Wiley AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 Essentials
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1. i ab Pains ieee po bH Point Groups l Q85 Point Clouds Fropertr wee Cy Surteces _ Na Frocesty defined lek OF Aignmets I il Siew FP Pipe Networks E Condon oft oe OO 4 Adin View 7 A E 4 z 1 i 2 Z L amp Evert Vewer a gt LR E A st or Optom Pont Buia Ord HI 7011 Application Command Toolspace Drawing Panorama Transparent Menu Line Area Commands Toolbar FIGURE 1 1 Major components of the Civil 3D user interface Application Menu The place where everyday file handling commands can be found that enable you to open save and print your drawings Ribbon The place where most Civil 3D commands are launched Using the Application Menu 3 Toolspace The Civil 3D command center where all of the data and settings are laid out in an organized fashion Drawing Area The place where the drawing is created Command Line The chat window where you and Civil 3D talk to one another Panorama A multipurpose window where you can view and or edit drawing information and properties Inquiry Tool A tool with many smaller tools within it that enable you to get information about your design Transparent Commands Toolbar Special commands that allow drafting and geo metric construction to be done the way that civil engineers and surveyors do it Using the Application Menu Often called the big red C the application menu Figure 1 2 expands out from ET the square Civil 3D icon located2. The same is true for surfaces parcels and so on These special tabs are referred to as contextual ribbon tabs They are a huge help when you re first learning Civil 3D and a huge time saver even after you ve become a master Follow these steps to familiarize yourself with the ribbon s tabs and panels User Interface dwg should still be open from the previous exercise 1 Click the Home tab of the ribbon to bring it to the forefront it may be already Notice that there is a mixed bag of commands here The Home tab is designed to contain your most heavily used commands Since you don t yet know what most of the commands mean the selection of commands could seem kind of random 2 Click the gray strip at the bottom of the Create Design panel and note how it expands out as shown in Figure 1 5 3 Click the Insert tab of the ribbon Here you see words like insert import and attach all ways of bringing information into the draw ing The commands here are much more specific to a certain purpose as compared to the randomness of the Home tab 4 Click the other tabs of the ribbon and see whether you can relate some of the words you see in the commands to the title of each ribbon tab 5 Place your cursor in the drawing area and roll the mouse wheel forward to zoom in to the drawing Keep zooming in until you can clearly see the road centerlines labeled with stationing numbers these are Civil 3D alignments Click one of the ro
3. Northing Easting transparent commands To practice using the Transparent Commands toolbar follow these steps you ET should have User Interface dwg open from the previous exercise You can dock 1 Type LINE at the Command prompt and press Enter and undock the a Transparent 2 When prompted to specify the first point click any point within the Command toolbar drawing by dragging the double line at the 3 When prompted to specify the next point click Bearing Distance on end of the toolbar the Transparent Commands toolbar Refer to Figure 1 11 for the loca to the appropriate tion of this command location 4 When prompted for a quadrant either enter 1 or click in the upper right quadrant created by the crosshairs on the screen 5 When prompted for the bearing type 45 and press Enter 6 When prompted for the distance type 500 150 and press Enter Press Esc twice to exit the command You have just drawn a line that is 500 feet 150 meters long at a bearing of N 45 E USING SPECIALIZED LINE AND CURVE COMMANDS Another Civil 3D feature that enables you to draw like a surveyor or civil Certification engineer is a set of specialized line and curve commands These commands Onyfiive are mixed in with basic AutoCAD line and curve commands on the Draw panel of the ribbon You can find specialized line commands by expand ing the Line icon to reveal commands like Line By Bearing Line By Point Range and so on There is also
4. alignment Station Offset and Profile Elevation at Pott JF bgnment Staton Offset and Surface Elevation at Point I Alignment Two Stators and Offeets st Pont B E Profile View B E Profile A E Section view H E Section i Corridor Section FIGURE 1 12 The Inquiry Tool showing a partial list of available inquiry types Using the Inquiry Tool 13 To try the Inquiry Tool follow these steps 1 On the Analyze tab of the ribbon click Inquiry Tool 2 Under Select An Inquiry Type select Point gt Point Inverse 3 When prompted to specify the first point hold down the Shift key right click and select Endpoint on the shortcut menu that appears 4 Click the southwestern endpoint of the line you drew earlier 5 Use the Shift right click combination again to select Endpoint and then click the opposite end of the line for the second point 6 Scroll down to the Direction and Horizontal Distance values in the Inquiry Tool window Note that they show the same bearing and dis tance you entered earlier THE ESSENTIALS AND BEYOND Now that you have learned some of the basic controls you are ready to take the car for its first spin around the block As you are guided through more lessons you will understand how to execute basic tasks such as turn the wheel and step on the brake You re not ready to navigate the streets of New York City yet but you ve certainly taken a major step Of course driving is ju
5. at the top left of your screen Here you ll find The Quick Access commands for creating opening saving and printing your drawing files Toolbar just to the right of the big red C is a handy subset of your most commonly used general purpose tools l Recent Documents Ev Ordered List E FW User Intertace cheng ER User Interface 2 dweg Intersection Edit Vertical dwg DREF Incwg Fl C100 Finaldwg Fag 269240 SPUTILowg 26924C SPUTILOWg ER create sssembiy cwg ER ACAD 30800 PSUR ADD dwg Hay i e El Fl Lan oe FIGURE 1 2 Part of the Civil 3D application menu To use the application menu to open a file follow these steps 1 Launch Civil 3D by double clicking the Civil 3D 2012 Imperial Metric icon on the desktop of your computer 2 Click the application menu the big red C and then click Open 3 Browse to the Chapter 01 class data folder and open User Interface dwg Chapter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface 4 Open the application menu once more and investigate the commands that are listed there You ll notice that most of them have to do with creating opening saving and printing drawing files 5 Keep this drawing open for the next exercise Using the Ribbon The ribbon is located at the top of your screen and is the launching pad for most of your Civil 3D commands The commands that it contains are organized into groups through the use of
6. fabs and panels The ribbon itself is divided into a series of tabs that include Home Insert Annotate and so on as illustrated in Figure 1 3 Annotate Mode Analyze View Jutpu anage 5 Too Survey Data ay Parcel Alignment Intersections W Profile View a rm a Paints 7 Feature Line W Brofile r oe Assembly a Sample Lines aio e l m E gt Surfaces g Grading Ti Comdor Ti Pipe Metwork at Section Views p l Palettes Create Design Profile amp Section Views Drew Toolspace FIGURE 1 3 Tabs arrange large numbers of similar Civil 3D commands into groups Each tab is divided into panels For instance the Home tab shown in Figure 1 4 includes the Palettes Create Ground Data Create Design and Profile amp Section Views panels a Alignment oe Intersections ot Profile Virw ing Profile 5 Assembly 4 Semple Lines Y I Coridor Hij Pipe Metwork A A Section Views Ji Create Design Profile amp Section Views FIGURE 1 4 Panels provide another level of grouping within a ribbon tab Because Civil 3D groups the commands in this way you never have to choose from more than a handful of commands once you ve taken your best guess at the correct tab and panel Also you ll find that the more you use Civil 3D the bet ter you will be at knowing where the commands are It s not so much memorizing their locations as it is learning how Civil 3D thinks that
7. is the way in which it relates commands to one another and categorizes them into tabs and panels One other thing you should know is that most panels expand downward to show you the less frequently used commands in that particular category You ll know they expand when you see a downward pointing black triangle next to their name For example Figure 1 5 shows the Home tab s Create Design panel expanded with more commands Don t forget to look on these hidden panels when searching for a command Using the Ribbon ms ae Mody Anahe Vire Owpet anan Pi Online oe me fe Import Survey Data Parcel 4 Alignment gt mB Intersections af Profile View J aie i F pe aje ude arnge Li Tealspace LAL Points FestureLine W Profile Q Assembly a Sample Lines B El Surfaces Bi Coridor f Pipe Network 7 Section View Palettes Create Ground Data Profile amp Section mt Create Subassembly frorn Polyline es Create Full Parts List i Create Potyline From Corridor im Set Pipe Network Catalog Create Boundary From Coridor DA Part Builder H Create Design FIGURE 1 5 Most panels expand downward to reveal more commands as is the case with the Create Design panel on the Home tab of the ribbon One of the best features of the ribbon is its ability to respond to what you select in the drawing area If you click a Civil 3D alignment the ribbon changes and serves up alignment related commands on a special tab
8. CHAPTER 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface If you re new to AutoCAD Civil 3D then your first experience has probably been a lot like staring at the instrument panel of a 747 Civil 3D can be quite intimidating with lots of buttons strange shapes and strange icons all packed into a relatively small area In addition you may be even more intimi dated by the feeling that there is a lot of power under the hood This leads us to our main objective for this chapter which is to alleviate that feeling of intimidation and make you feel much more at ease within the Civil 3D envi ronment Let me start you down that path by saying that there s a big differ ence between a 747 and Civil 3D In Civil 3D if you really mess up you can simply close the drawing file without saving When piloting a 747 it s a little more difficult to undo your mistakes After completing this chapter you will have achieved a greater comfort level within the Civil 3D environment by being able to identify main user interface components and utilize them for basic functions You will also be able to use two specific features that will serve you well throughout the pro gram the Transparent Commands toolbar and the Inquiry Tool Getting to know the Civil 3D user interface Using the application menu Using the ribbon Using the Toolspace gt gt p gt gt gt Using the drawing area gt Using the command line Using Panorama gt Us
9. a Curves icon that expands to reveal Continues 12 Chapter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface USING SPECIALIZED LINE AND CURVE COMMANDS Continued commands like Create Curve Through Point and Create Multiple Curves Finally there is also a Best Fit icon that expands to include commands for best fit lines and curves The image below shows the expanded form of the Line Curve and Best Fit icons 7 Ea gt Ey Fi Creste Lime 5 3 E Create Line by Point Range pq Create Curve on Two Lines h Poi 5B Creste Line by Point Object 7 Create Curve through Point a i Se Creste Line by Paint Mame i Create Multiple Curves A Create Line by Northing Easting E Create Curve from End of Object F pi Create Line by Grid Northing Grid Easting e Trenie Revers or Cosspomed Carne 5 p Create Line by Latitude Longitude Curve Calculator if by Beanng Using the Inquiry Tool Most of the time you ll be the one providing the information for a drawing but sometimes you need your drawing to tell you something That s where the Inquiry Tool comes in The Inquiry Tool is a separate window whose sole purpose is to give you information about things in the drawing There is a long list of drawing items to choose from and beneath each item is a list of things that you can ask about Figure 1 12 Select an inquiry type To Algnmert Station and CHleet st Point H Alonment Station and Offset at Point I
10. ad centerlines and note that the ribbon displays a contextual tab to make alignment commands accessible Figure 1 6 6 Keep this drawing open for the next exercise You can open the Toolspace by click ing the Toolspace icon on the Home tab of the ribbon Certification Objective Chapter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface Hes Inst Annotate Anahoe Wiew Ourtpar Manage Jelp Online Add Ins Epress Took E ment Side Road A r m ma E T Properties gt FY Surface Profile i Intersection i s C4 Object Viewer Bf Pe Views Add Renember Ingun Alignment Geometry Design i relevation Visibility Statin La ory Tables Tags B kelate Objects Properties Editor Criteria Editar 7 Check jack Offset Alignment A Data Shortcut Labels amp Tables General Tock i Modify FIGURE 1 6 The ribbon displays the contextual Alignment Side Road A tab because an alignment has been selected in the drawing Using the Toolspace Think of the Toolspace as the Civil 3D command center where all Civil 3D data and settings are laid out in a nice orderly arrangement It has several main functions that are represented by the different tabs it can contain Altogether the Toolspace can house four tabs Prospector Settings Survey and Toolbox Prospector Tab Prospector is arguably the most important part of the Civil 3D user interface As you build your design Prospector arranges the different components of yo
11. ch the same way as the Prospector tab It displays survey data in a tree struc ture and it allows you to launch commands through right click menus Toolbox Tab As if Civil 3D didn t have enough stuff packed into it already the Toolbox is a place where other add ons can be plugged in Your company may have some custom programming that is designed to run in Civil 3D or some add on modules pro vided by Autodesk such as a Subscription Advantage Pack This is the place where you can load and run these additional enhancements to Civil 3D Using the Drawing Area Using the Drawing Area The drawing area is where you can actually see and touch the design model you are creating The design model is most often viewed from above referred to as plan view but it can be viewed from any perspective For example because Civil 3D spe cializes in representing designs as 3D models you may want to display your model using 3D view Figure 1 8 shows a model in both plan and 3D views FIGURE 1 8 The drawing area showing the same model in plan view on the left and 3D view on the right Using the Command Line Think of the command line Figure 1 9 as a chat window where you talk with Civil 3D Nearly everything you do is reported on the command line along with Civil 3D s response to it A response can be a request for more infor mation reporting of a result or notification of a problem It s good to get into the habit of always watching
12. ersections E suey i E View Frame Groups FIGURE 1 7 The Prospector tab with a portion of the tree structure highlighted in red To explore the Prospector tab follow these steps you should still have User Interface dwg open 3 1 Ifthe Toolspace is not already open click Toolspace on the Home tab Go of the ribbon If the Prospector tab 2 Click the Prospector tab of Toolspace to bring it to the forefront is not visible click the Prospector icon 3 Explore the tree structure of Prospector by clicking the plus signs to on the Palettes panel expand the different branches of the Home tab of the ribbon 4 Expand Alignments gt Centerline Alignments gt Main Road A gt Profiles This hierarchical arrangement provides effective organization and sug gests a relationship between the alignment and its profiles as described later in the chapter 5 Right click Side Road B and select Zoom To Notice how Prospector knows where the alignment named Side Road B is even if you don t 6 Keep this drawing open for the next exercise It s important to point out that Prospector isn t just a place for viewing your design it s also a place where you can change the appearance of your design cre ate new components for your design edit your design and so on These types of Certification Objective If the Settings tab is not visible click the Settings icon on the Palettes panel of Home tab of the ribbon Cha
13. for the Panorama window follow these steps you should still have User Interface dwg open from the previous exercise A 1 On the Home tab of the ribbon expand the Palettes panel and click the icon for Event Viewer 2 Experiment with resizing auto hiding and docking the Panorama window You ll find that it behaves much like other dockable windows in Civil 3D e 3 Click one of the contour lines in the drawing to display the Tin Surface Existing Ground ribbon tab and then click Volumes on the Analyze panel Notice the Composite Volumes tab that shows up next to the Events tab in Panorama 4 Keep this drawing open for the next exercise Using the Transparent Commands Toolbar As you may already know civil engineers and surveyors draw things a little differ ently than architects or mechanical engineers They use things such as bearings Using the Transparent Commands Toolbar 11 curve deltas northings and eastings to define geometry The Transparent Commands toolbar enables Civil 3D users to draw things based on the special geometric concepts that are unique to civil engineers and surveyors For example when drawing a line you can use the Northing Easting trans parent command to specify the first point and the Bearing Distance transparent command to specify the end point Figure 1 11 Bearing Northing Distance Easting FIGURE 1 11 The Transparent Commands toolbar with red lines pointing to the Bearing Distance and
14. ing the Transparent Commands toolbar gt Using the Inquiry Tool Chapter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface Getting to Know the Civil 3D User Interface Certification To begin learning about the Civil 3D environment let s take our 747 analogy Objective down a notch and think about this as learning to drive an automobile When your parents first sat you down at the wheel and talked about the car s controls they probably didn t mention the air conditioning or the radio Those of course are important parts of the driving experience but I m betting they started with the most important parts such as the steering wheel the gas pedal and most importantly the brake pedal We re going to approach your first experience with driving Civil 3D in much the same manner There are many many parts to the Civil 3D user interface For the purposes of this book I ll cover just the ones that will be most important in enabling you to navigate the software effectively Figure 1 1 shows the major components of the user interface Ribbon Inquiry Tool AutoCAD Gvi30 2011 Drewin dwg e ent Intersections fe Profile Wiew ea ML BO Da el e eae EE BG A Ay Aeembly 7 Sample Lines sae al D fe deo io Unwed Layer State Rf Fine Network Z Sechon views Le Gos RE properties a ES T deo Bo Profile amp Section fies Orew Mode Layer Select an mquery pre Ce Pura eal or rpg Lye EY Dawingl
15. pter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface functions are accessed through right click menus such as the one used in Step 5 of the previous exercise A good rule of thumb when using Prospector is When in doubt right click it Settings Tab Civil 3D has a lot of settings that control nearly every aspect of how the soft ware behaves In fact one of the things that makes Civil 3D so powerful is that you can customize its settings to accommodate nearly any design needed The Settings tab is where these settings are managed however you won t be spend ing much time here for the early part of your Civil 3D career This area is more often the territory of a CAD manager or Civil 3D guru To explore the Settings tab follow these steps you should still have User Interface dwg open from the previous exercise 1 Click the Settings tab of the Toolspace 2 Expand Surface gt Surface Styles and take note of the list of styles shown there These styles control the appearance of models that rep resent the shape of the ground 3 Expand Surface gt Label Styles gt Contour and take note of the list of styles shown there These styles control a certain type of label that is used to annotate surface models 4 Keep this drawing open for the next exercise Survey Tab The Survey tab is specifically for working with survey data You could call it Prospector for surveyors because it serves the same functions and works in mu
16. st an analogy and what were really talking about here is your ability to operate the basic controls of Civil 3D With the skills and knowledge that you ve gained in this chapter you will be better equipped to execute the tasks in upcoming chapters that deal with specific Civil 3D functions You ll become more efficient at using the software as you spend more time with it ADDITIONAL EXERCISES 1 For each command listed here what is the name of the ribbon tab where it can be found A Match Properties B Import Survey Data C Add Labels D Inquiry Tool E Elevation Editor F Toolspace G Points From File 14 Chapter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface THE ESSENTIALS AND BEYOND Continued 2 To practice becoming more fluent within the Civil 3D interface open the draw ing named User Interface 2 dwg which is located in the Chapter 01 class data folder Within this drawing use at least one command or function from each of the following parts of the Civil 3D user interface A Application menu this one s B Command line easy because you have to use it to open the drawing C Ribbon D Prospector E Transparent Commands F Inquiry Tool
17. the command line because it often tells you what to do next You can also launch commands from the command line but you will likely find it much easier to use the visual interface provided by the ribbon and other tools FIGURE 1 9 A view of the command line while using a transparent command to draw a line Notice how the command line reports that the LINE command has been started and then prompts for the first piece of information the first point 10 Certification Objective Chapter 1 Navigating the Civil 3D User Interface Using Panorama Panorama is a multipurpose window that is used to show and or modify many different types of information It works by displaying a tab for the information that you or the program has called for For example the Events tab also known as the Event Viewer will show up when Civil 3D needs to tell you something about the drawing In another example if you launch the command to edit the geometric details of an alignment the Alignment Entities tab will appear As shown in Figure 1 10 while Panorama displays information for one task it also displays tabs for other tasks that you can access with a single click This enables you to multitask within the same window Tangency Constraint Parameter Constrai Parameter Length Not Constrained J Constrained on Both Sides Free Hot Constrained Food Two ponis Radus Twa poor Pusdius amp i i a a amp To get a feel
18. ur design in a tree structure Figure 1 7 Why a tree structure and not just a list of items Later in this book you ll study how Civil 3D creates relationships between different parts of your design In some ways this tree structure helps represent some of those relationships as a hierarchy Another more practical reason for a tree structure is that it s an efficient way to show a long list of items in a rela tively small area the branches of the tree can be collapsed to make room to expand other branches Another way to think about Prospector is that it arranges your design categori cally rather than spatially In other words in your drawing area you see road centerlines crossing through parcels which cross through contours which cross through survey points Everything is in the right place spatially but from an organizational standpoint it s kind of a mess Prospector sorts out this mess and puts all the points in one place all the parcels in one place and so on Prospector also knows exactly where those objects are in the drawing You can right click an object in Prospector and use the Select command or Zoom To command to locate that object within the drawing Using the Toolspace 7 i Ele Point Groups i Point Clouds if a Surfaces i of Sd Offset Alignments i ot tal Curb Retum Alignments lt gt Miscellaneous Alignments ste i ote Catchments rst nl Pipe Networks tt H Comdors i GE Assemblies i a Int
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