Tips and Tricks. Matt Kolberg, Technology Consultant. Consulting Training Software

Transcription

1 Tips and Tricks Matt Kolberg, Technology Consultant Consulting Training Software

2 Civil 3D

3 Session Description This 60-minute session will reveal those hidden gems and other undocumented functionality in Civil 3D that can make you and your team more productive. From the Settings through to Corridors objects, there is a lot to discover, and we got you covered!

4 Civil 3D drawing format Civil 3D 2019 is the same AutoCAD and Civil format as they are compatible. What does this mean? It means that you can NOT save backwards! Be careful! If you open a drawing in 2018 or 2019, save it, open it up in 2017 or earlier, no Civil 3D objects can be created or edited.

5 Unexplained Performance Issues Have you ever experienced a drawing file which appears small and should perform well to be slow and unresponsive? It could be the result of a defect which now has a fix. 2019: comes with this fix. 2018: comes with this fix. 2017: Install service pack : Install service pack /2014: Follow the directions in the link above. Important: The update needs to be implemented on every user s machine and all files saved. The performance problem will return if an unpatched version of Civil 3D is used to save a file.

6 Stored References Missing DREF source file? No problem. Civil 3D stores the object in the drawing. Synchronized when found. Beware large surfaces:

7 Feature Lines Associate the elevations of PI s relative to a surface.

8 Metric Pressure Content Additional metric content is available for pressure networks.

9 Property Sets You can use property sets to assign and access custom properties for a particular object. A property set definition specifies the characteristics of a group of properties that can be associated with an object.

10 Driveway Letdowns Having trouble developing a corridor which includes letdowns? Use the Conditional Horizontal Target subassembly.

11 Structure Connection Points Connection points on a structure define the locations to which pipes can be connected.

12 Prospector Folders Organize Civil 3D objects into folders within the Prospector for most object types. When Data Shortcuts are created, the folders are respected.

13 2 Stations for 1 Structure Structures can be associated with only one alignment, but they are often required to label stations of alternate alignments. How can this be done?

14 Clean Parcels It can occur that parcels cannot be deleted from a drawing. Use the CLEARPHANTOMPARCELS command to remove them.

15 Zoom to a Cogo Point Use the ZTP command to zoom to a point whose number is known.

16 Ctrl + Click Holding down the Ctrl button while clicking will allow the selection of subcomponents for alignments and their labels..

17 Shift + Click Holding down the Shift key while clicking within a column in the Prospector will allow the selected property to be applied to all selected objects. In the image below, Shift+Click can be used to changed the styles of all selected Alignments.

18 Isolate Objects In order to more easily edit some objects in Civil 3D it can be beneficial to make all other objects disappear. The layer isolate tool can yield unexpected results. What to do? Use the Isolate Objects tool.

19 2D Distance in a 3D World Civil 3D creates 3-dimensional objects. Designers often require 2- dimensional distances. What to do when the software reports the distance in 3D? Set OSNAPZ to 1 prior to measuring a distance. The Z value is, for all intents and purposes, ignored. This variable is not saved. The next time Civil 3D is started, the value returns to 0.

20 Polyline Around EVERYTHING LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP creates a closed polyline around selected AutoCAD or Civil 3D objects.

21 Clean Bowties Corridors have a limitation where feature lines cross each other when the corridor changes direction in a short distance. These are called Bowties. Use the Clear Corridor Bowties tool.

22 Pipe Crossing Display Pipes displayed as crossings within profile or section views should appear as circles or ellipses depending on the vertical exaggeration. Sometimes they don t appear correctly. Set FACETDEV to a small value, such as 0.01 to enhance their display.

23 Point Clouds If you have a drawing which contains a point cloud and that file was created with Civil 3D prior to 2016, then you aren t using the latest technological advances. The point cloud engine has changed and the legacy object is no longer accessible.

24 Corridor Performance When calculating quantities, one must specify a reasonably dense frequency to ensure adequate accuracy. During design iterations, the frequency can be reduced to improve performance. Isolate regions to further speed things up.

25 Object Viewer Performance Corridors are notoriously slow when orbiting in the Object Viewer. They don t have to be! Create a Code Set Style that displays ONLY the Top links in the corridor for far better performance.

26 Surface Performance The surface on the left contains 1.2 million points, the drawing is 68 MB. Our project requires only the area within the blue rectangle. Some users would use a simple outer boundary to limit the display of the surface. This does not change the drawing size. Using the data clip boundary, the drawing size is only 6 MB.

27 Simplify Drawing Use the MAPTRIM tool to trim and delete objects outside a selected boundary.

28 Show Toolspace & tabs Bringing back the Toolspace interface Command: SHOWTS

29 Civil 3D Default Styles Take advantage of the Civil 3D default settings & command settings.

30 Purge Styles (1/2) Civil 3D has a tool for purging styles, but if the style is in use, it cannot be purged. Use the Find References right click option to see where the style is being used. The surface below is being used in a setting and by a TIN surface model.

31 Purge Styles (2/2) Once the references have been found, they can be manually edited so that a style can be purged, or the Replace With right click option can be used. Any object or setting using the selected style will be changed and will use the replacement style. The original style can then be deleted.

32 Managing Civil 3D Layers Out of the box Civil 3D templates follow the NCS layering standards. To help us handle these a little easier, in our C3D template(s), include a set of layer filters like these:

33 Assemblies Cross sections are the keys of a smart corridor. Build it right with fewer number of assemblies

34 Civil 3D Notes Add metadata to any object. Use the Extended data in the Properties palette.

35 Corridors creation and editing Work with corridor regions in the plan view, edit targets, copy regions and many more options

36 Enhance it with productivity tools A collection of tools available from subscription center to enhance the productivity

37 Plotting - labels are too big or small Check the page setup manager to confirm that the units are set to metric as it affects the size if the paper size is set to an imperial size and then the plot scale defaults to inches.

38 Overhang Correction When creating especially datum / top formation surfaces you want the surface to hug the bottom / top of the corridor assembly.

39 Level of Detail As you zoom out, the displayed amount of drawing data decreases. Reducing the level of detail improves AutoCAD Civil 3D performance. As you zoom in, the displayed amount of drawing data increases. When you plot a drawing, the full detail of all objects will be included, even if level of detail mode is on. It is recommended that this feature be turned off if it is not required.

40 AutoCAD

41 Compare Drawings An efficient review of drawings and revisions is key as you move through the design, development, and construction phases of a project. The Drawing Compare feature makes it easier and faster to compare versions of drawings visually and review proposed changes.

42 CLOSEALLOTHER command Right-click on a file tab to access the Close All Other Drawings option (or use the CLOSEALLOTHER command).

43 Content Timesaver alert! Now you can access layers, blocks, hatch patterns, text styles, dimension styles and visual styles from the command line! For example, if you key in Door, you can quickly insert the preferred door block from the suggestion list.

44 Object Selection Click and drag your cursor to use the new Lasso selection click and release for the traditional rectangular selection. Note: This behavior can be turned off on the Selection tab of Options.

45 "No Selection" This error can appear in the Properties palette when objects have been selected. In AutoCAD there is a maximum number of entities that can be selected before the properties palette registers "No selection". The system variable PROPOBJLIMIT that controls that.

46 XREF Enhancements Change the XREF type or path for multiple selected xrefs simultaneously from the rightclick menu in the XREF Manager. Note: Toggle between Attach and Overlay in the XREF Manager with a simple double-click.

47 Geometric Center Object Snap New object snap (GCE) finds the geometric center of polygons and closed polylines. A new glyph indicates geometric center.

48 Badges AutoCAD 2016 has added handy, relevant badges that provide you with contextual feedback right next to the crosshairs during selection, inquiring, and editing. Set CURSORBADGE to 1 to turn off the display of cursor badges (2 to turn them back on).

49 Smart Dimensioning Automatically create appropriate dimensions based on the geometry. Pass the cursor over selected objects to preview the dimension before you create it. Speed your detailing work

50 Coordination Model - Navisworks Now you can attach coordination models to a drawing! The Attach command and the Xref Manager now have options for Autodesk Navisworks files (NWD or NWC).

51 Revision Cloud Edit existing revision clouds. Revision clouds The new revision clouds in AutoCAD are easier to create and easier to edit. The intuitive grips help you keep your revision clouds symmetrical.

52 System Variable Monitor New system variable monitor Monitor pre-configured variables. Are you tired of your system variables being switched behind your back? Use the new System Variable Monitor (SYSVARMONITOR) to set up your preferred settings.

53 Unreconciled layers notification How to turn off the unreconciled layers notification in AutoCAD? For the active drawing, change the system variable LAYERNOTIFY to 0 (zero) or click the Settings button in the upper-right corner of the layers palette and uncheck "Evaluate New Layers Added to Drawings." To turn off the notification for all drawings, change the system variable LAYEREVALCTL to 0 (zero).

54 Snapping to Gaps Now object snaps recognizes gaps within a dashes or dots linetype allowing you to snap to objects even when picking on a blank space. Note: You must turn on the system variable LTGAPSELECTION to get this new behavior!

55 PDF Enhancements Not only have there been improvements to exporting PDF files, but now you can import the geometry, TrueType text and raster images from a PDF! Text recognition as well.

56 Questions?