Civil 3D represents a three dimensional “design space” where entities can exist at multiple (or varying) elevations. Knowing this, it may at first appear challenging to identify the horizontal and vertical distances between components. Fortunately, Civil 3D provides several tools designed to take orthogonal measurements between objects. In today’s installment, we’ll explore two such commands, “Minimum Distance Between Entities”, and “Minimum Vertical Distance Between Entities”.
The Minimum Distance Between Entities command is used to identify the point at which two selected objects are closest (measured horizontally) together. This tool can be used to quickly measure and/or validate the minimum separation between many types of objects. It works with points (whether they be cogo, survey, or traditional AutoCAD), lines, arcs, circles, polylines, feature lines, survey figures, alignments, and parcel segments.
The Minimum Vertical Distance Between Entities command is used to identify the vertical separation between two intersecting objects. This tool can be used to quickly measure and/or validate the vertical clearance between many object types. In addition, it will report the elevation of each object at the intersection, and the X,Y coordinate of the intersection itself. It works with lines, arcs, circles, polylines, feature lines (even when embedded in a corridor), survey figures and profiles.
If you are interested, I’ve recorded sample workflows using each of these tools...
-Jeff
Thanks for this and all the other info you post. This is the stuff Training Classes SHOULD be made of.
Posted by: Ray Foren | 07/21/2017 at 04:42 AM