As many of you know, the Map 3D FDO tools for connecting to various GIS databases and file stores are very powerful and luckily-are included with Civil 3D. Recently, I was talking with a customer about grabbing published survey monument data and bringing it into a Civil 3D project. Based on this discussion, I thought this might be of interest to others who may not be completely familiar with the GIS tools available in Civil 3D/Map 3D; hence this post.
Today’s installment is about extending the usefulness of our rollover Tooltips. Specifically, how to customize them so they show us exactly the information we are looking for.
For example, when hovering over a Block object, the Tooltip shows us the Color, Layer and Linetype currently assigned to the Block. While these are helpful, showing the Block's name could also be very beneficial.
When hovering over a Viewport, the Tooltip shows us the Color, Layer and Linetype currently assigned to the Viewport. Wouldn’t it be great if the Tooltip also reported the Viewport's Plot Scale and Lock status?
The great news is rollover Tooltips can be easily customized to show these kinds of information and more. Additionally, they are not limited to only AutoCAD objects. Any of our Civil 3D objects that support rollover Tooltips can be quickly customized to display additional or alternate information.
Today’s tool is all about the scale our model objects are displayed in our Layout Viewports.
While folks shouldn’t be scaling geometry from paper plots, as long as scales are still available, they will. :)
Because of this, it is very important to ensure our models plot to scale. This is typically done by establishing/setting a scale on each of our Layout Viewports. Unfortunately, once the scale is set, it is not immediately obvious what the scale has been set to. (would make for a great tooltip!!)
For the longest time, if I wanted to see what scale has been applied to my Layout Viewports, I would use the Properties Panel. Until a couple of months ago.
Contained within the Express Tools that ship with Civil 3D is a tool designed specifically to list a Layout Viewport scale and it is incredibly easy to use.
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().
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.
Because many of our models require or incorporate GIS data, I am going to do a 4 part series on tools we can use to help us be more productive when working with geospatial information.
Part one: Stop reinventing the wheel!
If you are like me, you incorporate a lot of GIS data into your Civil 3D models. I’m a big fan of the drag and drop method! In other words, I drag in my .SHP file and it automatically transforms itself (if necessary) before displaying on my screen.
Having said this, I find that the default display values NEVER meet my needs. Instead, I am always tweaking things like color, width, transparency… to match my standards. Worse yet, I perform these tweaks every time I add the .SHP file to any model.
Wouldn’t it be great if I could save my tweaks such that when I drag and drop my .SHP file into my Civil 3D model the data would already be formatted the way I need? Fortunately for us, we can!!
We do this by saving a .LAYER file. In short, after adjusting the display styles of our attached GIS data, we can then right click on it in the Map Task Pane and export it as a .LAYER files. In the future, we just drag and drop the .LAYER file into any model and we not only get the GIS data but it is also automatically formatted to our display standards.
Today’s installment is all about capturing your layer display information. When working on a Civil 3D model, we tend to accumulate a ton of layers. Using these layers, we control how (or if) various parts of our model are displayed.
Using different layer combinations, one version of layers could be used for plotting, another version could be used for editing, another version could be used for review… I’m sure you get the idea.
If only there were a quick way to save and restore these layer display representations.
Fortunately for us, there is!! By leveraging the LayerStateSave tool, we can quickly capture the layer display within our model. We can then turn some layers on, turn others off, maybe tweak a color or two and then easily restore our saved layer state when finished.
Using the Layer State portion of the ribbon even lets us preview the results of each layer state before we commit to restoring one!! Kind of like a try before you buy.
When working on projects, there are times where we only need a portion of our model geometry.
Perhaps we want to share some of the data but not all of it.
Perhaps we want to create a .DWG that only shows the contents of a layout viewport.
Perhaps we would like to eradicate all of the geometry inside or outside of a boundary…
In the past, to accomplish this, it usually required a combination of the Trim and Erase Commands. (Likely also included the Explode command for those objects that cannot be trimmed. :) )
In any event, it can be a slow and painful process especially if the boundary is complex.
Fortunately for us, Civil 3D (and Map 3D) contain tool that will make short work of this task. The tool is called MapTrim. In short, you define/create a boundary answer a couple of simple questions and within seconds your geometry is reduced to just the area you desired.
Many of you know that I started using AutoCAD more than 25 years ago while working for a Civil Engineering and Land Surveying firm. At the time, it was a small office and I was both the CAD Manager and main CAD drafter. I did the drafting for most of the engineers. Having said this, there was one engineer I will never forget as he was VERY particular about his text. He had two simple Rules.
Rule number 1: ALL text needed to be in Uppercase.
Rule number 2: There were NO exceptions to Rule number 1.
I really could have used today’s tool back then. :)
In short, today’s installment is all about quick ways to adjust text case. In other words, quickly convert Lowercase text to Uppercase. Or perhaps convert Uppercase text to Sentence case.
We will actually look at several ways to do this including some “right-click” functionality, hotkeys and the TCASE command. At the same time we will explore the various types of objects in Civil 3D that can contain text and which ways work best with each. (Text, MTEXT, Civil 3D Label…)
