Civil Immersion

Our Next 30 min. Workout Session is this Thursday! (Oct. 29th)

In this session we will be taking a look at Civil 3D's numerous "Inquiry Commands".  If you have not used them before, they can be very helpful in quickly determining things like Distance, Station, Elevation, Grade and so much more. 

In short, they are used to quickly interrogate Autodesk Civil 3D objects. You can then use the information extracted from the design model to aid in design, validation, and analysis.

The live session “30-Minute Workout - Using Civil 3D's inquiry tools to establish Who, What and Where” is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29th,  at 1:30 PM Eastern Time.  If you are interested in attending, please use the link below to register…

https://autodesk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ptocx9U-Rk6z61O9GtcPHQ

We look forward to seeing you there!

-Jerry

Unlocking the Power of Transparent Commands in Civil 3D!

Object Snaps are arguably the most important feature in the AutoCAD platform.  Their ability to “lock on” to precise coordinates represents the foundation on which all geometry is created, edited, and queried. 

Civil 3D also relies on Object Snaps to model civil infrastructure designs.  In addition, Civil 3D provides its own collection of engineering related snaps called Transparent Commands.  Using Transparent Commands, civil engineers can select from 20+ options including: Northing/Easting, Bearing/Distance, Station/Offset, Profile Station/Elevation, etc.  In today’s installment, we’ll explore Civil 3D’s collection of Transparent Commands as well as a few best practices for their application. 

The recording below walks through everything you'll need to get started using this powerful feature!

-Jeff

Our Next 30 min. Workout Session is this Thursday! (Oct. 1st)

In this session we will be taking a tour of “Design Center”.  This tool was originally introduced in AutoCAD 2000 and (even after 20 years) it still provides tons of value.  If you have not used it before, (or if it's been a while :)) this tool provides a quick and easy way to find and reuse your drawing components.  Think of it like a “Windows Explorer” for .DWG files.

 

The live session “30-Minute Workout - Recycle drawing content using Design Center” is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 1^st at 1:30 PM Eastern Time.  If you are interested in attending, please use the link below to register…

https://autodesk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e25PQtMQTO2Q7djDDboDdQ

We look forward to seeing you there!

-Jerry

Creating higher value geometry using the Map Cleanup tools in Civil 3D

During today’s presentation, we do a deep dive into the MapClean Tools within Civil 3D. 

Using MAPCLEAN, we can quickly analyze and correct geometric “issues”.  These include deleting duplicate objects, erasing short objects, extending undershoots, snapping clustered nodes and much much more.

We also explore several ways to select geometry, so we are sure we are working on exactly the entities we are interested in.  Along the way, we look at how the MAPCLEAN tools can address issues automatically as well as identify every issue allowing us the opportunity to address it or not.

If you have never seen/used MAPCLEAN before, you will learn how helpful each analysis option can be.  Additionally, learning to couple multiple analysis types together in a single operation can quickly make MAPCLEAN one of the most powerful tools in your tool belt.

Click on the video below to check it out.

-Jerry

Taking Advantage of AutoCAD's Annotative Objects in Civil 3D

When applied to civil objects, Civil 3D's purpose built labels maintain a dynamic link to the underlying civil data AND will size themselves automatically when displayed on construction drawings. That said, civil infrastructure designs often include "generic" objects that also require labeling.

Many times these objects can be labeled using a Civil 3D note, OR (depending on your needs), an AutoCAD Annotative object may be a better fit. In today's installment, we'll explore the concept of annotative objects, learn how to create and edit them, and walk through some ways to incorporate them into our civil designs.

If you're interested, the video below walks step by step through everything you need to get started...

-Jeff

Introducing Civil 3D Data Shortcuts

One of the biggest benefits of using Civil 3D is the dynamic relationships between civil objects. When one object is edited, all dependent objects (and their labels) update automatically. These dynamic relationships can also exist between drawings using a concept called Data Shortcuts.

Data Shortcuts work much like the icons on your desktop used to launch applications.  Each icon represents a “pointer” that knows where its respective application lives on your computer.  The Data Shortcuts in Civil 3D also represent pointers that (instead of pointing to applications) point to civil objects stored inside DWG files.  In today’s installment, we’ll take our first look at Data Shortcuts by exploring how they're created, stored and referenced. 

If you are interested, I've created a quick video below that walks through everything...

-Jeff

Register to Attend the Next 30 min. Workout Session!

-Register here-

There’s never enough time in a typical Civil 3D training course to explore EVERY available tool.  Most courses focus on “need to know” functionality to get you up and running using the application.  The remaining features, tools and shortcuts are then discovered over years using Civil 3D in production.

To fast track some of this on-the-job learning, we’re hosting a bi-weekly webinar series called “30 min. Workouts”.  Each workout is designed to demonstrate time saving features and functionality not shown during traditional classroom training.  The live (no PowerPoint allowed) sessions occur every other Thursday.

Our next Workout - “Solving Problems using the Geometric Calculator” is scheduled for July 16^th at 12:30pm central time!

Would you like to attend?
Seating is limited, and you must register in advance:
-Register Here-

The session will focus on one of the most powerful (least talked about) features of the Civil 3D / AutoCAD platform; the geometric calculator.

All who register will receive a link to view (or download) the session recording.  Attendees having questions about the material can also request a 1:1 follow-up call.

Hope to see you there!

-Jeff  

Odds, Ends & Import Things when using Civil 3D / AutoCAD

In today’s installment, we explore several more common commands and look at ways to get more out of them. 

These include a discussion about using Layer Freeze vs. OFF. 

We also explore several aspects of the Layer Dialog box including controlling column display, filters and exporting a layer list. 

From there we focus on several ways we can capture (and more importantly use) the text contained within the Command Line. 

We wrap up by looking at ways to make the StatusBar more useful as well as leveraging coordinates to quickly position ourselves on a coordinate system.

As a Bonus, at the end, I provide a quick tip on how the Trim command works differently OTB in 2021.

Click on the video below to check it out.

-Jerry

30+ Civil 3D / AutoCAD Tips & Tricks in 30 minutes!

This week represented the fifth installment of our bi-weekly “30 min. Workout” webinar series.  The goal of these sessions is to demonstrate lesser known Civil 3D / AutoCAD / Map3D workflows.  Our hope is that each “workout” will be a valuable resource for users to explore concepts falling outside the scope of traditional training courses.

This week’s session featured a multitude of Civil 3D / AutoCAD tips and tricks.  In true “lightning round” fashion, more than thirty helpful features, system variables and keyboard shortcuts were demonstrated covering a wide array of topics.  If you are interested, I’ve added a link to the session recording below…

Likewise, if you are interested in downloading the script files used in this session, they can be found here! - https://a360.co/2YMqNnP 

-Jeff

 

Pushing Common Commands to the Extreme using Civil 3D / AutoCAD

Today we start exploring some underutilized features of commands most users rely on every day.  The challenge that we are trying to overcome is the fact that, because the commands are very familiar to us, we tend to rely on only a small amount of what is possible. 

That begins changing now!

During today’s 30 min workout, we will focus on the following...

Undo – Building a time machine
SAVE – Typing it does something different
XCLIP – Improve performance (INDEXCTL)
Wildcards – Lots more than just *
MSLIDE / VSLIDE – Quick view

I even threw in some “Simple LISP” at the end when I showed how to create a custom command you can start using immediately.

Click on the video below to check it out.

-Jerry