Civil Immersion

Tool for Tuesday: GeographicLocation

You can get there from here!!

Have you ever wanted to find a location in your model using a property address?  I know I have.  For example, I’m going to start working on a project and I have its address.  I also have access to tons of aerial imagery within Civil 3D that I would love to start reviewing for my project site and its surrounding area.  The problem is that Civil 3D works off of coordinates and not addresses.  I can set the correct coordinate projection but have found it hard to quickly locate my proposed project site.

So what do I do….  I go to Google Earth and find the site by address.  From there, I review the imagery but I can’t really start doing too much because that work needs to be done in Civil 3D.  So I look for ways to jump from one environment to the other.  (And I have seen some pretty creative workflows over the years. :) )

If only an interface existed in Civil 3D where we could find a location based on a simple property address.  

The exciting news is that the interface we need already exists in Civil 3D!!!  We just need to exploit AutoCAD’s “GeographicLocation” tool.

 Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Editing Civil 3D Feature Line Geometry using "Fit Curve" and "Smooth"

Feature lines represent one of the major components of a Civil 3D design.  They can be used to define both existing and proposed 3D elements.  Things like centerlines, edges of pavement, curb & gutter, breaklines, retaining walls, flow lines, etc. can all be modeled using feature lines.

That being said, once feature line objects have been created, Civil 3D provides a large collection of tools for the purpose of editing their geometry.  In today’s installment we’ll explore the “Fit Curve” and “Smooth” tools.  These commands make it possible to convert feature line segments from straight lines to curves and back again.

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that walks through some possible workflows using each of these tools…

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: Shift & Spacebar

As we work on models, the number of components and geometric entities grows quickly.  Additionally, multiple objects often overlap.  When this happens, it can be challenging sometimes to select exactly the object we need when executing a particular command.  As a result, we often find ourselves Zooming in and Zooming out such that we can ensure we grab the correct object.

Sure there are commands that can help like SELECTIONCYCLING.  (i.e. Set the value to 2 and when you pick on the screen, if there are overlapping entities, a dialog box appears and lets you select the object you want from a list.)  Having said this, the dialog can be a bit clumsy and often times pops up even when you don't really need it.

Instead, try holding down the Shift key while tapping the Spacebar the next time you want to select an object that overlaps.  In doing so, you can easily cycle through objects only when you need it and without requiring a dialog box.

Check out the video below to see how it works.

 

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Civil 3D - Using Text Downstream in SHP File Part 2: Importing

Continuing with last week's post, let's consider the need to import data from text data stored in geospatial format for Part 2 (please see Part 1 from last week for the back story).  We'll take a look at two methods for grabbing the attributed text from the SHP file and bringing some or all of it into another drawing.

Check out the video below to see these workflows in action.

-Alan

Civil 3D 2018 New Feature: Extracted Feature Lines as Corridor Baselines

In this installment, we’ll explore a new Civil 3D 2018 improvement that can help simplify the creation and editing of corridor models.  Starting in 2018 it is now possible to extract dynamic feature lines from a corridor model and then leverage those feature lines as baselines within the same corridor. 

This workflow makes is possible to build corridors using a “modular” approach where assemblies represent components rather than entire roadway sections.  Leveraging multiple baselines also provides independent editing control over many of the parts in an overall model.

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates a workflow using extracted feature lines as corridor baselines.

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: STARTMODE

In today’s installment, we explore how to control the display of the “Start Tab”.

In short, the “Start Tab” has been around for a couple of releases and can help us in several different ways.  (Learning Videos, Tips, Access to recently used models…)  Having said this, if we find that it is not something we anticipate using on a regular basis, being able to suppress its display might be helpful.

 

That is where STARTMODE comes in handy.  Essentially it is a switch that controls whether the Start Tab is displayed or not.  (1 = Start Tab, 0  = No Start Tab)

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Civil 3D/Map 3D - Using Text Downstream in SHP File Part 1: Viewing

In keeping with the inspiration from my last several posts, I wanted to address another question I received from a user.  He asked about exporting text from a drawing into a geospatial format that others could benefit from downstream.  In other words, "MAPEXPORT" the text to SHP and then connect and overlay this text in other drawings.  So for part one, I thought we would pretend to need viewing capabilities only; therefore, we'll connect to and stylize the text in the SHP file using FDO in Civil 3D or Map 3D.  Thanks to T.O. for your question!

Check out the video below to see this in action.

-Alan

Civil 3D 2018 New Feature: Offset Profiles & Connected Alignments

With the release of Civil 3D 2018 we now have access to features that were once only available within the Intersection Wizard.  I’m speaking of offset profiles and connected alignments.  Having these features available “everywhere” makes it possible to build more complex corridor models while maintaining a dynamic link (both horizontally and vertically) between disparate geometric components.

First we’ll review the concept of an offset profile.  An offset profile is associated with an offset alignment.  Its elevation is assigned as a relative cross slope measured from a profile of the parent alignment.  Generally speaking, if you’ve defined a proposed roadway centerline alignment having a finished grade profile, you could then define a lane edge (horizontally and vertically) using an offset alignment with an associated offset profile.  Since the offset components are dynamic, any changes made to the roadway centerline will also update the lane edge.  As a side note, it’s possible to define offsets from other offsets, thus allowing a single alignment and profile to control multiple linear features.

Related to the offset profile is the connected alignment.  A connected alignment acts a lot like a “fillet” between two intersecting alignments, except this fillet will maintain tangency when either alignment is moved.  Just like offset alignments, connected alignments support a dynamic profile, ensuring that connected alignments are linked both horizontally and vertically to a proposed design.  In my recorded example, I used a connected alignment to define a dynamic curb return.  That being said, connected alignments aren’t just for curb returns, they can be used anytime you’d like to tie two alignments together using a radius.

If you're interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates both features…

Creating & Managing Offset Profiles 

Creating & Managing Connected Alignments 

-Jeff

 

Tool for Tuesday: BURST

It’s like EXPLODE only more powerful!! :)

Have you ever had a Block with attributes and wanted to explode the Block without losing the attribute values?  (Exploding a Block with attributes using the EXPLODE command converts the attribute values back to attribute tags)

Why would I want to do this you ask....  Maybe you want to give someone your .DWG but do not want to give them your awesome Block definitions.  In other words, you break your blocks down to native AutoCAD entities with text representing any attributes.  (Kind of like converting your formulas in Excel to the resulting values)

Or perhaps you want to execute a command that requires a Text value.  (Connecting DWG objects to an external database using a Link Template for example)

I know, it might not happen that often, but when it does, this is MUST have tool for your toolbox!

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Civil 3D Property Set Data – Export to Excel and Access

Similar to my last post, this post is in response to a question I received about the "Property Set Data-Link to Excel" video.  The user asked if there is a way to reverse the direction of this workflow-meaning, export Property Set attributes to an external file.  You can export directly to Microsoft Access and use the Schedule tool for the Microsoft Excel export.

Check out the video below to see these two workflows.

-Alan