Civil Immersion

Finish Strong Friday: Civil 3D Property Set Data – Link to Excel with Fields

After my last post on Civil 3D Property Set attribute lists, I received a question about connecting these attributes to an external source (like an Excel file).  In addition, the user would want the Excel file to automatically update these attributes as they changed in the spreadsheet.  One way to solve this is through the use of Fields.

Check out the video below to see how to set up this connection.

-Alan

Civil 3D 2018 New Feature: Introducing Section View Drafting Buffers!

Historically, it has been challenging to add section views to an existing Civil 3D section view group.  Usually it required recreating the views, followed by some additional "intervention" to correct any manually created annotations or geometry.  Fortunately, Civil 3D 2018 has made this task much easier with the introduction of Section View Drafting Buffers.

The new buffers act similar to AutoCAD’s Crossing Window Selection in that they recognize all manually created content that falls within the buffer or crosses over its boundary.  The purpose of the drafting buffer is to ensure all content associated with a section view stays with that view if it is moved.  Using this new feature, one (or more) section views can be added to an existing view group and any resulting “shift” in views will automatically include all of the manually created entities!

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates how the new drafting buffers make it easy to add section views to an existing section view group…

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: PREVIEW

Today’s tool is all about the printed sheet. 

When working in Civil 3D (or any AutoCAD based application) how the model is displayed on the screen more often than not looks entirely different than how it plots.  This is because pen assignments can alter things like plotted color or plotted lineweights. 

Additionally, layers may be visible on the screen for reference but not show up come Plot time.  As a result, it is not always easy to know exactly how a sheet will look once plotted until we actually PLOT. 

Now, I’m not saying it has to be physically plotted for us to know.  There is a Preview feature of the plotting process so we can visualize the output before actually sending to paper. (or mylar, vellum, PDF, DWF….)

Having said this, it would be nice if we could do a quick plot preview without actually plotting.  Guess what, we can!  By using the PREVIEW command we can quickly see how our model geometry will be represented once plotted. 

Now, there are some caveats.  You have to have a Page Setup (Plot configuration) defined for your layout or Model space for PREVIEW to know what to do.  Once established, you can run the PREVIEW command to see how your output will look. 

And if things look good, you can Right Click and then click on PLOT to immediately output your model.  Who knows, after today, the way you Plot may never be the same.  :)

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Civil 3D 2018 New Feature: Relative Feature Lines

In today’s installment, we’ll continue our review of Civil 3D 2018 improvements by exploring the new “Relative” Feature Line option.  Generally speaking, relative feature lines can have all (or some) of their elevation points dynamically linked to a surface.  Their elevations can match the surface elevations, or be assigned a vertical offset.  Since they are relative, any changes made to the associated surface will also update the feature lines.

To demonstrate this new feature, I’ve created two quick videos.  The first represents an abstract example, designed explore the new options and settings.  In the second recording, I used relative feature lines to create a parking lot that automatically reacts when changes are made to a design surface.  That being said, this is just one example.  With a little experimentation and practice, relative feature lines can be used to add a dynamic component to many of your design tasks. 

Introducing Relative Feature Lines - Pt. 1

Introducing Relative Feature Lines - Pt. 2

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: Thumbnail (InfraWorks)

Today’s tool helps us quickly find the model we are looking for within InfraWorks.

When working in InfraWorks, the home screen lists and displays a thumbnail image for all of our models.  If you are like me, the images are a lot faster to interpret than reading all of the model names.  :)

Having said this, InfraWorks creates the thumbnail images automatically and usually at a very early stage of model construction.  As a result, the image may not always reflect the current state of the model and/or a location that would make it easy to quickly identify.

That is the purpose of today’s tool! 

Using the Thumbnail tool we can quickly capture the view state of our model and use that as the model’s thumbnail image.

Check out the video below to see how it works.

 

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Civil 3D Property Set Data – Creating an Attribute List

Civil 3D Property Sets are a great way to add attribution to your model.  This particular post is based on a customer asking me recently if they could control the attributes being applied to their objects using a pull-down list.  The answer is Yes!

Check out the video below to see how to create these lists.

-Alan

 

Civil 3D 2018 New Feature: Clearing "Bowties" in Corridor Daylighting

I am happy to announce that today marks the launch of Civil 3D 2018! Among its new features, users will find a collection of tools designed to improve corridor modeling efficiency, dynamic site grading and automated plan production. To celebrate the release, we plan to explore many of the new features and workflows Civil 3D 2018 has to offer.

In today’s installment, we’ll review a new tool that can fix “bowties” in corridor daylighting. Using only a couple clicks of the mouse, bowties can be corrected one at a time, or in bulk, depending on the needs of the designer. As a bonus, corrected daylight links will be retained, even if the corridor geometry changes.

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick recording that demonstrates a workflow using the new Clear Corridor Bowties tool…

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: LOGFILEMODE

For those times when you really wish you had a “Black Box” for your (or someone else’s) modelling session.  :) 

Today’s tool is all about capturing information while working on your models.  It has been around for years but many folks have never used (or even heard of) it.

In short, engaging LOGFILEMODE will retain all of the information displayed or entered into your Command line Window during your editing session.  Now you may be thinking….  Why do I care about this?

Having access to this information can be helpful in many ways including…  troubleshooting, evaluating commands used during a editing session, training purposes, reviewing coordinate entry, or even helping to serve as a black box by recording all command transactions on a particular model.

For me personally, it was helpful in tracking down why one of my end users was the ONLY person in the office having “issues” with almost every .DWG they touched.  Turns out they weren’t doing anything wrong.  They were just using a command (they learned in a training session) that no one else was and it was this command that was causing the problem.

(Because you are probably curious now… :)  It was the LENGTHEN command.  Back in the early 90’s, extending a Polyline via. the LENGTHEN command caused “issues”.)

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Controlling Sunlight Properties in InfraWorks VR Stereo Panoramas

If you’re someone who leverages Navisworks to create stereo panoramas of InfraWorks models, you may have noticed the sunlight direction shown in the panoramas doesn’t usually match the sunlight direction used by InfraWorks.  This is because the InfraWorks environment properties stay behind when an exported FBX model moves to Navisworks.  Fortunately, Navisworks provides custom lighting controls of its own, allowing users to maintain similar sunlight conditions between InfraWorks and their rendered stereo panoramas.

That being said, Navisworks is also capable of defining a wide array of light sources representing interior and exterior conditions.  By taking advantage of multiple light sources, you have everything you need to create fully illuminated “late evening” renderings of your models, which is something not yet possible using InfraWorks alone.

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video demonstrating how to control the sunlight properties of cloud based stereo panorama renderings.

-Jeff

 

Tool for Tuesday: InfraWorks Terrain Contours

Today’s tool is actually a “feature” of another tool.  :)

When visualizing terrain information in InfraWorks 360, there are numerous options to refine exactly how it is displayed.  (Elevation theme, transparency, draping an aerial photo, viewing it in 3D…)

I know what you are thinking, what about contours?  If only there were a way to show contours.  Well there is!!

Beginning in the 2017 version(s), there were some new objects created in InfraWorks that (as a feature of those objects) have the ability to display terrain contour lines. 

As a result, we can now create a Parcel within InfraWorks over the area of a terrain we are interested in and then simply “turn on” the contour lines in that area.

Check out the video below to see how it works.

 

-Jerry