Civil 3D does a great job managing the design data associated with each of its objects. If however, you ask Civil 3D to manage some of YOUR data (i.e. custom attribution) you may find it a little challenging. Fortunately it doesn’t have to be!
There is an undocumented feature in Civil 3D called Property Sets. (Technically, this feature comes from AutoCAD Architecture which shares some of its code with Civil 3D.) Using Property Sets, you can assign custom attribution to ANY object in a Civil 3D drawing. The metadata that you add is also capable of traveling with the drawing, such that it can be leveraged by other applications such as Navisworks or BIM 360 Glue.
If you are interested, I’ve created a recording showing how to use property set data to maintain the placement accuracy of each component in a utility model. There are many places where extended attribution comes in handy, you are only limited by your imagination!
-Jeff
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