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Archive for the ‘Civil’ Category
Intersection Profiles “Cannot Be Locked?”
Monday, August 9th, 2010
by Russ Nicloy, Civil Applications Engineer
One of the nice things about the intersections tool in Civil 3D is that the secondary road’s profile will lock itself to the elevation of the primary road’s profile. This has a couple of advantages. One being that you don’t have to be terribly precise when creating the secondary road’s profile. I’ve intentionally ignored the proper elevation just to make sure this is true - but I’m not suggesting your profiles be 20′ apart. Also, the real reason for this is that if you make a change to the primary road profile the secondary profile will react and match that intersection point.
The issue some have had is, from time to time, they receive a message indicating that one or more of the secondary profiles cannot be locked This is what that message looks like:
The issue that I have run into is not that you haven’t used a “fixed tangent” or “free parabola,” as the fine print of this message would seem to indicate. I chased that one for quite a while. The actual problem is that the secondary road profile is not able to be edited in this file, therefore, cannot be changed to the proper locking position of the primary road’s profile.
This is probably being caused by the secondary road’s profile being a data reference from another file. A referenced object cannot have its geometry changed, and that is exactly what this process needs. You can check the profile in the Toolspace, and if it has a little marker next to it (screenshot below, hopefully familiar to those using data shortcuts) then it is in fact a reference.
The quick way to fix this is to promote the secondary profile. This makes it part of the file where the intersection is being designed, it ensures locking to the primary is possible, while still allowing the changes to the primary (in a different file) to affect the secondary profile. It only brings over a small amount of information, so you aren’t adversely affecting your file, or your workflow. Simply right-click on the profile name and choose Promote (it also appears in the ribbon when the profile is selected).
My first concern was that I would accidentally, or need to, promote the alignment, the surface profile, or some combination of other objects. This turns out not to be the case.
Superelevation Changes in 2011
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
By Russ Nicloy, Civil Application Engineer
One of the changes you will notice in the 2011 release of Civil 3D is how superelevations are handled. There is a lot more control over the type and assignment of slopes. Like many tools that have been added or upgraded over the years, the superelevation tools make use of a wizard entry system to walk you through the necassary options. These wizards are further explained through the use of schematic graphics so the user will understand what setting they are atually affecting, even if the terminology is different than you might use in your particular area.
At the same time, you are still assigning this superelevation data to the alignment, but it doesn’t feel like you are tied to the alignment at the time. The data about the curves and lane slopes are in the Panorama window, and that allows for the columns of data to be broken up in a way that makes them easier to manuver through. The old charts got you the information, but it was in a tidal wave of data.
Another trend appears in the table area and that is the highlighting of objects inside the drawing area. If you click on a field for, let’s say, the Begin Full Super for curve number two (I happen to be looking at that data right now), you can look back at the alignment and Curve 2 will be highlighted in red, and the station for the End Full Super will have a blue hash mark identifying its location.
By the way, you can still manually add (or delete) stations with this method. In fact, you could still build a superelevation from scratch, with just the stations and slopes you need to target. I know that has helped many in some sticky situations utilize superelevations for not necassarily superelevation work.
Raster Design 2011
Monday, July 19th, 2010
I am REALLY excited to post this. Raster Design 2011 has been released. Raster is one of those products that does a lot of the unsung hero kind of work. If you’re like me you have been waiting with bated breath for this release (or emailing me once a week 
).
Service Pack 3, for 2010
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Just a quick note that service pack 3 for Civil 3D for 2010 has been released. As always there is a Readme file that I highly recommend. If you haven’t made the jump up to 2011 yet, and you aren’t planning to in the next month or so, I would highly suggest loading this. Of course, I will highly recommend the 2011 release as well.
By the way, you NEED service pack 2 installed to install service pack 3! Follow this link to get to SP2. The good news is that this service pack does include the new stuff for AutoCAD and Map.
Description Keys, Afterward
Friday, July 16th, 2010
By Russ Nicloy, Civil Applications Engineer
Description keys have been around for quite some time. Some groups don’t use them, but I’ve always like them for their point management functions. If you are in a group that is making use of them you should be aware of a small but VERY effective addition to their functionality.
Description Keys have historically been used to manage points at the point of creation. Either by import or creating points manually, the description keys can assign styles, labels, layers, description formats, among other settings. Since it only affected points at the point of their creation, if you needed to make changes you then had to recreate points to get the settings appropriate.
Now you can also apply these to points that are already in your file. You can do it for whole point groups, or for individual points. My screenshot below is an example of applying changes to a point group, in this case the _All Points point group (effectively applying to all of the points in the file).
It seems small, especially if you haven’t used description keys before. But this allows for a very quick turn around when project specific changes need to be made.
The Right Fit: Alignments From the Field
Monday, June 28th, 2010
By Russ Nicloy
I was working with a user this week. During the process he had points he’d surveyed in the field for the centerline of an existing path was. He was going to eyeball in the alignment along that path based on the points he’d shot. But why not let the computer do things like that?! The alignment will be much easier to put in, and more appropriate mathematically as well?!
In Civil 3D 2011 you can create a best fit alignment. Now, the user I worked with had C3D point objects fom his survey, but you can also use AutoCAD points, AutoCAD blocks, feature lines, or AutoCAD lines and arcs. If you are using C3D points from the survey you just got in, you could also use an existing point group to even more quickly assign the C3D point objects. You can assign a maximum radius for curve creation so that the alignment will curve, or choose a more direct path. You are still in the “alignment creation” process, so styles and labels are available in the same dialog box. For those that want to double-check where this alignment is coming in, there is even a regression graph available.
All this and you don’t have to play connect the dots!
Just another real world example of where the 2011 release is saving time and increasing accuracy.
What Happened to My Crown
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
By Russ Nicloy
I actually posted this a couple of years ago. I had thought it might be time to update the post when I got a support call that absolutely told me it was time to repost! If you’re doing road design at all this is important.
The issue at hand is that you may need your road crown points to be labeled in a cross section view. Or, perhaps you need to export the crown points from the corridor. If you haven’t made a certain choice for your assembly it may appear that you don’t have any crown points.
There is a real reason why this is missing. The LaneOutsideSuper subassembly is extremely useful in most road designs, and might be used in a more complex roadway that has multiple lanes. That means one of them might be the crown of the road, but others might not be. So this subassembly has an on/off switch for the crown point. The default for the switch is OFF. Here is what the subassembly property palette looks like in the default form.
Once this is set to YES the crown is now identified in the corridor, and can be used for labeling or points. Here is the same cross-section properties with the Crown turned on. Notice that there are actually four point codes added to the assembly. The crown point is added to all of the material courses.
And finally, here is a look at the cross-section view that shows the crown labels.
Opening a File: Trust Me On This
Friday, June 11th, 2010
By Russ Nicloy
I may have a series of posts subtitled “trust me on this.” The first one appeared about a month or two ago regarding scaling of drawings. I realized there were other issues that users everyday wander into by accident, not realizing how important they are to drawing stability. That can really mess you (the user) up in the long run. I believe these will be sparked by spontaneous conversations, and as issues arise, so they may be sporadic. But, I hope they are helpful and enlightening.
This installment centers around the way people open files. I suppose this goes for all Autodesk programs, but we see it for Civil 3D a lot. There are a lot of users who go into Windows Explore, browse to where their file is located, then double-click the drawing icon. this opens Civil 3D and the drawing, all in one fell swoop. Its something that we as users do all the time, because it works….usually.
Actually, the problem with opening files this way is that it by-passes a whole host of desirable functions. If you were to open C3D, then open the file from within the program, the configurable settings and object enablers, et al, run properly and things are great. In fact, we aren’t certain that some stability issues aren’t related to this issue.
The issue that sparked this post was a user was opening a file through Explore, and the proxy graphics window kept popping up (which there were no proxy graphics in this file) - followed by a crash to the desktop. When he opened from inside the program things ran just fine.
We have seen this a lot. So trust me on this. Open your program first, then the documents from inside.
Data Shortcut Poject Association
Friday, June 4th, 2010
By Russ Nicloy
If you are using data shortcuts for your Civil 3D projects you probably have to track where shortcuts are stored and which drawing file is using which shortcut. In the 2011 release there is relief for this. As you make shortcuts you have the opportunity to make a project association so that Civil 3D can track the relationship. Not only does it track the relationship, it will change the data shortcut to the correct shortcut location just by your opening of a file.
Notice that there is a “multiple drawings” option where you can point to a file folder, instead of associating one drawing at a time. Saves some time and effort if your file storage structure is organized well.
Raster Design Object Enabler for 2011
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
By Russ Nicloy
I know a lot of people were waiting for this. The Raster Design Object Enabler for 2011 has been posted. I came to report before getting it myself, but a quick run through the Readme confirms SID file access. I always highly recommend reading the readme file - its not just the “accept license agreement” kind of stuff that everyone clicks through. Make sure that you download the right version, 32-bit or 64-bit.
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