Civil Immersion

Tool for Tuesday: Point File Format – Setting Limits

Because too much of anything can cause problems. :)

Today’s post deals with Points.  Lots and lots of Points.

Specifically the process of importing these Points into your model via. an ASCII file.  If you are like me, this is something you have done literally hundreds of times.  Having said this, the world of data collection is changing and these once timid ASCII files can now contain hundreds of thousands of points or more. 

Knowing this, just specifying a Point file format and clicking OK during the import may not be enough.  (No one want’s to dump 300,000 points into their model unless they are prepared for it. :) )

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could control or limit the number of points imported during the insert Points from ASCII file command?  If for no other reason than to get a quick glimpse of what is contained in the ASCII file before we commit to importing the entire contents.

The good news is that we can!  (And it is really easy to do)

In short, this can be accomplished by creating a custom Point File Format.  Contained within the Point File Format are a couple of settings that will enable us to:

1.  Limit the total number of points that will be imported
2.  Specify a Point sample rate for the ASCII file.

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Virtual Reality (VR) Creation Using the AEC Collection - VR Level 2

My Autodesk marketing colleague, John Sayre, just posted the next installment (VR Level 2) of his series on VR creation using the AEC Collection.  Things get a little more advanced in this playlist as John takes a land development project to VR and even begins adding some object animation within the experience.  The overall flow of data is pretty much the same as his previous playlist John Sayre - VR Level 1 with the exception of the initial drone capture/processing step using Autodesk ReCap.  The package created with these techniques can be experienced by several popular VR gear products, including the HTC VIVE and the Oculus Rift.  One thing to note:  If these "gear" options (Level 1 and 2) are a little more than you need and you'd like to take a look at the workflow for "Level 0", please refer to Jeff's blog post that walks through this at Jeff Bartels - Level 0 VR.

Here is John's playlist for the Level 2 VR workflow using a land development project:

-Alan

Controlling the Masking Applied to Civil 3D Contour Labels

By default, the labels applied to Civil 3D contours will mask all entities beneath the label. Most of the time this isn’t a problem. If however, contour labels are placed over solid fill hatch (or an aerial photo), the masks become noticeable, displaying as white rectangles. Fortunately, Civil 3D provides a setting to correct this issue when necessary. In today’s installment we’ll explore the “Contour Line Only” masking option.

Contour Line Only masking does exactly what it says, ensuring that contour labels mask their respective contour lines only.  The setting is also very flexible in that it can be applied at the feature level, command level, or individual object level, making it easy to choose the implementation method that works best for you.  If you are interested, I’ve created a recording below that demonstrates a couple workflows using Contour Line Only label masking…

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: ‘SSE

In today’s installment, we look at a tool that helps us to identify points within a profile view based on plan view information.

In other words, I have a profile view showing the existing ground elevations of my horizontal alignment at my road centerline.  This helps, but maybe I would also like to see (in my profile view) the elevations of my parcel lines at the ROW?  Or maybe the elevations at the back corners of one parcel to help verify drainage?  Perhaps I have a couple of streetlights in my model and I would like to quickly add blocks to represent them in my profile view.

There are lots of times where this tool could be helpful.  In short, if you have a surface and an alignment, you can easily pass a coordinate location from your plan view to your profile view for any command asking you to identify a point.

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Retaining Walls with Subassembly Composer Part 2 – Example

For Part 2 on retaining walls, I show an example I created several years ago as an example for a user.  This is a battered/sloped retaining wall with a special curb top (as a bike lane will rest on top of the fill this wall is supporting); with the mainline align/profile driving the top of the wall and a profile controlling the bottom of footing.  As mentioned in part 1, there are many ways to attack these retaining walls in Subassembly Composer.  This was just what worked for me at the time.

Check out the video below to see this example.

-Alan

Assigning Logical Names to Civil 3D Objects Automatically

When building an infrastructure model in Civil 3D, every design object (alignments, profiles, corridors, section views, etc.) is given a name.  In most cases, names are assigned to objects at the time of creation.  In fact, Civil 3D is so passionate about names that if a user chooses NOT to actively name an object, Civil 3D will assign its own name using a “name template”. 

In today’s installment, we’ll take advantage of Civil 3D’s passion by creating some custom name templates.  We will then assign these templates as the defaults for our most used commands.  As a result, Civil 3D can be made to assign logical (standardized) names to every design object we create!

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video below to help get you started…

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: IF()

Part Four:  It is always a matter of "IF".

We wrap up our GIS series today with the IF() conditional function.  Using this function, we can perform some quick analysis on our GIS data and alter many aspects of how it is displayed and/or annotated. 

The possibilities are infinite!

For example, when adding GIS data showing soil information, we could have poor soils automatically highlighted. 

When adding GIS data containing parcel data, we could color every parcel red whose area is below the minimum standard. 

When adding GIS data containing pipes, we could alter the pipe widths based on a diameter attribute…

If you couple this with the other tools we have looked at over the last several installments we can do some really cool stuff with GIS data.  (And we haven’t even scratched the surface yet :) )

In our example today, we will review parcel data stored in a GIS file as it is inserted into our model.  Any parcel that does not meet the minimum Area (12,000 SF) is automatically colored differently (red) than the others (light blue).  This is accomplished using the conditional function IF().

Check out the video below to see how it works.

-Jerry

Finish Strong Friday: Virtual Reality (VR) Creation Using the AEC Collection

My Autodesk marketing colleague, John Sayre, recently presented a webcast showing a civil workflow for creating a VR experience using the AEC Collection.  Since we have been asked about this from so many of you, John was nice enough to record a playlist that walks through this workflow.  For this VR example, John starts with a model created from drone photographs using Autodesk ReCap.  After using a variety of products within the AEC Collection to process and add to this model, it lands inside 3ds Max Interactive.  3ds Max Interactive is a module available for 3ds Max that builds the VR experience package.  This package can be experienced by several popular VR gear products, including the HTC VIVE and the Oculus Rift.  One thing to note:  John refers to this as "Level 1" VR.  If this "gear" option is a little more than you need and you'd like to take a look at the workflow for "Level 0", please refer to Jeff's blog post that walks through this at Jeff Bartels - Level 0 VR.

Here is John's playlist for the Level 1 VR workflow:

-Alan

Preloading the Default Settings Used by Civil 3D Commands

Civil 3D styles represent an easy way to standardize the appearance (and labeling) of all civil design content.  Proper style selection ensures all created alignments, surfaces, profiles, utilities, corridors, etc. conform to company CAD standards.  Knowing this, wouldn't it be nice if you could assign the styles and settings you use most often as the defaults for every Civil 3D command?  Doing so could save countless mouse clicks.  It could also prevent confusion over which styles to choose, because they would already be chosen for you.  Fortunately, Civil 3D makes it easy to “preload” commands with the styles and settings you use most!

In today’s installment, we’ll look at how to make global (or granular) edits to the default settings associated with Civil 3D commands.  After reviewing the recording below, try opening your standard template drawing and explore the settings assigned to the commands you use most often.  By making a few quick adjustments, you can likely eliminate several unnecessary picks and clicks, and make your template work even harder for you!

-Jeff

Tool for Tuesday: Concat()

Part Three:  Sometimes our GIS labels need a little extra info. to help avoid confusion.

In today’s installment, we will review the Concat() function.  Concat is short for “Concatenate” which simply means it is a tool that helps us group things together.

This can be a very powerful tool (especially when it comes to GIS data) to help make our annotation more “readable”.  In other words, if our data contains a numeric attribute value that equals 123.45 and we add that value to a label, what does it represent?  Sometimes when looking at the data in context to the model geometry it is obvious.  Other times it may not be. 

For example, when looking at 123.45, what are the units?  Does it represent an area or linear measurement?  Perhaps it is a cost.

Often times, adding some additional information in front of our label, after our label or in both places makes the annotation more readable and can greatly reduce the chance of confusion.  (i.e.  “Area = 123.45 Square Meters)

Check out the video below to see how easily incorporate additional text into your GIS labels using the Concat function.

-Jerry