InfraWorks into Civil 3D

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1 Eric Chappell Autodesk Learn about taking conceptual designs in InfraWorks and bringing them into Civil 3D for final design. We ll take a detailed look at how InfraWorks models our design, and exactly what form that takes when brought into Civil 3D. We ll also cover an example of taking a near-final design in Civil 3D and bringing it into InfraWorks for detailed visualization. Learning Objectives At the end of this class, you will be able to: Identify the versions and services packs necessary for the best results with InfraWorks & Civil 3D interoperability Open InfraWorks models in Civil 3D Reference Civil 3D designs in an InfraWorks model Make changes to the Civil 3D design and update the InfraWorks model About the Speaker Eric Chappell serves as Community Evangelist for InfraWorks 360 at Autodesk. He is a recognized expert in InfraWorks and has been writing and talking about it since its inception. He has over 20 years experience in the civil/survey field having served as field surveyor, designer, CAD manger, consultant, trainer, and many other roles relating to Civil 3D and InfraWorks. His most recognizable work is a series of essentials books for InfraWorks and Civil 3D published by Wiley\Sybex. He resides in central Virginia and when he s not talking to folks about InfraWorks he s spending time with his wife and four children, playing music, or enjoying the outdoors. You can reach Eric at eric.chappell@autodesk.com

2 Introduction InfraWorks 360 and Civil 3D make an amazing duo. InfraWorks handles the planning and preliminary design in a fast, visual environment. Then, InfraWorks hands the reins over to Civil 3D to perform detailed design and documentation. When that s complete, Civil 3D can then hand the project back over to InfraWorks for visualization. Of course none of this is possible without successfully moving the data between the two products, and that s exactly what this class is about. What You ll Need For this to work, you will need the following: The version of InfraWorks or InfraWorks 360 Civil 3D 2015 Service pack 2 for Civil 3D 2015 Productivity Pack 1 for Civil 3D 2015 Opening an InfraWorks model in Civil 3D 1. Close down the InfraWorks model. a. You can t really close a model so you ll either have to open another one or just shut down InfraWorks 2. Create a new drawing in Civil 3D or open a drawing you ve been working on for the project. 3. Before you import the InfraWorks data, you may want to configure your import settings. Do this by expanding Subscription Extension Manager > Civil 3D Productivity Pack 1 > Open InfraWorks Model, right-clicking Configure InfraWorks - Civil 3D Exchange Settings, and clicking Execute. 4. On the dialog that opens you can choose which types of data to import as well as modify settings for each type. Some of the most useful settings involve assigning default styles for objects that will be imported. Make your changes and remember to save what you ve done to an XML file. The settings you change here have no effect on the import. It s the XML file that you select during import that makes that determination. 2

3 5. Launch the Open InfraWorks Model tool a. Go to the Toolbox tab of Prospector b. Expand Subscription Extension Manager > Civil 3D Productivity Pack 1 > Open InfraWorks Model > Open InfraWorks Model. c. Right-click Open InfraWorks Model and pick Execute 6. Click the folder icon and browse to the SQLite file for your InfraWorks model. 3

4 7. Select a coordinate system for your Civil 3D drawing (if you haven t already done it previously). 8. If you don t want to import the entire InfraWorks model, choose the Area of Interest option and click Select Area. 9. After a pause the online mapping data will appear in the background to provide reference for you. You ll also see a rectangle representing the extents of the InfraWorks model and a red marker near the center of that rectangle. Draw a box to select the area that you want. 4

5 10. Choose an XML file and click Refine Selection Set to choose the items you would like to import. 11. Click Open Model and wait for the process to finish. What Just Happened? InfraWorks design roads were imported as alignments and profiles InfraWorks drainage networks were imported as Civil 3d pipe networks according to the settings in the XML file. You could have imported 3 potential surfaces: one representing the existing ground, one representing proposed ground, and one representing existing road surfaces. It s probably best to just import the existing ground surface, or no surfaces at all if you already have an accurate existing ground surface. Planning roads are imported as alignments but do not have profiles Other objects may be imported but we won t cover those at this time. Now What? Now that you have an alignment, profile and possibly even a pipe network, you can create a profile view and begin perfecting the preliminary design that you began in InfraWorks. This may involve editing the alignment, adjusting profile elevations and curve geometry, moving, deleting, or adding pipes and structures, or anything else that you run into in the process of designing. You can also construct an assembly and use it to build a corridor from the alignment and profile. Basically, you can proceed with the detailed design process as you normally would, but instead of starting with nothing you can pick up in Civil 3D from where you left off in InfraWorks. Back to InfraWorks One thing you don t have in Civil 3D is the context of all those square miles of surrounding landscape and/or cityscape that you had in InfraWorks. At some point you may want to visualize your detailed design in that context and therefore you ll need to bring it back to InfraWorks. Here s how: 1. Be sure to save your Civil 3D drawing, but you don t have to close it. 2. Open your InfraWorks model and create a new proposal by copying the master proposal (assuming the master has no design in it and only contains existing info). 5

6 3. Open the Data Sources panel. 4. Select Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D DWG and browse to your Civil 3D drawing. 5. Choose which data sources you want to import. Typically you won t bring in any surfaces. For roads, there are two ways you can go (don t do both in the same proposal): 6

7 a. Import your corridor as a series of coverages i. An exact 3D match to your Civil 3D corridor ii. Essentially not editable from within InfraWorks iii. Best if you intend to continue making all changes in Civil 3D iv. Refreshing/reimporting is a smooth process b. Import your alignment and profile as an InfraWorks road i. Creates the spine of a new road, you ll need to apply a style ii. Great if you want to make more edits from within InfraWorks iii. Not great if you want to continue making edits in Civil 3D and bringing them over to InfraWorks iv. Refreshing/reimporting is not a smooth process 6. Click the Refresh icon to see the new data in the model. What Just Happened? If you picked coverages for your road, your road will appear as a series of coverages with styles assigned based on a set of style rules. More on this below. If you chose to import your roads as InfraWorks roads, you ll need to assign styles to them using the Road asset card. Once you do, a refresh or reimport will create a messy double road with lots of weird twisty intersections. If you need to update the road based on a change in Civil 3D, it s best to delete it and reimport. Style Rules The different appearances taken on by the different road coverages are the result of an InfraWorks function: Style Rules. The style rules are created automatically as part of the process of attaching to a Civil 3D drawing as a data source. You can access these style rules by 7

8 clicking the Style Rules icon on the Manage toolbar. What you ll find is that each coverage s Tag property was automatically filled in with the link code from the corridor. So you ll see Tag values like Pave, and SubBase, and Daylight (if you work with Civil 3D corridors a lot, these will sound familiar). The Tags are matched to coverage styles and that s what makes them come out the way they do. You can edit the tag values or the style rules to get a different result. A change that I often find myself making is unchecking the SubBase style rule so that the road surface doesn t look like light colored coarse gravel. Updating InfraWorks after a Civil 3D Change So you ve changed your detailed design and Civil 3D and you want to update your InfraWorks model to reflect it. No problem for the roads brought in as coverages. All you have to do is save your changes in Civil 3D, right-click the data source in InfraWorks, and select Reimport. The road coverages will update to match what you ve done in Civil 3D. If you ve brought in roads as InfraWorks roads, you re better off deleting them and reimporting. 8

9 Conclusion With the new updates to Civil 3D and InfraWorks, doing your preliminary design in InfraWorks is a no-brainer because now, you don t lose any of your effort during the transfer of data from InfraWorks to Civil 3D. You do your preliminary design where it s meant to be done: in the fast, visual environment of InfraWorks. Then, when the time is right, you can move your design over to Civil 3D and begin tacking the detailed design process. As an added bonus, you can even bring your detailed design back to InfraWorks so that you can take advantage of InfraWorks incredible ability create context and view your design within it. InfraWorks and Civil 3D are a powerful combination for tacking preliminary and detailed design. Be sure to use them both to their fullest! 9