Civil 3D Cross Section Tips & Tricks!

Cross section views bring together virtually every aspect of a Civil 3D design model.  Survey figures, cogo points, surfaces, corridors, utilities, feature lines, solid models, blocks, etc. all participate in the display of section views. 

Each of these items may carry with it specialized styles and settings for visualization and labeling.  Civil 3D section views also provide plan production functionality.  The sheer number of options and settings involved with cross sections makes them a perfect topic for a tips and tricks discussion!

In today’s installment we’ll explore a multitude of shortcuts related to cross section sizing, stylization, organization, labeling and more.  The content is presented using a shotgun approach, allowing us to cover as many concepts as possible in a quick, focused, easy to consume manner.  If you are interested, the video below will walk you through everything...

If you'd like to take a deeper dive look at these topics (as well as a few others) I’ve included links to additional cross section workflow videos below! 

• Displaying Multiple Civil 3D Section Views Within a Single Grid
  https://youtu.be/fPGA3SLgQN8
  
  
• Civil 3D 2015 Staggered Corridor Cross Section Labels
  https://youtu.be/V8WQXR4Z9fw
  
  
• Civil 3D 2018 New Feature Section View Buffer
  https://youtu.be/6xHV-cMXjZM
  
  
• Placing Civil 3D Section Views in Their Own Drawing
  https://youtu.be/IeSJcbhNeoE
  
  
• Annotating Cross Sectional Volumes using a Dynamic Civil 3D Table Style
  https://youtu.be/w3dDXkyyI20
  
  
• Smoothing the Appearance of Sectioned Civil 3D Pipe Networks using FACETDEV
  https://youtu.be/aSx_mztTRCg
  
  
• Creating "Quick Cross Sections" in AutoCAD Civil 3D
  https://youtu.be/7XROJgUDrgs
  
  
• AutoCAD/Civil 3D Tips and Tricks - Pt. 10 Cross Sections: Section View Direction
  https://youtu.be/PCPlj0P2aZY

-Jeff

Comments

[Gustavo]

Hi Jeff,

I want in my project that the sections are also displayed on the vertices of the superelevation graph (End Normal Crown, Level Crown, Reverse Crown, Begin Full Super), is there a way to do this automatically?

https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/Civil3D-UserGuide/images/GUID-D63ECE48-BECE-417F-9444-BC885ACC5288.png

[Jeff Bartels]

Hi Gustavo, Sections are based on the placement of sample lines. When you create sample lines using the "By Station Range" method, in addition to assigning a sample increment, you can also choose to place sample lines at "Superelevation Critical Stations". The setting is at the bottom of the dialog box and by default is set to False. Set it to true and you'll have sample lines, and subsequent section views at your superelevation critical stations. Hope this helps!