Civil 3D with Dirt Diva

Autodesk Civil Visualization Extension

2010-04-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

Available NOW via subscription center.

What does this mean?

"The Autodesk® Civil Visualization Extension provides an easy-to-use, purpose-built design visualization workflow for civil engineers using Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design with AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software or other civil design applications.

With this extension, civil engineers can create high-quality visualizations of their projects, enabling them to validate designs through simulations and communicate design intent during planning, zoning, and public involvement meetings.

Even if they have little-to-no experience with 3ds Max Design, engineers using the Civil Visualization Extension can:

* Establish a direct link between AutoCAD Civil 3D and 3ds Max Design so that visualizations can be automatically updated as the design evolves
* Enhance realism of the visualization with civil engineering-specific materials and content such as signage, vehicles, and road striping
* Visualize realistic traffic simulations in context

In addition to significantly improving the workflow between 3ds Max Design and AutoCAD Civil 3D, the Civil Visualization Extension also enables 3ds Max Design users to create visualizations from a range of civil engineering design file formats, including Bentley® MXROAD, Bentley® InRoads®, GENIO and Bentley® Geopak, along with 12D and LandXML.

The Autodesk Civil Visualization Extension includes two components:

* The Autodesk Dynamite VSP Plug-in for 3ds Max Design 2010 or 2011, which also integrates the Dynamite SIM traffic simulation technology
* The Autodesk Dynamite VSP Exporter for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 or 2011

Also included is an instructional whitepaper entitled, “Using the Autodesk Civil Visualization Extension for 3ds Max Design and AutoCAD Civil 3D.” New feature videos, customer stories, and additional resources can be found at www.autodesk.com/civilvis."

What's new with Civil 3D 2011?

2010-03-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

· AutoCAD Civil 3D software, the building information modeling (BIM) solution for civil engineering, helps teams deliver higher-quality transportation, land development, and environmental projects faster. Its model-based approach helps keep project information coordinated while delivering higher-quality documentation and visualizations. AutoCAD Civil 3D helps users gain the competitive advantage of BIM to deliver more innovative project solutions. Key new features include:

o Scalability and performance improvements, as well as an optimized 64-bit version of Civil 3D

o Tools to better manage the creation and editing of corridors

o Enhanced superelevation functionality that provides a dynamic link to the alignment and flexible editing options

Autodesk Subscription Advantage Packs... OH MY

2009-10-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why you are paying an annual subscription on your Autodesk licenses? Now if you're like MOST of the medium to large engineering firms out there you are NOT upgrading your users to the current version every year even though you are paying for the latest and greatest. If you are a smaller firm with only a couple of users you may be installing the current version each year.

Well... Here are some AWESOME downloads that you get FREE as a subscription customer, check out what you get and the links are at the bottom. Enjoy!!!

This is what AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010 has to offer!

Point Clouds, Roundabout Layout, and General Enhancements
Extend the capabilities of AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010 software with the following features:

Point Clouds—Import and visualize large sets of point cloud data, such as 3D laser scanning/LiDAR data sets with millions of points, in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 with the Point Clouds feature. The point cloud feature enables you to:

Import LiDAR data in LAS format and all point file formats supported by AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010
Visualize large point clouds in 3D
Stylize point data based on LAS classifications, RGB, elevation, and intensity
Filter point data by style
Snap to points within the point cloud using standard AutoCAD® software tools
Some common uses of LiDAR data in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 may include using the point cloud data for site surveys, developing an understanding of the site context, and digitizing as-built features (for example, building footprints and curbs) for design projects.

Roundabout Layout—More quickly lay out roundabouts, including signage and striping, based on common design standards using the Roundabout Layout feature. Once the horizontal geometry of a roundabout has been defined, you can dynamically move and edit the roundabout throughout the optimization process.

General Enhancements—Streamline existing workflows in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 with a variety of powerful enhancements for transportation design, survey, visual analysis, and general production. Capabilities include:

Transportation Design Tools

Best-fit alignment creation tool
Split (create subset) alignment
Join profile tangents (extend tangents to point of vertical intersection [PVI] by grade intersection)
Set PVI by elevation and grade
Create spiral by sweep angle
Import superelevation from Microsoft® Office Excel® files (XLS)
Survey Tools

Crossing breakline utility
Survey import (TSS format support)
Survey import (SRV format support)
Survey change report
Survey point and chain edit utility
Visual Analysis Tools

“Drive Along” visualization
Line-of-site analysis
Vertical distance analysis
General Production Tools

Save as DGN format
Create surface from GIS data
Zoom to point
Calculate minimum vertical distance between surfaces
Calculate minimum vertical distance between entities
Divide/crop surface (create subset for use in other drawings)

http://subscription.autodesk.com

There are Subscription Advantage Packs for all of the following:

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010
AutoCAD® Civil 2010
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2010
Autodesk® Navisworks® 2010

AutoCAD Civil and Civil 3D 2010 Update 2

2009-09-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here you go!

Have a great day!!!

AutoCAD Civil Update: Click HERE

AutoCAD Civil 3D Update: Click HERE

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 1 is HERE

2009-07-31T09:55:00.001-07:00

CLICK HERE for the update available on the Autodesk website!

Happy Friday!!!

Civil 3D 2009 Hotfix posted

2009-06-29T16:26:00.001-07:00

Check it out!

Hofix for display/calculation of Section Volumes in 2009 is posted:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9240698

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!!!

Civil 3D 2009 Update 3

2009-06-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

Civil 3D 2009 Service pack 3 is here.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13357575&linkID=9240698

I will be downloading it momentarily and if I find any issues I'll post them ASAP.

Cheers,
Melanie

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 is here!!!! YAY YAY YAY!

2009-03-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

And the best part about it is that I can finally talk about it. I've been BETA testing the software for some time now and the curtain has finally been lifted and I can share in my excitement!!!

FIRST THINGS FIRST... I want to tell you about my TWO favorite things... In order...

The Field to Finish tools ROCK, to put it mildly, NO MORE NASTY FIELDBOOK FILES (.fbk) I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to a new tool in the Survey Database know as "Linework Code Sets". What these nifty little babies will allow you to do is code your point descriptions so that you can begin, end, draw curves and so on within your point file. YOU CAN FINALLY DOUBLE, TRIPLE, SHOOT... QUADRUPLE your point codes and your linework will come through the ASCII file, HIP HIP HOORAY!!!! What this means for all of you Surveyors out there is that AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 is FINALLY a viable tool... wait, it's now an AWESOME tool!!!

And I would like to give MANY kudos to the second runner up in my list of EXCITING new tools inside of 2010... Drum roll please... INTERSECTION DESIGN WIZARD!!! Yay!!! This makes designing intersections MUCH MUCH MUCH more streamlined!

Please stay tuned for some fun "How-To" guides once I get the BETA software off and the full version installed.

Cheers!!!

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 Update 2.1

2009-03-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a LONG time coming but it looks as if the second version of SP 2, which is SP 2.1 actually works and to the best of my knowledge does NOT break anything.

Here's the link:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=12624522&linkID=9240698

Cheers!!!

Joining Pipes to a Structure from a different Network!

2009-02-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that this came to me as a surprise find…..is this intentionally not mentioned anywhere? Or could this be some sort of unintended behaviors of Civil3D Pipe Networks? For as long as I have tinkered with Civil3D and more specifically Pipe Networks I had always thought that you cannot connect parts from one network to another network. In fact, this required me to teach users that there was a certain workaround that required duplicating a “dummy” manhole on the second system. Apparently that is not the case!

Anyone see this error message?

Step one: Create two separate pipe networks. (See image)

Step two: Edit network of secondary pipe network system via “grips”. (See image)

Step three: Using square grip – drag pipe toward manhole on the first pipe network system towards where the pipes connect to the manhole on the first network until you see the connection glyph. (See image)

Step four: Check your results! Notice the pipes are connected at the same invert, but remain separate systems. (See image)

Authored by: John Rodriguez | Civil Engineering Technical Specialist

U.S. CAD Releases Styles Template for Autodesk® AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Software

2009-02-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

I am extremely excited to announce the release of U.S. CAD's Styles Template.

Please check out the link below.

CLICK HERE

Have a great day!!!

Civil 3D and BIM… How do they relate?

2009-01-29T13:55:00.001-08:00

Let me start off by talking about how BIM (Building Information Modeling) and Civil Engineering relate to one another. If your firm is currently coordinating on projects with Architects, MEP Engineers, and even Structural Engineers then you have definitely heard the “buzz” word… BIM. While the concept of BIM did come from the Building Design industry it can also relate to us as Civil Engineers in many ways. Incorporating BIM into Civil Engineering can be streamlined with the use of Civil 3D, which is dynamic, model centric based design software. Thru the use of BIM and Civil 3D we can now create constructability studies to review our designs before they enter the construction phase. Civil 3D can also streamline the creation of multiple design iterations in which volume and material analysis can be run to ensure that we are doing all that we can to build a more “Sustainable Design”. Sustainability for Civil Engineering can mean things such as smart location, stormwater management and steep slope protection. All of these factors play into our designs in order to create accurate models that can reduce the overall impact on our urban surroundings.
The one area of Civil Engineering design that can see an immediate benefit from the use of BIM and Civil 3D is Transportation. The design tools within Civil 3D are so robust that you not only have the ability to design highways and roadways using traditional Civil Engineering calculations, but you also have the ability to cycle through multiple design iterations and compare your design alternatives to AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Traffic Officials) tables for passing sight, headlight distance and superelevation methods. Within Civil 3D 2009 you have the added ability to create “custom” design check criteria that enables you to verify that your horizontal alignment design meets the minimum standards required by your local agency. When you use the criteria-based design feature, you have the ability to select a design criteria file that can be project specific, from which you can specify the superelevation attainment method and minimum radius and transition (spiral) length tables. When you lay out the alignment, the appropriate minimum values specified in the design criteria file that has been customized by your firm, is displayed on the command line. You can chose to either accept the default minimum value for a given entity, or enter a new value.
Another area where BIM has a direct correlation to the Civil Engineering community is General Contractors and Construction firms finding that they can significantly reduce construction delays and cost overruns by creating a "virtual build" before beginning physical construction. This allows the contractor to evaluate the project for constructability. Civil 3D can also be used by these firms to take their 2D construction documents from the various design disciplines and turn them into 3D BIM models. We can then help to bring these models together for electronic clash detection and conflict resolution thru the use of Navisworks. Also the piping tools within Civil 3D have a 2D and 3D Interference Checking mechanism for Water, Storm Drain, Sewer or any other Pipe Networks that are part of your design model. This allows RFIs and change orders to be issued prior to physical construction, before they become issues in the field and delay the project.

Utilizing phasing, we can develop the BIM models in conjunction with the project timelines to increase communication and gain a better understanding of the construction process for project stakeholders. Construction sequences can be simulated for quick and effective decision making by the contractor, design team, and project owner. Schedule sequences can be stepped through to show the project at particular moments in time, and linked to the actual project construction schedule. In addition, the information from a Building Information Model can be used to perform quantity take-offs for tighter budgeting and cost estimation.

In conclusion, thru the use of Civil 3D, Civil Engineers can design models that provide multiple design alternatives to their clients, use design visualization tools to better communicate the design intent, run cut/fill and material volume calculations with ease, run conflict detection checks on pipe systems and minimize our impact on the urban sprawl. All of these factors combined to incorporate BIM into the Civil Engineering community and ultimately gives us the ability to reduce errors and omissions, deliver a higher quality product to our clients, reduce costs and increase project profitability.

For additional information on BIM and how you can incorporate these concepts into future projects please visit: http://www.uscadbim.com/

Autodesk pulled most recent "Update" for Civil 3D

2009-01-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

Just an FYI.... Autodesk has pulled the most recent update for Civil 3D due to issues. Please say tuned for the next release. I will install it and if there are no issues I will pass along the good news.

Have a productive week!!

-Melanie

Maintenance Update Available for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009

2009-01-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

Here is the link:

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 Update 2

Enjoy!!!

Name That Structure!

2009-01-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

This post is compliments of John Rodriguez, Civil Technical Specialist for U.S. CAD

John can be reached at john.rodriguez@uscad.com, THANKS FOR THE GREAT INFO JOHN!!!

Here goes:

“Drop the Parenthesis” – how to customize the name format for Structures:
Have you ever wanted to name your structures without the parenthesis in the label? Well if you can think it up…chances are that Civil3D can do it. The tricky part is locating where to customize the setting.

So here it goes:

1. Settings > Pipe Networks > Right Click “Edit Feature Settings”

2. Default Name Format > Structure Name Template > Select ellipse button …

3. Name Template dialog box > Name: > Edit out the ( and ) and select OK

Now you should be able to name your structures without the parenthesis in the label. This adjustment should be saved or added to your company styles template.

Digging in the Dirt

2008-12-18T10:48:00.001-08:00

Hello All,

This is the handout material from the course that I most recently taught at AU 2008, enjoy!

Existing surface data can come from a variety of sources, it can come from the Land Surveyor in the form of a COGO points, from an Aerial topo in the form of Contour data, from a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) file or even from Google Earth data. The focus of this course is to take data that was received from the Land Surveyor and turn it into a surface model that can be edited, labeled and used for engineering design. After we create our existing conditions and the designers create their finished surface model we will explore how to run volume calculations and thematic mapping for cut and fill areas.

One of the most common forms of data used to build a surface is COGO (Coordinate Geometry) point data. The data that we are working with to generate our surface is many thousands of existing ground spot shots. We have a limit of work line that we are going to work with to build our surface only within the limits of our work line. In order to accomplish this task we will be working with Civil 3D 2009 and using a Data Clip boundary

The steps that need to be taken in order to accomplish the above tasks are to create a new drawing starting with your company’s drawing template file that contains all of the necessary Object, Label, Table and Command Settings. Next you will need to create a new surface, give it a name and style; this can be done in your Prospector tab on your Toolspace right-click on Surfaces and select Create Surface. This will allow you to create a TIN surface, Name your surface and select an object style, see below:

Once you have created the “shell” for your surface we can then create a Data Clip boundary to limit the amount of data that we bring in for our surface, thus keeping our drawing file as small as possible. Please note that the Data Clip boundary must be added to your surface prior to adding any other data such as Point Files, Point Groups, Contours or Breaklines. The boundary line must also be drawn prior to creating the data clip; the command does not allow you to draw the polyline “on the fly”. Expand your surfaces collection à Expand Definition à Right-click on Boundaries and select Add, see below:

Once you have added your Data Clip boundary to your surface you can then import your data that you will build your surface from.

Now we are going to build our surface from point files that are stored in a separate location. This method will use the data in the external text to build your surface thus keeping your drawing file small by not importing the points directly into your drawing file. Under the Surfaces collection à Definition, right-click on Point files and select multiple point files by using the + with Shift and or Ctrl, see below:

Another way to build a surface in Civil 3D from Survey data is to import the text files directly into Civil 3D group your point data and build a surface out of points. In this next example we will import a PNEZD text file into Civil 3D, create point groups to organize our data and build our surface model out of our organized data.

We are going to start by importing our points directly into Civil 3D by going to the Points pull-down menu à Import/Export Points àImport Points. After your points are inserted into your drawing we can now create groups to isolate what data we want to use to build our surface. In fact, you can create point groups, save them into a template file and when you insert in your point data the groups will automatically populate with the points. In order to create a point group you need to head over to your Prospector tab, give the Point Groups collection a right-click and select New. Within the Point Group Properties dialog box on the Information tab you have the ability to give your group a name, assign a point object and point label style to your group. Next you need to select the Include tab to assign which point properties will be included in your group. You have the ability to create a point group out using Numbers, Elevations, Names, Raw Descriptions and Full Descriptions Matching (when using name or description matching you do not need to worry about case sensitive matching), see below:

After your points are grouped you can then create a surface and add your data to it. Follow the previous steps above to create a shell for your surface. Next you want to expand your Surface collection, expand Definition and right-click on Point Groups to add your newly created point groups to build your surface (you can use Shift and/or Ctrl to select more than one group at a time).

Now onto Surface Editing commands! After you have created your surface, view it as a TIN and Points you can put it in an Isometric view in order to find any spikes or erroneous TIN points. See picture below for points that will be edited:

Under the Definition area of the surface right-click on Edits to display all of the types of edits that can be made on your surface object.

For this particular surface we use the Modify Point surface editing tool to modify the two spikes shown in the picture above. Before modifying these points you must first either get with your Surveyor that collected your data to find out what the true existing elevations should have been or you can analyze your surface and interpolate what the elevations at these points should be. *Note: In order to use any of the Point edit surface tools your surface style MUST have TIN Points set to on.

Once you have your surface fully edited it is now time to add in your Contour Labels. You must first set your surface style to display the contours at the desired interval. Next you want to go to your Surfaces pull-down menu à Add Surface Labels à Add Surface Labels, in this dialog box we are going to use a label type of Contour – Multiple.

The great thing about the Add Labels dialog box is that it is consistent whether you are labeling a Surface, Pipes, Profiles or any of the Civil 3D Objects.

With the use of expressions and reference texts surface labels inside of Civil 3D can be extremely powerful in labeling TC-FL elevations. The use of expressions allows you to label the TC and subtract 0.5’ for the FL of a 6” curb. You can also label EG-FG information with the use of reference text adding a surface spot elevation for two surfaces included into one label. See below for the use of both expressions and reference text labels for a precise grading plan. Both of the labels used were surface spot elevation labels types.

After you have your existing and proposed surfaces there are many ways that we can run volume calculations in order to find out our import and export values. The first way to run volume calculations is in a tabular form. This will NOT create a volume based surface but it will enable you to see your cut/fill values. This method is also favored if you have more than one design alternative and want to determine which yields the least amount of cut/fill. In order to bring up this table based calculation method you must go to the Surfaces pull-down à Utilities à Volumes, see below:

The button highlighted in the upper left will allow you to add in a new volume entry into the table. Within the Composite Volumes table you have the ability to account for shrinkage or expansion from your Geo report by putting the appropriate values into the Cut and Fill Factor columns. *Note: This will only adjust your Cut (adjusted) and Fill (adjusted) values and will NOT affect your overall Net values.

More to come later...

Happy Holidays!!!

Civil 3D 2009 Data Shortcuts

2008-09-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Civil 3D 2009 has drastically improved the functionality and interface for data shortcuts. With the new version these are now an extremely viable tool for sharing data within small and medium sized firms looking to adopt Civil 3D. When you get into larger firms that are doing data sharing over a WAN with multiple office work share, we still recommend Vault for your data management and project sharing needs. Data shortcuts currently have the ability to:
· Annotate Civil 3D model across multiple drawings
· Annotate and object update when referenced model changes
· Model integrity maintained
· Remote project team workflow
· Leverage Civil 3D model across drawings (data reference)
· Control object display across drawings
The only functionality that Vault has over data shortcuts is versioning and data management.
Using the “New and Improved” data shortcuts in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 has a very similar user interface as Vault. The access to the data shortcuts is now contained within the Prospector tab once you set your toolspace from Active Drawing View to Master View you can locate Data Shortcuts just below the Projects collection. Within the 2009 Data Shortcuts you now have the ability to set up a “Working Folder” which is extremely similar to the “project” within a Vault. Typically the working folder is going to be a network location where your project data will be stored. If you are migrating from a Land Desktop environment this would most likely be the same or similar location where your Land Desktop Project data was previously stored. After your working folder is set you then have the ability to create a “New Data Shortcuts Folder”, this will be a folder that is created on a project basis. Each project that you work on for various clients will have its own Data Shortcuts Folder where your information is to be stored. When you switch your data shortcuts folder by using the “Set Data Shortcuts Folder” command it automatically refreshes the data shortcuts and shows only what is associated with your current project.
When creating the new folder you then have the ability to give the “project” a name or numbering convention that your company uses. You also have the ability to use a “Project Template” that will create a custom a custom folder structure to suit your company’s needs. When making the transition from LDT to Civil 3D I will typically recommend that you start with using a folder structure that is similar to what was used in LDT so that the users have an easier time getting used to the transition. The default project template structure that comes with Civil 3D is located at C:\Civil 3D Project Templates\_Sample Project. This template structure can be set up to not only store your data shortcuts, but can also be used to create a structure that will allow you to store your source drawings, reports, production drawings, external references and any other miscellaneous documentation.
When creating data shortcuts you now have the ability to use the multiple options. In the past if you had a project with many alignments that multiple users on the project team needed to access for design, you needed to create one object (or alignment in this case) per drawing. Your use of data shortcuts can be applied to Surfaces, Alignments, Profiles, Pipe Networks and View Frame Groups (Plans Production Tools). When sending data to clients or other parties working on the project E-transmit capabilities recognize data shortcut file dependencies in a drawing and XML files There is even a completely new interface that allows you to manage your data shortcuts, similar to how you manage your external references. If you have a broken link with one of your xml files or if one of your files has been re-named you can to go your Start à All Programs à Autodesk à AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 à Data Shortcuts Editor. There are a few precautions to be taken when using the data shortcuts editor.
· Before editing data shortcuts, ensure that no one else is currently creating or editing the same set of data shortcuts within AutoCAD Civil 3D. Otherwise, one user can overwrite changes made by the other.
· Changes made in the Data Shortcut Editor window do not take effect until shortcuts are reloaded.

In the event that you begin your Civil 3D Adoption process with Data Shortcuts and decide that it is best for your firm to later move into a Vault Data Management environment keep in mind that you CAN in fact move Data Shortcuts from a Data Shortcut project into the Vault. After your firm is up and running on Vault and Data Shortcuts are no long a viable way for your firm to share data you can also type in SHORTCUTNODE as a system variable to remove the Data Shortcuts menu from your Prospector tab.

Civil 3D 2008-Survey Link Installation Issues

2007-12-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Hi There:

Recently one of our clients had experienced some issues installing the Survey Link into Civil 3D 2008. After the link was installed when you type in "startsurveylink" into the command line you get an "unknown command" response. Another area that was checked was that AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 TDS SurveyLink Installer appears in the Add or Remove Programs list and a directory named 'svlink' is created under C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008\.

In order for the Survey Link to work you MUST first install SP2.

With help from Autodesk below is the resolution to the Survey Link Installation issue:

The individual had been double clicking on the msp file to apply the service pack. This appears to apply the service pack but will not update all of the files that are included in the patch. Hence Survey Link was not working.

A little background on the msp vs. exe issue. In a perfect world, you should be able to double click on the msp and obtain the same results as you would from double clicking on the exe. Unfortunately, with the 2008 release, there were issues with our msp file which we found after release (but before the service pack shipped) that forced us to include additional information and tasks to the exe. This left the msp file with the correct information but unable to update an installation independent of the exe or wrapper information.

As stated in the read me, this resulted in deployments requiring the service pack to be merged rather than appended. There is also a warning upon extracting the msp from the exe file (command line entries with dialog box warning). The differences between merging and appending are fairly straightforward. When you merge a service pack to a deployment, you are forcing the files to be included as part of the base installation. If you append a service pack to a deployment, the install of the application completes and then the service pack is applied to the application. This is referred to as daisy chaining and is common for deployments. The reason this won’t work is the same as why you cannot click on the msp and have the patch apply correctly. The added information isn’t included which ensures the files are updated. Merging forces the files to be updated.

These issues will be addressed for future releases.

Hope this helps!

AU Presentation Handout

2007-12-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Last week was a grueling, fun and exciting week in Las Vegas for Autodesk University 2007. For those of you that were able to attend I hope you had a wonderful time. For those of you that attended my class here is a link to the handout. I know I had a few people that came up to me asking if I had extra copies. This was the first year that Autodesk went "Green" and did not offer handouts at the door. Here is the link to my handout for your review.

Enjoy!

Click Here for PDF Link

Changing your Parcel Styles

2007-10-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Ever created 50 parcel objects & suddenly realized that you used the wrong parcel style or area label style?

I have a fix for ya!

Parcels--> Edit Parcel--> Edit Parcel Properties

Your command line with prompt you for (Polylines/All/Site). If you have a polyline already drawn through the parcels that you wish to update you can select P, if you want to make the change to all of your parcels you can select A and if you want to change only the parcels in a specific Site you would expect to hit S for site and be able to do this, but it appears as though this feature is currently broken in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 SP1. I am going to go with all for now :)

Type A for All and this will bring up your Edit Parcel Properties dialog box. Within this dialog you have the ability to edit your Parcel Style, Area Label Styles and also any User Defined Properties such as APN & address.

I am just going to demonstrate how to adjust the Parcel Style. Refer to the screen capture below with instructions.

GOOD LUCK!

Getting Freaky with Label Styles

2007-08-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Boy have things been hectic around these parts! Phew!

I have come up for a brief breath of fresh air from lots of training, Civil 3D Implementation, Southern California CAD Summit & other miscellaneous pre-sales engagements.

Hope this summer finds you well!

Now lets dig into some label styles specific for spot elevations using expressions:
In this section we will learn how to create a separator that separates two fields of information. The two fields will contain a TC elevation and FL elevation where the FL elevation is made up of an expression.

Creating an expression
Right click on the Expressions area for Spot Elevation Label Styles for Surfaces to see the following dialog box shown here to the left.

Creating a Separator and adding an expression
The separator is made up of a line component and added first. When adding the line component the two main properties that are important to specific are the length and angle. You will see the angle is important when it comes to defining the labels to the left and right discussed later on.

If you want the length of the separator to automatically adjust with the length of the text this CAN be accomplished, review the screen capture to the below on how to set this up!

When adding the expression, you can put the TC and FL in two different text components or you can put them in one text component. In this example, we will put them in one text component. After adding the text component, you will need to click on the ellipses button in the text contents area. See the figure below for the text contents area.

Need for Left and Right Labels (Understanding Dragged State Mode)
There are some limitations to the dragged state mode of labels that creates the need for independent label styles for the text to be to the left and right side of the labels. When creating a label style where the text components are to the left of the leader, the angle of the line component will need to be set to 180 since the 0 direction always goes form left to right as expected. See the following figure for a label style with the suffix "-Lt” indicating left and the angle of the separator line at 180 degrees. A logical naming convention should be thought about as well for all the label styles you create.

If there is a need to show a line between the labels you will need to create label styles for the text to be to the left and right side. If you take a look at the figure below on the right, you will see that one of the two components is a Separator…

If you take a look at the Dragged State tab, you will see two options for Dragged State components, As Composed & Stacked Text. By setting this to As Composed, this will maintain the separator component that was previously added. The Stacked Text option will keep the Text as entailed but the line or separator that you added would be removed.

In the next figure below you will see the same label that is designed to show the text to the left of the leader, both are in dragged state, but one has been dragged towards the right. The appearance is not appropriate and this is why a separate style for left and right is needed.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 SP1 is here!

2007-07-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

We have been eagerly anticipating this service pack and it's finally here, so hurry up, quickly download and install it.

Here you go: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9909730&linkID=9240698

Be sure to view the readme to find out all of the great fixes.

Have a fantastic weekend!

No Point Group Layer option in 2008

2007-07-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

Even though the 2008 course ware is not out yet, grrrrrrr, I still have many clients that are just dying to be trained on the new product line. Using the 2007 course ware and pointing out the new features in 2008 I found some minor disturbing news.

In Civil 3D 2007 Point Group Properties dialog box you had the ability to put the point group on a specific layer (see image below)

For some STRANGE reason they have conveniently removed this functionality in the new 2008 version, much to my dismay (see image below)

Now it's not impossible to control your display using layers at this stage in the game. It just takes a little more planning and thought. You will have to set up your Point Style and Point Label Style to be on the correct layers.

Good luck!

Point Label Properties in 2008

2007-06-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

The more and more I play with 2008 the more I find that some of the tools that I was used to in 2007 have moved or been taken out.

When it comes to points using Autocad Civil 3D 2007 you used to have the ability to select a point label, right-click and go into your point group properties. While in your point group properties you could change the label style independent of the point group, and change the visibility.

In 2008 in order to accomplish that same task you must use the good ol' fashion properties window. Your properties window now has the ability set style, visibility and you can even change the RAW description.

Southern California CAD Summit

2007-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

You can do it. Take the plunge into the latest Autodesk® technology

Southern California CAD Summit 2007August 23
Anaheim Convention Center

SCCS 2007 is here and once again it’s making waves as the largest annual CAD training event in Southern California. We’re creating a splash with a full day of training, offering 40 industry-specific classes covering the latest technology for Architecture, MEP, Structural Engineering, Civil, Geospatial, Design Visualization, Mechanical and Electrical. We’ve also invited the industry’s best talent join us as our featured guest speakers, as well as select vendors that offer top technology to compliment your Autodesk solutions. Now is the time to swim (not sink) on the latest technology. Expand your pool of knowledge and register today at www.lacad.com/cad_summit.html.

It's like a mini Autodesk University right here in Southern California! Come one, come all to the fourth annual SCCS. Where, when, how much you ask?

CLICK HERE for all the details and how to register.

Remember to list me, "Melanie Santer" in the "How did you find out about this event?" area.

I will be teaching and I look forward to seeing you all there!

Autodesk University 2007 Speaker

2007-06-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

I am VERY excited to report that I will be speaking at AU this year in Vegas again. I will be teaching One Point, Two Point, Red Point, Blue Point again this year as part of the Power Track classes.

If you missed it last year here is your chance to catch it. If you attended last year there are always new 2008 functions that I will be adding in.

CLICK HERE to save the date!

Have a great weekend!

Creating Label Styles Webcast

2007-06-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon,

I will be conducting a webcast on creating customized label styles in Civil 3D on Friday July 15 from 10-11am. This webcast is FREE and will provide insights and how to's on the following items.
*Creating Custom Labels
* Label Style Composer
* Layout State vs. Dragged State
* Label Components * Label Sets
* Label Groups * Text Component Editor
* Using Expressions in Labels
* Feature Settings
* Controlling Layers and Text Styles

So know that you are in the "know" what are you waiting for??? Oh, where to sign up? CLICK HERE to sign up for this great webcast.

2006 Instructor of the year award

2007-06-01T13:59:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to share in my excitement of being honored with such a prestigious award.

Please check out this link:

http://www.tenlinks.com/news/PR/lacad/060107_santer.htm

Thank you to the many students that I have taught over the years. It is because of you that I have been presented with this award. I know those evaluation forms are annoying to fill out but I always appreciate your feedback.

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks again!

-Melanie

Fun with ctrl pick in 2008!

2007-05-31T11:55:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

Hope you have all successfully recovered from a nice long holiday weekend!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to share one of my favorite features in the 2008 product, the ctrl pick option for labels. So... lets just start with an alignment, often times you have a boat load of information in your drawing and you have to remove out one of your alignment labels, weather it be a station label or a geometry point label. I want you to try this (if you haven't already). Hold down your ctrl key and with your mouse pick the label on your alignment (for example, you can use it for parcels and other objects as well). What this is doing is selecting the individual label and if you want to change the visibility to false you can simply use the delete key or AutoCAD erase. Now in previous versions of Civil 3D you would have to select the label, right-click, go to label properties and set the label visibility to false. We can now accomplish this task in one easy step, WOO HOO!

If that is not cool enough for you I have some other ctrl pick fun news, ctrl pick a label, right-click and go into Edit Text and you now have the ability to add additional text items to a single label. You used to have to create a new label style to accomplish this task so this is a GREAT new function.

Have a great day and remember CTRL PICK, CTRL PICK, CTRL PICK!

ADMS Patch

2007-05-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone!

They have released the patch that will allow the 2007 vault to work with the 2008 ADMS!

Here it is... http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9662033&linkID=9240698

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Resetting your structure label numbers

2007-05-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello,

I am truly sorry it has been such a long time since my last post. What a slacker I have been on blogging these days. My main excuse for my lack of "blogging" is that Civil 3D Implementations are taking off. I am busier now with Civil 3D then I have EVER been and I am loving it :)

During my trials and tribulations out in the real world I can across an issue that many of my clients have been wondering "How in the heck to I reset my numbering for my structures in a Pipe Network"? What I mean by this statement is if you have created a Pipe Network with some structures in it the numbering usually starts at (1) for your first structure (2) for your second and so on. If you happen to delete a couple of Structures and create new ones you will have gaps in your structure numbers because Civil 3D does NOT automatically re-start your numbering. Of course you can go into the Structure Properties and re-name your structure, but I am going to show you how you can set than numbering back.

On your prospector tab select the Pipe Network right-click and go to Properties. While in your Pipe Network Properties dialog box select the Layout tab (see image below)

If you hit the icon just to the right of the text Structure - (<[Next Counter(CP)]>) it will bring up a Name Template dialog box that will allow you to reset your starting number.

Hope you find this beneficial :)

Have a great day!

New Class for 2008

2007-03-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

I am VERY excited that Autodesk has put together this class. It will be offered at L.A. CAD and is will be a 2 day course. The prerequites include knowledge of Civil 3D (or AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Essentials).

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 Creating and Managing Plan Sets

This courseware shows how to use AutoCAD® Civil 3D® to complete tasks associated with the creation of construction documents. The courseware explains the functions of the Plan Production feature; its interaction with the Vault and with data shortcut project management components of Civil 3D; and the creation of documents using the Sheet Set Manager. Other topics covered include Sheet Template creation; Matchline and Frame styles; generation of Plan; Profile; Plan & Profile sheets; and alternate uses for the Plan Production feature.
The courseware examines several possible scenarios as students work through real-world examples to generate construction documents. The examples include plan and profile sheets as well as plan-only documents such as multi-sheet grading plans. Different annotation and linework strategies are presented and compared.

I wanted to say a special thanks to Mark Scacco, he is the author of this courseware! THANKS A BUNCH MARK :)

Nifty Surface Tweaks

2007-03-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

I have a pretty neat surface tweak that I would like to share with you. I often get my data to build the surface from Survey. Usually what they give me is either a point file or a drawing that already has the points dumped into it. So I create some point groups to organize my data and try to weed out any points that are sitting at an elevation of zero and away I go. It is sometimes a quite tedious process to try and weed out all the points whose elevation cannot be used to build the surface so there is another way to accomplish the same sort of task.

Sometimes Survey puts in a very low (like zero) or a very high (like 10,000) elevation for points that they do not intend to be build in the surface. These elevations are extremes so when you look at the point data you know that they should be excluded from the surface data. If you have a good idea of what the elevations of your site should be you can exclude elevations less than or greater than a certain value. Here's how...

On your prospector tab you must first create a new surface (right-click on the Surfaces collection and select New). For what we are doing today we are going to select a TIN surface, give it a name of EG and display it as Contours 2' and 10'.

Hit OK to the Create Surface dialog box and now we need to dig into our surface properties to set up the less than and greater than values.

Select EG in your prospector, right-click and select Properties. While in your surface properties select the Definition tab and expand Build under the Definition Options and LOOK WHAT I'VE FOUND!!!

Now I am sure you may be curious if you can save this data to a template. Let's say that your Surveyors ALWAYS use values of zero when shooting trees for example so your surface will NEVER be built using a value of less than 1'. What you can do is create the surface, name it, give it a style, change your elevation values in the Definition and that data can absolutely be saved to a template file for later use.

Have fun with this!

Parcels and Right Of Ways Cont.

2007-02-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

I'm back again and ready to finish the small subdivision!

So during last weeks post we defined a few alignments, when the alignments fully closed they created parcel objects. Then from the parcel objects we created ROW lines. Then next step in this process is to subdivide the lots.

The first thing I want you to do is draw a polyline subdividing the lot in the middle of the site as shown here.

Next you want to go to your parcels pull-down menu --> Create from objects and select the line that you just drew and your lot has been subdivided.

* Note: in the create parcels dialog box you have the ability to assign your site, or create a new one on the fly, select your parcel style (how your parcel linework is displayed), your parcel area style (what type of information you would like to be displayed in the center of your parcel i.e. Name and Acrege), you can choose to Automatically label the parcels are they are defined and select the appropriate line and curve labels and last but not least you have the option to delete your existing linework.

We are not going to use some of the Parcel Layout tools to further subdivide this parcel. Go to Parcels --> Create by Layout. You want to expand the Layout Toolbar by selecting the and enter in the following settings and select the Slide Angle Create method of defining your parcel object.

*Note: at this point it may be beneficial for you to compress your toolbar so you can maximize your drawing area.

When prompted to Pick a point within the parcel to be subdivided select the parcel to the South. You are not prompted to select your frontage and you do NOT have to have your osnaps on in order to accomplish this task. It is very simple and you can simply select where you would like the frontage for your parcels to be. Please refer to the screen capture below for the frontage.

Specify angle and frontage should be 90 degrees in this case. On your command line it will verify the square footage that you want to use for these parcels, if you are happy with the value hit Enter. Your lots should be show at this point and you can now hit Enter to end your command.

Hope this was useful information and once again, if you would like me to supply you with the drawing please send your request to melanie.santer@lacad.com and I would be more than happy to furnish this information to you.

Have a great day!

Parcels and Right Of Ways

2007-02-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

So... for those of you were unaware Civil 3D has a really nifty little tool that allows you to create right of ways for Parcel Objects. I have a pretty cool little exercise that I am going to walk you through and if you want the drawing that I am working with please feel free to email me and I can pass it along. You can reach me at melanie.santer@lacad.com

Here goes nothing... (Oh, I mean here goes something really handy and cool)!

I am starting with a drawing that only has Polyline information. To the right is a screen capture of my drawing and each one of those lines simply a polyline.

The first step is to turn each of those polylines into an alignment. You must go to Alignments --> Create from Polyline. You must select each of your alignments, specify the Site, Alignment Name, Description, Starting Station, Alignment Style, Layer, Label Set and if you want to erase existing entities.

After you have defined each of the 4 polylines as Alignments in your drawing you will notice that you now have 4 parcels in your drawing. This is because Civil 3D creates a Parcel object when you define an Alignment that completely closes off an area. Some people like this feature, but what I have found is that MOST people ask how to turn it off. Now, I don't know of a way to turn it off, but I have been doing some Beta testing on AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 (notice the new name?) and even though it's just Beta I have found that the problem MAY be fixed (not, between Beta and the actual release of the product there have been instanced of things being broken so let's just keep our fingers crossed k? Don't hold your breath, I don't want to see you turn blue).

Now after you have created your Alignments and you have your Parcels defined you can create Right Of Ways for those parcels that are defined. What you need to go is go to your Parcels menu --> Create ROW, select each of the 4 Parcels that exist in your drawing (you can select your parcels by selecting the Parcel Label in the middle of your Parcel object. Once you hit Enter you will be prompted with the Create Right Of Way dialog box that will allow you to specify your offset, radius and radius at intersections.

For this exercise I am going to accept the default values for my Right Of Way, hit OK and Viola! I do want to give you a little bit of a WARNING by letting you know that your ROW's are NOT dynamic with your alignments. Meaning if you go ahead and move your alignment lines your ROW's will have to be regenerated. But, if you look on the bright side your ROW's ARE in fact dynamic with your Parcel objects so if you noticed when you created them your Parcel Area adjusted to accommodate for the new ROW. If you choose to move the ROW it will continue to update your Parcel.

Stay tuned, my next post will be on how to use some of the parcel sizing tools to subdivide the lots.

Happy Presidents Day!!!

Changing your Site Settings

2007-02-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

So...What do you think of the new digs? Yes, L.A. CAD and all of us bloggers here have changed our look. I think it's pretty snazzy personally :)

I had a client last week that wanted to know if there was a way to set up the default Parcel tag numbering. The default setting for a Site has your Parcel and Alignment Tags beginning at 1 where I have found that many people would like their line and curve tags to begin at 100. The other problem that is frequently encountered is if a segment or parcel is added and you want to reset your counter before you start to renumber your tags. Where there's a will, there's a way and it's pretty easy too!

All you need to do is go to your Prospector tab, right-click on the Site that you want to set up the numbering for, in the Site Properties dialog box select the Numbering tab. In this dialog box you have the ability to set up the Automatic and Manual Tag numbering for both Parcels and Alignments. After that is all said and done your Site can be saved to a Template file just like your Pipe Networks, Object Styles, Label Styles and Command Settings.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Seminar: Civil 3D Label Styles to meet Agency Requirements

2007-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

We have built many Civil 3D Label Styles for many Southern California firms to meet the requirements set forth by their customers. We have a Free seminar being offered where we will take a look at some of these Label Styles and learn what it took to create them.

To register, click here:
http://www.lacad.com/cgi-bin/calendar.pl?month=2&filter1=Infrastructure%20Solutions&filter2=All&calendar=Events&view=Event&event_id=322&datestring=20070207

Overview:
Out of the box, Civil 3D will most likely not deliver the labels that meet the requirements of your clients or your own internal standards. L.A. CAD has been involved in implementing Civil 3D and building custom label styles for several companies in Southern California that do meet the requirements of internal CAD Standards and agency requirements. In this seminar, we will take a look at some complete (and fairly complicated) label styles that meet these requirements and learn the details as to how they were composed. You will not only learn how to create these unique label styles but you will learn how to automate the production of these labels by understanding Feature Settings in Civil 3D that can automatically place these labels when you produce your design. You will also learn how to capture these label styles so you can re-use from drawing to drawing or project to project.

Topics will include:
-Creating Custom Labels
-Label Style Composer
-Layout State versus Dragged State
-Label components
-Label Sets
-Label Groups
-Text Component Editor
-Using Expressions in Labels
-Feature Settings-Controlling Layers and Text Styles

I hope to see all of you there!

Map 3D Webcast - Taking AutoCAD to the next Level

2007-01-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

Click on the link below to register!

Map 3D sits on top of AutoCAD, exists in both Civil 3D and Land Desktop and is probably the one of the most underused programs from Autodesk. This webcast is geared toward automating basic drafting features that we may attempt to do in vanilla AutoCAD but are much easier in Autodesk Map.
* Multi-user Access to .dwgs* Drawing Clean Up Tools – build topology on the fly; set tolerances, etc.(ex: closed polygon)
* Feature Classification - generating reports(ex: Bill of Materials)
* Working with Other File Types - shp, dsg, dbconnect
* Image Draping
* Map Stylization/Theming(ex: show topology feature in Map that creates the polygon)
* Integration with New MapGuide Enterprise(ex: sdf)

http://www.lacad.com/infrastructure_solutions_news.html

Changing Surface Analysis Color Schemes

2007-01-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I hope that everyone had an a wonderful Holiday season, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I managed to survive from having 15 1/2 people, three dogs and many rounds of poker. There was enough food to feed a small army and plenty of Beer, Champagne, Vodka and Gin to be drank!

Now... back to the real world of Civil 3D fun! Many of you know that there are a variety of different types of surface analysis that you can run. To name a few off the top of my head there are Elevations, Slope, Slope Arrows and Directions (there are a few more as well). Within those various types of surface analysis there are a few "out of the box" color schemes that you can chose to display your information in your surface style. Now when I say "out of the box" that means that there has been no customization, this is what comes with Civil 3D when you install the program on your machine. These color schemes include Blues, Greens, Hydro, Land, Pastels, Rainbow, and Reds.

There is actually a way to change theses color schemes or create your own custom color schemes. You must go to the path C:\Program Files\Autodesk Civil 3D 2007\MapRamps.xml and open the .xml document and in that document you are able to add your own custom color schemes or modify what already exists. Now I recommend you adding your own color schemes because I always like to leave the "out of the box" information and simply add to it. You never know...

Below is a screen capture of the MapRamps.xml file for editing:

Have a great day!

-Melanie

Using Figure Prefixes in Civil 3D 2007

2006-12-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

Now, I recently had a client that was working towards implementing the Civil 3D Survey. Now they had me onsite for support and I look forward to teaching them a one day course on the Survey Module in Civil 3D. While onsite with the client they stressed how important it is to have their linework appear on the correct layer. This is accomplished through Figure Prefixes in Civil 3D 2007 Survey.

First you must open your Survey Toolspace by selecting the Survey pull-down menu --> Open Survey Toolspace. Next you want to right-click on Figure Prefix Databases and select New. Give your Figure Prefix Database and appropriate naming convention and then right click on your new database select the "New". In your Figure Prefix Properties dialog box (displayed in the screen capture) you can specify the name (which is the name of the auto linework information that was gathered in the field), do you want this information to be a breakline that you can later add to a surface, is this information a lot line (in which case it will create a parcel object for your automatically), what layer do you want this linework to appear on, and what site do you want to assign the data to (this is especially important if it is a lot line, because your parcel object will appear in the correct site).

Good luck!

Civil 3D Service Pack 3

2006-11-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is finally out and here is where you can get it http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8200184&linkID=3549304

Here is just a snip-it of what the service pack does, taken from the Autodesk Website. Don't forget to view the Readme before you install for more information.

In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 Service Pack 3, which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team. Numerous performance and capacity improvements, including:
2x increase in corridor processing
5x contour label regenerations, and more!)
Decreased creation and load time for drawings attached to Vault projects
Restoration of non-project shortcuts
Most recent updates to AutoCAD® 2007, Autodesk Map® 3D 2007
Note: This Service Pack is intended for all versions of Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 including those that already have Service Pack 1A and 2 installed. This Service Pack is for all language versions of Civil 3D except for German. The German release and non-English ReadMe Files will be available mid November 2006.

Ciao!

Can I create a Pipe Network from a Feature Line

2006-11-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

YES you can!

Oh, you want to know how do you?

It's very easy, all you need to do is use your feature line creation tools to create the linework that you need with the proper elevations, slopes and grades. Your Feature line toolbar is located by right-clicking in the Gray area of program -->looking under Civil --> Select Feature Lines. You may also access these tools from the Grading pull-down menu --> Edit Feature Lines. Your Feature line tools were made to replace the 3D polyline tools that you may have been used to in Land Desktop. You can use them for Grading, Surfaces as Breaklines (or contours) and Pipes just to name a few.

After you have completed the creation of your Feature Line you then can go up to your Points pull-down menu --> Select Create From Objects and it will ask for your Flow Direction and then allow you to select your Network Name, Parts List, Pipes, Structures, Surface and Alignment.

This is a great way to create your pipes without having to dabble in the Pipe Rules (but those are cool too). The only downside to creating Pipes from objects vs. Create by layout is that there is an extra step to go through and label your network.

To then label your newly created Pipe Network you must to go the Pipes pull-down menu --> Add Labels. You have many labeling options, but if you select Label type: Entire Network Plan this will label all of your pipes and structures with one operation.

Hope you don't find this post too DRAINING (pun intended)!

Available Point Numbers in C3D

2006-10-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that nifty little command in Land Desktop that allowed you to list the available point numbers? Ever tried doing that in Civil 3D? Ya, me too!

Well, there is light at the end of the tunnel! Unfortunately that same command DOES NOT exist in Civil 3D YET, but compliments of Mr. Jeff Mishler who has created a nice little LISP routine to reenact what we had in LDT.

What you want to do is simple type in CUI --> Right-Click on LISP and select Load LISP. Oh wait... You actually want the LISP routine don't you?

Here goes:
(defun c:freenums (/ acadobj aecdoc aecobj freelist freestring lstpnts ptlist seed);;following function courtesy Michael Puckett(defun IntsToRangedString (ints / sorted result group);; first sort em, losing any duplicates(setqsorted (vl-sort ints '<)result (list (list (last sorted))));; now roll 'em ...(foreach x (cdr (reverse sorted))(setq result(if (eq (1+ x) (car (setq group (car result))))(cons(cons x (list (last group)))(cdr result))(cons(list x)result))))(setq result(mapcar'(lambda (lst / a b)(cond((eq 1 (length lst))(itoa (car lst)))((eq (1+ (setq a (car lst))) (setq b (cadr lst)))(strcat (itoa a) "," (itoa b)))((strcat (itoa a) "-" (itoa b)))))result))(apply 'strcat(append(list (car result))(mapcar'(lambda (x) (strcat "," x))(cdr result))))
);;end function(if (and (setq acadobj (vlax-get-acad-object))(setq aecobj (vla-getinterfaceobjectacadobj"AeccXUiLand.AeccApplication.4.0"))(setq aecDoc (vla-get-activedocument aecobj))(setq pnts (vlax-get aecDoc 'points))(< 0 (vlax-get pnts 'count))
)(progn(setq seed 0)(vlax-for pnt pnts(setq ptlist (append ptlist (list (vlax-get pnt 'number)))))(mapcar 'vlax-release-object(list pnts aecdoc aecobj acadobj))(setq ptlist (vl-sort ptlist '<))(while (<= (setq seed (1+ seed)) (last ptlist))(if (not (member seed ptlist))(setq freelist (cons seed freelist))))(setq freestring(strcat (intstorangedstring freelist)","(itoa (1+ (last ptlist)))"+"))(princ (strcat "Available point #'s: " freestring))))(princ))

After you have loaded the routine close your CUI and to run the command all you have to do is type in FREENUMS and right before your eyes you will have all of the available point numbers.

Happy Trails and thanks again Jeff!

Primitive Layer Manger Bug in C3D 2007

2006-10-06T10:40:00.002-07:00

Many of you may have noticed that when you are in the Civil 3D 2007 or LDT 2007 Layer manager it appears very primitive, you are missing many of the functions, such as filtering, that you had in previous releases. I have a fix for you :)

1. Start --> Run --> type in Regedit

2. Expand -->HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AUTODESK\AutoCAD\R17.0\ACAD-5000:409 (ACAD-5008:409 for LDT)\Applications\AcLayer\ADT

3. Select ADT the Right-click and choose Modify

4. Enter: AeclayerManagerEx.dll into the data value

Now I cannot take full credit for this, it was one of my fellow ICE'ers that let us in on this little know secret! Thank you Matt!

Zero Cut-Fill Line for Volume Surfaces

2006-10-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it so nice in LDT when you could EASILY bring in your zero cut-fill line just by entering zeros for the elevations of your volume surface. Now it is ALMOST as easily accomplished in Civil 3D.

What you want to do set the major contour interval to a larger value than the difference between the lowest cut and highest fill. For instance, if the lowest cut is -5 and highest fill is 5, then set the interval to 11 and turn on only the major contour but leave minor contour off.

Good luck!!!

Architectural Units in C3D

2006-09-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Okay,

Please no one hurt me for this post, I just wanted to give a heads up to those FEW people that are having difficulty finding out how to get Architectural Units in Civil 3D. If you have gone into your drawing settings via the settings tab on your tool space you have probably noticed that there are Feet and Meters and that's all she wrote folks.

If you are just DYING to get Architectural units in Civil 3D, you just have to have it, life cannot go on with out it try typing in UNITS into your command line. Go ahead, give it a whirl!!!

Vault 5 Service Pack

2006-09-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you know that there is a new service pack out for Vault 5. Please do me a favor and "protect yourself", what I mean by this is back up the Vault before you install the service pack.

I highly recommend viewing the Readme for installation instructions.

Here you go... http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8012637&linkID=4517342

Getting rid of those pesky Triangles

2006-09-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Don't you just HATE when you create a new surface and you have those LONG TIN lines where you didn't have enough data to accurately display the surface ~see below~?

Well, well, well! Civil 3D has a tool that allows you to "Use maximum triangle length"!

Okay boys and girls, here is what I want you to do. Select your surface from your prospector tab --> Give the ole' right click and select Properties --> While in your Surface Properties dialog box select the Definition tab --> Under Definition Options expand Build, set the Value for Use maximum triangle length to Yes and specify your Maximum triangle length, VIOLA! You can now say goodbye to those pesky long triangles that we just end up deleting anyway :)

Guess What? IT'S HERE, SP2 IS FINALLY HERE!

2006-09-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

HIP HIP HOORAY!

Download Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 2 NOW

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8021641&linkID=3549304

Re-numbering your Points

2006-08-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hello Again,

I know it's been a while since my last post, but that is only because I was diligently preparing for our Southern California CAD Summit that was held last week at the Long Beach Convention Center. I want to take a brief moment to thank everyone that attended. The event was a success and I look forward to next years event.

On another note I want to add to one of the classes that I taught there on Points (don't worry, if you didn't attend the class you will still be able to benefit from this post). I great a slew of points in my drawing for whatever reason, weather it be for construction staking, design or control, HOW DO I RE-NUMBER THEM???

The answer to that is very easy! First you want to select the points that you wish to re-number. There are a couple of ways that you can go about doing this.
1a. Select a Point Group that contains the points --> right-click -->edit points. This will bring up a panoramic window of the points that reside in that group

1b. Select your points collection on your Prospector tab and all the points in the drawing will be listed in tabular form below.

2. Next, you can select the points that you wish to re-number using the shift and/or ctrl keys.

Once you have your list dialed you then right-click -->renumber. On your command line it will prompt you to "Enter an additive factor for point numbers:" this value can be positive or negative and VIOLA, you are done!

I want to hear from YOU!!!!

2006-08-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

So...I want to hear from all of you out there that visit my blog, what do you want to see more of, what do you want to hear about, what are you just DYING to know? Huh?

I want some feedback on what you would like to see in future posts!

I look forward to hearing from you all :)

EMAIL ME or simply leave me a comment on what interests you most!

Thanks everyone and have a great day!
-Melanie

Civil 3D White Papers

2006-08-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

There are several White Papers availible for Civil 3D, please select the links below to check them out.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5173807

Have a great day!

-M
Technorati Profile

Look for Service Pack 2 next week!

2006-08-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is going to be yet another service pack for Civil 3D 2007. It is due to be out sometime next week. Please stay tuned and I will let you know EXACTLY what day it's out.

This service pack is expected to have LOTS of fixes. Below is a list of errors that service pack 2 will fix!

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.

Now just think, after reading through all of this you don't have to view the Readme for the service pack when you install it!

Happy Summer :)

Oh where, oh where did my little alignment label go CONT.

2006-07-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but I have not only been busy implementing, consulting and teaching Civil 3D, but I am also getting ready for our Southern California CAD Summit that will take place later this month. Please CLICK HERE to find out more about this event.

Okay... So in regards to my last post on trying to find those pesky little Alignment labels when their visibility is set to false, I wanted to let you know that this command works the same for your Profile labels & Cross-section labels! Then only down side I have found to this command is that if you set the visibility of, let's say, 10 labels to false I haven't found a way to turn just one of those labels on. The reset option turns all labels back on, but don't forget that all labels can be put in a dragged state by simply selecting the label and dragging it to another location. This may be an excellent way to prevent overlapping text.

Have fun!

-Melanie

Oh where, oh where did my little alignment label go?

2006-07-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

So...How many of you have selected a label along your alignment, right-clicked your way into alignment Properties and set the Visibility of your label to False? Well, I did and so did some of my students in a Civil 3D 2007 class. This is a great command if you have overlapping linework and you need to get rid of a label or two but how do you turn it back on? It's not like you can select the invisible label and set the visibility to True :)

Thank you to Mr. Dan Philbrick for my answer on this one!

What you want to do is select the alignment, right-click and go to Edit alignment Labels. On your Labels tab of the Alignment Properties dialog box you must select the Type: of label that you want to turn back on, so hopefully you can remember what kind of label it was that you turned off! Next you want to select the Reset button on the far right hand side. Please refer to the screen capture below and VIOLA, your labels are back on!

Happy Labeling!!!

Service Pack 1A is here

2006-06-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

Great news everyone,

For those of you that downloaded service pack 1 and it created more issues that before you installed it there is hope for you yet :)

I have just received the good news that service pack 1a is out and ready to roll.

The even better news is that if you didn't download service pack 1 you now only need to install ONE service pack, 1a :)

Please Click here to download service pack 1a or go to http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=7454845&linkID=3549304

Have a great day and a Happy 4th of July weekend!

ARE YOU READY?

2006-06-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

To Register, Click here

What is SCCS you might ask?

Every year L.A. CAD hosts the largest Autodesk University type event in Southern California, the Southern California CAD Summit (SCCS). We will see you at the Long Beach Convention Center where Lynn Allen will be conducting her tips and tricks for AutoCAD 2007. This is our third year running this event. Last year in San Diego we had over 300 people attend and the prior year in Orange County we had over 125 people. We expect 500 people this year so sign up early to reserve your spot. L.A. CAD Subscription customers will receive a certain amount of free passes to this event. If you are not an L.A. CAD subscription customer, you can still sign up. All attendees must submit their registration request at the link provided below. This event is larger than local AUGI CAD Camps with more classes to choose from, more exhibitors to see, and more prizes to win. The SCCS course catalog has been finalized for registration and viewing. To submit your registration request and review the costs to attend, please visit the following link:http://www.lacad.com/cad_summit.html This years Civil 3D 2007 courses include the following:

1. Vault Workflow for a Typical Civil Engineering Project

2. The Rocky Horror Template Show in Civil 3D with Style(s)

3. This "Spot" reserved for Grading

4. Pipes don't have to be Draining

5. Road Rehabra-Cadabra

6. One Point, Two Point, Red Point, Blue Point

To check out course descriptions and times, Click here

For a list of instructors and bios, Click here

See you there!

Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 1

2006-06-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Hip, Hip, Hooray! The Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 1 is here!

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=7454845&linkID=3549304

Get yours today!

Happy downloading :)

Calculating Area by Slope Range

2006-06-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello,

I have had many request from clients on how to calculate the area of a slope range when running a surface analysis. Well...Here goes!

First, you must have a surface in your drawing, right-click on the surface name in your prospector to bring up your Properties. Next, select the Analysis tab and select Slopes from the Analysis type list. Believe it or not when you run a slope analysis on your surface it does calculate both the 2D and 3D area, the only thing you really need to do is make sure that the legend style you are using has this information displayed. EASY!!!

Round two...Select a legend style and then choose to Create new (or you could choose to edit current selection, your choice). Then on your information tab give your new Table a name, and here is where the meat and potatoes comes...On your Data Properties tab you want to add two columns, one for the 2D area and one for the 3D area, see below!

Then, all you need to do is double click in the new column under Column Value, select Surface Range 2D Area from the Properties and push that information in using the handy dandy
repeat this step for the next column adding the Surface Range 3D Area. One last thing, double click on the Column Header to type in a name for these new columns. Something like 2D area and 3D area will work just fine. Select OK to the Table Style dialog box, make sure that your new Legend is displayed in the Surface Properties dialog box, run your analysis and it's now time to view the magic that you have just created. Go to the top of your screen to your Surfaces pull-down menu --> Add Legend Table --> type S for Slopes --> D for Dynamic (we wouldn't want a static table, now would we?) and pick a location for your table.

Viola!!!

New Land XML White Papers

2006-05-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I know, two posts in one day, what is this world coming to? When it rains it pours, so here goes...There is a new Autodesk White Paper on Land XML that you may be interested in. Click here to get it.

Happy reading :)

Interference Checks with Pipes in 2007

2006-05-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Run an interference check to identify parts in a pipe network that collide or violate proximity criteria.

You can check for interferences on a single pipe network, or you can check two pipe networks to determine if parts collide or violate proximity criteria.

Easy enough to do, after you have your pipe networks already created in your drawing you will notice under your Prospector -->Pipe Networks that you now have the option for Interference Checks. Simply right click on Interference Checks and select New, Then you must select a part from the first pipe network you want to check -->Next, you want to select another part from the same network or a different network to bring up your Create Interference Check dialog box.

Give your check a name, make sure you have the correct networks selected for 1 & 2,

When you run an interference check, you can enable or disable 3D proximity checking criteria.

If you enable the 3D proximity checking option on an interference check, you can identify pipe network parts are too close to one another in their 3D representation, according to a specified distance or scale factor. You can check a single pipe network or two pipe networks.

When you use proximity checking on a single pipe network, interferences are created for parts that are less than a specified distance from one another. When you use this feature to check two pipe networks, an interference is created for any parts from one network that are less than a specified distance or scale factor from any parts in the second network.

You can use the 3D proximity check feature to ensure that the distance between two different types of utility networks meets a certain requirement. For example, a sewer and water crossing typically requires that the water line be a minimum of 18 inches above the sewer line. Running an interference check with the Use Distance option set to 18 inches identifies any parts that were less than 18 inches away from the other pipe network.

After running an interference check, view the results in the drawing or by looking at the data in the Toolspace list view.

In the drawing, interferences are displayed according to the choices defined in the Interference and Render Material style options specified on the Create Interference Check dialog box. These choices are also displayed on the Information tab of the Interference Check Properties dialog box.

To view interference data in the list view, in Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the Pipe Networks Interference Checks collection. Click on the Interference Check object in the Prospector tree. The interference data is displayed in the list view. You can right-click on the status column and Zoom To an interference in the drawing. If you choose Delete, it deletes only the interference, not the part. In this view, you can also right-click an interference and select Properties to display the Interference Properties dialog box.

Happy checking :)

Civil 3D User Group Meetings

2006-05-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hello all:

Please check out our website for the latest dates for our Civil 3D User Group Meetings.

http://www.lacad.com/infrastructure_solutions_news.html

Look forward to seeing you there!

Happy Friday :)

AUGI ATP119

2006-05-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Well I am back and refreshed from my WONDERFUL trip to Italy. Please check out my online ATP course that is currently running with AUGI. The title of the course is Points and Surface Styles, Properties, and Labels in Civil 3D.

The class can be accessed at: http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=329

Have a great day!

Roma

2006-05-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Better late than never. We have left Roma and are not in the wine country, but I wanted to write a bit on our adventures.

We arrived late on the May 3rd, found a wonderful wine bar in an alley somewhere and had some pizza and wine.

The next day we met up with some new found friends, Sean and Kim for a private Ancient Rome tour for 6 hours. It was the most spectacular sight. We saw the Pantheon (my favorite), coliseum, Spanish Steps (that is VERY near where we are staying), The Forum and much, much more. It was a sight to see and I have MANY beautiful pictures. My feet hurt!

May 5th we did a private Vatican Tour, St. Peters church is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, not to mention the Sistine Chapel! Did not have a chance to sit through mass with the Pope, but saw all of his treasures and riches!

May 6th we took the train from Roma Termini to Florence and then the bus to Panzano where the Villa Bernardi is located. We had a tour and wine tasting at the vineyard and loved it. More pictures to compliment our memories!

Time for dinner and wine!

Tuscano

2006-05-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Buon Jiorno

Today we went to a beautiful town in Tuscany by the name of Umbria, took a tram to the top of the hill and a bus even further. Ate a wonderful lunch, with LOTS and LOTS of vino. I have come to find that my favorite Tuscan wines are Rose' and Rosso Di Moltacino (I apologize in advance for the spelling).

Later in the afternoon we went to a small town by the name of Cortana, it is where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed.

Italy is amazing, but I must say that I am glad to be out of Roma and in the countryside of Tuscany.

The food is to die for, I cannot get enough meats and cheeses!

Tomorrow we are off to the outlets, Prada, Gucci, D & G and so on. Not too sure how much I will be purchasing there, even with outlet prices!

Ciao!

Ciao, I am off to Italy

2006-05-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Just wanted to drop a quick line to let you all know that I will be off to Italy tomorrow. I may even try and use my blog site as a diary of events while I am over there. We leave tomorrow evening out of LAX (yuck) and fly direct to London, Heathrow then from London to Rome! We will be spending three nights in Rome (May 3rd-6th) staying at the Inn at the Spanish Steps http://www.atspanishsteps.com/, where we will cram in all that we can. One of the days we are set for a private English speaking tour guide of the Vatican City. The other days are pretty open but I'm sure they will fill up quick.

May 6th we head to the train station and take the train from Rome to Florence and the bus to Panzano where we will be staying at a beautiful villa in Tuscany (thank you David and Janet) with Dan's family. You have to check out the website for the villa, www.villabernardi.com. While in Tuscany we have an action packed week. We will be in Tuscany from May 6th-11th.

May 11th we take the train up to a small town in Northern Italy called Gorizia. This is where my family is from, where my grandparents were married, where my mom was born. There is a lot of family heritage there and my Mom, Step dad and Grandfather (Nonno) will be up there visiting family. We will spend a day or two on Gorizia and Trieste with my family and then we are off to Venice.

May 13-15th we will be in Venice staying at the Hotel Carlton & Grand Canal http://www.carltongrandcanal.com/en/ We leave out of Venice on May 15th very early in the morning!

Don't worry, I know this is a Civil 3D blog and when I return, relaxed and refreshed I will happily blogging again.

For now, Ciao!

IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE!

2006-04-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

I am VERY excited to announce that Civil 3D 2007 is finally here ( WOO HOO ). I have received my copy and am ready to go so keep checking those mail boxes boys and girls, yours will soon arrive :)

Reference Text Labels!

2006-04-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Alright boys and girls, after a grueling week at Boot Camp in Dallas I am back and filled with knowledge about Civil 3D 2007. I must say that I a quite excited about the new product. I can honestly say that with ALL of the changes that have been made to this release it is now a FULL working version! Grading is stable, feature lines are great, Survey has been added, labeling in is new and improved, Corridors are new and improved. The list goes on and on!

Let me just take a couple of minutes to touch on referenced text labels. Yes, I said it!!!

For example, I have an intersection on my site and I want to add a label that has the station of BOTH alignments. How can I do that?? Well... There are actually a few ways, but the way I am going to explain to you is by using Reference Text.

First...Select your Alignments pull-down menu-->add labels

Select the Label type you prefer and select your Station offset label style as well (Civil 3D comes with LOTS of new and improved templates with additional label styles, and they follow the National CAD Standards). Then, select to Edit the Current Selection for your Station offset label style

While in my Label Style Composer I am going to Add Reference Text from and Alignment.

Finally, you want to add your labels, select your alignment, and then select the reference alignment (or intersecting alignment).

SWEET! We have a new label with the stations of both alignments :)

This is just one way to accomplish this same task, you may also create a "Note" label and add two reference texts, one for each alignment. I can discuss this at a later date. Essentially both methods will accomplish the same task. I prefer adding reference text to an alignment label because if you move the the master alignment the label will follow. If you add a note and move either alignment you will have to move the note in order for it to update.

Cowboy Take Me Away!

2006-04-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry that I have been MIA these days, death in the family :(

On a lighter note I am extremely excited to head out to Dallas today for Autodesk's Bootcamp!

Can't wait to bring back all of the wonderful knowledge on Civil 3D 2007 and Raster Design.

Stay tuned for some posts on the latest and greatest!

Take care,
Melanie

Converting Eagle Point Data to Civil 3D

2006-03-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

1. Open your drawing that has the Eagle point files in it
2. Select a point marker block in your drawing and list it. Civil 3D reads point blocks named 'POINT'
3. Begin the rename command by typing in REN
4. Under Named Objects select Blocks, under Items select the block name that you wish to rename
5. In the Rename To: text window type in 'POINT'
6. Select a point marker block again and list it. Verify that the block has been renamed to POINT (please make note that POINT must be in all caps and it is case sensitive)
7. Right-click on Points on your Prospector tab and select Create to bring up the Points Creation toolbar
8. On the Create Points toolbar select Micellaneous: Convert Softdesk Point Blocks

Have fun!

Events, Events and More Events

2006-03-08T12:18:00.001-08:00

Hello all,

I am very excited to tell you about the events that L.A. CAD and S.D. CAD have in store for this year!!!

Civil Solutions Tours

Yes, they are back and better than ever. There will be a Solutions tour near you. We will be hosting tours in Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange Counties. Come one, come all, they are not only FREE, but they are extremely infomational!

Civil 3D User Group Meetings

Information regarding our User Group meetings. Have you started working with Civil 3D? Do you want to meet with others in your industry to discuss their current usage?

Civil 3D Implementation

Let L.A. CAD's Implementation Certified Experts assist you in a successful implementation of Civil 3D. To learn more just select the link below!

http://www.lacad.com/infrastructure_solutions_news.html

AUGI CAD Camp!

L.A. CAD along with S.D. CAD will be hosting AUGI CAD CAMP in San Diego. When you might ask??? JUNE 8TH. This is an event you don't want to miss!

Southern California CAD Summit (SCCS)

You heard it! The SCCS is back and better than ever. Last year's event was a HUGE success and this year we are turning up the heat. Mark your calendars now, because this is an event that you can't afford to miss. WHEN? August 17, 2006 WHERE? Long Beach Convention Center. This year's SCCS will feature special guest speaker Lynn Allen!!

Tons of classes, great location, amazing food. This event CANNOT be missed. To find out more about the event and find out how you can score a complimentary pass...

http://www.lacad.com/cad_summit.html

Meet your SCCS Instructors!

http://www.lacad.com/cad_summit_instructors.html

New Features for Civil 3D

2006-03-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

Please check out Danny Counts blog listing some of the new features that we have to look forward to in Civil 3D 2007!

Digging In...

I can't wait for Civil 3D 2007!

Importing COGO Points at their Actual Elevation

2006-03-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

Yes... It is possible and quite easy to bring in your COGO points at their actual elevation! First, you must open the drawing that you wish you import your points into. Next, you want to select the appropriate point group from your Prospector tab (if you want to change this feature for all of your points you should select the All Points group) and right-click and select Properties for the list. While in the Point Group Properties dialog box you must select the drop-down arrow on the far right of the Point style header --> Edit Current Selection --> 3D Geometry tab at the top and we have finally arrived at our destination :)

From here you have a few options on how you want your points to react on import. In the Value column for your Point Display Mode you may choose Use Point Elevation. Now if you guys think back to Land Desktop days, under your point settings you would select the insert tab and choose Actual Elevation. This is the same command in Civil 3D, just in a different location.

Now back to Civil 3D :) You also have the option to Flatten Points to Elevation and then add what elevation the points will be brought in at (usually zero). I have found that a lot of companies and agencies use this method as well. Keep in mind that this feature is part of your Point style, not your Point label style.

Just remember that this, along with ALL of your other styles can be saved to a template.

Are we having fun yet???

Land XML Reporting Tools

2006-02-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

Land XML has some GREAT reporting tools built into Civil 3D. It is as easy as selecting an item from the Prospector tab in your toolspace and using the right-click option. You then have the ability to generate reports from features like points, surfaces, parcels, alignments and more. This is an excellent tool to create an inverse report for parcels. Simply select your item on the Prospector tab of your toolspace->right-click->generate report, from this dialog you have the ability to select what items you want to generate your report from. Next, you want to select the Forms tab at the top to select the form the suits you best. If you are reporting on parcels you have the ability to use the following "out of the box" forms

1. Area Report
2. Inverse Report
3. Metes and Bounds
4. Surveyors Certificate
5. Parcel Area in CSV
6. General Legal Descriptions for Parcels
7. TxDOTLegal for Parcels
8. FDOTLegal for Parcels

... And these are only the reports for parcels!!!

After you select the form that suits your needs you can select the Settings tab at the top and fill in the appropriate information needed to customize the report. You can add things like Client and Owner information. Then when you have completed these steps you are ready to select the Output tab at the top to view your customized report.

Happy reporting :)

Changing the style of your Corridor Feature Lines

2006-02-07T15:29:00.000-08:00

This is a great tool to create a customized look for your feature lines inside of your corridor! Lets say that I want a different look for the Top of Curb, Lip of Gutter and Daylight line. There are two different ways that you could potentially attack this one... The first one being in your Corridor Properties select the Feature Lines tab at the top. Then you want to select the Feature Line Style for Top of Curb (be sure to select the icon on the far right to bring up the dialog box). Once you are in the Pick a Feature Line Style dialog box you can select the drop down arrow on the right and select Create New. Name your feature line style approprately and then select the Display tab at the top of your Feature Line Style - Creation dialog box. From the Display tab you are able to specify a Layer, Color and Linetype for your Top of Curb Feature Lines. Repeat this process for any other Feature Lines in your Corridor to get the look that you desire.

The second way that you could change the look of your feature lines is by exporting the feature lines as a polyline and putting that on a specific layer and giving it charateristics that suit my needs. To to this you must go to the Corridor pull down menu at the top of your screen-->Export-->Corridor Feature Line as Polyline. This gives you the option to select the specific feature line that you wish to export and brings up a dialog box that states what type of feature line it is, weather it be a Top of Curb, Lip of Gutter or Daylight. This is a nice because if you select the wrong line you have the ablility to hit cancel before exporting it. Then hit OK to the Select a Feature Line dialog box and your new polyline has be exported and placed on the current layer. From here you can assign that layer a specific color and linetype to suit your needs.