Ontario Civil3D Users Group (OC3DUG)

Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Civil 3D

2008-08-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

An installation rule to keep in mind when installing Civil 3D and Land desktop Companion 2008 is to ensure that your Windows XP Service Pack 2 has ALL of its required updates installed, before you install Civil 3D. DO NOT install Windows XP Service Pack 3 before this. If Windows XP Service Pack 3 is installed before installing Civil 3D 2008 then after you install and run Civil 3D you will get a FATAL ERROR and will not be able to run Civil 3D. This unwanted result will force the user to roll back there Windows XP Service Pack 3 to Service Pack 2 and perform the Custom Install & Updates from Windows.

View Transitions in Civil 3D 2008

2008-03-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

Once VTENABLE is set to 7 within a certain drawing the view transitions work normally in that drawing only, when another drawing is opened or Civil 3D is shut down and re-started, the View Transition settings are gone and have to be initiated again.

The question, how is VTENABLE set in Civil 3D so that it is enabled to work as a default every time Civil 3D is started?

Deleting unused Styles in Civil 3D 2008

2008-03-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

When Styles are created and used in Civil 3D 2008 a yellow indicator appears next to the style name telling you that it is in use in your drawing. However in some cases when a Style isn’t required and needs to be deleted from the Styles list you would normally highlight the style, right-click and select Delete. Civil 3D 2008 occasionally keeps a yellow indicator next to a Style even though the Style is not in use and therefore will not allow you to Delete this Style. As shown below you can highlight the Style then select Refresh and now the yellow indicator will be removed enabling you to delete the Style.

Cut and Fill Surface Labels

2008-03-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

Creating Surface Labels for Cut Fill Drawings

Once a Cut and Fill surface has been established you can create a Surface Label Style to view the Cut and Fill labels. When a Surface Label Style has been created it must be applied to each individual Cut and Fill surface.

Below there is sample drawing which displays a site that has several Sub-sites with several Cut and Fill surfaces listed in the prospector tab. (ex. DDVol (Building1), etc..))

The following steps will create the Surface Label Style that will display the Cut labels in RED with a negative symbol and the Fill labels in GREEN:

1. Once the Settings tab is selected you must expand the Surfaces>Label Styles>Spot Elevation trees and right-click to create a NEW style. Once the Label Style Composer has been opened, you can add a new name such as Cut Fill Labels

2. Next you must select the Layout tab and rename the current General Name from Surface Elevation to Cut, and change the color to RED. (set the text height and rotation angle as per your requirements)

3. Highlight and select the Text>Contents and select to open the Text Component Editor ensure that the Sign is set to sign negative and accept the remainder defaults

4. Select the copy button and copy the Cut component name and re-name it to Fill
5. Highlight and select the Text>Contents and select to open the Text Component Editor ensure that the Sign is set to hide negative value and accept the remainder defaults
6. Change the colour to GREEN and accept the remainder (the text heights and rotation angle will be similar to the settings for the Cut labels)

7. The new Cut and Fill Surface Label Style has been created, to apply this style to each Cut and Fill surface select the following menu, Surface>Add Surface Labels>Add Surface Labels , this will open the Add Labels dialogue box.

8. In the Add Labels dialogue, the Feature should be set to Surface, the Label type should be Spot Elevations on Grid, and the Spot elevation label style should be set to the Cut and Fill label style. (If you wish to add a Marker style to indicate the exact location of the label you can select that option or choose none)
9. Select the Add button and choose the surface border and set your grid (usually 5m grid)

Finally your surface labels should appear as shown below, the Cut labels are in RED and have a negative symbol next to them, the Fill labels are in GREEN and have no symbol.

Using Text Symbols in Civil 3D 2008

2008-03-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Using Symbols in Multi Line Text with Civil 3D 2008; once you have initiated the Mtext command and selected an area to begin adding text you can then Right-Click in the text window and select Symbols, you will then have the option to choose various symbols as shown below……..

Commands list for Civil 3D 2008

2008-03-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

To view a list of Commands that are available in Civil 3D 2008 you must select the Help menu (F1 key) in Civil 3D and then select the Contents tab; now expand the AutoCAD Help>Command Reference>Commands tree to view the list of commands with their brief descriptions in alphabetical order.

Match style properties in Civil 3D 2008

2008-02-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Are there any methods or tools that would act similar to the "match properties" button in Civil 3D but used to "match styles"?

Welcome to the Ontario Civil3D users Group Blog

2008-02-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this site is to connect the Civil3D users in Ontario who would like to have their say. We will be discussing issues that range from general Civil3D use to specific topics that only affect us in this part of the world. So, let's get this party started!

Civil Team

CAD MicroSolutions