Civil Immersion

Tool for Tuesday: AEC-Connection Blog

A lot of folks have been asking us why our posts have become a bit sparse after being so regular for a couple of years.

In short, Alan, Jeff and I have been working behind the scenes to stand up a second project. This project is the topic of today’s "Tool for Tuesday".

Introducing the AEC-Connection Blog.

In short, it is a location where we will actively post videos, workflows, information, tips and tricks… as it relates to using Autodesk’s BIM 360 platform.

Because our backgrounds are in the Infrastructure industry, our content will gravitate primarily towards civil related projects. Having said this, some of what we post will be industry agnostic and will have value for our friends in the Building industry as well. It is for this reason we created a second Blog. Our goal is to provide a resource that will complement our existing “Civil Immersion” project rather than risk diluting our civil focus by posting everything here.

Long story short, starting today, you will find us actively posting in BOTH locations.

-Jerry

Creating and Manipulating Civil 3D Sample Lines

By default, Civil 3D sample lines are placed perpendicular to an alignment.  That said, some designs (or cross sections) may require “skewed” or multi-segmented sample lines.  At times like these, Civil 3D provides specialized tools for creating virtually any sample line you may need.

In this installment we’ll explore some ways to create custom sample lines.  We’ll also look at how to change their position and/or geometry using grips.  If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video below that walks through everything…

-Jeff

Creating Dynamic Civil 3D Offset Alignments and Widenings

Proposed linear designs are often represented using multiple parallel entities. Lane edges, medians, shoulders, ditches and R.O.W. are just a few examples. When design changes are made, it’s important that all related entities update as well. Fortunately, modifications like this are made easy using Civil 3D’s offset alignments.

Offset alignments are dynamically linked to a “parent” alignment, meaning they will maintain their offset, even when the parent alignment changes. This makes them perfect for defining linear geometry that would otherwise need to be redrawn as a design evolves. Offset alignments can also support “widenings” to accommodate things like turn lanes, transitions and on street parking geometry. No matter how offset alignments are defined, they will always maintain a geometric relationship with their parent, making future design modifications much more efficient!

In this session we’ll explore some workflows for defining offset alignments and widenings. If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video below that walks through everything you need to get started…

-Jeff

Calculating a Stockpile Volume from Point Cloud Data using Civil 3D

Today's drone technology makes it easy to collect existing site conditions as a point cloud.  Once captured, point clouds provide a wealth of analytic opportunities.  In this week’s installment, we'll use Civil 3D to analyze a point cloud and extract the volume of a large stockpile.

If your projects require you to calculate stockpile volumes, try experimenting with a point cloud workflow.  Capturing stockpiles as point clouds can be the fastest and safest means of collecting this data, while also providing more detail than what is obtainable using more traditional collection methods.

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video below to help you get started…

-Jeff

Finish Strong Friday: Utilizing Survey Monument GIS Data in Infraworks

For this week's video, I thought I would stay with the same theme and utilize some survey monument GIS data inside Autodesk Infraworks.  I show some tips for moving attributes from the SHP file to the Infraworks database.  I also show using some of these attributes as tooltips.

Check out the video below to see this in action.

-Alan

Migrating a Surface Model from InfraWorks to Civil 3D

Using the “Point Cloud Terrain” feature, InfraWorks makes it easy to extract a bare earth surface from a point cloud.  Extracted surfaces are a perfect way to add detail to an existing conditions model.  InfraWorks then makes it easy to share these surfaces with other Autodesk applications, providing countless opportunities to analyze, visualize, and sample the data.

In this week’s installment, we’ll explore a workflow to migrate an existing ground surface (built from aerial imagery) from InfraWorks to Civil 3D.  If you are interested, I’ve created a quick recording below that walks through everything…

-Jeff

Finish Strong Friday: Utilizing Survey Monument GIS Data in Civil 3D

As many of you know, the Map 3D FDO tools for connecting to various GIS databases and file stores are very powerful and luckily-are included with Civil 3D.  Recently, I was talking with a customer about grabbing published survey monument data and bringing it into a Civil 3D project.  Based on this discussion, I thought this might be of interest to others who may not be completely familiar with the GIS tools available in Civil 3D/Map 3D; hence this post.

Check out the video below to see this in action.

-Alan

Importing a Point Cloud from ReCap Photo into InfraWorks

When using ReCap Photo to process drone imagery, you have the option of creating a 3D point cloud.  This point cloud can serve many purposes!  When added to an InfraWorks model for example, the cloud can be used to improve the accuracy of the existing ground surface.

In this week’s installment, we’ll look at how to import a point cloud from ReCap Photo into InfraWorks.  We will then use the “Point Cloud Terrain” feature to extract a bare earth surface that will provide additional detail and accuracy to a site model.   If you are interested, I've created a quick video that walks through a possible workflow...

NOTE: Point clouds created from imagery will produce surface elevations matching a site’s vegetation: grass, brush, crops, etc.  (Basically, the surface represents what the camera “sees”.)  Point clouds created from Lidar however, will provide the most accurate bare earth extraction as the laser used to collect the data is capable of penetrating vegetation.

-Jeff

 

Importing High Resolution Aerial Imagery from ReCap Photo into InfraWorks

Using today’s drone technology, it’s easier than ever to obtain current, high quality aerial imagery for most any project site.  The ease in which these images are created also means they can be “swapped out” frequently (even daily) as site conditions change! 

In our last session we looked at how ReCap Photo can be used to convert a collection of drone images into a high resolution orthographic aerial image.  In this week’s installment, we’ll look at how that orthographic image can be incorporated into an InfraWorks model.  If you are interested, I’ve created a video below that walks through the workflow...

-Jeff

Note: If you would like to review the ReCap Photo workflow used to create the image used in this example, please follow the link below…
https://youtu.be/W560LxggqeM

Tool for Tuesday: TransferPoints

Today’s installment is all about the "Transfer".

Specifically, transferring an ASCII point file from one "Point file" format to another. In other words, I have an ASCII file containing survey points that are formatted as PNEZD (comma delimited) and I need them in a PENZ (space delimited) file format.

In the past, I would have accomplished this by importing the points into Civil 3D using the first point file format and then immediately turn around and export them into the second point file format.

The problem with this is, it is an entirely manual process that involves several steps. If only there were a better way.  Fortunately, there is!!

Using the TransferPoints tool in Civil 3D, we can transfer an ASCII point file from one file format directly into another in a single step.

Click on the video below to see it works!

-Jerry