Civil Immersion

Displaying Crossing Linear Elements in a Civil 3D Profile View

If a proposed design intersects 3D linear elements, it can be helpful to see where those crossings occur in any profile views.  Historically, displaying (and annotating) profile crossings was challenging.  Now, using Civil 3D 2019.2 it’s much easier to dynamically view and label crossing elements in profile views.

To display crossing elements, simply select a profile view and choose “Add Crossings to Profile View” from the contextual ribbon.  You can then select your desired entities.  (Supported entities include: Feature Lines, Survey Figures, 3D Polylines, Alignments and Profiles.)  Crossings are displayed using a marker and label style that will update automatically when changes are made to their respective linear elements. 

If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that walks through some possible workflows…

-Jeff

Reverse Engineering Civil 3D Design Data from AutoCAD Entities

On occasion a Civil 3D project may require data from a “legacy” drawing.  One example might be a DWG file for which you do not know (or have) the original authoring application.  In cases like this, Civil 3D can re-create design data from drawing entities.  In this installment we’ll learn how to build a surface model from selected objects.

I have created a quick video below that walks through the workflow.  After reviewing the recording, take a tour through Civil 3D's creation menus and you’ll find several other design components can also be created “From Object”. 

It’s been said that you can’t always get what you want.  On occasion, that may mean having to extract data from generic AutoCAD drawings.  Fortunately, when the need arises, Civil 3D makes it easy to reverse engineer many design components from selected entities.

-Jeff