Civil Immersion

Finish Strong Friday: Corridor Order of Processing in Civil 3D (Targets vs. Superelevation)

Understanding how horizontal and vertical targets interact with the superelevation of a corridor is essential to achieving predictable results for a design. Once this is understood, not only will fewer mistakes be make, but also more options are available to the designer in certain situations.

Check out the video below to see the corridor order of processing in action.

 

-Alan

Collection of AutoCAD Tips & Tricks

If you’re a Civil 3D user, you have access to a tremendous number of tools for the planning, design and modeling of infrastructure projects. In addition, Civil 3D is built on top of the AutoCAD and Map 3D platforms. These applications further expand Civil 3D’s toolset to include powerful GIS, and world class drafting and documentation functionality. 

Knowing more about these additional tools can open doors to new workflows and increased efficiency! In today’s post, I’d like to share another helpful document I’ve been working on for the last few years.  It represents a collection of more than 275 AutoCAD tips and tricks.  I’m hoping that in there you can find a couple "nuggets" that will save you some time each day!

If you are interested, you can download the AutoCAD Tips & Tricks PDF document using the link below…

275+ AutoCAD Tips & Tricks -  http://a360.co/2dbfXQH

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: “Restore Hidden Messages”

Because sometimes Always doesn’t really mean “Always”

Have you ever received a prompt when opening a .DWG file about missing .SHX files, unresolved references…?

If you are like me, it is very tempting to just dismiss them forever by clicking on the "Always Ignore" button.  Unfortunately, the day soon comes when you would like to once again be able to choose your own destiny.  When this happens, you start the journey of locating the correct settings to restore your right to choose.

To help save you some time, you can quickly find "Always" suppressed dialog boxes using the OPTIONS command and clicking on the System Tab.

From there, click on "Hidden Message Settings" to reach your final destination.

The Dialog where you can pick and choose to restore which dialog boxes should no longer be suppressed "Always".

-Jerry

Collection of Civil 3D Tips & Tricks

The response to the Civil Immersion Season One Pt. 1 recordings has been overwhelming! In the past couple weeks we’ve received a ton of comments from users all over the world who have been taking advantage of the material.  Thank you so much for your support! 

This experience got me thinking if there were any other helpful items that we could easily share. In my searching, I came across a document I have been using for the last few years to keep track of Civil 3D Tips and Tricks.  If you are interested, I’ve included a hyperlink below where you can download a PDF containing 50+ entries.

I'm betting there may be a couple items in there that you haven't tried before. :)

Civil 3D Tips & Tricks - http://a360.co/2djZjke

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: MapFDOBufferCreate

In today’s post, we are looking at a tool to help perform Buffer analysis. 

In short, we select one or many GIS features and supply a distance we would like to use for our buffer.  Our outcome is a new GIS object showing the results of our analysis.

You might be wondering where you would ever use a tool like this! 

I used to do something like this all the time when working for municipalities to confirm fire hydrant coverage.  Essentially, we would take their hydrant data and strike an arc around each hydrant with their standard distance for coverage.  (In our location, it was typically 300-400 feet)  After all of the circles were created, we would have an exhibit showing the total service area of the municipality.  Looking at the exhibit, we could easily see if there were any gaps in coverage that needed attention.  (Attention = Notifying the fire department so they were aware of the situation followed by making plans for future improvements to the system)

Now when I did it, we used to perform the analysis via. block definitions and more manual operations which were time consuming and involved converting GIS data to DWG objects.

Today, we can perform an operation like this directly on the GIS data embedded within our Civil 3D model with only a handful of clicks.   

It should go without saying :) but this tool is for more than just fire hydrants.  In short, we can perform a buffer analysis on many forms of GIS data to help determine minimum distances are met, areas that might be disturbed, residents that need to be notified…. And more.

Check out the video below to see how it works!

 

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Custom Subassembly Edits for Existing Corridors in Civil 3D

A custom subassembly built using Subassembly Composer can be just what the doctor ordered in many corridor design situations. Sometimes however, a phased approach is needed to tackle a tricky subassembly.  Being able to iterate between the cycles of building the subassembly and testing at various levels of completion can be very beneficial and time saving.  In other cases, edits have to be made after a corridor is created for the simple reason of correcting a mistake.

Check out the video below to see one workflow that will allow you to preserve the integrity of the existing corridor and eliminate the need for large edits to the existing assembly.

 

-Alan

Automating the Attachment or Removal of Civil 3D Property Set Data

If your Civil 3D workflow involves the application of property set data, you may be wondering if it’s possible to automate some the process.  Today, we’ll explore a couple features (entered at the command line) for automating the attachment or removal of property set data.

First we’ll look at AECPSDAUTOATTACH.  This is a system variable (stored in the drawing) that is “off” by default.  When it’s turned on, any changes made to property set definitions will be applied to all existing objects AND any new objects created.  Using this feature can help speed up the application of property sets to their respective objects.

If the time comes that you need to remove property sets from objects, you may want to try the PROPERTYSETCLEAN command.  This command will automatically remove property sets from any objects for which they no longer apply.

If you’re interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates the usage of both of these features.

 

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: CgADist

The perfect tool to help add things up!

Today we are looking at a bit of an obscure but very helpful tool.  It is called CgADist which is short for "Cogo Add Distances".  It is a perfect example of a tool that says what it does and does what it says :)

In short, if you would like to quickly add distances within your model that are available in several different formats, this tool is for you.  In other words, this tool will maintain a running total of distances provided by you via..

1. Typing them in at the keyboard
2. Picking points within the model
3. Selecting Text objects

At first glance, it may not seem as helpful as it is.  For me, this can be a great estimating tool.  In a matter of seconds, you can pick various points within your model to define where you might need silt fence to capture a quick estimate of length.  (All without having to create any geometry) 

Additionally, if you have a list of numeric text values, without having to retype any of them, you can quickly determine the sum.

Perhaps you have some linear geometry that is not to scale but does contain accurate text labels.  (Scaled Property Plat)  You can select the labels to quickly determine a total length without having to scale the geometry.  (or grab your calculator)

After you try it, I’m sure you will be able to come up with many of your own examples.

Check out the video below and give it a try!

 

-Jerry

Civil Immersion Blog Content is Now Available for Download!

Last month, the Civil Immersion Blog celebrated its six month anniversary. In most cases, a six month anniversary isn’t a big deal, however, in that short timeframe we’ve posted more than 55 infrastructure related topics containing more than 9 hours of recorded workflows. 

To help make this content available to an even wider audience (especially those who have restricted access to YouTube) we’ve consolidated it into a “package” that users can download and access locally. We’re calling it “Civil Immersion Season One – Pt. 1”.  The .ZIP package includes every blog post and screen recording (in .mp4 format) from Feb 2016 through July 2016. 

 

If you’re interested, you can download it here - https://goo.gl/dasNXR

After downloading, simply unzip the contents into a folder on your computer or network. In there, you’ll find a .doc file containing all of the blog posts with hyperlinks to the associated (now local) screen recordings.  We hope that by making this content available locally, it will be easier for many firms to access and share with others inside their organizations.

Please let us know if you find this approach helpful! Thank you for your continued support!  

Adding Property Set Data to Labels using the Civil 3D 2017 v1 Enhancements

On September 5^th, the Civil 3D 2017 v1 Enhancements was released.  The “v1 Enhancements” is a subscription benefit that includes many of Productivity Pack tools offered in prior versions of Civil 3D.  It’s important to note that the installation of this package also updates Civil 3D label styles, allowing them to accept property set data.

So from now on, if you have property set definitions in a drawing, (or template) you’ll find a new “property sets” tab in all label styles for objects associated with property sets.  For example, if you create a property set definition and choose to apply it to alignments, the alignment label style will automatically include a property set tab such that you can include that data in your labels.

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates how to add property set data to some structure labels.

 

- Jeff