta s h o r t c u t folder? Since the release of Civil 3D 2011, each drawing file now has the ability to individually retain its own specified Working Folder and subsequent Data Shortcut Project Folder. This means that when switching between drawings belonging to different projects (thereby having different Working Folders/Project Folders/Data Shortcuts), it is no longer necessary to reset the Working and/or Project Folder path(s). See How do I associate a drawing to a Data Shortcuts Project Folder?, below.
How do I associate a drawing to a Data Shortcuts Project Folder? Take a scenario where there are several Civil 3D Data Shortcut Working Folders with multiple Data Shortcuts Project Folders. A new drawing without data shortcuts will not have a Data Shortcut project association. However, the Data Shortcut Project Folder which was used last will be listed in the Prospector. If a data reference is then created, the drawing will become associated to the Data Shortcuts Projects Folder that the reference was drawn from. This happens implicitly and nothing further need be done to establish the “drawing- project path” association noted in the previous “How do I…” above. Thus, the next time the drawing is opened, the Prospector will reflect the Data Shortcuts Project Folder that was associated, regardless of what the previously opened drawing’s project path may have been. If the current Data Shortcut Project Folder is different from that which the current drawing had been associated to, the following message will appear when an attempt is made to create a data shortcut for a Civil 3D object.
Figure 2.12: Synchronization warnings If a mistake occurs and the current drawing should be using a different Data Shortcut Project Folder, fix it by going to the Prospector, right click on Data Shortcuts, and choose Associate Project to Current Drawing… To do this for several drawings, use the option Associate Project to Multiple Drawings….
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How do I Repair a Br oken Data Shortcu t? If you delete a source Civil 3D object that is data referenced by a consumer drawing, the data reference will be broken. In opening the consumer drawing a warning in the Event Viewer should arise, which will say “Drawing contains a broken reference - …”. If a new object of the same type and name is created in the source drawing, the data reference in the consumer drawing may not fix itself automatically. If so, you can use the Data Shortcuts Editor to change the matching option for the data shortcut. The Data Shortcut Editor is accessible outside of Civil 3D: In Windows, go through Start All Programs Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 20xx (version as appropriate) Data Shortcuts Editor. You can use the Data Shortcuts Editor to do the following: 1. Change the object name. 2. Change the path where the Source (child) drawing is located. 3. Change the name of the Source (child) drawing. 4. Change the matching options by which Civil 3D validates the object that the shortcut will acquire. To perform any of the above, first, open the Data Shortcuts folder: File menu, click Open Data Shortcuts Folder... Browse to the Working Folder, and click OK.
Figure 2.13: Data Shortcuts Editor In this case, you want to change the “Use to match” option from Handle only to Name only, or Handle or Name. Since you have created a new object with the same name, you can use this editor to match Name only. On the File menu, click Exit to close the Data Shortcuts Editor. Save changes if prompted to do so. (925) 939-1378
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Close and restart Civil 3D. Open the consumer drawing. The data reference should now be repaired, and the reference object shown in the drawing.
How do I Repair a Data Shor tcu t wh en the so urc e draw ing h as b e en r e n a m e d o r m o v e d ? When you rename a source drawing or modify the path to it, consumer drawings may no longer be able to find the source drawing, nor access the reference objects it contains. When you open a consumer drawing, a warning will be displayed in the Event Viewer. The warning will say “Drawing contains a broken reference - …”. To repair such broken references, the Data Shortcuts Editor as documented in the previous section can be used. An alternative method exists to correct such broken references, albeit individually (object by object, and drawing by drawing): From within the consumer drawing Toolspace Prospector tab Browse to the entry for a broken reference right-click the entry and select Repair Broken Reference… Browse to and select the renamed or relocated source drawing, and click Open. Note that the above process will only work if the specified source drawing file contains the type of object being sought, and the object has the same name as it previously had.
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CHAPTER 3 – Points Points are used for various purposes in surveying and civil engineering:
Creation of Boundary and Topographic Surveys
GIS Analysis
Grading Design
Stakeout of Proposed Constructions
In this chapter, you will learn about the following:
Creating and Editing Points
Point Groups
Point Styles and Point Label Styles
Description Keys
Importing and Exporting Points
Figure 3.1: Points
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Creating and Editing Points To create points, on the Home tab > Create Ground Data panel > Points dropdown menu > select Point Creation Tools, or on the Points menu and choose the desired Create Points command. The following tool bar appears and contains the same commands as the points menu:
Figure 3.2: Create Points Toolbar Click the Expand button, , on the right end of the toolbar to change the default point creation settings such as the layer and point number.
Figure 3.3: Create Points Toolbar Settings
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Proj ect Exercis e - Create Poin ts Manually In this exercise, you will create points manually to replace blocks. 1. Open drawing Points-1-Create.dwg. 2. On the Home tab Create Ground Data Points dropdown menu Select Point Creation Tools. On the following toolbar, locate the first button on the left and click the down arrow
to change options. Select Manual.
Figure 3.4: Create Points, Miscellaneous Manual 3. Click with insertion snap to the block shown.
Figure 3.5: Create Points, Miscellaneous Manual 4. Type FS for the description. 5. Type 42.5 for the elevation. 6. Click the expand button
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7. Match the settings shown in Figure 3.6.
Figure 3.6: Automatic Descriptions 8. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for the other blocks. 9. Press Enter to end the command.
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Point Groups Point groups assist in point organization. A point will belong to at least one point group. The _All Points point group exists by default in every drawing as a “catch-all” point group. Points groups can filter points based on number range, description, name, and elevation range. How can point groups assist in organizing points?
A point style and point label style can be assigned to a point group. Points belonging to the group automatically acquire the point style and point label style. Use point groups to organize different survey dates and locations. Place points 200-500 collected on March 5th into a point group called “3-5-04 survey Main Street” and then place points 1100-3200 collected on March 8th into a different point group called “3-8-04 survey Penny Lane”. Use point groups to organize points by type such as control, grade break, top of bank, toe of bank, edge of pavement, etc. Point groups can also be used with surfaces. A surface can take point information from a point group and generate a TIN model from it.
Point Groups are accessible via Toolspace Groups collection Properties.
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Proj ect Exercis e - Create a Poin t Grou p In this exercise you will create a point group and apply a point label style to the group. 1. Open drawing Points-2-Groups.dwg. 2. In Toolspace Prospector tab for the Active Drawing Groups New.
right-click Point
3. On the Information tab, type FS for the name. 4. Change the Point style to 5. Change the Point label style to Grade label. 6. On the Include tab, select the check box With raw descriptions matching. 7. Type FS in the box. 8. On the Point List Tab, verify the points appear. 9. Click OK . The display of the points belonging to the FS group now take on the group’s settings. 10. In Toolspace Prospector tab for the Active Drawing Groups Properties.
right-click Point
11. Per Figure 3.7 below, move the group _All Points above FS.
Figure 3.7: Point group properties 12. Click OK . The display of all of the points now take on the settings of the _All Points group. This demonstrates the fact that the order of the point group list establishes what the display settings of points will be when they belong to multiple groups. The display settings of a point group further up in the list takes precedence over those below it. A REGEN may be necessary to see changes to the points’ display. (925) 939-1378
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Point Styles and Point Label Styles The appearance of point maker symbols and point label text are respectively set through the application of point styles and point label styles. There are two methods by which users can specify which styles are applied to point objects. The first, and more basic, method is by setting the styles on an individual object-byobject level. Applying styles to individual points can be accomplished via the AutoCAD Properties palette, the point list editor, description key matching, or the style settings in the Create Points dialog box. The second method is to apply style settings via the point group(s) to which the subject points belong. In order for point group style settings to control, the individual point object’s style settings must be set to as seen in the point list editor, or as seen in the AutoCAD Properties palette. However, the control of point group settings can further extend even to points that have their own individual style settings by using the Overrides settings of point groups (see Figure 3.8). Because a point can belong to multiple groups, it is important to understand which group may be currently controlling it. This is known as the point’s “primary point group”, which can be determined via the LIST command. Primary point group: _All Points is an example.
The hierarchy of point groups as noted in the previous exercise will determine a point’s primary point group. The following are some further notes: 1. Point Group Override Styles only override object level style settings. If a point belongs to more than one point group that has an override style, the primary point group style is still used.
Figure 3.8: Point group overrides
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2. Object level Point Styles – Viewing the point list can show if an individual point has a style associated to it. Notice in the figure below that point number 6 has an associated point style of “Drill Hole”.
Figure 3.9: Individual point style
3. Point Group Default Styles – In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups. Right-click the point group of interest. Click Properties. The default style for the WV point group shown below is “Water Valve”.
Figure 3.10: Point group default style
4. The _All Points group – If none of the three options above have a point style or label style associated with them, then the settings of the _All Points group will apply. (925) 939-1378
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Project Exercise - Ap ply Point and Poin t Label Styles In this exercise you will apply individual styles to points (steps 1 through 9), override them by point group (steps 10 through 11), and set the points back to normal (steps 12 through 17). See page 55, for an exercise in creating a new point style. 1. Open drawing Points-3-Styles.dwg. 2. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups . Right-click FS. Click Edit points. 3. For point number 7, click in the box under Style.
Figure 3.11: Edit single cell 4. Change the point style to Drill Hole. 5. Shift+click to select points 1 through 4. 6. Right-click the column header Point Label Style. Click Edit.
Figure 3.12: Edit multiple cells 7. Change the point label style to Point#-Elevation-Description, and click OK . 8. Right-click the column header Style, and click Edit. 9. Change the point style to Basic, and click OK . (925) 939-1378
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10. Observe the points in modelspace. 11. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups. Right-click FS. Click Properties. 12. On the Overrides tab, change the settings to match Figure 3.13 and observe the changes which occur in modelspace.
Figure 3.13: Point group style overrides The following steps will remove the style overrides. 13. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups . Right-click FS. Click Edit Points. 14. Select all or none of the points. 15. Right-click Style, change the point style to . 16. Repeat step 13-14 and change the Point Label Style to . 17. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups . Right-click FS. Click Properties. 18. On the Overrides tab, change the settings to match Figure 3.14.
Figure 3.14: Original point group style overrides The points should be how they were when the drawing was first opened. For more information on why the points behave this way see page 46. (925) 939-1378
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Description Keys Description Keys are a means of applying certain point-related management tools as points are themselves created/imported into a drawing. Description Keys are based upon the application of user defined description filters (keys) which allow the user to capture points and apply the following processes to such points according to the settings for each key: Convert Descriptions - Conversion of point descriptions from field (raw) codes to project codes. For example, a surveyor may use a raw point description of “143” as code for a fire hydrant. The raw description can be converted to something more descriptive (such as FH) upon importing the point into the drawing. Thus, all points inserted with a 143 description will instead display the “FH” description in the drawing. Layer Management – Points are set on specified layers. Points with a description of CL could be placed on layer V-NODE-CL while points with the description of ROW could be placed on layer V-NODE-ROW. Style Management – Each key has the ability to set the point maker style and point label style for captured points. For example, control points (of description CTRL) can be labeled with a description only, while topographic points (of description OG) can be labeled with description and elevation. Their respective markers can likewise be set distinctly. Symbol Management – As a subset feature of the ability to specify point maker styles, users have the ability to use drawing symbols in place of conventional point node makers. For example, surveyed tree points could be given an actual tree block symbol. Additionally, symbols may be scaled or rotated based on parameters within the point description. For example, a point with a description of Tree 12” Oak could have a tree symbol scaled up based on the 12” parameter . NOTES Description Keys are CASE sensitive. If a raw description is in uppercase format, then the description key code must also be in uppercase format in order for the description key to capture the point. The asterisk (*) character can be used in description key codes for wildcard matching. Description Key Sets are stored in the drawing. Set up your drawing template with a standard Description Key Set. A Description Key Set can be copied from one drawing to another via drag-n-drop. Land Desktop description keys can be imported into Civil 3D drawings via File menu Import Import Data from Land Desktop…
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Desc riptio n Param eters Raw descriptions can have several elements or strings, which can be designated as parameters (e.g. TREE OAK 24 has 3 parameters). Note that parameters are separated by spaces. The first ten strings will be recognized as parameters. Using the example of TREE OAK 24 : th
is the 0 parameter TREE st
OA K is the 1 parameter nd is the 2 parameter
24
(Note that in the above example, TREE* or *OAK* could potentially serve as the code, i.e. the description key code does not have to fall within a particular parameter.) Thus, when a point with the above raw description is created or imported into a drawing, and TREE* is defined as a description key, the following description parameter formats can be used during code conversion, scaling and rotating the symbols. Use this Code.
To do this in a format.
Example
$0
Reference the leading element in the raw description.
TREE OAK 24
$1
Reference the first parameter in the raw description.
TREE OAK 24
$2
Reference the second parameter in the raw description.
TREE OAK 24
$3 - $9
Reference the third parameter in the raw description (and so on up until $9)
$+
Reference all the parameters in the raw description after the leading element.
TREE OAK 24
$*
Reference all the parameters in the raw description and also the leading element.
TREE OAK 24
$$
Insert a single $ into the description.
Description parameters can be used in two ways: 1. Description Formatting. For a point with a raw description of TREE OAK 24, a Description Format of $1 TREE - $2” will convert the point description to OAK TREE - 24” . 2. Scale and Rotation of symbols. For a point with a raw description of TREE OAK 24, a tree symbol can be displayed as part of a point style. The tree symbol can be scaled 24 times based on the raw description parameter. Only numeric values in parameters $1 through $9 can be applied for scaling/rotating. (925) 939-1378
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Project Exercise: Create Descrip tion Keys In this exercise, you will create and use description keys. 1. Open drawing Points-4-DescKeys.dwg. 2. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point, expand Description Key Sets. Right-click Civil 3D. Click Edit Keys.
Figure 3.15: Description Key Editor In the next several steps, you will create the following description keys: Code
Format
Layer
Scale Parameter
Apply to X-Y
ridge
RIDGE
V-NODE-RIDGE
No
No
toe
TOE
V-NODE-TOE
No
No
top
TOP
V-NODE-TOP
No
No
TREE*
$1 TREE - $2”
V-NODE-TREE
Parameter 2
Yes
3. Click the cell labeled New DescKey. For the Code, type ridge. 4. Click Format for the ridge description key. Type RIDGE. 5. Select the check box under Layer for the ridge description key. Click in that cell to open the Layer Selection window. In the Layer Selection window, click the New button. Type a layer name of V-NODE-RIDGE. Click OK twice. 6. To create a new key, right-click ridge, and click New. Repeat steps 3,4, and 5 for both toe and top. Your Description Key Editor should look
lik e 7. Figure 3.16:
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Figure 3.16: Description Key Editor with ridge, toe, and top keys With these three codes, you are using description keys to convert the descriptions and to specify unique point layers. NOTES Remember, description keys are CASE sensitive. In this exercise, the lowercase raw description converts to uppercase, specified by the full description (FORMAT column). In this example, you are not using description keys to specify Point Styles and Point Label Styles. You can use Point Groups to specify these properties. Next, create the TREE description key. 8. Right-click ridge. TREE*.
Click New.
Click the cell labeled New DescKey.
Type
9. Click the cell under Format for the new TREE* key. Type $1 TREE - $2”. 10. Select the check box under Layer on for the TREE* description key, and click inside the cell. In the Layer list, scroll down, and click V-NODE-TREE. Click OK . 11. Select the check box under Apply to X-Y. 12. Select the check box under Scale Parameter. Set it to Parameter 2.
Figure 3.17: Description Key Editor with ridge, toe, top, and TREE keys For the TREE* codes, you are using description keys to convert the descriptions and to specify a layer for the point. You are also scaling the tree point style based on a parameter in the code ($2).
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Next, you will test your description keys. 13. On the Home tab, Create Ground Data panel, click the Points drop-down, hover over Create Points – Miscellaneous and click on Manual. 14. Pick a point anywhere in the drawing window. Type a point description of ridge. 15. Repeat with a point description of toe. 16. Repeat with a point description of top. 17. Repeat with a point description of TREE OAK 16 (case sensitive). 18. Repeat with a point description of TREE OAK 48 (case sensitive). You may need to update the TREE point group. 19. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups . Right-click TREE. Click Update. You have created five points in the drawing window. The point layers, full descriptions, and tree point style sizes should correspond with the settings specified in the description key set.
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P r o j ec t E x e r c i s e - Im p o r t D e s c r i p t i o n K e y s f r o m L a n d D e s k t o p In this exercise, you will import description keys from Land Desktop. 1. Open drawing Points-5-ImportDescKeys.dwg. 2. On the Insert tab, Import panel, click on Land Desktop. For the Land Desktop project path, browse to the location of the class files. For Project name, select DesignComp). Make sure Description Keys is selected. Click OK twice.
Figure 3.18: Import Data from Land Desktop 3. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point, expand Description Key Sets. Right-click DEFAULT. Click Edit Keys. The description key file should now appear the same as:
Figure 3.19: Description Key Editor
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In Land Desktop, for description key symbol insertion, you specified a symbol block name for the description key. That block would be located in the description key symbol path. In Civil 3D, you show symbols via Point Styles. As an example, for the FH description key, a Point Style will have to be created or edited to specify the desired fire hydrant symbol. In this next step, you will edit the Fire Hydrant Point Style to use a custom fire hydrant symbol. 4. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point, expand Point Styles. Right-click Hydrant (existing). Click Edit. Click the Marker tab. Right-click within the white box entitled “Use AutoCAD BLOCK symbol for marker”. Click Browse.
Figure 3.20: Point Style – Fire Hydrant 5. Browse to the location of the class files and select K-FH.dwg. Click Open. Select K-FH for the AutoCAD BLOCK symbol. Click OK .
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Figure 3.21: Point Style – Fire Hydrant NOTE: Multiple drawings can be selected when browsing for AutoCAD blocks from the Point Style Window. Use CTRL+click or SHIFT+click to select more than one drawing. This is useful if you want to insert all the blocks for all of your description keys. Next, you can create a point with an FH description to test description key functionality. 6. On the Home tab, Create Ground Data panel, click on the Points drop-down, hover over Create Points – Miscellaneous and click on Manual.
Figure 3.22: Create Points, Miscellaneous Manual 7. Pick a point anywhere in the drawing window. Type a point description of FH and an elevation of 100. You may need to update the FH point group. 8. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point Groups . Right-click FH. Click Update. You should see the point on the screen with a fire hydrant symbol corresponding to the K-FH block that you specified earlier. The layer for the point should be WATER-PNTS.
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NOTE: The FH Point Group was already created in this drawing. Point Groups are used to specify Point Styles and Point Label Styles. You can click Properties for the FH Point Group to see that the Fire Hydrant Point Style is specified. In this project exercise, you learned how to import a description key file from Land Desktop, and how to specify an (external) AutoCAD block for a Point Style. Finally, you created a point in the drawing to test the description key functionality.
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D es c r i p t i o n K e y s v s . P o i n t G r o u p s Description Keys and Point Groups have similar functionality. You can use both features to specify a point style and a point label style for a group of points. Following is a table that demonstrates the functionality of Description Keys vs. Point Groups. Description Keys
Point Groups
Description Conversion
Yes
No
Layer Management
Yes
No
Symbol Scaling and Rotation
Yes
No
Point Style Specification
Yes
Yes
Point Label Style Specification
Yes
Yes
Point Management
No
Yes
Collector for Surface Creation
No
Yes
Figure 3.23: Description Keys vs. Point Groups Based on this table, you can conclude that both features are useful. Both features can also be used in conjunction with one another. However, you will have to make a decision on which feature to use for Point Styles and Point Label Styles. It may be a good idea to use Point Groups for specifying Point Styles and Point Label Styles. You can also change Point Styles or Point Label Styles for points already in the drawing using Point Groups.
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Importing and Exporting Points Importing and Exporting of points are essential tasks for surveyors and civil engineers. A surveyor will often use other software for downloading data collectors and doing adjustments. This data is then exported as an ASCII point file. The surveyor or a civil engineer may then import the point file into Civil 3D to draw a boundary survey or a topographic map. The process is reversed when a project is complete. A civil engineer may export points to a point file for staking.
Point File Form ats In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point, expand Point File Formats.
Figure 3.24: Point File Formats You can use any of these formats when importing or exporting points. You can also create a new format. Right-click Point File Formats. Click New. To edit an existing point file format, right-click on it and click Properties.
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Project Exercise - Im po rt Points In this exercise, you will import points into a drawing from an external point file. 1. Open drawing Points-6-BaseTopo.dwg.
Before importing points from a file, you must first determine the format for the file, and check to see if that format is available. If the format is unavailable, you may have to create a new one. 2. Check the file format. Minimize AutoCAD Civil 3D. Using Notepad, open BaseTopo.txt from the location of the class files.
Figure 3.25: ASCII Point File Notice that there are no column headings. Column headings can be created with comment tags where a special character is used to tell the program to ignore certain portions of text. The comment tag must correspond to the comment tag setting in the point file format. Without the comment tag, you may have to guess at the description for each column. The following point file containing column headers may be better.
Figure 3.26: ASCII Point File with Column Headings With the first line comment by the # tag, you will know to use the point file format of PNEZD – comma delimited. P = Point Number, N = Northing, E = Easting, Z = Elevation, and D = Description. 3. Close BaseTopo.txt and return to AutoCAD Civil 3D. 4. Browse the Point File Format. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point, expand Point File Formats. Right-click PNEZD (comma delimited). Click Properties. (925) 939-1378
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Figure 3.27: PNEZD Point File Format Notice that the Comment Tag is set to # and that the delimiter is set to a comma under Format options. Also notice that the column headings correspond to the PNEZD format. 5. Click on Load at the bottom left corner. Select topo.txt from the Survey Folder. Click on Parse also at the bottom left corner. The Parse button gives you a preview of the separated point information.
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The purpose of parsing is to assure that the file will read correctly prior to actually importing it. Compare the top table with the bottom table to make sure it is parsed properly. Click OK . The file has not yet been imported. It is now time to import the points.
6. On the Points Creation Tools menu, click Import Points. Specify PNEZD (comma delimited) as the format. Click the + button next to Source File(s), browse to the location of the training drawings, and select topo.txt. Toggle on Add Points to Point Group , and create BaseTopo (an empty point group). Click OK .
Figure 3.29: Import Points Window 7. Type ZE in the command line for Zoom Extents. The points now exist in the drawing and are viewable in the drawing window. NOTE: For this example, Description Keys are used to insert symbols, to scale symbols, to convert descriptions, and to place points on specified layers. (925) 939-1378
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Using this project exercise, you learned about point file formats, how to parse a point file prior to importing and how to import points.
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Im p o r t O p t i o n s When you import points, what happens when the number for the point that you are importing is already assigned to a point in the drawing? In other words, there is a point number conflict between an existing point in the drawing, and one you are trying to create/import. The options to resolve this issue in such instances are are Renumber , Merge, Overwrite, or Notify. To view and modify these options, in Toolspace, on the Settings tab for the Active Drawing, expand Point, expand Commands. Right-click CreatePoints. Click Edit Command Settings. Expand Point Identity.
Figure 3.30: Command Settings for Point Creation Command Settings are used commonly to specify default settings for object creation and labeling. Point Number Offset: If this offset value is set to 100 and and the number of the first point in the point file is 100, the point will be created in the drawing with a number of 200. This value is only used when “If Point Numbers are Supplied” is set to Add an Offset Offset . Sequence Point Numbers From: Use this setting to specify a starting point number when “If Point Numbers Need Need to Be Assigned” Assigned” is set to “Sequence From”. When importing a point file that already has point numbers, this value is only used when "If Point Number are Supplied" is set to Ignore.
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If Point Numbers Are Supplied : Use this setting to specify specify what to do if point numbers are supplied by the source file. Options are Use, Ignore, and Add an Offset . Use will use the point numbers in the point file. Ignore will use new point numbers based on the setting for “If Point Numbers Need to Be Assigned.” Add an Offset will will add the number specified in “Point Number Offset” to the point numbers in the point file. If Point Numbers Already Exist: Use this setting to specify specify what happens if an an imported point has the same number as a point already in the drawing. Options are Renumber Renumber , Merge, Overwrite, and Notify. Renumber Renumber will will change the point number of the conflicting point from the point file based on the “If Point Numbers Need to Be Assigned” setting. Merge will merge the point data of the existing point with the point data of the imported point. Only the point properties that are specified in the point data file will overwrite the point properties already in the drawing. Overwrite will replace the existing point with the new point from the point file. With Notify, you will be notified during import that there’s a conflict and you will be prompted on how to resolve the conflict. If Point Numbers Need to Be Assigned : Specifies what to do if a point number needs to be assigned to points being being imported. Options are are Use Next Point Number and set Sequence From. This option would be used when “If Point Numbers are Supplied” is set to Ignore or when “If Point Numbers Already Exist” is applicable and is set to Renumber . If Sequence From is chosen, the value set in “Sequence Point Numbers From” will be used for numbering the points.
When importing points, it’s important for you to understand these options and choose the best settings for your situation. For a large job, where field surveys are done over the span of days or weeks, point numbering and organization will be critical.
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How Do I? How do I edit edit a point? In Civil 3D, there are very few specialized commands to edit points because the point data typically exists in the drawing. drawing. Most of the standard AutoCAD modify commands, such as move, rotate and and copy, will interact with the points. The remaining commands are available in the Points menu under Edit Points. You can also edit points using a table by selecting the points in the drawing, rightclicking, and clicking Edit Points. Points can also be modified by the point group or points list on the Prospector tab in Toolspace.
How do I rotate points ( m arker/nod arker/nod e) and their labels? labe ls? You will find that using the AutoCAD rotate command will not rotate the point marker and its label style, but will rather only rotate the point’s position. As shown below, point markers/nodes and their labels can be rotated via the AutoCAD Properties palette, or by using point object grips (the square grip). In the Properties window, a value value of *PROPERTY NOT SET* means that the rotation angle is currently 0.
Figure 3.31: Command Settings for Point Creation
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H o w d o I c h a n g e th t h e d a tu t u m f o r a s et et o f p o i n t s ? On the Points menu, point to Edit Points, click Datum. This will move all the point elevations up or down. If you want to change the datum for a particular set, select the points in either the drawing, the point list on the Prospector tab of Toolspace, or in the Panorama window. Right-click, then click Datum…. This will change the datum for only the selected points.
How do I set se t eleva e levation tion p oints based on a surface? If the points do not exist, on the Home tab, Create Ground Data panel, click on the Points drop-down, hover over Create Points - Surface and click Random Points. If the points already exist, in the Points menu, point to Edit Points, and click Elevations from Surface. This will modify the points based based on the options in the command: all, numbers, group, or selection.
H o w d o I p r e v en e n t p o i n t s f r o m b e i n g m o d i f i ed ed ? In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab for the Active Drawing, right-click the point group of interest. Click Lock Points. This does not prevent points from being erased. To prevent them from being erased, lock the layer the points are on.
How do I set a default default description or elevation ele vation w hen creating points? Use the point creation settings icon, information, see page 41. page 41.
, inside the Create Points command. For more
H o w d o I c h e c k t h e s l o p e b et e t w e en en t w o p o i n t s ? To check the slope between two points, use the List Slope command, found in the Inquiry menubar and the List Slope command. Type P for points and use a NODe osnap to select two points. To bring up the Inquiry Commands toolbar, right click on any Civil 3D Toolbar, such as Civil 3D Standard, then click Inquiry Commands.
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How d o I contro l points by layer? The point layer is used to control the color and linetype of a point in the drawing. In this scenario, the point style, label style or default layer set in the create point command settings will control the points layer.
If you freeze (or turn off) a point layer, the point is hidden. If you freeze (or turn off) the point style layer, the point marker is hidden, but not necessarily the label. If you freeze (or turn off) the point label style layer, the label will be hidden but not necessarily the marker.
Because of the behavior listed above you will need to set up custom point and point label styles if you want both points and their labels to reside on a single layer. Set both the point and label styles to the 0 layer in the custom styles. 1. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab, expand Point, expand Commands. Right-click CreatePoints. Click Edit Command Settings. 2. Expand Default Layer. 3. For the Layer, Select