The Joys of Parcels in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010

Hey everyone! I had the pleasure of doing a "What's New in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010" webcast this morning. I was pleased with the turnout, considering that this was my first attempt at this type of webcast. One thing that I was not so pleased with was the fact that I couldn't see the attendees. For what it is worth, I think that face time is better than computer time. But, with the state of things being what they are, we too are trying to be more frugal.

Anyway we discussed the new Ribbon Interface and the Contextual Ribbons that are exposed when you select a C3D object on the screen. We looked at the Quick Access Tool bar quickly and the and the Application Menu too. The meat of the presentation centered around the new design and analysis functionality that is included in C3D 2010.

I want to take a moment or two to talk about one of these features. Most of you that have met me know that my background in Civil Engineering is in subdivision design. I am not sure why I fell into that category, but it seemed that every consulting firm that I worked for put me into that position. Oh well.....what will be will be! So, for all of you subdivision folks out there, what was the missing link in lot layout using C3D? That's right frontage offsets!

C3D 2010 has you covered! Parcel layout is much better now with the addition of frontage setbacks and minimum widths for lots, as well as minimum and maximum depths as design criteria. The commands for laying out lots have been revamped a little also. In the past we have used the "Slide Angle - Create" command to create or lots with a particular angle at the ROW. This command has now been renamed to "Slide Line - Create." It is the same command, just renamed, as far as I can tell. The neat thing about the updates to Parcel creation is obviously the fact that we can specify a minimum lot width at an offset distance and a minimum width at the ROW. This is functionality that I have been looking for since I began using C3D 2006.

Keep an eye on the ALACAD website. A link to the recording of today's webcast should be posted in the next couple of weeks. While you are there check out the list of other upcoming webcasts for the 2010 products.

Now that my presentation is out of the way, I plan to be adding a few posts on C3D 2010 in the coming days.

Rehab this Rehab that

Hey everyone. In this post I want to talk about something that a customer of mine ran into a while back using some of the rehabilitation sub-assemblies in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009. The particular project was a widening and overlay job. So, we started looking at the available options. We put together our assembly and created the Corridor model along with our top and datum surfaces. Completing the process, we cut cross sections and created the section views.

Upon inspection of our cross section data we noticed something strange. The datum surface followed the points and links that we expected it to until it reached the inside of the widened section. Then it shot straight across the section to the inside edge of the widened section on the opposite side. This made for an area that the program considered a cut volume when we created our quantities.

I tired everything that I could think of to change the assembly and corridor properties to rid our cross sections of this cut area. Everything that I tried failed miserably. So, I posted a support request with Autodesk. I got a call on Friday of last week from the Support Technician on the case. He had found the answer to our problem. He started explaining a couple of things to me and then it happened, on of those "Eureka!!!!!" moments.

The solution was simple, but I am afraid we all tried to make it a lot harder than was necessary. All we had to do was go back to the surfaces tab in the Corridor Editor and add the Overlay Link to the datum surface, rebuilt the corridor and everything was depicted as it should have been.

I want to thank the folks at Autodesk for helping on this one. They did an outstanding job!

Cross Sections and Volume Tables

In this post I want to spend a little time with cross sections and computing material and earthworks volumes from the cross sections. I have been using AutoCAD Civil 3D for quite a while now and I have to admit that what I am going to show you next is something that I have not used before, and frankly never thought to ask, "What does that do?" Let's assume that we have created our corridor model, you know existing ground surface, alignment, profile from surface, proposed profile, and assembly. In the process of creating the corridor we also created our Top and Datum surface from the corridor model. In turn we used the boundaries feature in the Corridor Properties dialog box and added boundaries to each of the surfaces at our daylight line.

Then we start to look at our corridor sections and we see something that just doesn't look right. For some reason out datum surface has jumped from the bottom of the subgrade at the edge of the travel way to the top of the back of curb and back down to the extended subgrade. As seen in this image, the datum surface is jumping all over the place.

We know that this is not correct. So, how do we fix it? It just so happens that there is a very simple fix to this issue. All we have to do is open up the Corridor Properties and click on the Surfaces Tab. In the table showing our surface definitions we see that there is a column called Overhang. This column is the correction for the jump in the surface shown above. This is what I had been missing!

By clicking in the Overhang column for each surface, we can tell Civil 3D how to "correct" the jumps in our datum surface. By setting the Overhang for the Datum surface to Bottom Links, the software forces the surface along the bottom links of the assembly, something we probably thought was happening automatically. After setting the Overhang corrections, we simply rebuild the Corridor Model and the surfaces are updated. We can use the View/Edit Corridors Function to verify that the surface has been updated. This image shows the corrected Datum surface.

Here we can see that the Datum surface more closely resembles how a contractor would construct our roadway with a 1 foot extension of the sub-base under our curb and gutter.Now lets talk about material and earthworks volumes based on our cross sections. We are going to assume that at this point that we have created our cross sections from the alignment associated with our corridor model and that we have created multiple cross section views on a D-size sheet. At this point we realize that we forgot to add the volume tables to our cross sections. Can we fix this rather easily? You bet we can.

First of all we have to go to the Sections pull-down menu and select Compute Materials. Make sure that you select the Alignment for which you have cut cross sections and the Sample Line Group for that particular alignment. This will bring up the Compute Materials dialog box. In the Compute materials dialog box there is a drop-down for Quantity Takeoff Criteria. It depends on the final output that I am looking for as to which criteria I select. In this instance we are going to select Material List.

At this point I will edit the Material List Criteria to make sure that have the materials listed that I am interested in, such as Pave1, Pave2, Base and Sub-base. After setting the materials that I want I click on OK to close the Compute Materials dialog. Next I go back to the Sections menu and select Compute Materials again.

I want to click on the Import another criteria. This will allow me to add additional criteria to the current materials list. Here I want to select Earthworks so that we can calculate the cut/fill volumes at each section.

Here I can set the cut/fill factors for the soil if I know what they are. Once I have added the Earthworks Criteria I click on OK to close the Edit Materials dialog box. Now I need to add the Volume Tables at each cross section. To add the tables, I am going to click on a grid line for one of the cross sections, then right-click and select Section View Group Properties.

Click on the ellipsis button in the Change Volume Table column. This will bring up the Change Volume Tables dialog box. In this dialog box I want to select Total Volume from the Type drop-down. I want to select the Table style to use, in this case I am using the Basic Style. Click the Add button to add the table definition. Then I want to make sure that I select the corresponding Material List from the pull-down in the table definition. Then I can set the location of the table using the section view and table anchors.

Then click on OK and you should have your volume tables attached to each of the cross sections. One caveat here is that when you add the Volume Tables to existing cross sections, you will probably have to go back and edit the spacing of your sections. So, you may have a little more work to do, but it is automated by editing the Section View Group and the Array on your Group Plot Style. Remember that you can create the Volume tables as you create the Cross Section Views, but you have to compute the materials before creating the views. Here is an image of a completed section with a volume table.

A Couple of New Tools and a Few Sub-assemblies

Hey everyone! If you are not on Subscription with your AutoCAD Civil 3D, you should be. In the last few months some great Civil 3D content has been posted to the Subscription Center. Of course, the only way you can get to the content is to be on subscription and log in to the Subscription Center.

Here are descriptions for a couple of extensions that were added to the Subscription Center. The first is HEC-RAS Extension for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009. This extension loads into your toolbox and allows you to export Civil 3D data such as cross sections into The US Army Corps of Engineers HEC-RAS software. Once your analysis is completed in HEC-RAS you can import the data back into Civil 3D. For those of you out there that perform flood analysis, this is an excellent tool.

The second is the Stage-Storage Extension for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009. This extension also loads into your tool box. This extension will calculate volumes for detention/retention facilities with a few mouse clicks! You can then create a table with the incremental and cumulative volumes and then plug that information into the Hydroflow Hydrographs Extension for pond calculations.

There were several sub-assemblies that were posted to the Subscription Center also. These sub-assemblies included a Conditional Cut/Fill sub-assembly and a Crowned Lane sub-assembly that allows for independent slope control on sub-base. This is something that people dealing with Mississippi State Aid Projects have been asking for.

Again all of this content is available only to subscription customers. So, if you are not on subscription and you think that this content could be helpful in your every day routine, contact your reseller to get your subscription started! If you are already on subscription log on to the Subscription Center and download the content!

It Will Be Here Before You Know it!

The cold of February is beginning to pass and a hint of spring warmth is in the air, at least in some parts of this great nation. I spent this past weekend on Alabama's Gulf Coast with several thousand revelers where the festivities known as Mardi Gras originated. No, Mardi Gras didn't begin in New Orleans, it began in the city of Mobile, AL in 1703!

Anyway, as we attended parades over the weekend and had as pleasant of weather as I can remember in the last few years, I couldn't help but feel a little bit of excitement about the onset of spring in the southeast. Spring in the southeast is great, as the days get longer, the fish start to bite better and work becomes filled with the anticipation of the next release of our beloved Autodesk Software products.

I can't talk a whole lot about the new features in Civil 3D yet, but I can talk about some of the new features in AutoCAD 2010, and since Civil 3D is based on AutoCAD............

One of the new features for AutoCAD 2010 deals with pdf's. Yes, we have been asking to be able to use pdf's as underlays in our drawings and with the next release it will be possible. There are some cool features pertaining to the creation and use of pdf's in this release.

Keep tuned for more info on AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010!

Vault or Shortcuts, You Decide

First things first. I have slapped my hand because I have not blogged in almost 3 months. Shame on me. I think I just got into a rut and had a little writer's block. So, with the next edition of our bi-monthly Alacad newsletter coming out in a few days I felt that writer's block or not I needed to get something posted.

Since I began working with Civil 3D with the 2006 release and I learned about Vault I have been a proponent of using Vault to store my projects. In fact, I convinced the Civil Department at my previous employer to try Vault. I even talked the IT Department into giving me a dedicated server for my Vault database and filestore. I still have a local install on my laptop for work that I use occasionally. Notice here that I said occasionally.

I am not as big a proponent of Vault as I used to be. Why? Good question. When I first started using Vault it was me, myself and I. I had full control of how my projects were set up and I knew what files I should keep or delete. I was the only one working in Civil 3D and storing files in the Vault. Life was good. Then we hired a new draftsman. Teaching him to use the Vault was not as easy. I also considerably more data to manage because there were two Vaulters now.

One of the things that I loved about Vault at the time was that I could create references to my data without having to do a whole lot. When I checked a drawing into the Vault, I was prompted to add the shortcuts or not. I typically created the shortcuts as needed and on occasion I would create all of the shortcuts, just in case I needed the information down the road. So, now you may be asking, "What data can I make Vault Shortcuts out of?" That list would include surfaces, alignments, pipe networks, etc. Again, life wasn't too bad at this point, but I did find myself using a lot more of my time trying to manage the data in my Vault.

So, I decided to try using the data shortcuts and references for a while. I could create the data shortcuts and store them in our project folder. This began to create a few issues. I had to store the data shortcuts in the project folder on our server, not on my local machine. This wasn't that big of a deal until I needed to take my computer home to work on a particular project. When I got home all I was able to see was a "Broken Reference." Now I am at home trying to be productive and I can't complete the tasks that I needed to complete that night. (we didn't have a VPN server at the time.)

Then I left for Alacad. I still had a few loose ends to tie up, so I continued using the same methodology for creating the shortcuts. I tried to keep them in the Project folder on my hard drive, so that when I took the projects back to the old company there would be no issues with the shortcuts. This was all fine and good until the project folder was moved to the file server and BAM!!!! All of the references were broken again.

Then I started working with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009. Man, what a difference. The folks at Autodesk gave us some tools in 2009 that are second to none. Now I have a Project Template that reminds me a lot of the file structure in Land Desktop, so there was a familiarity there. they also gave us a program called Data Shortcuts Editor. This is the tool that I had been looking for! Now, if my Data Shortcuts get moved to a different location I can use the Data Shortcuts Editor to "remap" the location of the shortcuts and all is well with my drawing file. I can use the Find and Replace tool to find the Shortcuts' original location on my hard drive or server and replace that address with the new address and update my drawing file!

So, now that I have finished my narrative on using both vault references and data shortcuts, I'll challenge you to give them a try and see which works best for you. Until next time.

An Update to Transparent Hatches

Hey everyone. Happy Halloween! I received a comment to the Transparent Hatches post from last month. After reading the comment, I tried to create the transparent hatch and plot it from my local printer. Much to my chagrin, the hatch that shows up transparent on the screen plotted a solid colr blob on my printer.

Well, that got me to thinking and doing some more research on the topic. I called on Alacad's resident Map 3D specialist James Murphy. I told James the steps that I had gone through to create the "transparent hatch." I asked him the all important question of how can I get this transpaernt theme to hatch. James informed me of a command that is new to the 2009 version of Map 3D, which means that it also works in Civil 3D. The command is MAPPLOTTRANSPARENCY. When you enter this on the command line you have the option to turn it on or off. Turn the command on. I sent the current drawing file to my local printer and lo and behold, the hatched area printed transparently! To get this to work on your local/network printer/plotter, you may have to adjust the line merge properties of the printer/plotter. This setting can be changed through the printer properties button on the plot screen. I hope this helps! Happy plotting!