Civil 3D 2024 provides several improvements that make creating and managing infrastructure designs easier. If you’ve struggled with sharing/updating custom subassemblies in the past, you’ll find Civil 3D 2024 treats PKTs just like external references in that they can be attached or reloaded with a couple clicks of the mouse.
The Connector for ArcGIS is enhanced in 2024 to allow for the stylization of connected GIS layers based on attribution. Connected objects may also be brought in as AutoCAD entities if desired. If you’ve been taking advantage of the recent Corridor Transitions feature, you’ll find a new “lock” option in 2024 that makes it possible to slide transition sets back and forth along a corridor baseline.
If you're interested, I’ve uploaded some videos below that provide a practical run-through of each of these new features.
Historically, if you wanted to apply transitions to the dimensions of a corridor model, it required the use of horizontal or vertical targets. That said, not every subassembly supports targeting, and the ones that do may not apply to the dimensions you’d like to transition. This usually meant creating your own custom subassemblies from scratch. Fortunately, using Civil 3D 2023.2, we can apply transitions to virtually any dimension of any subassembly without the need for targets or custom parts.
Transitions are created (and managed) using a brand new tab in the Panorama called “Corridor Transition.” This tab allows users to create transition sets by simply selecting a subassembly (and the parameter they wish to transition) followed by the start/end stations and parameter values. Civil 3D will then calculate the transition as a “straight line” or by following a specified curvature principle.
This tool can be helpful when modeling curb lowerings, transitional daylighting, or when component widening (or thickening) is required! If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video to help you get started.
Civil 3D makes it easy to define corridors from an alignment, profile, and assembly. That said, after the initial creation, additional components like surfaces, boundaries, slope patterns and frequencies are almost always added. This process then repeats with each new corridor.
Wouldn’t it be nice if these additional components were treated like “properties” that could be easily copied from one corridor to another? Fortunately, Civil 3D 2022.1 makes this possible with a brand-new feature called “Corridor Templates”.
In today’s installment we’ll use the Corridor Template feature to extract surface definitions, slope patterns, and code set styles from a saved corridor model and apply them to a new (or existing) corridor. As a bonus we’ll also explore the improved “Match Parameters” feature to copy/paste even more properties between corridor models.
If you’re interested, I’ve created a quick video below that walks through everything…
Civil 3D 2022.1 includes powerful new additions to corridor target mapping. Along with the new features is an updated Target Mapping dialog box. In today’s installment, we’ll explore the new dialog box and the many improvements it offers.
First, the Target Mapping dialog box is modeless, meaning you can pan/zoom (even launch other commands) while the dialog box is active. The list of subassemblies can now be filtered based on metadata such as name, baseline, region, side, etc. This makes it easy to isolate specific subassemblies prior to assigning targets. When a subassembly (or target) is selected from the dialog box, it highlights in the drawing providing a nice visual queue as to how each part fits into an overall design.
Civil 3D 2022.1 also supports copy/pasting targets between subassemblies! If you’re interested, I’ve created a quick video below that demonstrates all these items and more!
In today’s installment we’ll take our first look at the new features added to AutoCAD 2022. Being AutoCAD is the foundation on which several vertical applications (Civil 3D, Map 3D, Advance Steel, AutoCAD Electrical, etc.) are built, these features are applicable to a wide variety of users.
Some of the highlights include… Floating drawing windows that allow designs to be dragged to multiple monitors. A new COUNT feature that quantifies blocks while also recognizing duplicates and exploded symbols. AutoCAD 2022 also includes some interesting new collaborative tools to make it easier for external stakeholders to view and markup designs.
If you are a user of one of the AutoCAD verticals, take a minute and review these new tools. You never know when or where they may come in handy! I’ve created a quick video below that will help you get started…
In this installment, we’ll explore a new Civil 3D 2018 improvement that can help simplify the creation and editing of corridor models. Starting in 2018 it is now possible to extract dynamic feature lines from a corridor model and then leverage those feature lines as baselines within the same corridor.
This workflow makes is possible to build corridors using a “modular” approach where assemblies represent components rather than entire roadway sections. Leveraging multiple baselines also provides independent editing control over many of the parts in an overall model.
If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates a workflow using extracted feature lines as corridor baselines.
With the release of Civil 3D 2018 we now have access to features that were once only available within the Intersection Wizard. I’m speaking of offset profiles and connected alignments. Having these features available “everywhere” makes it possible to build more complex corridor models while maintaining a dynamic link (both horizontally and vertically) between disparate geometric components.
First we’ll review the concept of an offset profile. An offset profile is associated with an offset alignment. Its elevation is assigned as a relative cross slope measured from a profile of the parent alignment. Generally speaking, if you’ve defined a proposed roadway centerline alignment having a finished grade profile, you could then define a lane edge (horizontally and vertically) using an offset alignment with an associated offset profile. Since the offset components are dynamic, any changes made to the roadway centerline will also update the lane edge. As a side note, it’s possible to define offsets from other offsets, thus allowing a single alignment and profile to control multiple linear features.
Related to the offset profile is the connected alignment. A connected alignment acts a lot like a “fillet” between two intersecting alignments, except this fillet will maintain tangency when either alignment is moved. Just like offset alignments, connected alignments support a dynamic profile, ensuring that connected alignments are linked both horizontally and vertically to a proposed design. In my recorded example, I used a connected alignment to define a dynamic curb return. That being said, connected alignments aren’t just for curb returns, they can be used anytime you’d like to tie two alignments together using a radius.
If you're interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates both features…
Civil 3D 2018 provides even more choices when it comes to creating construction documents. By leveraging the new “viewport order” setting, it’s now possible to create automated Plan over Plan, and Profile over Profile sheets.
Generally speaking, the viewport order setting represents a “hierarchy” that tells Civil 3D where to place multiple plan (or profile) views on a single layout. The best part is, you don’t have to stop at just two views. By simply adding more viewports, you can create automated sheets having as many plan or profile views as you like!
If you are interested, I’ve created a quick recording that walks through a workflow to create automated plan/plan and profile/profile sheets…
Historically, it has been challenging to add section views to an existing Civil 3D section view group. Usually it required recreating the views, followed by some additional "intervention" to correct any manually created annotations or geometry. Fortunately, Civil 3D 2018 has made this task much easier with the introduction of Section View Drafting Buffers.
The new buffers act similar to AutoCAD’s Crossing Window Selection in that they recognize all manually created content that falls within the buffer or crosses over its boundary. The purpose of the drafting buffer is to ensure all content associated with a section view stays with that view if it is moved. Using this new feature, one (or more) section views can be added to an existing view group and any resulting “shift” in views will automatically include all of the manually created entities!
If you are interested, I’ve created a quick video that demonstrates how the new drafting buffers make it easy to add section views to an existing section view group…
In today’s installment, we’ll continue our review of Civil 3D 2018 improvements by exploring the new “Relative” Feature Line option. Generally speaking, relative feature lines can have all (or some) of their elevation points dynamically linked to a surface. Their elevations can match the surface elevations, or be assigned a vertical offset. Since they are relative, any changes made to the associated surface will also update the feature lines.
To demonstrate this new feature, I’ve created two quick videos. The first represents an abstract example, designed explore the new options and settings. In the second recording, I used relative feature lines to create a parking lot that automatically reacts when changes are made to a design surface. That being said, this is just one example. With a little experimentation and practice, relative feature lines can be used to add a dynamic component to many of your design tasks.
