Today’s installment of “Tool for Tuesday” looks at a form of non-destructive analysis we can perform on our Civil 3D Surface Objects. In other words, when the command is complete, all geometry created as a result of the command is automatically eliminated.
What kind of Black Magic is this? Essentially, it is very similar to the Quick Profile command we have had in Civil 3D for years except this command creates Quick Cross Sections.
Note: This command is pretty new in that you will need Civil 3D 2017 or higher to use it.
Not every agency applies superelevation transitions the same. With this in mind, what if the superelevation standard we are required to follow uses superelevation transition lengths based on the entire transition distance instead of runoff length. This is where the flexibility of the Design Criteria File in Civil 3D helps us get the job done.
Check out the video below to see Part 3 of my series on all things superelevation.
Civil 3D’s sample lines can calculate more than just surface related volumes. They can also calculate the structural volumes associated with a roadway design. The trick to extracting structural volumes is knowing the shape codes used by the parts in your assemblies.
Each closed shape within a subassembly part is “named” using a shape code. To extract the average end area volume of that shape, you can simply reference its code and Civil 3D will take care of the rest. All calculated volumes are then stored in a material list that will dynamically update if the corridor model changes.
If you are interested, I’ve created a video that walks through a workflow to compute multiple structural material volumes from a roadway corridor model.
Our Civil Immersion blog turns one year old this week! To celebrate, I’m giving you two Tools for Tuesday. :)
They go together like “soup and sandwich”. In short, they help us quickly organize geometry within our model.
Let me explain….
When it comes to display order on objects, I’m sure we can all agree that Hatch Objects should always be in the back and Text Objects should always be in the front. The problem is that we don’t always create geometry in an order where this happens naturally. As a result, we have to make corrections along the way. (or worse yet, make a ton of fixes at the end) In other words... we don't want this..
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just tell Civil 3D (or any AutoCAD based application) to adjust the visibility of our model such that all of the Hatch is in the Back and all of the Text is in the front? Essentially, we want this instead...
Yes it would be great and we already have two simple commands that will take care of it!
Does your InfraWorks model require very specific 3D objects? Have you wasted valuable time trying to find usable content online? If you have access to AutoCAD, there is a good chance you can create just about anything you may need in minutes using AutoCAD’s large collection of 3D modeling tools!
On Wednesday of this week we had a chance to present some AutoCAD modeling workflows at the bi-weekly InfraWorks product team webcast. Typically, our Civil Immersion recordings represent quick targeted workflows, however this long format presentation gave us a chance to take a deeper dive look at the topic of “AutoCAD to InfraWorks”.
If you are interested, I’ve included the webcast recording below…
Note: This recording has been edited for time. To view the full webcast, please use the following link - https://youtu.be/PAujJlkmrF8
Today we set the record for longest command discussed to date. 28 Characters! :)
While it doesn’t exactly roll off of the tongue, it is still a very helpful tool. In short, it can quickly annotate the High Points and Low Points on a Civil 3D surface. As a result, visualizing drainage and doing things like QA/QC on your Surfaces becomes a whole lot easier.
What makes the tool even more useful is that you can perform your analysis on a complete or partial surface. (Evaluate what is important to you!)
With a little close examination, we can quickly understand how AutoCAD Civil 3D utilizes the Design Criteria File to give us the superelevation rate and transition length that our design warrants. In addition, the Design Criteria File can assist with other corridor design standards such as checking our minimum curve radii for assigned design speeds.
Check out the video below to see Part 2 of my series on all things superelevation.
In the old days; average end area cut and fill volumes were calculated manually from paper cross sections representing a proposed roadway design. Today, using Civil 3D, we can extract average end area volumes with only a couple clicks of the mouse.
The key to calculating corridor volumes is found in Civil 3D’s sample lines. Sample lines not only “sample” drawing data, they can also leverage that data to perform volume calculations and then store those volumes as dynamic material lists that update whenever the corridor model changes.
If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that walks through a workflow leveraging sample lines to calculate average end area cut and fill volumes from a corridor model.
If you are like most people, you are only one of many people working on a project at any given time. As a result, there is the potential that folks “bump” into each other when trying to access files.
Let me explain. For the most part, whoever gets to a .DWG first is able to perform edits. Everyone else can be set up to reference the contents of the .DWG but must wait until the current editor closes the file before getting the opportunity to jump into the .DWG and begin making their own edits. As a project team grows and the project files are shared more and more often, this can get quite competitive. :)
In the event you are denied access to editing a .DWG because someone else got to it first, it would be helpful to know who that person is and/or what machine they are currently working on. (So you can negotiate getting access to the file yourself or having that person perform your edits)
In some cases, the operating system provides us the information as to who is currently editing the file. (Opening the file directly) In other cases, we are only told the .DWG is locked for editing but not given any information as to who the current editor is. (In-place Xref editing)
It is for this reason, AutoCAD based applications like Civil 3D gives us a handy tool to query any .DWG and report back who is the current editor, what machine are they working on and how long have they been editing. This tool is called “WHOHAS”
We've been asked to present at the February 15th installment of the InfraWorks 360 webcast series!
Have you searched endlessly to find specific 3D content for use in an InfraWorks 360 model? If you have access to AutoCAD, you can easily build many of these objects yourself! In this session we’ll explore AutoCAD’s solid modeling tools to create DIY custom 3D objects than can easily be dropped into InfraWorks 360.
