IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Update 3 has been released for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Douglas Benoit, PE, ICE) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:13:13 EDT

Before I get into the real meat and potatoes (how corny is that) of this post, let me first throw a "plug" out for the WAUG (Wasatch Area User's Group). A Civil 3D User Group located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their next meeting is scheduled for July 14th and is to be held at 1225 E Fort Union Blvd, Suite 300 Cottonwood Heights, UT, USA 84047. So, if you haven't attended any WAUG meetings lately or at all and you're actually using Civil 3D, well now is your chance. If you need more information, you can contact Wendy Miller at wendyloui@yahoo.com or Paul Halladay at 801-944-0607x103, they'll be happy to get you going in the right direction.

Ok, now for the meat and potatoes... This goes out to all of you AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009 users out there. There is a new Update 3 that became available just a few short days ago. A good number of issues have been resolved thanks to all of you that used the Customer Error Reporting Utility to your advantage. And you thought they didn't listen.

So download and install the new Update 3 to take advantage of fixes, and take a look at the readme file for installation instructions and for a list of many of the issues resolved.

Note: you must install Update 2.1 before installing Update 3.

For those of you that have moved over to AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010 and are reaping the benefits of some totally awesome new tools (you have to admit that the new Intersection tools are just WAY #@C$ing COOL and the QTO Manager is something that we, as Civil people, have been wanting and needing for years). Well, it is here!

However, whether you're using 2009 or 2010, performance seems to be... well, how can I say in accordance with the PC crowd... hmm. OK, it sucks, but just a little unless you've been neglecting your hardware, then it probably sucks a lot. So what do you do? Here are few things that you can try:

The tried and true...

-PURGE for regapps (2010 allows us to purge Zero-length geometry and Empty text objects).

AUDIT, and do it regularly.

PURGE it! You know why.

ERASE it! Yes you can and you know how and why. And to the biggest offenders... we know who you are.

Now for some newbie's...

DYNAMIC INPUT off, it may cool in AutoCAD, but in Civil 3D it puts a strain on your workstation's resources (though it's not much, but it all adds up... then you CRASH!)

Adjust the WHIPTHREAD system variable for all of you multi-core users.

GRAPHIC CARD DRIVERS. Get the latest and greatest for your machine. I've heard that NVIDEA has some new ones out there that have been created with AutoCAD in mind. However, if you are running a DELL computer, you'll have to wait until DELL makes them available. That is what I've heard anyway.

VTOPTIONS... off, off and off.

Set the LARGEOBJECTSUPPORT system variable to use AutoCAD 2010 object size limits.

But hey! Let's not put all of the performance problems on the shoulders of Civil 3D. I know all of you are going to find this hard to believe, but someone at Microsoft thought that we would just love to have every possible resource sucking option turned on. Well, they thought wrong. Go to Start>Control Panel>System>Advanced (tab)>Performance/Settings>Visual Effects and toggle on Adjust for best performance...

Call me crazy, but I unchecked them all! Now, I am still running XP, if you are running Vista you may find one or two that you'd like to leave on. You'll have to decide that when you get to it.

And how about some Undocumented stuff...

AeccFindSiteOverlaps : this will check for overlapping alignments, feature lines, and lot lines in a Site.

AeccRemoveDupFeatureLines : this will move each overlapping feature line to its own individual Site.

AeccRemoveAlignmentsFromSite : this moves alignments to the Alignments collection in Prospector.

AeccRemoveDupLotLines : this performs the same function as AeccRemoveDupFeatureLines command above, except it will move overlapping parcel lot lines to separate Sites.

Well, I think that is enough for today. It's a nice day, and I think my bobber just went down!

Thanks and Enjoy!

PS - Gotcha with the bobber comment, didn't I?

Swapping a Profile Curve Label in Civil 3D

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Douglas Benoit, PE, ICE) — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:30:43 EDT

Before I dive into today's topic, I would like to take a moment and mention the Greater Boston Autodesk Users Group . They meet the second Tuesday of every month and discuss many of the products available from Autodesk. Even though you just missed the last meeting, no worries, you can easily attend the next one. So, check out the GBAUG's website for times and topics and show your support of your local Users Group. Not only are local Users Group meetings a good place to hear about the latest and greatest tools, but they are a good place to get and share information that may help you with your day-to-day work related tasks. Your local Users Groups are there for you, so why don't you at least check them out. You'll be glad you did.

Alright, on to the next item of business...

Below I have vertical sag curve, created in AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010 , that has been assigned a default label style. This label style places the low point, or high point, information below the leader. Not a bad label overall, but at the current drawing scale, the low point information encroaches on the " begin" and " end" vertical curve information. Not good.

To resolve this we can simply change the drawing scale. What's that... not an option. Hmmm... ok, we can apply a different label style to all vertical curve labels, one that may or may not be in accordance with your company's standards. Don't like that one either... huh? Well, what if we were to "swap" out just the label needed? Might that not make everyone all warm and fuzzy inside? Yes that is an option, and it is a very simple one at that.

The first thing that we need to do is isolate just the vertical curve label that is causing us great annoyance and displeasure. A very easy task, simply hold the Ctrl button down and your crosshairs will change...

...to a " pick box " as shown.

With the Ctrl button depressed, sashay over and " pick" the label you would like to change. You must sashay over, otherwise it won't work. JUST KIDDING! Now that the label has been selected, right click to display the shortcut menu, and pick the Edit Label Style option.

Then in the Profile Curve Label Style dialog box, pick the appropriate label style.

Pick Ok to continue, and...

Ta Da! How easy was that? And, we didn't even have to relocate the label. It stayed put just like we expected it to.

Oh, and by the way, using the Ctrl > Left Click works in other places as well, and the above technique works in AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009 and both of the AutoCAD® Civil products.

Thanks and Enjoy!

PS - I had a mental picture of some of you sashaying over and picking the label... it wasn't pretty. ;^)

Zoom To in Civil 3D

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Douglas Benoit, PE, ICE) — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:41:18 EDT

Still want more Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2010 information, then check out and register for The Autodesk Imagine Virtual Event .

Did you know that you can "Zoom to" any Civil 3D object by selecting it in the Item View pane of the Prospector tab, right clicking and picking Zoom to? I thought you did. However, did you know that when it comes to points, you can select multiple points, and then use the Zoom to option?

(Click to Enlarge)

If you didn't know... well, now you do.

Oh and one more thing... Yep, I'm still here. I just found a new super secret hiding spot. ;^)

Thanks and Enjoy!

Civil 3D and Tray Settings

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Douglas Benoit, PE, ICE) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:32:48 EDT

Here is something that I am sure that you run into on daily... even on an hourly basis when using AutoCAD® Civil 3D® and the other AutoCAD® based products. It's one of those silly little balloons that pop up in the lower right corner informing you of something that you've just done or need to do. You know, it displays every time you plot, you Xref in another drawing file (unless LAYEREVAL has been disabled), you need to synchronize a data shortcut... do I need to go on? It also stays open until you close it or run the feature it is prompting you about.

Would you like to set it up so that it closed automatically? Well, who wouldn't? I wish I could tell you, but then we'd all know, and what fun would that be.

Just kidding... it is actually very easy. Simply left click on the little black triangle/arrow in the lower right corner of Civil 3D.

Doing so will display the Tray Settings dialogue box, where you can select the Display time option and set the time to 1 to 10 seconds.

It's as simple as that... and now you know!

Thanks and Enjoy!

Civil 3D 2009 Daylight Topsoil Quantities

imaginitfeeds@rand.com (Douglas Benoit, PE, ICE) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:05:24 EDT

Before I start... I hope some or all of you got a chance to check out IMAGINiT's Virtual Tradeshow last week. If not, you missed out on a great international, yes it was that big, show and an enormous amount of information.

(Click to Enlarge)

I was able to sit in on Andy Parr's Wednesday night AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010 seminar on the new stuff coming our way. All I've got to say is... TOTALLY (insert color adjective of your choice here) AWESOME! Andy was fantastic (as smooth as silk) and accomplished it all on beta software. And speaking of software, beta or not, all I can say is WOW! Autodesk really hit one out of the park this time! I believe " At-a-boys" are in order for all on Autodesk's Civil 3D Development Team!

Ok, on to today's topic...

I received an email a month or two ago asking if there was a way to get AutoCAD ® Civil 3D® 2009 to calculate topsoil/sod quantities in their boulevard areas especially along the daylight subassemblies. My first response was that it sure can; however, I wasn't sure if the way I had in mind (let's call it Plan A) would work since it didn't in C3D 2008. So, I tried it and I even check with Autodesk Tech Support, and what didn't work in 2008, doesn't work in 2009 either. I was also informed that it is not destined to be fixed any time soon. After adding 2 cents worth of my thoughts on the whole "it won't be fixed" thing, I moved to Plan B.

My second option was to put the new "ConditionalCutOrFill" subassembly to use. And, it worked pretty darn cool.

Note: For Civil 3D 2009 the "ConditionalCutOrFill" subassembly is only available from the Autodesk Subscription website. So, if you are not on subscription, you will have to wait.

In the example below, each side of the Assembly included the following Subassemblies:

(Click to Enlarge)

Note to self... Crashing is never fun, so use the "Esc" key to escape out of the ConditionalCutOrFill subassembly vs. right-clicking. Will I ever learn? :-)

The completed Assembly is as follows after mirroring one side to the other.

(Click to Enlarge)

After setting up the assembly, create the corridor. From the corridor, generate 3DPLINES from daylight corridor feature lines ( Corridors > Utilities > Create Polylines from Corridor ). In the corridor properties you can then target those 3DPLINES both horizontally and vertically with the outermost ShapeTrapezoidal in Cut and Fill.

The resulting sections in CUT...

(Click to Enlarge)

The resulting sections in FILL...

(Click to Enlarge)

Now for the Report...

Proceed as you would with any "Select Material" report, just add the TOPSOIL material. In this case, I just computed the topsoil material for your viewing pleasure.

(Click to Enlarge)

That's it my friends... nothing to it. So, go out and give it a test drive and see if it was just what the doctor ordered.

Thanks and Enjoy!