The Crazy World of Civil 3D

Well . . .well

2007-05-02T16:08:00.000-06:00

I know it has been REALLY long time since my last post. In a way I kinda fell off the face of the earth. To be completely honest things in my life are getting ready to change pretty drastically. See right now I currently work for a local reseller, which has been great in every way. However an opportunity has arisen and I have decided to take on this opportunity.

So starting May 21st I will be employed at Autodesk. Now you may be asking what in god's name is he going to do at Autodesk, well it just so happens that I have taken on the Technical Marketing Manager position for Civil Engineering. Yes, these are big shoes to fill but I have been told that I have big feet. . . :-). So with a lot of luck and a little bit of skill you will be hearing a lot from me in the near future but possibly in a different forum.

So please stay tuned and I will continue to post but for the next month or so it may be a little sparse, since I will be in the process of relocating to Manchester, New Hampshire.

Upcoming Webcasts

2007-03-27T14:46:00.000-06:00

Well folks it has been quite some time since my last post and needless to say it has been a little crazy around here. Anyways today I wanted to remind people about the upcoming webcasts that are going to be highlighting some of the new Civil 3D 2008 features. So if you are sitting on the fence trying to decide if you and your company should make the jump to Civil 3D, I would recommend checking it out. The nice thing about his forum is that you have the ability to ask questions and get responses. Plus you are hearing this information from the horses’ mouth, not that I am calling Dave or Dan horses but you get the point.

Also, don’t forget that this information is FREE! In addition, these webcasts are also archived for viewing at a later date. So for those of you that cannot attend a live webcast, login anytime and check out all the cool features that are coming out with the latest release of Civil 3D. The link I am providing below will get you to a list of the upcoming webcasts as well as the archived section.

Learning Civil 3D is a bit of a process but once you do, I am willing to bet that you will never go back to LDT. . . ever! Kind’ve a crazy thought, huh!

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 Webcasts

Xrefing from Vault. . .Take 3

2007-02-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

A while ago I wrote a post about how AutoCAD users could Xref from Vault which seemed like a slick little option for those of us that wanted to introduce Vault into our workflow. What was weird is that this option was only available in vanilla AutoCAD and not available in Civil 3D. Well our wait is over and I am here to tell you that from the looks of the Preview version, Attach from Vault now shows up in the Xref palette. By having this option available you can attach or overlay any drawing that has been added to your project, plus it it still gives you the option to Bind, just in case you need it. In addition, you also have the ability to Check the file out while it is attached to your drawing, just in case you need to do a Xref Edit. As you can see there really isn't a limit on the types of files that you can add to your drawing.

Well folks with all these new features that myself and others will continue to highlight it is inevitable that Civil 3D is here to stay so I guess it is just a matter of how and when you are going to start using it.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008. . .is it worth it. .Oh Yeah!

2007-02-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

Well well, the inevitable question. Let's just say that you would be out of your mind to not consider upgrading to the upcoming 2008 version. With all of the cool new features that where added, plus it seems that stability has been improved quite a bit (and this is just the Beta). One thing that was a challenge was when I would create an Alignment or Profile, you are asked to select a Style for the object you are about to create. Well knowing me I always select the wrong style and need to change it. It used to be that if you wanted to change the style of an object, midway through a design, you would have to exit out of the command then reselect the object and access the object properties to change the style. Not anymore, it seems that when you are creating Alignments and Profiles, you are able to pick on the object and right click, while the toolbar for creating the object stays open. This is just one of the many minor items that they have changed. Now one of the major items that was added was the Plan & Profile Wizard. This thing is simply amazing and easy to use. Of course it is based on Styles so by taking a little time on the front end can really save you a ton of time when it comes to setting up sheets. It also gives the user the ability to add Match lines, plus shade the adjacent areas that are not supposed to be shown on the current sheet. More on this later!

It also seems that there has been a whole host of surface features added such as Exporting to DEM, Draping Images, Moving Blocks to Elevations, just to name a few. What is interesting about the Point and Surface menus is that they have grown quite a bit, in length. In the 07 version if you wanted to create Points on an alignment you used to have to run the Create Points command just to bring up the toolbar. Which could turn into quite a pain if you where setting a lot of points. About midway through the year I posted a utility that I found on the Discussion Groups for rotating points, which worked great but it seems that you can FINALLY rotate points around the marker point without having to add some other routine to do it for you. Plus, the label flips according to your Plan Readability Bias.

All of the Swap Edge, Add Point, Modify Point, Paste Surface, just to name a few have all been added to a new menu item called Edit Surface. It also is nice to have all of the Surface Labeling features available without having to run the Add Labels command.

One of the last items that I will talk about for this post is the new Lines/Curves features. We now have a whole list of items that we can create all kinds of line work the way we used to in LDT but with a twist. Well I am certainly not done highlighting these features but I am done for now. Enjoy!

Design Review-IT'S NOW FREE

2007-01-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have not heard. . . Design Review is now FREE. As of Feburary 1st you can now download DR completely without charge. I am hoping that everyone takes this on and finally starts using DR to create a virtual paperless submittals for you design process. Now when people hear paperless office they kinda freak out. Honestly if you haven't played around with the tools then I would highly recommend at least trying it before you throw your hands up. Here's how, after downloading Design Review from www.autodesk.com/designreview , open up AutoCAD, LDT, Map or C3D*. Plot something to a DWF file, once the file is created open it up in Design Review and mark it up, add notes, draw lines, or add stamps. Once completed, save and close the DWF then go back into CAD. The way this works is that instead of just opening up the DWF file you have to load it using the Markup Set, which you can typically find under the File menu. Once the Markup Set palette is open you can browse to the DWF file you just marked up and it brings the data into the markup set. After the data shows up, you can double click on the DWF file name and have it open up the DWG file while overlaying the DWF file on top of it. Using the palette you can hide or show the markups which allows the user to not have to keep switching back and fourth from his/her screen to a marked up set of plans on the desk. This essentially create a full circle for digital data. Ideally the way this process works is that when you originally created the DWF file it was as if you where about to email your project to either a client or a jurisdiction for submittal. The client or city then uses Design Review to "markup" your DWF file. Once the city or client is finished they email you back a copy of the DWF file which contains all of their markups. Then by loading it into CAD using the Markup set you are able to see both the markups as well as the original DWG file that created the DWF. Or once you are finished making the necessary changes, you can replot the sheet(s) back to DWF, then re-email then to the reviewing agency. . . .full circle!

Now there is one small catch (maybe two). . . about 4 or 5 months ago I was playing around with this feature and I noticed that Civil 3D does not have "Load Markup Set" in the File menu. Since this is the Civil 3D "File" menu you won't see it. However if you access your CUI and turn on the "File" menu located under Partial CUI Files -> ACAD, you can have this nifty little tool. Or without turning on the menu you can type the command MARKUP and the palette will load for you. Every other program that I have used this in it has worked great, however I have had limited success with this in Civil 3D. So what I am asking for whomever reads this, is to try it out and tell me if you have had similar results.

Regardless of the results this is one heck of a step for DWF. In my opinion DWF's are a lot better then PDF's, granted there are somethings you can do in PDF's that you can't do in DWF's but the same could be said for DWF's. Anyway enough rambling, since it's free use it. All that is left now it to convince your clients to use it instead of PDF's, right.

Corridor Contour Problems

2007-01-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been getting a lot of calls concerning Corridor errors and contours. It seems that some users are a little fooled by how Civil 3D shows it's data. For instance in the image shown you can see that this Corridor has a slight problem with contours going all the way down to 0, even though the profile is tying into existing grade, yet you still end up with these contours. What you may not notice is that the EG profile is not being correctly shown on the Profile View. Notice in the next image that at first glance it looks as if my FG Profile is tying into the EG surface. What you don't see is that this is not the true starting point. Now I do understand that a good designer would or should notice the starting station in the profile, but honestly I wouldn't be writing this if users have noticed this. The key to working with profiles is to use the AutoCAD command Draworder or DR as the shortcut. Since the EG surface happens to be lined up with the grid at elevation 116 (in this case), the grid is actually overlapping the EG surface. So by using the draworder command on the EG Profile you can clearly see where the FG profile should begin. I guess there may be a case where the user needs to have the corridor not start at the beginning of the alignment. In that case the user would need to setup his Corridor properties accordingly, in this case at starting station would be 0+52.28.

In all, I know a lot of this seems pretty obvious for the advanced users but since a lot of users are just now starting to implement and use Civil 3D in a production environment, overlooking a small thing such as this can cause quite the headache. Not only with creating data but also with plotting.

Description Keys & Point Groups

2007-01-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with some Description Keys one day when I noticed an item that didn't give me the desired result. What happen was, I had a drawing that I had built a Description Key for and in that DescKey it had everything that I needed except for EOP. At the time I didn't realize that I forgot to put it in because I was to busy working on something else. So after the points where brought in I began to filter my data so that I could build somewhat of a clean surface. Typically, I would create a Point Group for all the points that will be included in the surface then another should I need to create breakline info off of any of the point data. What I noticed was that since I forgot to add EOP into the Description Keys it didn't get added to the Raw Description Matching tab in the Point Group properties. I know this isn't that big of a deal but it was a little surprising when I went searching for it. So of course the easy fix for this would be to flip to the Include tab and add it in manually. Honestly, I think the Raw Description Matching tab is great but what if you don't use DescKeys. I guess if you don't then you are stuck using the Include tab. Now that I look back at this I can certainly understand why it didn't get added but initially it was a little surprising. So long story short. . . if you are not using DescKeys it's just one tab you won't be able to use, Right!

Saving Command Changes

2007-01-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

No I didn't fall off of the face of the earth, I have just been on vacation and buried in snow for the last couple of weeks (36"-48") so to start off the New Year I am going to Highlight an item that I found in the latest TechFAQ. It has to do with setting up a override for the default style. For example, say your default style for creating alignments was set to Exisiting and that is the way you want to keep it 99 percent of the time. But we all been in cases where we have to keep changing the style from one to the other, which can be quite the tedious task espically if you have alot of items that will be using the same style.

By accessing the Settings tab on the toolspace and Right-Clicking on the Drawing name and select Edit Drawing Settings, once there select the Ambient Settings tab and expand out the General section. Find the "Save Command Changes to Settings and change it from No to Yes. This little setting can give your tired little fingers a break from clicking your life away in the endless drop downs, tool palettes, etc.

Keep in mind that you can use this feature deeper into the Settings tab. For every "Object" on the Settings tab has it's own "Edit Feature Settings", which can also be changed if you like the way this handy little setting works. This is the same setting that can also be found under some of the Commands items that are also located in the Settings tab. Simply find the command that you would like to turn this feature on, Right Click and select Edit Feature Settings, turn the Save Command Changes to Yes and tell your little fingers sorry for all the anguish you have caused them.

AU 2006. . . . Day 1, Wow!

2006-11-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well the first "Official" day of AU went out with a blast. As I am sitting here in my hotel room typing up this entry, it hit me. . . I couldn't believe the amount of people that where running around the hallways today, wow. Now the hallways between classes are one thing but the lunch line, that is a whole other issue. Regardless of having to wait an extra 5-10 minutes for lunch, it is still more then worth it. I had a blast, today seeing old faces and some new ones as well but with the Beer Bust coming up in a couple hours, the day is a about to get a whole lot better! Cheers. . . literally!

User-Defined Contours

2006-11-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

I always get the question, "What the heck is User-Defined Contours?", from at least one person in my Civil 3D classes. Imagine for a second that you are working on a project that has 100 feet of relief across the site and after building the surface you use an interval of 1&5, 5&25, or whatever your little heart desires but regardless of what you set it to, the surface is just way to busy. By creating a Style that is set to User Contours, you are able to control how many contours are being shown across the site and the colors of each contour. The confusing part about using this type of style is that after you apply the style to the surface your surface will disappear. When the style was created you may have noticed that you never told the style how many contours to show and what color those contours should be. So by accessing the surface properties you are able to select the Analysis tab and change the Analysis Type to User-Defined Contours. Once you are there, you then decide how many Ranges you would like to show across the site. By simply selecting the Run Analysis button it will generate the analysis which can then be modified in the bottom of the dialog. You will also notice that you can change the color, linetype, and lineweight. Now even though the program is doing it best to split the elevations into 10 equal parts you can actually modify the elevations it captured by Double-Clicking in the Elevation cell.

Another interesting part about using User-Defined Contours is trying to label them. On the Create Contour Labels toolbar, on the far right side there is a down arrow that lets you control whether or not User-Defined Contours are labeled, so if you drop a label line in the drawing and for some odd reason your labels don't show up, this should be the first thing to check out.

Service Pack 3, What a Change, Follow Up!-Errors!

2006-11-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

After installing SP3 for C3D 07 I saw a noticeable difference in a lot of the features that Civil 3D had to offer, most of them good. What I also noticed is that if I ran an Audit on the NCS Extended.dwt before loading SP3 vs. after, there is some considerable differences. Before loading SP3 (with SP2 installed) I ran and Audit in this template without any errors found or fixed. However after loading SP3 and repeating the procedure you end up with 6 errors. I tried this on 3 different machines just to make sure that it wasn't something I did (which is quite possible), all with the same result. What is really interesting another instructor and I went through some of the other templates and noticed that both the Imperial Classic and Extended templates show 6 errors each. Where as the Metric Classic and Extended show 14 errors. We are following up with Autodesk to see if they can shed some light on the subject and if so I post our findings.

The only differences that we can figure out between the Base, Classic, and Extended are the additional amount of styles in each. So until we can possibly figure out which styles it is this is just food for thought, right.

In earlier version of Civil 3D there was a problem when you created data in a drawing before a service pack was out, then ran the audit after installing the service pack, occasionally it would corrupt a few items or even your drawing. I have tested out to see if this is still the case, and needless to say I cannot replicate the problem of the past but it doesn't mean that it can't be done. So be careful!

Service Pack 3, What a change!

2006-11-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are nervous about installing the latest Service Pack 3, don't be. I installed it and built a 3 mile long road and it built the model in a matter of 10 seconds or so. Which is night and day different then before the service pack. I haven't had the chance to play around with the re-release of the Data Shortcuts but based off of the Readme file, it looks like it gives a ton of functionality compared to what you used to have in the 2006 product. Such as automatically synchronize the references when the drawings are opened. Additionally you are now able to repath a lost shortcut using the Data Shortcut vista, which will allow you to browse to the source drawing. In addition to all the Civil 3D fixes this Service pack also includes the Map 3D 2007 & the AutoCAD 2007, so it definitely gives you a broad range of fixes. Check out the readme to see the entire list!

Adding Assemblies to Tool Palettes_

2006-10-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

Every now and then there are features that have been mentioned before but you can never really find any documentation about them. That goes the same for adding Assemblies to your Tool Palettes, meaning to save the entire Assembly as one complete object instead of separate subassemblies. Some of you may already know how to do it but after I did a little searching around the internet I couldn't really find any step by step directions that someone may have already put together. Now you might be saying to yourself, why would I want to do that? Well we all know that creating Assemblies is by far easier then creating roadway templates in LDT and to put one together in C3D doesn't exactly take a genius. So by standardizing your Assemblies you are able to ensure that your users are using the correct parts for the correct road. Additionally some of these assemblies make take a little while for you to tweak, such as curb and gutter. Instead of modifying them for every project, why not capture the data to use at another point in time.

First start by creating a New drawing or if you are in the middle of a project do a Save As and save the file in a folder somewhere on your network, so that everyone has access to it. This file will be used as the Source File, which Tool Palette tools rely on, if your drawing has other data such as surfaces, alignments, etc. be sure that it is deleted and purged. Next, as you begin to create your Assembly be sure to name it appropriately, such as 51Ft-ROW-Res, 57Ft-ROW-Local Road, etc. After the Assembly is complete one of the more important steps it to be sure that ALL of the Subassemblies have been renamed. By accessing the Assembly Properties (select the Baseline marker and Right-Click) you can simply Right-Click on the Subassembly and Rename. I have found that it is best to keep it consistent, such as Right Lane, Right Shoulder, etc. With the completion of the Assembly done, we can now focus on how to get the object onto our Tool Palette. Since the subassemblies are individual objects you cannot drag and drop the entire object onto the tool palette as one complete object. In order to get around this you can use the basic AutoCAD command to create a block out of the object. Start by initiating the Block command, specify the Base Point around the Baseline marker of the object. Additionally, give the object a name and keep in mind that the name given here will be the name given in the Tool Palette. After you select all of the subassemblies to include be sure to verify that "Convert to Block" is selected. Lastly verify that the "Allow Exploding" is checked, once these settings have been checked, simply select OK and the block is created. Now that the block is created, Save the drawing (this is required for the data to be added to the Tool Palette). Before adding the block to the TP, it is recommended that you create a separate TP for all of your Standard Assemblies. In case you don't know right click on either the, Tabs, middle of the TP, or on the blue bar of the TP and select New Palette. With the block created you can drag and drop it onto the Tool Palette (drag from somewhere other then the grip). Another of the more important steps is making sure that when someone inserts the assembly into their drawing that it comes in as separate subassemblies, not as one block. In order to change this simply select the new tool on the TP and go into the Properties. Once in there you will see an option for Explode. By setting this to YES, you are turning the object back to subassemblies after it has been placed into the drawing.

With all that done, open up a brand new drawing and test it out by picking on the tool in the TP and placing it in the new drawing. One of the minor draw backs with using this method is the naming convention that the Assembly properties changes slightly. It really isn't that big of a deal but it is something you need to be aware of. Now that you know how to add the data to the tool palette don't forget to share it with everyone else in the company by exporting it out. Of course there is a couple different methods that you can use to do this as well and I'll write more on this later since I have rambled on for long enough. Enjoy!

Civil 3D Service Pack 3-November 3 2007

2006-10-27T16:53:00.000-06:00

Well well, someone fell off the face of the earth. Anyways it looks like the final release date for Service pack 3 will be November 3. With the release Autodesk it looking to incorporate Data Shortcuts for those of you that are quite willing to make the jump to Vault yet. Some of the items that are supposed to be in this service pack are: Warnings when adding Duplicate objects to Vault, Converting Land Desktop Points command is supposed to work as expected now, Grading updates, and this is just a few of the many updates that we should see. I will post more when a final list is generated. FYI, we should also see our corridors build in half the time they do now!!!!!! Right on!

PartBuilder in C3D vs. Content Builder in ABS

2006-10-26T14:10:00.000-06:00

I don't know if anyone has noticed yet that there is a striking similarity to the Content Builder in Autodesk Building Systems (ABS) compared to the Part Builder in Civil 3D. Now what does that mean for you as a Civil designer, well since there seems to be this giant void of information out there on how to properly create parts using the Part Builder, and the Content Builder has been around for quite a while (put two and two together there). This allows us to find additional information about how to build parts specific to our design requirements. Yes I do know that ABS is used for something completely different but we can take the principles applied to building parts in ABS and apply them to Civil 3D. Not only that but we can pray to the Civil 3D gods that they will hopefully put in similar functionality!

As you can see with the image here, the initial dialog box is almost identical to the Part Builder found in Civil 3D. Granted there is alot more parts available but for the most part once you open the Content Builder the interface is the same. Now keep in mind the only reason I am mentioning this is because the lack of information out there for the Part Builder. What is interesting about the Content Builder though is that it gives you a Parametric Part Wizard that will do alot of the part creation for you. Hopefully we will see something similar in the near future of Civil 3D. I will continue to post more on this as I learn more about the ABS side of things. Additionally as I find data I will certainly post it. Enjoy!

Rotating Points in Civil 3D-There is a Way!

2006-09-20T08:29:00.000-06:00

Everytime I teach a Civil 3D class the question always is asked; How do I rotate points? The answer is not what you would probably think. Most of you that use C3D know that it can be done using the Vista, which allows you to either type in the rotation angle or you can pick points on screen to set the rotation. This is somewhat of an weird way to do it and if you have a lot of points to do at once then you may be there a while. So since the program doesn't allow us to do this the way we used to, we have to resort to other methods to force the program to do something that the programmers didn't either account for or didn't have time to fit it in.

What I found while spelunking the Discussion Groups is that some users have already figured out a better way to do this using either Lisp or VBA. Now I know this isn't a permanent solution but until the program will let you rotate points the way you used or give you a easier way to do it then we have to resort to other solutions. While I was looking at the discussion group for Wish List items for Civil 3D, I found a discussion that was pretty big, concerning rotating points. Now since I can't post an attachment in this forum you are going to have to do some of the work yourself. You can start by creating a new Text file and rename it to Rpt.lsp. Once it is created you can open it up using Notepad then copy and paste the following string of text into the new .lsp file.

(defun c:rpt (/ *acad* C3D C3DDoc pnts rotAng selectedPnts)
(setq *acad* (vlax-get-acad-object))
(setq C3D (vla-getinterfaceobject
*acad*
"AeccXUiLand.AeccApplication.4.0"
)
)(setq C3Ddoc (vla-get-activedocument C3D))
(setq pnts (vlax-get C3Ddoc 'points)
rotAng (getangle "\nNew rotation angle for points: ")
)
;;ask to select points
(princ "\nSelect points to rotate: ")
(setq selectedPnts (vlax-invoke C3Ddoc 'SelectPoints))
(foreach pnt selectedPnts
(vlax-put (vlax-invoke pnts 'find pnt) 'rotation rotAng)
)
(mapcar 'vlax-release-object (list pnts C3Ddoc C3D *acad*))
(princ)
)

After you have finished copying and pasting, save and close the file, then open up your CUI inside Civil 3D. In the upper left corner of the CUI you should see Lisp Files. By right-clicking on Lisp Files you can select Load LISP and browse the the location of the .lsp file. Once that is complete close out of the CUI and run the lisp routine by typing in RPT. After starting the command it will first have you define the angle in which you would like to rotate your points. Then you are given the option to select which points you would like to include in the rotation, meaning even if two points are rotated at different angles it will still set both to the angle you typed in. After hitting enter your points will update based on the new angle.

This lisp file was posted by one of the discussion group users and I modified it so that the command is a little easier to initiate. So I can't take full credit for this useful little tool.

Editing Note Labels-Right Click No More!

2006-09-15T11:13:00.000-06:00

With the 2007 version of Civil 3D, Autodesk did a great job of adding the Note Label into the program. It gave us the ability to add simple labels to objects and allow those labels to size and rotate according to the viewports. One thing that I always thought was awkward about the note label is editing the text. Currently you have to select the Note, right click, and select Edit Label Text, which will allow you to add whatever kind of a note your little heart desires. But wouldn't it be a lot easier to simply double-click on the object?

In order to do this first start by adding a note label into your drawing. Next access the CUI interface and scroll down to Double-Click Actions. After adding a New Double Click Action, rename it to Note Editing. Additionally specify the Object Name for the Double Click Action by typing in AECC_GENERAL_NOTE_LABEL. This name came from listing (LS command) the Note label that was inserted into the drawing. Now in the lower left corner of the CUI we are given the Command List, however you won't find a command in there for Editing Label Text. By selecting the New button you can create a new command and access the Properties of the command on the right side of the CUI. This next step is to assign the Macro or the command you would like to run when you double click on the object. Start by typing in editlabeltext after ^C^C, so that it reads ^C^Ceditlabeltext. Before finishing up be sure to give this command a Name, such as Edit Label Text and be sure to drag and drop the command into the new Double Click Action. Once that is complete, simply close the CUI and double click away! Enjoy!

FYI, this same process can work for a majority of commands. I know the right click menu gives you a plethora of options specific to the object at hand but if you find yourself always going into an option you could use the shortcut above to speed things up, such as Corridor Properites. However if you do so be sure to use the MENUECHO command and set it to 1. Doing so will allow you to run a command from the right click menu and find out what the actual command is.

Civil 3D Service Pack 2

2006-09-11T13:16:00.000-06:00

Autodesk recently release the new Civil 3D Service Pack 2, which covers a good portion of the product and some nice fixes. Here is a list of what the service pack covers. Don't forget that if you have the Google Extension installed then you are going to have to uninstall it then run the Service Pack.

General
Memory usage has been improved when performing the following functions: labeling, masking of pipe objects, regenerating drawings, and plotting.
Using the Alignment Grid View on multiple drawings no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
Label text masking now plots as expected when using named plot styles.
The text height on an xref label now scales as expected in a paper space viewport.
An issue with zooming to a surface or to an assembly has been resolved.
When you open a drawing that has been migrated from Autodesk Civil 3D 2006 to Autodesk Civil 3D 2007, the Display tab of the Profile Style dialog box now displays the 3D Chain component type in the Component Display list.
An issue with drawings not showing existing ground profiles due to alignments containing problematic geometry has been resolved.
An issue with running Audit has been resolved. Audit no longer removes the points and all of the styles from the drawing when it encounters an issue with an individual style.

Alignments
Clicking on a parcel area label now responds as expected.
Tangents displayed in a horizontal geometry profile band are now correctly represented (displayed and annotated) as tangents instead of curves.
When two or more station equations are added to an alignment, the profile view data band now reflects accurate station values.
An issue with invalid parcel creation when deleting alignment segments has been resolved.

Corridor
Slope values for the following subassemblies now migrate correctly: LinkOffsetAndSlope, LinkSlopeAndVerticalDeflection, LinkSlopeToElevation, LinkSlopeToSurface, LinkWidthAndSlope.
When creating cul-de-sacs that are modeled with the corridor object, the offset from the arc now computes correctly when the offset point is located at exact center of the arc.
Accessing the Subassembly Properties dialog box no longer causes the program to become unresponsive.
Civil 3D 2006 drawings containing subassemblies with slope values now open successfully.

Grading
Transitions using relative elevation criteria are now created correctly. Previously, the projections were sometimes created with incorrect distances.
Several issues that prevented drawings containing problematic grading geometry from opening have been resolved.
A performance issue with grading into a surface has been resolved. For example, grading a pond into a surface now completes in a more acceptable amount of time.
Pasting a grading surface into a corridor surface then saving now responds as expected.
An issue with opening a drawing containing grading feature lines, after closing another drawing, has been resolved.

Labels
An issue with parcel labels not scaling correctly in paper space has been resolved. Parcel labels now display as expected in paper space.
An issue with using the Undo command to remove parcel labels that had just been added has been resolved. The problem occurred if you later added more Parcel labels to that site. This issue caused the program to terminate unexpectedly when you tried to save the drawing, or when you tried to reopen the drawing if it saved successfully.

Pipes
An issue with pipes in a Profile View when connected structures are displayed as a solid has been resolved. Note that in the Structure Style dialog box, the "Enable part masking" check box is now hidden when the structure is being displayed as a solid. It is recommended that you use the ?Display as boundary? option in the Profile tab of the Structure Style dialog box. The performance of this option is significantly faster than when the ?Display as solid? option is used.
An issue with structures displaying as blocks in Profile Views has been resolved. Masking now works as expected.
An issue with drawings containing pipe networks that are parallel to sample lines has been resolved. Drawings containing pipe networks that are parallel to sample lines no longer terminate unexpectedly.
An issue with pipe network references creating dependent object data (such as alignments and profiles) has been resolved. Now when you create a pipe network reference, dependent objects do not get created.

Points
Points modified in the Prospector tree and drawn by point groups other than the All Points point group now update appropriately.
An issue with using the Point Editor to change point styles, point label styles, or point layers has been resolved. The Point Editor now responds appropriately when you change these items.
An issue with opening a new drawing using a 2006 drawing template has been resolved. Drawings that have an external data reference in the point settings can now be updated successfully.

Quantity Takeoff Reports
Calculating volumes when more than one material is a structure type now works correctly.
Incremental volume values for materials in the Select Materials reports are now reported correctly.
Fill factors are now applied correctly for structure type materials and material areas.
Switching the type for a material in the Material List tab of the Sample Line Group Properties dialog box now works as expected.
The program responds as expected when deleting shapes from materials and adding shapes to materials in the Material List tab of the Sample Line Group Properties dialog box.
Volume tables now display accurate values for structure type materials, and also react dynamically when editing volume related information.
The list of available corridor shapes now displays accurately in the Select Corridor Shape list in the Quantity Takeoff Criteria dialog box.

Survey
There is improved performance when importing field book files.
Using the Browse for Folder dialog box when specifying an equipment database path now returns the expected result and no longer causes the program to close.
The MCS survey figure command now starts the multipoint curve at the first point number following the command and ends correctly when other curve commands are processed.
An error message is now displayed stating that the file cannot be opened if you attempt to export a field book file to a network address where you do not have write access. The program no longer closes unexpectedly.
The Show Properties command for control points, non-control points, and directions now displays the properties in the item list view.
After inserting survey points into the drawing, using the Zoom To command from the Prospector shortcut menu for Points or Point Groups now returns correct results.
The program no longer closes unexpectedly when you attempt to close the Traverse Editor.
When using the Traverse Analysis command the Angle error now displays correctly for direction start and end traverse.
The Zoom To and Pan To commands on the Survey collection shortcut menus now return expected results.
The Browse To Observation command now returns expected results.
Changing values for the Interactive Graphics in the User Settings no longer closes the panorama view.
The Equipment Database item view list no longer closes when you right click on an Equipment item, in the list and select Make Current.
Editing Latitude and Longitude values for control points now returns the expected results for the Easting and Northing.

Alright, Alright so it's up and running

2006-09-06T14:40:00.000-06:00

I guess that is what I get for taking a single day off. It goes to show you how fast things can change. For those of you wondering what in the heck I am talking about, well earlier today I posted a note about the Civil 3D Community getting ready to be rolled out. Well after posting it a buddy of mine notified me that guess what. . . . just in case you are interested here is the link: Civil 3D Community

Civil 3D Community-Don't Forget

2006-09-06T12:51:00.000-06:00

As some of the other bloggers have posted, there will be a new web page or community that Autodesk is putting together entitled Civil Engineering Community. All of which will have lots of resources for users to get additional information specific to Civil 3D. It will also be a place where you can share data such as templates, styles, or problems. So stay tuned, I'm sure I am not the only one that will be posting when it comes out. Here is a brief preview of what is to come.

As you can see I am not posting some shocking information that was just discovered, I am just trying to spread the word of what is going to be release shortly. So please stay tuned for more "shocking secrets". :-P

Adding PDF's to Vault! -Follow Up

2006-08-31T08:03:00.000-06:00

The question was asked about dragging and dropping PDF's from Windows Explorer into Vault, as opposed to using the method outlined in my previous post, Adding PDF's to Vault. Yes it can be done but it's like the inevitable question, about using buttons to start the command or typing the command in. It's a personal preference, however keep in mind even though you have added the PDF to the Vault the only way to "check it out" is to open the Vault Explorer and find the file and select Check Out. In addition, the PDF is read-only anyway so I guess it a moot point, right?

By the way for those of you that may be asking yourselves, if a PDF can be dragged and dropped into the Vault, then could I do that with a drawing. The answer is yes. You could also drag and drop all of your data files, like Excel, Word, etc. There is an slight issue with dragging and dropping drawings into the Vault. For instance, if I have a drawing (Grading Object.dwg) that has a surface in it and I drag and drop it into the Vault, the drawing will be checked in but the surface does not show up in the project list (Surface name: Grading). I found that in order for the surface to show up in the project list you first have to rebuild it. Once that is complete then Civil 3D will give you the option to Check In the surface to the project.

Adding PDF's to Vault!

2006-08-21T09:20:00.000-06:00

I was cleaning up a project that I have been using when I noticed that users do have the ability to add PDF's to their Vault of their choice. In my previous post about Adding Microsoft Documents to Vault, the users needed to open up a Microsoft product then login to the Vault which would allow you to add the file in progress to your Vault. Of course after adding a few files from all the Microsoft family, I quickly realized that a good portion of firms use PDF's. So naturally I opened up Adobe to find that there wasn't any toolbars or menus which would allow such a thing. So I gave up on it figuring that Autodesk would maybe include it in their next release. This isn't some little trick that I discovered but an item that is not well documented.

Instead of using Adobe to add documents to the Vault, the steps outlined below will help you add project data that wasn't created using Microsoft Office.
First, start by opening up Vault Explorer and selecting your Vault that you would like to add the file to. Then select the File menu and select Add files. Once the dialog box opens by default it is set to All Files, but if you select the pull down arrow you should notice that it allows for PDF's. Browse for your PDF that you would like to have added to your project. Then once you select Open you will be given a dialog box that will allow you to Delete Local Copy. Depending on if you want to keep the folder structure or not depends on if you check this. Checking it will delete the original file and then copy it to the Working Folder. This allows Vault to control where the files are. After the file has been added to the Vault you will see it show up in the project list under the file name as shown below. Additionally by right-clicking on the file once it has been added to the Vault you will be given the same options as other file types in the Vault.

The only concerning thing that I have noticed about this is that Vault does NOT put a lock or make the file Read-Only. I do understand that a PDF is a "read-only" document but I would've expected to see a read-only message. Since you are not given read-only message you could double-click on the file in the Working Folder without the Vault checking out the file. Not that I would recommend that since the whole purpose of Vault is to manage the data. In addition this is the same for .txt files that can be added to the Vault.

In summary this is a great option for those of us are finally adopting Civil 3D as our primary design software. We are finally to the point where we have an intergrated system that can create data and manage it. Now all we have to do is make sure the users use it the right way.

Deleting Multiple Surface Labels

2006-08-14T14:03:00.000-06:00

Every now and then we stumble across minor quirks in the program that will make it do undesirable things, like shut down. My post is not intended to discredit the program but to let people know about the issue and how to work around it. If for some odd reason you would like to replicate it follow the below steps.

1. Save your drawing!
2. Under Surface, Labels, Add Surface Labels
3. Add 4 or 5 labels to a surface, using Slope as the Label Type (only 2 are required)
4. Start the Erase command and select the 1st label, as you select the second label you will notice that the program will shut down unexpectedly.

This is just a minor flaw but I thought it was serious enough to share it with everyone out there. I guess the solution to it is to delete them one at a time. Also, I have noticed that it is only specific to the Slope Label Type. Just to be sure I have tried creating other label styles under the Slope Label Type and have had the same result.

I cannot take full credit for the finding but I can definitely replicate it. Autodesk has been notified and hopefully we will see a fix in the near future.

Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 2, Already

2006-08-03T09:04:00.000-06:00

Well the good news is that a good product is getting some great updates from Autodesk. As some of you well know SP 1A was just released, apparently Autodesk had a few other issues that they wanted to resolve and from the looks of the list they covered a good portion of the product. Below is a list of what will be include in this Service Pack.

Issues Resolved in Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 2

General
When closing the program, you no longer receive an error message after using the Object Property Manager.
Using the UNDO command after deleting or inserting an elevation point no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.

Alignments
Version 2006 drawings that contain a Spiral Curve Spiral with the curve radius set to zero can now be migrated to version 2007 and the Spiral Curve Spiral is correctly displayed.
An issue with alignment station equations has been resolved and the station equation labels now display expected results.

Corridor
When pasting surfaces, dynamic corridor surfaces are filtered out of the selection set to avoid a situation dependency. You can create non-dynamically linked corridor surfaces to paste into an existing surface.
Using the DaylightStandard subassembly, you can create a corridor model with a horizontal slope limit and the material thickness will be applied to the horizontal links. Previously the material thickness was not applied to the horizontal links.
Changing a style of an exported corridor surface no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
When you specify corridor sections at Superelevation Critical Stations (from the Frequency To Apply Assemblies dialog box) the sections are now added.

Grading
Points and Elevations are now displayed accurately in the Elevation Editor.
There is improved performance using the Weed command on a feature line that was created from a polyline.
Using the Fillet command on feature lines no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
There is improved performance when using the Fit Curve command.
An issue with using Feature Line commands in multiple drawings has been resolved.
Using the Weed command now removes the expected points when using a weeding factor of 3D Distance. Previously not all the points that met the weeding factor were removed and all other points were removed.
Using the UNDO command after moving a grading object to a site no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
The maximum range for slope patterns is now displayed correctly. Previously, the slope pattern was displayed even though it was outside of the maximum range.
Elevation point z values are recognized when you add a PI to a feature line.
Entering the elevation difference on a new feature line no longer causes the Draw Feature Line command to end.
Creating a grading transition between mixed surface and elevation or distance targets no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly, however this will not result in creating a grading object because Civil 3D cannot find a valid solution for these conditions.

Labels
Using the Parcel Create by Slide Bearing command no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly when the parcel label styles contain custom expressions.
Duplicate entries are no longer created in parcel tables when you insert a new line.
Issues with parcel labels not erasing correctly have been resolved. The program no longer closes unexpectedly when using the erase command on multiple parcel labels. Labels are not redisplayed after using the erase command and then saving the drawing.
The direction arrow component type has been added to the general line label styles.

LandXML
Error messages are no longer displayed when you close a drawing after using the Export LandXML command.
When exporting multiple corridor models using the Export LandXML command the program no longer closes unexpectedly.

Parcels
The UNDO command produces expected results after using grip edits on parcels and no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
The UNDO command produces expected results after moving a parcel to another site and no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
An issue with converting a closed polyline to a parcel has been resolved.
Using grip edits on parcel lines displays expected results.
An issue with saving user defined properties in a .dwt file has been resolved.
There is improved performance when using the REGEN command for parcels.

Pipes
A set sump depth rule has been added. This rule is not added by default, but can be added to the structure rule set for use during junction structure creation (layout) or by changing all junction structure sump depths at once using the Apply Rules command.
In the Part Builder command, you can use Cyrillic and Asian characters in Catalog chapter names and part names.
When using the Change Flow Direction command, flow arrows are now displayed correctly.
Deleting structures no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
There is improved performance when opening version 2006 drawings that contain structure styles. The program no longer forces version 2006 drawings that contain structure styles to display the boundaries as solid.
There is improved performance when using pipe network references.

Points
An issue with editing Point Label Styles from the Point Panorama view has been resolved.
Points can no longer be selected in a viewport when they are on a layer that is frozen for that viewport.

Profiles
The correct information is now displayed in horizontal geometry bands for radius and curvature. The pipe network band node in the profile view is now displayed in the first drawing you open. Previously, the first drawing you opened in a new session would be missing the node and you had to close and re-open the drawing.
Using the UNDO and REDO commands after deleting a sub-entity from the profile view no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
Performing station editing in multiple layout profiles no longer produces an error message.

Project Management
The Migrate Pre-Civil 3D Project command now creates the correct folder structure in the project.

Prospector
The program no longer closes unexpectedly when you close a drawing while the item previews are displayed in Prospector.
The Zoom To command zooms to the correct location after setting the UCS.

Sections
The Section segment bands for section cross slope and width are now displayed
correctly.

Surfaces
Contour smoothing no longer creates segments of zero length on closed contours. Previously the program would close unexpectedly when opening a drawing in which this occurred.
The Smooth Contours command no longer causes gaps in the contour display.
Issues with surface styles have been resolved. The program no longer closes unexpectedly when a surface is created that does not have an assigned style.
Surface labels display the correct values for Surface Slope Horizontal Distance.
The program no longer closes unexpectedly when using the Paste Surface command.
Creating Quick Profiles from a surface no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly.
An issue with the display of render masks has been resolved.

Survey
There is improved performance when importing field book files.
Using the Browse for Folder dialog box when specifying an equipment database path now returns the expected result and no longer causes the program to close.
The MCS survey figure command now starts the multipoint curve at the first point number following the command and ends correctly when other curve commands are processed.
An error message is now displayed stating that the file cannot be opened if you attempt to export a field book file to a network address where you do not have write access. The program no longer closes unexpectedly.
The Show Properties command for control points, non-control points, and directions now displays the properties in the item list view.
After inserting survey points into the drawing, using the Zoom To command from the Prospector shortcut menu for Points or Point Groups now returns correct results.
The program no longer closes unexpectedly when you attempt to close the Traverse Editor.
When using the Traverse Analysis command the Angle error now displays correctly for direction start and end traverse.
The Zoom To and Pan To commands on the Survey collection shortcut menus now return expected results.
The Browse To Observation command now returns expected results.
Changing values for the Interactive Graphics in the User Settings no longer closes the panorama view.
The Equipment Database item view list no longer closes when you right click on an Equipment item, in the list and select Make Current.
Editing Latitude and Longitude values for control points now returns the expected results for the Easting and Northing.
This Service Pack also includes resolution for the following AutoCAD issue:
An issue with slow performance has been improved when you open drawings that contain large numbers of blocks.

Primary Issues Resolved in Autodesk Map 3D 2007 Service Packs 1 and 2
Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 2 also includes the fixes that were included in Autodesk Map 3D 2007 Service Packs 1 and 2. Autodesk Map Service Packs 1 and 2 include more than 35 fixes with significant improvements in the following key areas:

Stability issues reported with the Customer Error Reporting (CER) utility.
Memory consumption issues.
Multiple publishing and plotting fixes including DWF publishing and Publishing to MapGuide.
ESRI SHP file editing via Feature Data Objects (FDO).
Improved performance for Oracle data stores accessed via FDO.
Filtering Query Data from the Data Connect Dialog Box (New User Interface)
When connected to a feature source, the new user interface allows you to reduce the amount of data being retrieved by filtering your query data. After you click Add to Map in the Data Connect dialog box, the Feature Source Query dialog box displays, letting you edit the queried data before adding it to your Map. See the Autodesk Map 2007 online Help for more information on connecting to Feature Source Providers.

Display Manager
Stylizations for individual map layers will continue to be applied even if the data source for any one layer cannot be found
Using AutoCAD blocks to stylize GIS point data in 3D now works
Support for symbol rotation in point styles for GIS layers has been restored
Adding hatch styles to topology elements no longer causes a fatal error
Publishing and Plotting
A memory leak when plotting grid surfaces has been corrected
GIS layers draped over 3D surfaces can be published to DWF
Several issues involving plotting and publishing legends have been resolved
Publishing large raster layers to DWF has been fixed
A possible fatal error under certain circumstances during background plotting and publishing has been fixed
Plotting and publishing with checked out features no longer causes fatal errors
The color chips in Legends are now visible when publishing
Deleting a style used in a legend is no longer causes fatal errors
A problem when publishing to DWF that could cause edited features in an unsaved drawing not to publish correctly has been fixed

Stability and Usability
Some potential instabilities that could be encountered after connecting to SQLServer have been corrected
Removing a data source after losing a network connection no longer causes fatal errors
Checking out large numbers of features simultaneously no longer causes a fatal error
A stability problem with undo operations after hiding GIS layers has been corrected
Drag and drop of layer files containing raster layers now works
Multiple redundant messages are no longer displayed when creating new instances of multipoint features
Panning or zooming during refedit no longer generates multiple redundant error messages
Data from GIS layers displays properly when using the mouse wheel to zoom
Reloading a drawing that was saved after changing the active version of a data source no longer causes a fatal error

Globalization
Adding data from SDF files located in folders on the desktop when using the Japanese version of Windows now works.
Theme rules are maintained when using data containing characters from some Asian languages as well as accented characters from European languages.
Performance Improvement
Numerous issues that significantly improve the overall performance of Autodesk Map 3D 2007 have been addressed in this service pack.

White Papers-Large Subdivisions & Styles

2006-07-12T10:33:00.000-06:00

Autodesk has released two new White Papers, one for using Civil 3D for Large Subdivisions and another for Setting up Styles. If you are interested in either one, here is the link to the main page which also has the other White Papers that have been released; http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5173807 .

The White Paper entitled "Civil 3D 2007 for large subdivisions" is a pretty good paper because it outlines how a company can use Civil 3D in all aspect of the subdivision design (Points, Survey, Surfaces, Parcels, Alignments, Profiles, Corridors, Grading, and Pipe Networks). It also talks about how you can successfully use Vault in this type of environment.

The other paper entitled "Whitepaper Civil 3D 2007 Styles Updated Fundamentals" highlights the creation and clarifies what the different style dialog boxes are used for. It also talks about the differences between Object Styles, Label Styles, and Table Styles but it also talks about how to successfully use the Label Style Composer. Additionally this paper also mentions how Expressions can be used in your Label Styles. The one thing that I do like about this White Paper is that it also has a Workflow outline that goes through how most users can create styles with as little frustration as possible.