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Wiley Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

1. Corrid Refresh 4 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D In addition right clicking the individual object in the list view offers many commands unique to Civil 3D Zoom To Object and Pan To Object are typically included By using these commands you can find any parcel point cross section or other Civil 3D object in your draw ing almost instantly Many longtime users of AutoCAD have resisted right clicking menus for their daily tasks since AutoCAD 14 In other AutoCAD products this may be possible but in Civil 3D you ll miss half the commands This book focuses on the specific options and commands for each object type during discussions of the particular objects Projects The Projects branch of Prospector will only be visible if you are using Vault This branch allows you to sign in and out of Vault review what projects are available manage the projects you sort through for information check out drawings for editing and review the status of drawings as well as that of individual project based objects Data Shortcuts A data shortcut identifies the path to a specific object in a specific drawing Many users have found data shortcuts to be ideal in terms of project collaboration for two reasons flexibility and simplicity Drawing Templates The Drawing Templates branch is added more as a convenience than anything else You can still create new drawings via the standard File gt New option but by using the D
2. E Properties A Object Viewer Creste Points F Isolate Objects General Tools Launch Pad 1 1 Top 120 Wireframe Point Clouds A Surfaces 23 Alignments E3 E sites i Catchments i T Pipe Networks i Corridors H Assemblies Intersections B AF Survey i E View Frame Groups Settings Labeling Lines and Curves You can draw lines many ways in an AutoCAD based environment The tools found on the Draw panel of the Home tab create lines that are no more intelligent than those created by the standard AutoCAD Line command How the Civil 3D lines differ from those created by the reg ular Line command isn t in the resulting entity but in the process of creating them Figure 1 15 shows the available line commands Note that you can switch between any of the Line commands without exiting the command For example if your first location is a point object use Line By Point Object then without leav ing the command go back to the Lines Curves menu and choose any Line or Curve command to continue creating your linework You can also press the Esc key once while in a Lines Curves menu command to resume the regular Line command Coordinate Line Commands The next few commands discussed in this section help you create a line using Civil 3D points and or coordinate inputs Each command requires you to specify a Civil 3D point a location in space or a typed coordinate input These L
3. With a base coordinate system selected you can now do any further refinement you d like using the Transformation tab Figure 1 5 The coordinate systems on the Units And Zone tab can be refined to meet local ordinances tie in with historical data complete a grid to ground transfor mation or account for minor changes in coordinate system methodology These changes can include the following Apply Sea Level Scale Factor Takes into account the mean elevation of the site and the spheroid radius that is currently being applied as a function of the selected zone ellipsoid Grid Scale Factor Based ona 1 1 value a user defined uniform scale factor a reference point scaling or a prismoidal transformation in which every point in the grid is adjusted by a unique amount THEINTERFACE 7 Reference Point Can be used to set a singular point in the drawing field via pick or via point number local northing and easting or grid northing and easting values Rotation Point Can be used to set the reference point for rotation via the same methods as the reference point Specify Grid Rotation Angle Enter an amount or set a line to North by picking an angle or deflection in the drawing You can use this same method to set the azimuth if desired FIGURE 1 5 SE Drawing Settings Drawing The Transforma units and Zone Transformation obiectLayers Abbrevistions ambient Settngs tion tab Zone description Apply transform settings level scale
4. shows two lines and a desired pass through point Using the Create Curve Through Point command allows you to draw a curve that is tangent to both lines and that passes through the desired point In this case the tangents have been trimmed to the PC and PT of the curve 28 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D FIGURE 1 33 The first image shows two lines with a desired pass through point In the second image the Create Curve Through Point command draws a curve that is tan gent to both lines and passes through the chosen point CREATE MULTIPLE CURVES COMMAND The Create Multiple Curves command lets you create several curves that are tangentially con nected The resulting curves have an effect similar to an alignment spiral section This command can be useful when you are re creating railway track geometry based on field survey data The command prompts you for the two tangents Then the command line prompts you as follows Enter Number of Curves The command allows for up to 10 curves between tangents One of your curves must have a flexible length that s determined on the basis of the lengths radii and geometric constraints of the other curves Curves are counted clockwise so enter the number of your flexible curve Enter Floating Curve Enter the length and radii for all your curves Enter curve 1 Radius Enter curve 1 Length The floating curve number will prompt you for a radius but not a length As with
5. 33 feet to a point North 05 degrees 20 minutes 48 seconds West 195 08 feet to a point North 76 degrees 46 minutes 10 seconds East 701 96 feet to a point South 23 degrees 42 minutes 48 seconds East 130 68 feet to a point South 20 degrees 13 minutes 35 seconds East 526 50 feet to a point South 76 degrees 04 minutes 14 seconds West 379 96 feet to a point South 13 degrees 22 minutes 41 seconds East 320 08 feet to a point South 12 degrees 36 minutes 45 seconds East 159 86 feet to a point South 12 degrees 21 minutes 15 seconds East 274 32 feet to a point South 61 degrees 15 minutes 09 seconds West 272 81 feet to a point North 06 degrees 15 minutes 30 seconds West 131 45 feet to a point South 72 degrees 12 minutes 22 seconds West 301 60 feet to a point South 06 degrees 58 minutes 04 seconds East 206 04 feet to a point Returning to Point of Beginning The resulting enclosure should be 26 25 acres more or less Follow these steps 1 Open the Deed Create Start dwg file which you can download from this book s web page at ww sybex com masteringcivil3d2012 2 Turn off Dynamic Input by pressing F12 or by toggling the icon off at the status bar 3 From the Draw panel on the Home tab select the Line drop down and choose the Create Line By Bearing command 4 Atthe Select first point prompt select any location in the drawing to begin the first line 5 Atthe gt gt Specify quadrant 1 4 prompt enter 3 to specify the SW quadrant and then p
6. Distance 100 000 East 617 9729 East 527 1194 Course N65 18 13 E CERT OBJECTIVE LABELING LINESAND CURVES 25 CREATE LINE FROM END OF OBJECT COMMAND The Create Line From End Of Object command lets you draw a line tangent to the end of a line or arc of your choosing Most commonly you ll use this tool when re creating deeds or other survey work where you have to specify a line that continues a tangent from an arc see Figure 1 27 FIGURE 1 27 The Create Line From End Of ff Object command lets you add a tan gent line to the end of an arc CREATE LINE TANGENT FROM POINT COMMAND The Create Line Tangent from Point command is similar to the Create Line From End Of Object command but Create Line Tangent From Point allows you to choose a point of tangency that isn t the endpoint of the line or arc see Figure 1 28 FIGURE 1 28 The Create Line Tangent From Point a gt Brae command can place a line tangent at the midpoint of an arc or line 7 CREATE LINE PERPENDICULAR FROM POINT COMMAND Using the Create Line Perpendicular From Point command you can specify that you d like a line drawn perpendicular to any point of your choosing In the example shown in Figure 1 29 a line is drawn perpendicular to the endpoint of the arc This command can be useful when the distance from a known monument perpendicular to a legally platted line must be labeled in a drawing FIGURE 1 29 rd A
7. Foot i Foot 0 3048 Meters gt tee Anguler units E Seale objects inserted from other drawings Custom scale T Set AutoCAD variables to match 60 Categories No Datum No Projection Available coordinate systems io Datum No Projecton Selected coordinate system code Description No Datum No Projection Projection Unknown projection Datum Unknown Datum 5 6 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D Each tab in this dialog controls a different aspect of the drawing Most of the time you ll pick up the object layers abbreviations and ambient settings from a companywide template However the drawing scale and coordinate information change for every job so you ll visit the Units And Zone and the Transformation tabs frequently Units And Zone Tab The Units And Zone tab lets you specify metric or imperial units for your drawing You can also specify the conversion factor between systems In addition you can control the assumed plot ting scale of the drawing The drawing units typically come from a template but the options for scaling blocks and setting AutoCAD variables depend on your working environment Many engineers continue to work in an arbitrary coordinate system using the settings as shown earlier but using a real coordinate system is easy For example setting up a drawing for the Harrisburg Pennsylvania area you d follow this procedure 1 Select USA Pennsylvania from the Ca
8. Microsoft Excel for easy formatting and reviewing 8 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D FIGURE 1 6 Changing the Layer setting for the Object Layer Catchment object gt aire aa t Algnmentiabelng ALIGN Alignment Table ALIGN PEBE Catchnent abelng 0 Corridor ASSM Corridor Section ASSM a a a a a a a a a a 9 Enter a singe asterisk in the value field to indude the object name as the prefix or suffix value in a layer name V Immediate and independent layer on off control of display components One common question that surrounds the Object Layers tab is the check box at the lower left Immediate And Independent Layer On Off Control Of Display Components What the heck does that mean Relax it s not as complicated as it sounds Many objects in Civil 3D are built from underlying components Take an alignment for example It s built from tangents curves spirals extension lines and so on Each of these com ponents can be assigned its own layer in other words the lines could be assigned to the LINES layer curves to the CURVES layer and so on When this check box is selected the component s layer exerts some control In the example given if the alignment is assigned to the ALIGN layer and the box is selected turning off not freezing the LINES layer will make the line compo nents of that alignment disappear Deselect this control and the LINES layer s status won t hav
9. S 115 E B wma 100 6 225 LEE 240 2715 g a a INERT Tiam E H5807 TRAJAL 7 5 4 140991695 St 1000 18951 14350 223 nsss This interface allows you to optimize your best fit by adding more points selecting the check box in the Pass Through column to force one of your points on the line or adjusting the value under the Weight column CREATE BEST FIT ARC COMMAND The Create Best Fit Arc command under the Best Fit drop down works identically to the Create Best Fit Line command except that the resulting entity is a single arc segment as opposed to a single line segment see Figure 1 41 FIGURE 1 41 o A curve created by ae A best fit x CREATING CURVES 33 CREATE BEST FIT PARABOLA COMMAND The Create Parabola command under the Create Best Fit Entities option works in a similar way to the line and arc commands just described This command is most useful when you have a Triangulated Irregular Network also known as TIN sampled or surveyed road information and you d like to replicate true vertical curves for your design information After you select this command the Parabola By Best Fit dialog appears see Figure 1 42 FIGURE 1 42 The Parabola By Best Fit dialog Input options From entities By ddang on the screen TJ Tessellate arc segments Mid ordinate tolerance 1 000 E You can select inputs from entities such as lines arcs polylines or profile objects or by pick in
10. factor Spherad radus Feet 6367400 Reference point Rotation point Point number Pont number Local Northing 0 Local Northing 0 Local Easting 0 Local Easing O Grid Northing O GridNorthing 0 GridEastng 0 GidEastng 0 Most engineering firms work on either a defined coordinate system or an arbitrary system so none of these changes are necessary Given that this tab will be your only method of achieving the necessary transformation for certain surveying and geographic information system GIS based and land surveying based tasks Object Layers Tab Setting object layers to your company standard is a major part of creating the feel you re after when using Civil 3D in your office The nearly 50 objects described here make up the entirety of the Civil 3D modeling components and the objects you and other users will deal with daily Let s see how to change a parameter in the Object Layers tab First click the Layer col umn in the Catchment row as shown in Figure 1 6 Then in the Layer Selection dialog select _CATCHMENT and click OK ONE OBJECT AT A TIME Note that this procedure only changes the Catchment object If you want to change the standard of all the objects you need to adjust the Catchment Labeling Catchment Table Profile Profile View Profile View Labeling and so on To do this it s a good idea to right click in the grid view and select Copy All You can then paste the contents of this matrix into
11. in Figure 1 1 look at the top of the Prospector pane There is a drop down menu for operating in Active Drawing View or Master View mode Selecting Active Drawing View displays only the active drawing and data shortcuts Master View mode however displays the Projects the Drawing Templates and the Data Shortcuts branches as well as the branches of all drawings that are currently open In addition to the branches Prospector has a series of icons across the top that toggle vari ous settings on and off Some of the Civil 3D icons from previous versions have been removed Ae m E THEINTERFACE 3 and their functionality has been universally enabled for Civil 3D 2012 Let s take a closer look at those icons Item Preview Toggle Turns on and off the display of the Toolspace item preview within Prospector These previews can be helpful when you re navigating drawings in projects you can select one to check out or when you re attempting to locate a parcel on the basis of its visual shape In general however you can turn off this toggle it s purely a user preference Preview Area Display Toggle When Toolspace is undocked this button moves the preview area from the right of the tree view to beneath the tree view area Panorama Display Toggle Turns on and off the display of the Panorama window which we ll discuss in a bit To be honest there doesn t seem to be a point to this button but it s here nonetheless Help This s
12. in this dialog the box is checked in the Override column This indicates that you re overriding the settings mentioned earlier and it s a good alert that things have changed from the general Drawing Settings to this Object Level setting But what if you don t want to allow those changes Each Settings dialog includes one more column Lock At any level you can lock a setting graying it out for lower levels This can be handy for keeping users from changing settings at the lower level that perhaps should be changed at a drawing level such as sign or rounding methods Object Settings If you click the Expand button next to the drawing name you see the full array of objects that Am Civil 3D uses to build its design model Each of these has special features unique to the object being described but there are some common features as well Additionally the General collec tion contains settings and styles that are applied to various objects across the entire product The General collection serves as the catchall for styles that apply to multiple objects and for settings that apply to no objects For instance the Civil 3D General Note object doesn t really belong with the Surface or Pipe collection It can be used to relate information about those objects but because it can also relate to something like Don t Dig Here it falls into the General category The General collection has three components or branches Multipurpose Styles Thes
13. ordinate Distance 0 000 feb foot As explained previously you can send any value in the Curve Calculator to the command line using the button next to that value This ability is most useful while you re active in a curve command and would like to use a certain parameter value to complete the command Adding Line and Curve Labels Although most robust labeling of site geometry is handled using Parcel or Alignment labels limited line and curve annotation tools are available in Civil 3D The line and curve labels are composed much the same way as other Civil 3D labels with marked similarities to Parcel and Alignment Segment labels Our next exercise leads you through labeling the deed you re created earlier in this chapter 1 Continue working in the Deed Create Start dwg file 2 Click the Labels button in the Labels amp Tables panel on the Annotate tab The Add Labels dialog appears as shown in Figure 1 48 3 Choose Line And Curve from the Feature drop down menu 4 Choose Multiple Segment from the Label Type drop down menu The Multiple Segment option places the label at the midpoint of each selected line or arc 5 Confirm that Line Label Style is set to Bearing Over Distance and that Curve Label Style is set to Distance Radius And Delta 6 Click the Add button FIGURE 1 48 Add Labels eea The Add Labels ji 7 Line and Curve dialog set to E Multiple Segment Muitpie Segment x Labels Line label style Gf
14. perpendicular of line is drawn from r ai the endpoint of an i arc using the Cre ate Line Perpen dicular From Point command 26 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D Creating Curves Curves are an important part of surveying and engineering geometry In truth curves are no different from AutoCAD arcs What makes the curve commands different than the basic AutoCAD commands isn t the resulting arc entity but the inputs used to draw the arc Civil 3D wants you to provide directions to the arc commands using land surveying terminology rather than with generic Cartesian parameters Figure 1 30 shows the Create Curves menu options FIGURE 1 30 Zc SL sona Create Curves 0 A Match TE A commands Do E Properties 2 e88 d N Creste Curves between Two Lines a Create Curve on Two Lines f Create Curve through Point K Create Multiple Curves EN Create Curve from End of Object vod Create Reverse or Compound Curve Curve Calculator Standard Curves When re creating legal descriptions for roads easements and properties engineers surveyors and mappers often encounter a variety of curves Although standard AutoCAD arc commands could draw these arcs the AutoCAD arc inputs are designed to be generic to all industries The following curve commands have been designed to provide an interface that more closely matches land surveying mapping and engineering language CREATE CURVE BETWEEN TWO LINES COMMAND The C
15. required by law in many states The tooltip for the Create Line By i j EN Angle command A apee a E a CREATE LINE BY DEFLECTION COMMAND FIGURE 1 20 By definition a deflection angle is the angle turned from the extension of a line from the backsight extending through an instrument Although this isn t the most frequently used surveying tool in this day of data collectors and GPSs on some occasions you may need to create this type of line When you use the Create Line By Deflection command the command line and tooltips prompt you for a deflection angle followed by a distance Figure 1 21 In some cases deflection angles are recorded in the field in lieu of right angles FIGURE 1 21 The tooltips for the Create Line By Deflection command ae CREATE LINE BY STATION OFFSET COMMAND To use the Create Line By Station Offset command you must have a Civil 3D Alignment object in your drawing The line created from this command allows you to start and or end a line on the basis of a station and offset from an alignment You re prompted to choose the alignment and then input a station and offset value The line begins at the station and offset value On the basis of the tooltips you might expect the line to be drawn from the alignment station at offset zero and out to the alignment station at the input offset This isn t the case LABELING LINES AND CURVES 23 When prompted for the station you re given a t
16. specify is added to the existing length of the line The command draws the line appropriately and provides a short summary report on that line The summary report in Figure 1 25 indicates that the beginning line length was 100 and that an additional distance of 50 was specified with the Line Extension command It is important to note that in some cases it may be more desirable to create a line by a turned angle or deflection of 180 degrees so as not to disturb linework orig recorded documents Select line object Specify distance to change FIGURE 1 25 The Create Line Extension com or Total 5 inally created from existing legally o LINE DATA mand provides a Begin North 1216 9486 East 617 9729 Eadie o oes t North 1279 6199 East 481 6927 summary of the Distance 150 000 Course N65 18 13 E changes to the line If instead you specify a total distance on the command line the length of the line is changed to the distance you specify The summary report shown in Figure 1 26 indicates that the begin ning of the line was the same as in Figure 1 26 but with a total length of only 100 Command _AeccLineExtension Select line object Specify distance to change or Total FIGURE 1 26 The summary E report on a line where the com Specify total distance 100 or Change mand specifieda oooO yj LENT DOTA total distance Bagin sae North 1216 9486 End se ee North 1258 7295
17. tab of Toolspace is where you can adjust how Civil 3D objects look and how the Civil 3D commands work You use this tab to control styles labels and command settings for each component of Civil 3D This book starts by looking at the top level of drawing settings and a few command settings to get you familiar and then covers the specifics for each object s styles and settings in their respective chapters Drawing Settings Starting at the drawing level Civil 3D has a number of settings that you must understand before you can use the program efficiently Civil 3D understands that the end goal of most users is to prepare construction documents on paper To that end most labeling and display settings are displayed in inches for imperial users and millimeters for metric users instead of nominal units like many other AutoCAD objects Because much of this is based on an assumed working scale let s look at how to change that setting along with some other drawing options 1 Open the file Basic Site dwg from this book s companion web page www sybex com go masteringcivi13d2012 2 Switch to the Settings tab 3 Right click the filename and select Edit Drawing Settings to display the dialog shown in Figure 1 4 FIGURE 1 4 M Drawing Settings Drawing The Drawing Set Units and Zone Jfraneformstion Jobsect Layers Abbrevistions J ambient Settings tings dialog Drawing units Imperial to Metric conversion Scale Feet Intemational
18. to connect with linework CREATE LINE BY NORTHING EASTING AND CREATE LINE BY GRID NORTHING EASTING CoMMANDS The Create Line by Northing Easting and Create Line By Grid Northing Easting commands let you input northing y and easting x coordinates as endpoints for your linework The Create Line By Grid Northing Easting command requires that the drawing have an assigned coordi nate system This command can be useful when working with known surveyed points or fea tures in a state plane coordinate system SPCS CREATE LINE By LATITUDE LONGITUDE COMMAND The Create Line By Latitude Longitude command prompts you for geographic coordinates to use as endpoints for your linework This command also requires that the drawing have an assigned coordinate system For example if your drawing has been assigned Delaware State Plane NAD83 US Feet and you execute this command your Latitude Longitude inputs are translated into the appropriate location in your state plane drawing This command can be useful when you are drawing lines between waypoints collected with a standard handheld GPS unit LABELING LINES AND CURVES 21 Direction Based Line Commands The next few commands help you specify the direction of a line Each of these commands requires you to choose a start point for your line before you can specify the line direction You can specify your start point by physically choosing a location using an osnap or using one of the point related line
19. Bearing over Distance X E lial a G Distance Radiue and Deta v Er Table Tag Numbering Reference text abject prompt method Command Line gt lt add ose Hep 36 CHAPTER 1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL 3D WHERE IS DELTA In the Text Component Editor for a curve label the value that most people would refer to as a delta angle is called the General Segment Total Angle To insert the Delta symbol ina label type U 0394 in the Text Editor window on the right side of the Text Component Editor dialog 7 Atthe Select Entity prompt select each line and arc that you drew in the previous exercise A label appears on each entity at its midpoint as shown in Figure 1 49 FIGURE 1 49 linework The labeled y P p AA i i Le 8 Save the drawing you ll need it for the next exercise Using Transparent Commands In many cases the Create Line By commands in the Draw panel are the standard AutoCAD Line commands combined with the appropriate transparent commands A transparent command behaves somewhat similarly to an osnap command You can t click the Endpoint button and expect anything to happen you must be active inside another com mand such as a line an arc or a circle command The same principle works for transparent commands Once you re active in the Line com mand or any AutoCAD or Civil 3D drawing command you can choose the Bearing Distance transparent comma
20. Chapter 1 The Basics of AutoCAD Civil 3D Before we get into the mastering of AutoCAD Civil 3D it is important to understand the basics There are numerous dialogs ribbons menus and icons to pore over They might seem daunting at first glance but as you use them you will gain familiarity with their location and use In this chap ter you will explore the interface and learn terminology that will be used throughout this book In addition we will introduce the Lines and Curves commands which offer a plethora of options for drawing lines and curves accurately In this chapter you will learn to Find any Civil 3D object with just a few clicks Modify the drawing scale and default object layers Modify the display of Civil 3D tooltips Navigate the Ribbon s contextual tabs Create a curve tangent to the end of a line Label lines and curves The Interface If you have used Civil 3D 2010 or 2011 the interface for Civil 3D 2012 is basically the same If you are coming into Civil 3D 2012 from an earlier release then this part of the chapter is for you The context sensitive Ribbon is one of the biggest differences you will encounter The tools within Civil 3D can now be accessed via the Ribbon Toolspace and the general look and feel of the Civil 3D interface make this release easy to use Figure 1 1 shows the Civil 3D palette sets along with the AutoCAD tool palettes and context sensitive Ribbon displayed in a typica
21. Easting first and the Northing second Most users prefer this value set to False so they re prompted for Northing first and then Easting Prompt For Longitude Then Latitude For transparent commands that require longitude and latitude values this setting controls whether you re prompted for Longitude first and Latitude second Most users prefer this set to False so they re prompted for Latitude and then Longitude After you have expanded the branches right click in the middle of the displayed options and select Copy To Clipboard Then paste the settings to Excel for review as you did with the Object Layers tab SHARING THE WORKLOAD The print and conquer approach makes it easy to distribute multiple copies to surveyors land plan ners engineers and so on and let them fill in the changes Then creating a template for each group isa matter of making their changes If you re asking end users who aren t familiar with the product to make these changes it s easy to miss one Working line by line is fairly foolproof THEINTERFACE 11 After you decide how to approach these settings get to work The settings are either drop down menus or text boxes in the case of numeric entries Many of them are self explanatory and common to land development design Let s look at these settings in more detail see Figure 1 7 Plotted Unit Display Type Remember Civil 3D knows you want to plot at the end of the day In this case it s asking yo
22. al Round Up and Truncate 10 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D CERT OBJECTIVE Format Decimal two types of DDMMSS and Decimal DMS Direction Short Name spaced or unspaced and Long Name spaced or unspaced Capitalization Sign gt gt gt Measurement Type Bearings North Azimuth and South Azimuth Bearing Quadrant From this list it becomes clear where these settings apply to the tools discussed in this chap ter When you re using the Bearing Distance transparent command for example these settings control how you input your quadrant your bearing and the number of decimal places in your distance Explore the other categories such as Angle Lat Long and Coordinate and customize the settings to fit how you work At the bottom of the Ambient Settings tab is a Transparent Commands category These set tings control how or if you re prompted for the following information Prompt For 3D Points Controls whether you re asked to provide a z elevation after x and y have been located Prompt For Y Before X For transparent commands that require x and y values this setting controls whether you re prompted for the y coordinate before the x coordinate Most users prefer this value set to False so they re prompted for an x coordinate and then a y coordinate Prompt For Easting Then Northing For transparent commands that require Northing and Easting values this setting controls whether you re prompted for the
23. all other curve commands the specified geometry must be possible If the command can t find a solution on the basis of your length and radius inputs it returns no solution see Figure 1 34 FIGURE 1 34 ore Two curves were Zz m specified with the LN 2 curve desig SY nated as the float o i ing curve CREATING CURVES 29 CREATE CURVE FROM END OF OBJECT COMMAND The Create Curve From End Of Object command enables you to draw a curve tangent to the end of your chosen line or arc The command prompts you to choose an object to serve as the beginning of your curve You can then specify a radius and an additional parameter such as Delta or Length for the curve or the endpoint of the resulting curve chord see Figure 1 35 FIGURE 1 35 A curve witha 25 radius and a 30 rai length drawn from Y the end of a line Ps CREATE REVERSE OR COMPOUND CuRVES COMMAND The Create Reverse Or Compound Curves command allows you to add additional curves to the end of an existing curve Reverse curves are drawn in the opposite direction i e a curve to the right tangent to a curve to the left from the original curve to form an S shape In contrast compound curves are drawn in the same direction as the original curve see Figure 1 36 This tool can be useful when you are re creating a legal description of a road alignment that contains reverse and or compound curves FIGURE 1 36 A tangent and curve before add a ing a reverse or
24. arty applications as well as manage Lisp files And you thought that Lisp was dead The CAD Standards panel allows someone such as a CAD Manager to set compliances for layering allow importing of third party drawing file layers and via a macro change their layers to your company s standards automatically The Action Recorder panel contains all the tools for recording and playback of keystrokes It has been around for some time but is probably not used much in the Civil 3D world You can record keystrokes and play them back to remedy the repetitive keystrokes one might use over and over The Styles panel is new to Civil 3D 2012 and is a welcome addition You can now import styles via a dialog box instead of the old ways of accomplishing this And the Purge tool will look at all the styles in your drawing and allow you to remove ones that are not in use You will learn more about these tools in Chapter 19 Styles The Bottom Line Find any Civil 3D object with just a few clicks By using Prospector to view object data collections you can minimize the panning and zooming that are part of working in a CAD program When common subdivisions can have hundreds of parcels or a complex corridor can have dozens of alignments jumping to the desired one nearly instantly shaves time off everyday tasks Master It Open BasicSite dwg from ww sybex com go masteringcivi 13d2012 and find parcel number 18 without using any AutoCAD commands o
25. ategory and select New Tool 7 Expand the VBA category to view the new tool and then click the name to edit it in the preview area Change its name to Pipe Sample 8 Change the description to Sample VBA 9 Working down through the properties in the preview area select VBA in the drop down menu in the Execute Type field 10 Click in the Execute File field and then click the More button 11 Browse to C Program Files Autocad Civil 3D 2012 Sample Civil 3D API COM Vba Pipe and select the file PipeSample dvb 12 Click Open 13 Click in the Macro Name text field and type PipeSample as shown here 2 Ree chan a B Reports Manager Property Value f S Subscription Extension Manager General 8 F Miscellaneous Utilities Name Pipe Sample 3 i fE Reports Manager Description Sample VBA a S E Sample Files amp Tool Type S E vwa Execute Type VBA E SCE Mao Execute File Macro Name S Help Help File 3 Help Topic a Ss lt m 14 Click the green check box at the upper right to dismiss the editor 15 You will be asked Would you like to apply those changes now Select Yes You ve now added that sample VBA macro to your Toolbox By adding commonly used macros and custom reports to your Toolbox you can keep them handy without modifying the rest of your Civil 3D interface or programming buttons It s just one more way to create an interface and toolset for the way y
26. commands discussed earlier CREATE LINE BY BEARING COMMAND The Create Line By Bearing command will likely be one of your most frequently used line commands This command prompts you for a start point followed by prompts to input the Quadrant Bearing and Distance values You can enter values on the command line for each input or you can graphically choose inputs by picking them on screen The glyphs at each stage of input guide you in any graphical selections After creating one line you can continue drawing lines by bearing or you can switch to any other method by clicking one of the other Line By com mands on the Draw panel see Figure 1 18 FIGURE 1 18 The tooltips fora quadrant top a bearing middle Quadrant 1 NE eT B217 098 and a distance E ewan bottom Bearing N36 50 28 E er S ao CREATE LINE BY AZIMUTH COMMAND The Create Line By Azimuth command prompts you for a start point followed by a north azi muth and then a distance Figure 1 19 22 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D FIGURE 1 19 The tooltip for the Create Line by Azi North Azimuth 46 29 42 A P la CREATE LINE BY ANGLE COMMAND The Create Line By Angle command prompts you for a turned angle and then a distance Figure 1 20 This command is useful when you re creating linework from angles right in lieu of angles left and distances recorded in a traditional handwritten field book
27. e any effect on the visibility of the alignment line components Finally it s important to note that this layer control determines the object s parent layer at creation Civil 3D objects can be moved to other layers at any time Changing this setting doesn t change any objects already in place in the drawing Abbreviations Tab You could work for years without noticing the Abbreviations tab The options on this tab allow you to set the abbreviations Civil 3D uses when labeling items as part of its automated routines The prebuilt settings are based on user feedback and many of them are the same as the settings from Land Desktop the last generation civil engineering product from Autodesk Changing an abbreviation is as simple as clicking in the Value field and typing a new one Notice that the Alignment Geometry Point Entity Data section has a larger set of values and some formulas attached They are more representative of other label styles and we ll visit the label editor in Chapter 19 Styles Ambient Settings Tab The Ambient Settings tab can be daunting at first The term ambient means surround or sur rounding and these settings control many of the math labeling and display features as well THEINTERFACE 9 as the user interaction surrounding the use of Civil 3D Being familiar with the way this tab works will help you further down the line because almost every other setting dialog in the pro gram works like the
28. e styles are used in many objects to control the display of com ponent objects The Marker Styles and Link Styles collections are typically used in cross sectional views whereas the Feature Line Styles collection is used in grading and other commands Figure 1 10 shows the collection of multipurpose styles and some of the marker styles that ship with the product FIGURE 1 10 he El Ei r General multipur Active Draing Settings view pose styles and S D BasicSite 5 some marker styles es eae a Basic G TR Multipurpose Styles LAN GMI Eic Circle wih Cross No Markers ea Basic Square a Alignment Geometry Name Descr GY No Markers rE G2 Alignment Geometry a Back of Curb w m la CD Settings od Basic Triangle ay hP EY Back of Curb ga padro P Crown B Basic g EL Basic Circlewith Cross Ceh amp Basic Square cel Daylight on ai BA Basic Triangle col Daylight SubGrade z E Bench Point ES Ditch Bottom 3 BL ig Ditch Extents be x a Edae of Paved Shoulder m Toolbox Label Styles The Label Styles collection allows Civil 3D users to place general text notes or label single entities outside the parcel network while still taking advantage of Civil 3D s flex ibility and scaling properties With the various label styles shown in Figure 1 11 you can get some idea of their usage Because building
29. el pull down is a combination of the Line From End Of Object command and the Curve From End Of Object command This command is most useful for reconstructing deeds or road alignments from legal descriptions when each entity is tangent to the previous entity Using this command saves you time because you don t have to constantly switch between the Line From End Of Object command and the Curve From End Of Object command see Figure 1 45 FIGURE 1 45 The Attach Mul i rd tiple Entities i command draws a i series of lines and hw arcs so that each Pa segment is tangent to the previous one The Curve Calculator Sometimes you may not have enough information to draw a curve properly Although many of the curve creation tools assist you in calculating the curve parameters you may find an occa sion where the deed you re working with is incomplete The Curve Calculator found in the Curves drop down on the Draw panel helps you calculate a full collection of curve parameters on the basis of your known values and constraints The units used in the Curve Calculator match the units assigned in your Drawing Settings The Curve Calculator can remain open on your screen while you re working through com mands You can send any value in the Calculator to the command line by clicking the button next to that value see Figure 1 46 The button at the upper left of the Curve Calculator inherits the arc properties from an exist ing arc in the d
30. en too short to meet the endpoint of the curve then that line would have been extended FIGURE 1 31 Two lines using i X the Create Curve ge Between Two Lines sie command a CREATE CURVE ON Two LINES COMMAND The Create Curve On Two Lines command is identical to the Create Curve Between Two Lines command except that the Create Curve On Two Lines command leaves the chosen tangents intact The lines aren t trimmed or extended to the resulting PC and PT of the curve Figure 1 32 for example shows two lines with a 25 radius curve drawn on them The tan gents haven t been trimmed and instead remain exactly as they were drawn before the Create Curve On Two Lines command was executed FIGURE 1 32 The original lines ZA stay the same P after you execute P R the Create Curve R On Two Lines a S command CREATE CURVE THROUGH POINT COMMAND The Create Curve Through Point command lets you choose two tangents for your curve fol lowed by a pass through point This tool is most useful when you don t know the radius length or other curve parameters but you have two tangents and a target location It isn t necessary that the pass through location be a true point object it can be any location of your choosing This command also trims or extends the original tangents so their endpoints coincide with the curve endpoints The lines are trimmed or extended to the resulting PC and PT of the curve Figure 1 33 for example
31. g entity with a radius identical to that of the object you chose during the command You ll save time using this tool because you don t have to first list the radius of the original object and then manu ally type in that radius when prompted by your circle arc or alignment tool The Match Length transparent command works identically to the Match Radius transparent command except that it matches the length parameter of your chosen object The Underlying Engine Civil 3D is part of a larger product family from Autodesk During its earliest creation various features and functions from other products were recognized as important to the civil engineer ing community These included the obvious things such as the entire suite of AutoCAD draft ing design modeling and rendering tools as well as more esoteric options such as Map s GIS capabilities An early decision was made to build Civil 3D on top of the AutoCAD Map product which in turn is built on top of AutoCAD This underlying engine provides a host of options and powerful tools for the Civil 3D user AutoCAD and Map add features with every release that change the fundamental makeup of how Civil 3D works With the introduction of workspaces in 2006 users can now set up Civil 3D to display various tools and palettes depending on the task at hand Creating a workspace is like having a quick fix bag of tools ready preliminary design calls for one set of tools and final plan production calls fo
32. g on screen The command then draws a best fit parabola on the basis of this information In Figure 1 43 the shots were represented by AutoCAD points more points were added by select ing the By Clicking On The Screen option and using the Node osnap to pick each point FIGURE 1 43 The best fit pre view line changes as more points are picked Once you ve selected your points a Panorama window appears showing information about each point you chose Also note the information in the right pane regarding K value curve length grades and so forth In this interface shown in Figure 1 44 you can optimize your K value length and other val ues by adding more points selecting the check box in the Pass Through column to force one of your points on the line or adjusting the value under the Weight column x Co eG FIGURE 1 44 amet xa LEA m rety Vdus PNO kechude Pass Ibrough Foimt Northing Port tasting augm Ofset to inbty Northing onkrtty tactng onkmty 2 The Panorama E Entity Perabnla I J 1009 ime 14075 2261 Glan Length 2005414 S imo TAEw C DART FA window lets you Kvalue 4550 3 J 10 ar 147590088 73892827 Stat F 4 i 1000 2058 14327 2500 ACS make adjustments to your best fit parabola Regrenicn Feaph 34 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D wn Attach Multiple Entities The Attach Multiple Entities command found on the Home tab and extended Draw pan
33. hould be obvious but it s amazing how many people overlook this icon HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE HELP FILE LATELY The AutoCAD Civil 3D development team in Manchester New Hampshire has worked hard to make the Help files in Civil 3D top notch and user friendly The help files should be your first line of support Open Drawings This branch of Prospector contains the drawings currently open in Civil 3D Each drawing is subdivided into groups by major object type such as points point groups surfaces and so forth These object groups then allow you to view all the objects in the collection Some of these groups are empty until objects are created You can learn details about an individual object by expanding the tree and selecting an object Within each drawing the breakdown is similar If a collection isn t empty a plus sign appears next to it as in a typical Windows Explorer interface Selecting any of these top level collection names displays a list of members in the preview area Right clicking the collection name allows you to select various commands that apply to all the members of that collection For example right clicking the Point Groups collection brings up the menu shown in Figure 1 2 FIGURE 1 2 ac Bow Context sensitive Master View i menus in 8 ros Drawings ja 8 a Drawing1 a Prospector Points G iir 2 ren Surfac New gt Ali a ar Show Changes E Catch Update S F Pipe N Export LandX ML
34. ine tools are useful when your drawing includes Civil 3D points that will serve as a foundation for linework such as the edge of pavement shots wetlands lines or any other points you d like to connect with a line LINE COMMAND The Create Line command on the Draw panel of the Home tab issues the standard AutoCAD Line command It s equivalent to typing line on the command line or clicking the Line tool on the Draw toolbar CREATE LINE BY PoINT RANGE COMMAND The Create Line By Point Range command prompts you for a point number You can type in an individual point number press and then type in another point number A line is drawn con necting those two points You can also type in a range of points such as 640 644 Civil 3D draws LABELING LINES AND CURVES 19 a line that connects those lines in numerical order from 640 to 641 and so on see Figure 1 16 This order won t give you the desired linework for edge of asphalt for example FIGURE 1 15 Line creation tools FIGURE 1 16 Aline created using 640 644 as input Zac gt Bobs J Crate Line al BOF Create Line by Point Range p amp Create Line by Point Object 2 ECA Creste Line by Point Name Create Line by Northing Easting F p Create Line by Grid Northing Grid Easting P pE Create Line by Latitude Longitude E Z Create Line by Bearing aP A Creste Line by Azimuth 2 P LY Cte Line by Angle FA Create Line by Deflection A Create Line by Statio
35. l environment Toolspace Toolspace is one of the unique Civil 3D palette sets Toolspace can have as many as four tabs to manage user data These tabs are as follows Prospector Settings Survey Toolbox Using a Microsoft Windows Explorer like interface within each these tabs drive a large por tion of the user control and data management of Civil 3D 2 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D FIGURE 1 1 Civil 3D ina typi cal environment Toolspace is docked on the left and tool palettes float over the draw ing window The Ribbon is at the top of the workspace TED Ed wee Te PROSPECTOR Prospector is the main window into the Civil 3D object model This palette or tab is where you go seeking data it also shows points alignments parcels corridors and other objects as one concise expandable list In addition in a project environment this window is where you control access to your project data create references to shared project data and observe the check in and check out status of a drawing Finally you can also use Prospector to create a new drawing from the templates defined in the Drawing Template File Location branch in your AutoCAD Options dialog Prospector has the following branches Open Drawings Projects only if the Vault client is installed Data Shortcuts Drawing Templates MASTER AND ACTIVE DRAWING VIEWS If you can t see the Projects or Drawing Templates branch
36. label styles is a critical part of producing plans with Civil 3D Chapter 19 Styles looks at how to build a new basic label and some of the common components that appear in every label style throughout the product 14 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D Commands mand names that refer to the parent object FIGURE 1 11 Line label styles FIGURE 1 12 Surface command settings in Toolspace SURVEY The Survey palette is displayed optionally and controls the use of the survey equipment and figure prefix databases Survey is an essential part of land development projects Because of the Almost every branch in the Settings tree contains a Commands folder Expanding this folder as shown in Figure 1 12 shows you the typical long unspaced com Name amp Bearing and Distance Existing amp Bearing and Distance Proposed S Bearing Only Existing amp Bearing Only Proposed x amp Bearing over Distance Existing amp amp Bearing over Distance Proposed amp Contour B G Distance Only Existin B g gt amp Distance Only Proposed Gy FRONTAGE DIST Ge Standard Fe Eqpressions Gy Bearing and Distance Existir Bearing and Distance Propo EH Bearing Only Existing Gh Bearing Only Proposed Bearing over Distance Existii Gy Bearing over Distance Pr Contour EX Distance Only Existing ey Distance Only Proposed GFRONTAGE DIST Gy Standard am
37. levation Section information and so on Once a drawing contains numerous bits of information this display can be overwhelming therefore Civil 3D offers the option to turn off these tooltips univer sally with this setting A better approach is to control the tooltips at the object type by editing the individual feature settings You can also control the tooltips by pulling up the properties for any individual object and looking at the Information tab Imperial To Metric Conversion This displays the conversion method specified on the Units And Zone tab The two options currently available are US Survey Foot and International Foot New Entity Tooltip State You can also control tooltips on an individual object level For instance you might want tooltip feedback on your proposed surface but not on the existing surface This setting controls whether the tooltip is turned on at the object level for new Civil 3D objects Driving Direction This specifies the side of the road that forward moving vehicles use for travel This setting is important in terms of curb returns and intersection design Drawing Unit Drawing Scale and Scale Inserted Objects These settings were specified on the Units And Zone tab but are displayed here for reference and so that you can lock them if desired Independent Layer On This is the same control that was set on the Object Layers tab 12 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D The settings that are applied here ca
38. me Northing Easting Latitude Longitude The six profile related transparent commands will be covered in Chapter 7 Profiles and Profile Views Standard Transparent Commands The transparent commands shown in Table 1 1 behave identically to their like named counter Am parts from the Draw panel discussed earlier in this chapter The difference is that you can call up these transparent commands in any appropriate AutoCAD or Civil 3D draw command such as a line polyline alignment parcel segment feature line or pipe creation command TABLE 1 1 The transparent commands TOOL ICON MENU COMMAND po Angle Distance j Bearing Distance y 8 9 Azimuth Distance y Deflection Distance E Northing Easting Grid Northing Easting 38 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D TABLE 1 1 The transparent commands CONTINUED TOOL ICON MENU COMMAND Latitude Longitude Point Number amp Point Name hy Point Object A Zoom To Point T Side Shot JE Station Offset Matching Transparent Commands You may have construction or other geometry in your drawing that you d like to match with new lines arcs circles alignments parcel segments or other entities While actively drawing an object that has a radius parameter such as a circle an arc an align ment curve or a similar object you can choose the Match Radius transparent command and then select an object in your drawing that has your desired radius Civil 3D draws the resultin
39. n Offset iJ Create Line by Side Shot ie Me Create Line by Extension a Create Line from End of Object py Create Line Tangent from Point Create Line Perpendicular from Point Alternatively you can enter a list of points such as 640 643 644 Figure 1 17 Civil 3D draws a line that connects the point numbers in the order of input This approach is useful when your points were taken in a zigzag pattern as is commonly the case when cross sectioning pavement or when your points appear so far apart in the AutoCAD display that they can t be readily identified 20 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D CERT OBJECTIVE FIGURE 1 17 Aline created using 640 643 644 as input CREATE LINE BY PoINT OBJECT COMMAND The Create Line By Point Object command prompts you to select a point object To select a point object locate the desired start point and click any part of the point This tool is similar to using the regular Line command and a Node object snap also known as osnap CREATE LINE BY PoINT NAME COMMAND The Create Line By Point Name command prompts you for a point name A point name is a field in Point properties not unlike the point number or description The difference between a point name and a point description is that a point name must be unique It is important to note that some survey instruments name points rather than number points as is the norm To use this command enter the names of the points you want
40. n also be applied at the object levels For example you may typically want elevation to be shown to two decimal places but when looking at surface elevations you might want just one The Override and Child Override columns give you feed back about these types of changes See Figure 1 8 FIGURE 1 8 The Child Override indicator in the Elevation values m Grid Coordinate BD Hevation Unit Precision Rounding Sign Larea Cvolume C speed Tangle m Direction Fh ae foot 2 round normal sign negative Child Override Lock dependent Layer On Turns layer on off independent of display component arent Value NJA erent Current The Override column shows whether the current setting is overriding something higher up Because you re at the Drawing Settings level these are clear However the Child Override column displays a down arrow indicating that one of the objects in the drawing has overridden this setting After a little investigation through the objects you ll find the override is in the Edit Feature Settings of the Profile view as shown in Figure 1 9 FIGURE 1 9 The Profile Elevation Settings i Serer ProfileView Options and the Override mh Default Projection Label Placement Dunitless LAdistance m Dimension indicator Precision Rounding Sign area volume Speed CSanate foot 2 round normal sign negative Child Overnde Lock THEINTERFACE 13 Notice that
41. nd and complete your drawing task using a bearing and distance As stated earlier the transparent commands can be used in any AutoCAD or Civil 3D draw ing command much like an osnap For example you can be actively drawing an alignment and use the Northing Easting transparent command to snap to a particular coordinate and then press Esc once and continue drawing your alignment as usual While a transparent command is active you can press Esc once to leave the transparent mode but stay active in your current command You can then choose another transparent command if you d like For example you can start a line using the Endpoint osnap activate the Angle USING TRANSPARENT COMMANDS 37 Distance transparent command draw a line by angle distance and then press Esc which takes you out of angle distance mode but keeps you in the Line command You can then draw a few more segments using the Point Object transparent command press Esc and finish your line with a Perpendicular osnap You can activate the transparent commands using keyboard shortcuts or using the Transparent Commands toolbar Be sure you include the Transparent Commands toolbar shown in Figure 1 50 in all your Civil 3D and survey oriented workspaces FIGURE 1 50 Grid Northing Distance The Transparent Deflection Distance Point Number Commands toolbar Point Object Bearing Distance IPP PRGOKEGEP PASARLA Angle Distance Zoom to Print Azimuth Distance Point Na
42. ollowing procedure to familiarize yourself with the Ribbon 1 Open the BasicSite dwg which you will find at ww sybex com go masteringcivi 13d2012 2 Select one of the parcel labels the labels in the middle of the lot areas 3 Notice that the Labels amp Tables General Tools Modify and Launch Pad tabs are dis played as shown in Figure 1 14 4 Select a parcel line and notice the display of the Multiple contextual tab 5 Use the Esc key to cancel all selections 6 Reselect a parcel line Select the down arrow next to the Modify panel Using the pin at the bottom left corner of the panel pin the panel open 7 Select the Properties command in the General Tools panel to open the AutoCAD Properties palette Notice that the Modify panel remains opened and pinned STYLES AND MORE STYLES Civil 3D uses styles to change the look and feel of objects and labels Throughout this book you will see many styles Fora better look at styles refer to Chapter 19 18 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D OBJECTIVE FIGURE 1 14 The context sensitive Ribbon Home Insert Annotate Modify Analyze View eB Add Add _ Renumber Labels Tables Tags Labels amp Tables et a So eee eee Parcel LOT G1 Multiple Parcel Properties 2 Grading Creation Tools T e p eM K O soins Pa Edit Edit Renumber Rename M Quick Profile Properties Geometry Elevations amp Parcel Layout Tools Modify
43. one shown in Figure 1 7 You can approach this tab in the following ways Top to Bottom Expand one branch handle the settings in that branch and then close it and move to the next Print and Conquer Expand all the branches using the Expand All Categories button found at the lower right FIGURE 1 7 The Ambient Set units and Zone Transformation Jjobsect Layers Abbreviations Ambient Settngs tings tab with the Property Override Child Override Lock General branch ae expanded Set AutoCAD Units lo Save Command Chan No Show Event Viewer Yes Show Tooltips Yes Imperial to Metric con Use US Survey F New Entity Tooltip State On Driving Direction Right Side of the Drawing Unit foot Drawing Scale 50 00 Scale Inserted Objects Yes D DD D D D D D D D Independent Layer On Yes oi e arent Current tted Unit Display Type Sets display type of plotted unit values arent Value NJA DRAWING PRECISION VS LABEL PRECISION You can create label styles discussed in Chapter 19 Styles to annotate objects using precision units or specifications other than those set in the Ambient or Command Settings dialog Establish settings to reflect how you d like to input and track your data not necessarily how you d like to label your data The Ambient Settings for Direction offer the following choices Unit Degree Radian and Grad Precision 0 through 8 decimal places Rounding Round Norm
44. ooltip that tracks your position along the alignment as shown in Figure 1 22 You can graphically choose a station location by picking in the drawing including using your osnaps to assist you in locking down the station of a specific feature Alternatively you can enter a station value on the command line FIGURE 1 22 The Create Line By Station Offset command provides a tooltip for you to track a stationing along a the alignment Station 78 38 59 pee ESS az Once you ve selected the station you re given a tooltip that is locked on that particular station and tracks your offset from the alignment see Figure 1 23 You can graphically choose an offset by picking in the drawing or you can type an offset value on the command line FIGURE 1 23 The Create Line By Station Offset command provides a tooltip that helps you track the offset from the alignment Ce EESSSTI S ROT CREATE LINE BY SIDE SHOT COMMAND The Create Line By Side Shot command lets you occupy one point designate a backsight and draw a line that has endpoints relative to that point The occupied point represents the setup of your surveying station whereas the second point represents your surveying backsight This tool may be most useful when you re creating stakeout information or re creating data from field notes If you know where your crew set up and you have their side shot angle measurements but you don t have electronic informa
45. or for the Proposed Alignment style Hint it s used by the Road A alignment Create a curve tangent to the end of a line It s rare that a property stands alone Often you must create adjacent properties easements or alignments from their legal descriptions Master It Create a curve tangent to the end of the first line drawn in the first exercise that meets the following specifications Radius 200 00 Arc Length 66 580 Label lines and curves Although converting linework to parcels or alignments offers you the most robust labeling and analysis options basic line and curve labeling tools are avail able when conversion isn t appropriate Master It Add line and curve labels to each entity created in the exercises Choose a label that specifies the bearing and distance for your lines and length radius and delta of your curve
46. ou work THEINTERFACE 17 Panorama The Panorama window is Civil 3D s feedback and tabular editing mechanism It s designed to be a common interface for a number of different Civil 3D related tasks and you can use it to pro vide information about the creation of profile views to edit pipe or structure information or to run basic volume analysis between two surfaces For an example of Panorama in action change to the View tab and then select Palettes gt Event Viewer You ll explore and use Panorama more during this book s discussion of specific objects and tasks RUNNING OUT OF SCREEN REAL ESTATE It s a good idea to turn on Panorama using this technique and then drag it to the side so you always see any new information Although it s possible to turn it off doing so isn t recommended you won t know when Civil 3D is trying to tell you something Place Panorama on your second monitor now you see why you need to have a second monitor don t you and you 1l always be up to date with your Civil 3D model And in case you missed it you were using Panorama when you added the sample VBA macro in the previous exercise Ribbon As with AutoCAD the Ribbon is the primary interface for accessing Civil 3D commands and features When you select an AutoCAD Civil 3D object the Ribbon displays commands and features related to that object If several object types are selected the Multiple contextual tab is displayed Use the f
47. ox though Many firms find that adding in house customizations to the Toolbox gives them better results and is more easily managed at a central level than by customizing via the AutoCAD custom user interface CUI and workspace functionality Let s add one of the sample Civil 3D Visual Basic Application VBA macros to a new Toolbox 1 Click the Edit Toolbox Content button shown in Figure 1 13 to open the Toolbox Editor in Panorama 2 Click the button shown here to add a new root category x 5 m HEE LEE r EE Repi Press this button to add a new root category Subs Miscellaneous Utilities amp iz Reports Manager Toolbox Editor E Panorama m EG 3 Clickthe Root Category1 toolbox that appears The name will appear in the preview area where you can edit it Change the name to Sample Files and press J 15 16 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D 4 Right click the Sample Files toolbox and select New Category as shown here r Ret chao m EE Reports Manager Property Value S Subscription Extension Manager General Miscellaneous Utilities Name Sample Files amp E Reports Manager Description 5 a Remove Toolbox Editor Refresh EP Panorama m BG 5 Expand the Sample Files toolbox to view the new category and then click the name to edit it in the preview area Change the name to VBA and press J 6 Right click the VBA c
48. p Expressions amp LS BasicSite te fy General A Point H O Point Cloud 6 lir Surface 6 Surface Styles Label Styles e G Table Styles ow ee AddContourLabeling 1 BB AddSuareRaundariae m Active Drawing Settings Views hd f AddContourLabelingGroup H AddContourLabelingSingle AddSpotElevLebelsOnGrid ii complex nature of this tab all of Chapter 2 Survey is devoted to it TOOLBOX The Toolbox is a launching point for add ons and reporting functions To access the Toolbox from the Home tab in the Ribbon select Toolspace gt Palettes gt Toolbox Out of the box the Toolbox contains reports created by Autodesk but you can expand its functionality to include your own macros or reports The buttons on the top of the Toolbox shown in Figure 1 13 allow you to customize the report settings and add new content THE INTERFACE FIGURE 1 13 A p Gi The Toolbox pal m le 5 Press this button to Edit Toolbox content ette with the Edit k Toolbox Content H Sra button amp EFS Pipes 5 amp fB Points 7 G fp Profile ics B Surface amp B Breakline S Subscription Extension Manager Bd hticcelisnense Ihilitior as E Real World Scenario A TOOLBOX BUILT JUST FOR YOU You can edit the Toolbox content and the Report Settings by selecting the desired tool right clicking and then executing Don t limit yourself to the default reports that ship in the Toolb
49. r another THEBOTTOMLINE 39 Workspaces are part of a larger feature set called the custom user interface referred to as CUI in the help documentation and online As you grow familiar with Civil 3D and the various tool palettes menus and toolbars be sure to explore the CUI options that are available from the Workspace toolbar You may have noticed that when you start typing in Civil 3D it shows a list of the commands and set variables that begin with that letter and as you type further it refines that list This is AutoCAD s new autocomplete feature If you do not want to use this feature you can type AUTOCOMPLETE and set the command to OFF Managing Civil 3D Information The Manage tab contains many of the management tools available in Civil 3D Many of these tools are continuations of the basic AutoCAD tools but they are worth some discussion The Data Shortcuts panel contains all the tools related to using data shortcuts You will learn more about data shortcuts in chapter 17 Interoperability The Customization panel has the tools for manipulating the user interface and tool palettes via the Customize dialog box You can also import and export your customized user interface CUI And for the real hackers you can set aliases for example if you wanted to change C which is the default keyboard shortcut for circle to COPY you can take care of that here The Applications panel allows you to run specialized third p
50. r scrolling around on the drawing screen 40 CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D Modify the drawing scale and default object layers Civil 3D understands that the end goal of most drawings is to create hard copy construction documents By setting a drawing scale and then setting many sizes in terms of plotted inches or millimeters Civil 3D removes much of the mental gymnastics that other programs require when you re sizing text and symbols By setting object layers at a drawing scale Civil 3D makes uniformity of drawing files easier than ever to accomplish Master It Change BasicSite dwg from the 100 scale drawing to a 40 scale drawing Modify the display of Civil 3D tooltips The interactive display of object tooltips makes it easy to keep your focus on the drawing instead of an inquiry or report tools When too many objects fill up a drawing it can be information overload so Civil 3D gives you granular con trol over the heads up display tooltips Master It Within the same BasicSite drawing turn off the tooltips for the Road A alignment Navigate the Ribbon s contextual tabs As with AutoCAD the Ribbon is the primary interface for accessing Civil 3D commands and features When you select an AutoCAD Civil 3D object the Ribbon displays commands and features related to that object If several object types are selected the Multiple contextual tab is displayed Master It Using the Ribbon interface access the Alignment Style Edit
51. rawing and the drop down menu in the Degree Of Curve Definition selection field allows you to choose whether to calculate parameters for an arc or a chord definition The drop down menu in the Fixed Property selection field also gives you the choice of fixing your radius or delta value when calculating the values for an arc or a chord respectively see Figure 1 47 The parameter chosen as the fixed value is held constant as additional parameters are calculated CERT OBJECTIVE A Curve Calculator FIGURE 1 46 aaao kolv lica The Curve E Calculator Property Value Units Degree of Curve Definition Arc Definition x Fixed Property Delta Angle z Degree of Curve 0 0000 d degree decimal Delta Angle 0 0000 d kal degree decimal Radius 0 000 FA foot Tangent Distance 0 000 a foot Arc Distance 0 000 F foot Chord Distance 0 000 2 foot External Distance 0 000 foot Mid ordinate Distance 0 000 feb foot OBJECTIVE FIGURE 1 47 The Fixed Property drop down menu gives you the choice of fixing your radius or delta value B CREATING CURVES 35 Property Degree of Curve Definition Arc Definition Fid Propeny Pare Degree of Curve ETS Delta Angle Delta Angle Value Units degree decimal degree decimal Radius 0 000 FA foot Tangent Distance 0 000 a foot Arc Distance 0 000 F foot Chord Distance 0 000 F foot External Distance 0 000 Esl foot Mid
52. rawing Templates branch you can do the same thing without leaving Prospector The Drawing Templates branch searches the file path specified in your AutoCAD Options dialog and displays a list of all the DWT files it finds You can customize this path to point to a server or other folder but by default it s a local user settings path Right clicking the name of a template presents you with the options shown in Figure 1 3 FIGURE 1 3 mac 2 GB Creating anew aa Master vew 9 drawing from S E Drawing Templates within the Draw amp Plan Production a SheetSets ing Templates G E AutoCAD E branch of Prospec S E Initial g tor The templates shown here are located in the folder set in your AutoCAD Options dialog x E Initial Setup Architectural Imperial E Initial Setup Architectural Metric Create New Drawin 1 g Big oe Bi Refresh OBJECTIVE THE INTERFACE Civil 3D is built on both AutoCAD and AutoCAD Map so Civil 3D 2012 comes with a variety of templates However most users will want to select one of the top few templates which start with _Autodesk Civil 3D and then have some descriptive text These templates have been built on the basis of customer feedback to provide Civil 3D with a varying collection of object styles These templates give you a good starting point for creating a template that meets your needs or the needs of your firm SETTINGS The Settings
53. reate Curve Between Two Lines command is much like the standard AutoCAD Fillet com mand except that you aren t limited to a radius parameter The command draws a curve that is tangent to two lines of your choosing This command also trims or extends the original tangents so their endpoints coincide with the curve endpoints The lines are trimmed or extended to the resulting PC point of curve which is the beginning of a curve and PT point of tangency or the end of a curve You may find this command most useful when you re creating foundation geometry for road alignments parcel boundary curves and similar situations The command prompts you to choose the first tangent and then the second tangent The command line gives the following prompt Select entry Tangent External Degree Chord Length Mid Ordinate miN dist Radius lt Radius gt CREATING CURVES 27 Pressing at this prompt lets you input your desired radius As with standard AutoCAD commands pressing T changes the input parameter to Tangent pressing C changes the input parameter to Chord and so on As with the Fillet command your inputs must be geometrically possible For example your two lines must allow for a curve of your specifications to be drawn while remaining tangent to both Figure 1 31 shows two lines with a 25 radius curve drawn between them Note that the tangents have been trimmed so their endpoints coincide with the endpoints of the curve If either line had be
54. ress 4 CREATING CURVES 31 At the gt gt Specify bearing prompt enter 44 5415 and press 4 At the gt gt Specify distance prompt enter 68 64 and press Repeat steps 4 through 6 for the rest of the courses o ON Press Esc to exit the Create Line By Bearing command 10 The finished linework should look like Figure 1 37 There will be an error of closure of 10 0016 Typically rounding errors can cause an error in closure Perhaps reworking the deed holding a different rounding value would improve your results Consult your office survey expert about how this would be handled in house and refer to Chapter 2 for more information about traverse adjustment and similar tools 11 Save your drawing You ll need it for the next exercise FIGURE 1 37 The finished linework Best Fit Entities Although engineers and surveyors do their best to make their work an exact science sometimes tools like the Best Fit Entities are required Roads in many parts of the world have no defined alignment They may have been old carriage roads or cart paths from hundreds of years ago that evolved into automobile roads Surveyors and engineers are often called to help establish official alignments vertical align ments and right of way lines for such roads on the basis of a best fit of surveyed centerline data Other examples for using Best Fit Entities include property lines of agreement road rehabili tation projects and other cases
55. tegories drop down menu on the Units And Zone tab 2 Select NAD83 Pennsylvania State Planes South Zone US Foot from the Available Coordinate Systems drop down menu You could have also typed PA83 SF in the Coordinate System Code box There are literally hundreds if not thousands of available coordinate systems These are established by international agreement because Civil 3D is a worldwide product almost any recognized surveying coordinate system can be found in the options Once your coordinate sys tem has been established you can change it on the Transformation tab if desired This tab also includes the options Scale Objects Inserted From Other Drawings and Set AutoCAD Variables To Match In Figure 1 4 both are unchecked to move forward The Scaling option has been problematic in the past because many firms work with drawings that have no units assigned and therefore scale incorrectly But you can experiment with this setting as you d like The Set AutoCAD Variables To Match option attempts to set the AutoCAD variables AUNITS DIMUNITS INSUNITS and MEASUREMENT to the values placed in this dialog You can learn about the nature of these variables via the help files Because of some inconsistencies between coordinate based systems and the AutoCAD engine sometimes these variables must be approximated Again you won t typically set this flag to True you should experiment in your own office to see if it can help you Transformation Tab
56. tion to download this tool can help To specify locations relative to your occupied point you can specify the angle bearing deflection or azimuth on the command line or pick locations in your drawing In some cases it is more appropriate to supply a survey crew with handwritten notes regarding backsights foresights angles right and dis tances rather than upload the same information to a data collector While the command is active you can toggle between angle bearing deflection and azimuth by following the command line prompts CHAPTER1 THE BASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D When you re using the Create Line By Side Shot command you re given a setup glyph at your occupied point a backsight glyph and a tooltip to track the angle bearing deflection or azimuth of the side shot see Figure 1 24 You can toggle bet command line prompts FIGURE 1 24 The tooltip for the Create Line By Side Shot command tracks the angle bearing deflec tion or azimuth of the side shot Station Setup Angle CREATE LINE EXTENSION COMMAND ween these options by following the Backsight 27 3126 city ang d je Ol The Create Line Extension command is similar to the AutoCAD Lengthen command This com mand allows you to add length to a line or specify a desired total length of the line You are first prompted to choose a line The command line then displays the prompt Speci fy distance to change or Total The distance you
57. u how you would like your plotted units measured For example would you like that bit of text to be 0 25 tall or 4 high Most engineers are comfortable with the Leroy method of text heights L80 L100 L140 and so on so the decimal option is the default Set AutoCAD Units This displays whether or not Civil 3D should attempt to match AutoCAD drawing units as specified on the Units And Zone tab Save Command Changes To Settings This setting is incredibly powerful but a secret to almost everyone By setting it to Yes your changes to commands will be remembered from use to use This means if you make changes to a command during use the next time you call that Civil 3D command you won t have to make the same changes It s frustrating to do work over because you forgot to change one out of the five things that needed changing so this setting is invaluable Show Event Viewer Event Viewer is Civil 3D s main feedback mechanism especially when things go wrong It can get annoying however and it takes up valuable screen real estate especially if you re stuck with one monitor so many people turn Show Event Viewer off We recommend leaving it on and pushing it to the side if needed Show Tooltips One of the cool features that people remark on when they first use Civil 3D is the small pop up that displays relevant design information when the cursor is paused on the screen This includes things such as Station Offset information Surface E
58. where existing survey information must be approximated into real engineering geometry see Figure 1 38 FIGURE 1 38 B The Create Best K ol Fit Entities menu of Z D s Z Create Best Fit Parabola 32 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D CREATE BEST FIT LINE COMMAND The Create Best Fit Line command under the Best Fit drop down on the Draw panel takes a series of Civil 3D points AutoCAD points entities or drawing locations and draws a single best fit line segment from this information In Figure 1 39 for example the Create Best Fit Line command draws a best fit line through a series of points that aren t quite collinear Note that the best fit line will change as more points are picked FIGURE 1 39 A preview line Ww sZ drawn through _ MM points that aren t gt quite collinear Once you ve selected your points a Panorama window appears with a regression data chart showing information about each point you chose as shown in Figure 1 40 E 1 oo FIGURE 1 40 RB xo cuEn Th P m oy Vuka Pte bxdude Pass through Poin Northing Pour szstng Weght Uttset to Entity Northing on krkty tasting on Enny amp e Fanorama win initi Une E a Ten 2st 580 5125 1200 36 500 EEI 570 7287 F gt J J 4770 85 si 100 67 67 MIHAI EMUT D dow lets you opti 3 1 seg 042 amp 100 nar 1424915 CORNI Te 1 TRLN z ow EA TLT bss SEU mize your best fit End Pe FUSL SIA
59. x compound curve L left a compound curve drawn from m the end of the orig H inal curve right i and a reverse curve oO drawn from the end of the original curve bottom E 30 CHAPTER1 THEBASICS OF AUTOCAD CIVIL3D Re creating a Deed Using Line and Curve Tools This exercise will help you apply some of the tools you ve learned so far to reconstruct the over all parcel that will be used as the sample exercises for the majority of the book From Point of Beginning South 44 degrees 54 minutes 15 seconds West 68 64 feet to a point North 07 degrees 05 minutes 24 seconds East 217 80 feet to a point North 72 degrees 12 minutes 10 seconds East 4 23 feet to a point North 05 degrees 53 minutes 27 seconds East 201 09 feet to a point South 86 degrees 32 minutes 10 seconds East 121 22 feet to a point North 03 degrees 25 minutes 51 seconds West 168 78 feet to a point North 14 degrees 38 minutes 58 seconds East 283 16 feet to a point North 07 degrees 19 minutes 22 seconds West 79 64 feet to a point North 07 degrees 04 minutes 00 seconds West 205 45 feet to a point South 46 degrees 24 minutes 36 seconds West 121 05 feet to a point South 48 degrees 31 minutes 20 seconds West 414 66 feet to a point North 49 degrees 29 minutes 56 seconds West 50 80 feet to a point North 48 degrees 37 minutes 57 seconds East 150 29 feet to a point North 05 degrees 39 minutes 50 seconds East 497 28 feet to a point North 84 degrees 20 minutes 01 seconds East 290

Wiley Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

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