Owner: Crossing The Line with Civil 3D URL:http://crossing-the-line-with-c3d.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:49:55 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog about AutoCAD and AutoCAD Civil 3D for civil engineering professionals. Site statistics:Click here
Become an AutoCAD Power User #2 2008-03-06 21:46:27 Set IMAGEFRAME to 2 to display the image frame, but not plot the image frame.Hold F3 to temporarily reverse the object snaps setting.Run xlist to list the properties of an object in an xref.Set maxsort to a higher number if new layers are no longer being sorted alphabetically. The default value is 200. The maximum value is 32767.Technorati Tags: AutoCAD Read more:Become
From Rectangular to Polygonal? No Problem! 2008-03-03 13:36:14 Maybe it's just me, but is seems that when your working on drawings that contain multiple layouts, using polygonal viewports increases the regen time on the drawing. Okay, so there's a lot of things that increase regen time, especially if you're using Civil 3D, but I'm only addressing one in particular. (For a more detailed list with recommendations, read Dana's post on civil 3d.com)Up until last week, I would always create my viewports as rectangular then add a mask or wipeout, if necessary, to place my north arrow and barscale. This method works for objects in paperspace, but if I needed to overlay another viewport, that wasn't the answer. In that case, I had to recreate the viewport, move the new one so that it overlayed the original one exactly (move endpoint to endpoint), the Read more:Problem
What? You Don't Use Bands? 2008-02-28 23:26:23 That was the reaction I received during a presentation at my local user group meeting last week. That group may not remember anything else I said, but that comment definitely got a reaction from the crowd. So here's the story behind that statement... Some engineers and companies are very particular about how certain items are labeled on their profile views. I was working with one of those engineers on a project last year when I ran into a snag. I was supposed to show the elevations of the profile in the "band" at the bottom of the profile view but I had to add the text "TC=" in front of the elevation. The problem was that the "TC=" text appeared even on stations that had no profile. Obviously, that wa Read more:Bands
AutoCAD & Vertical Application Bugtracker 2008-02-28 18:08:53 If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to visit the AutoCAD
& VerticalApplication
Bugtracker website. It's managed by a great guy named Ralph Sanchez. He's keeping a list of "known bugs" for AutoCAD products that have been submitted to Autodesk.The website currently lists bugs for the following products:AutoCADAutoCAD Civil 3DAutoCAD Land DesktopAutoCAD Map 3DIf you know of any bugs in current AutoCAD or Vertical Applications that have already been submitted to Autodesk, just submit a bug report to the teXupport.net website for all others to see. If you know of a current "work-around" or solution for the problem, be sure to include that information with your bug report. I won't promise any miracles, but Ralph and his trusty band of hooligans may even be able to help y
Vista, You're Fast Again! 2008-02-15 20:08:50 As a follow up to my Vista
, Why Are You So Slow? post, I finally just changed my "Windows Color and Appearance" to Vista Basic. That helped on the speed issue a lot, but then my screen captures didn't match all the prior screen captures that I had in the handout I was preparing. So I just switched it back to the default settings for "Windows Color and Appearance". Even though I don't know why, the system is "fast" again. I guess the change worked like a reboot or something.So if you ever have slowness issues with Vista, try switching to Vista Basic in the "Open classic appearance properties for more color options" section of the "Windows Color and Appearance" panel in Vista, then change back to the Aero color of your choice.Technorati Tags: Windows,, Vista
Read more:Again
Who Has Time for All Those Civil 3D Webcasts? 2008-02-15 19:54:23 No matter how many times I have visited the Civil
3D Live Webcast page, I have never noticed that the sidebar on the left included a link to a section called Demonstration. Well, I actually followed that link today, and they are several real quick demos of each subject listed.I viewed the "Section" demo and it wasn't bad. The best part is that it only last a few minutes. Sure, these demos are not going to answer as many questions as watching the full webcast will, but it may be enough to get you started.In case you do have time for training, there are many sites that include webcasts, screencasts, etc. Here's a short list of sites you really should visit for webcast style training:Civil 3D Webcasts PageAutodesk UniversityAutodesk Subscription CenterThe subscription center has eLearning
New AutoDesk Product? 2008-02-13 20:51:32 With all the hype on AutoCAD 2009, I thought I would take this opportunity to post about an AutoDesk product that I recently purchased...Even though the Autodesk we know and love doesn't capitalize their D, I still thought it was an "Autodesk" product when I saw it because of the font style and color scheme (white text on dark background).
Quick Profile Your Way to a Better Surface 2008-02-13 19:21:12 Quick profiles are one of my favorite tools. The fact that you can grip edit an object and have the quick profile automatically update is just amazing to me. I like to use this tool to verify that my surface is accurately representing the surface I'm trying to create or that the surface I received from a surveyor accurately represents the field conditions. Here's what you need to know about quick profiles:First of all, you only need one thing to create a quick profile: a surface. At the command prompt, type createquickprofile and press enter. At this point, you'll be given this prompt:Select object or [by Points]:(Remember I said all you needed was a surface?) If you don't have a specific object to select, just type p and press enter to select the "by Points" option. Now you can be Read more:Quick
Vista, Why Are You So Slow? 2008-02-12 10:00:20 I've been using 32-bit Vista
Home Premium for several months now. The speed has been good for the most part but for the last week or two, I had noticed everything running quite sluggish. I didn't know what I had done different. The sluggishness even appeared while I was typing things like emails or web posts. What the heck happened to this laptop?I began searching for culprits by going through the icons shown on the taskbar. I had installed a trial version of SnagIt several days earlier and it started automatically when booted the machine. I exited SnagIt but that didn't seem to help. The sluggishness was still there.My laptop is an HP and as a result, it has several HP apps running as well. I had already removed or disabled several other HP apps, but HP Advisor was still running.
Where, Oh Where, Did the Xref Toolbar Go? 2008-01-30 19:07:16 This may be a no-brainer for most, but when you're just getting started with AutoCAD, it's real easy to forget. For the majority of CAD users I know, the "Refedit" toolbar is not visible most of the time. It just appears when you try to edit a block "in-place".Unfortunately, this usually appears right where you're trying to edit your block. Now I know your first instinct is to hit the x at the top right corner and get that toolbar out of the way. However, when you finish editing your block you no longer have that cute little icon to click and "Save Reference Edits".So what happens when you no longer have this toolbar? Well, you have two options: make the toolbar visible again or use the command line.One way to make the toolbar visible, is to right click in the area underneath the menu Read more:Toolbar
Free Video Tutorials 2008-01-28 15:26:44 Many of us enjoy the videos posted on youtube, but is there any reason to view them at work?Check out the youtube website and search for "Civil 3D". Today, I received 28 results. (If you put "" around the phrase, it will remove videos about the civil war or civil disputes.) The subjects range from CUI, styles, surfaces, corridors, render.You can also try searches for other software such as "AutoCAD", "AutoCAD 2008", "Excel", etc.
Read more:Tutorials
Which Way is North? 2008-01-23 22:22:07 For many land surveyors, if you mention changing the UCS to anything other than "World" they just might turn as white as a sheet from fright. But you don't necessarily have to change the UCS to get everything "rotated" to fit on a page when plotted.The first thing you need to do is determine what rotation is going to work best for the project. In this example, I selected the southeastern boundary line. I ran the distance command (di) selecting the south corner first and the east corner second (it doesn't matter if there are PI's in between the two points you select). The resulting angle was 20.54949537 degrees.Command: di DIST Specify first point: Specify second point:Distance = 3304.9159, Angle in XY Plane = 20.54949537, Angle from XY Plane =0.00000000Delta X = 3094.6218, Delta Y Read more:North
How to Get that Median Subassembly Working For You 2008-01-17 22:27:23 Well, for my first post, I'd like to show you the "secret" to getting the median subassembly to work as expected. So to get things started, let's create the assembly with everything but the median (I'll be using the "Median
RaisedWithCrown" subassembly) and the marked point (the "MarkPoint" subassembly). In this image, you'll see that I've placed the median and the marked point in the drawing but they are not currently attached to the "Lane with Median Assembly".Now, the "secret" of getting the median subassembly to work correctly is in the order in which the median and marked point are added to the assembly. If you read the subassembly help for the "MedianRaisedWithCrown" subassembly, you will see that this subassembly requires that the "MarkPoint" subassembly be placed before the media
Become an AutoCAD Power User #1 2008-01-14 13:55:24 Here's a few tips and tricks for AutoCAD
users:What the heck does this icon represent?This icon is usually found in the options dialog box and it is used to indicate that a setting is drawing specific. For example, "Retain changes to Xref layers".Items in (Parenthesis) help define the command such as:"Select up slope part in plan (Pipe or Structure):" which means you can select either a Pipe or a Structure for this command.When a command has different options, the options will be appear in brackets with capital letters for the hot key such as:"Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:" which means you only have to type A and press enter to change to Arc mode while drawing a pline.When you see a value or command in , that is the default value that will be used if you just pr Read more:Become
What Happened to my Workspace? 2008-01-12 11:54:10 I often get support calls asking about CUI and workspace issues. In the surveying department at the company where I work, this happens quite often with Eagle Point. Because we want to make the Civil 3D commands available to the surveyors, we use the civil.cui file as the main customization file in the Eagle_Point_98 profile. Ever so often, this gets reset to the acad.cui file and therefore, the user's everyday workspace is no longer available.Here's how to verify which CUI file is being used and how to change it if necessary:At the command prompt, type options and select the Profiles tab.Under the "available profiles:" list, verify that Current profile: (at the top of the dialog box) is set to the correct profile.If the correct profile was already current, then select the Files tab.Unde Read more:Workspace
Pipe Network Recovery 2008-01-12 10:59:53 I'm sure some of you have experienced corrupt drawings containing pipe networks. It usually becomes apparent right after an audit when all the pipes from at least one pipe network just "disappear".Unfortunately, the answer from Autodesk web support is usually that you'll have to go to a backup or rebuild the pipe networks from scratch. Well, I found something this week that might help the process of re-creating those pipe networks.If you list one of the corrupt pipes, you'll notice that there is no "Pipe Network" reference in the "corrupt" pipe. The first image is a sample of a "good" pipe, the second image is a sample of a "corrupt" pipe.You could use the plan set (if you have one already) to recreate the pipe network, but if you don't have one, here's another way.:Create a pipe style Read more:Recovery
Rotate Your World 2008-01-12 10:01:32 I'm sure many of you are familiar with using the reference option of the rotate command, but here's something you might have missed.Our mission is to rotate OBJ. Z (the red polyline) around point A so that line BC is parallel with line DE (the yellow polyline).Execute the rotate command.At the prompt (Select objects:), select the red polyline that represents OBJ. Z, then press enter to accept.At the prompt (Specify base point:), select the endpoint at point A.Type R and press enter to accept. (R is used to access the "Reference" option of the rotate command.)At the prompt (Specify the reference angle :), select the endpoint at point B then the endpoint at point C.At the prompt (Specify the new angle or [Points] :), Type P and press enter. (P is used to access the "Points" option of the r Read more:World
Take Control of Your Double Clicks 2008-01-12 09:47:55 A while back I read a great post by Dominick Gallegos:Editing Note Labels-Right Click No More!That post inspired me to go crazy with creating double click text edits for Civil 3D labels. I created all of them in the civil.cui file then transferred them to a custom.cui file for others to use. Of course now I'm very spoiled about double clicking any Civil 3D label that allows editing such as sag and crest curve labels in profile views.Well, today I was editing some dimension text and I tried the double click thing but nothing happened (because I keep the properties palette open on my second monitor). I grumbled, typed ed and pressed enter to make my edits.As I was working on my third or fourth dimension text edit, I remembered Dominick's post and something occurred to me: Why not just Read more:Control
, Clicks
AutoCAD 2009 Properties Improvement 2008-03-22 22:28:12 We've all gotten used to the fact that if you select multiple objects, then view the listing in the properties box, you'll see "All (#)" in the listing. This is also the case for viewports made from an object. If you select the viewport, you'll get "All (2)" in the properties drop down list. You have to select viewport from the drop down list to access only the viewport properties. Well in AutoCAD
2009, in addition to all the other improvements, there's one little jewel that you may not notice immediately. If you select a viewport created from an object, you will still be selecting two items (one viewport and one polyline), but the default view in the properties box will be "viewport (1)". If you select the drop down list, you can still access the polyline properties for the viewport Read more:Properties
, Improvement
Don't Plot Those Image Frames Ever Again 2008-04-10 20:41:52 Have you ever sent your plot to the plotter only to notice that the frames are visible around the images?The problem is that if you set the frame visibility off (imageframe=0), then you can't select the image and execute commands on it such as draworder.So you can spend your time changing the visibility of the image frame on then off, or you can take the advice of Lynn Allen and set the imageframe variable to 2. This will allow the frame to be visible, but it won't plot. This funcationality has even been added to AutoCAD LT 2009.One more thing before I go. This variable is drawing specific, so you can set it in your template and never have to worry about it again for new drawings created from the template.Technorati Tags: 2009 AutoCAD Image
s
Read more:Frames
, Again
Google Map Street View 2008-04-10 20:35:31 Go to the google maps website: on Street
View to see the locations where street views are available.Type in a street address including city and state. If a street view is available, there will be a small image of the street view at that address.Click on the image and you will see an enlarged image of the street view at this address.There are several arrows denoting directions you can move up or down the street.You can also rotate right, left, zoom in, and zoom out using the iconsTry this one as an example.549 S Lamar Blvd Austin TXLeft click on the image shown, then select the rotate right icon. You will now see the street view of the Central location of Bicycle Sport Shop in Austin, Tx.In this example, you can also select from N (north) on S Lamar Blvd or S (south) on S Lamar Blvd.Spec Read more:Google
PVLS PART 4: Offsetting a Profile View Label 2008-04-10 20:24:22 This is Part 4 of a series on Profile View Label
Styles (PVLS). This post may not make a whole lot of sense if you haven't seen the previous posts in this series. Please take a moment to read them before continuing to read this one. Here's a link to each:PVLS PART 1: Creating Profiles for Labeling Crossing or Connecting Pipe Flowline ElevationsPVLS PART 2: Creating the Style for the Connecting Pipe Flowline Elevation LabelPVLS PART 3: Labeling the Crossing or Connecting Pipe Flowline ElevationsTo use the Offset Style created in this series, you'll need to create the label style first. (Instructions for creating an offset label style can be found Part 2 of this series. After the style has been created, right click on the style and select New... in the Settings tab of the Toolspace. Fo Read more:Offsetting
PVLS PART 3: Labeling the Crossing or Connecting Pipe Flowline Elevations 2008-04-10 20:14:10 This is Part 3 of a series on Profile View Label Styles (PVLS). You should also read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series for additional information.To label a crossing and/or connecting pipe flowline elevation, you'll need the style created in Part 2 of this series and profiles for both the main line and the crossing/connecting pipes as described in Part 1 of this series.After you have the style and profiles created in your drawing, the rest is really simple.Zoom into the connecting pipe that you want to label.From the Civil 3d Profile menu, select "Add Profile View Labels", then "Add Profile View Labels...".In the Add Labels dialog box, select the style that you created from Part 2 of this series (mine was called Connecting
Pipe Label).Choose a Marker style if you want one. I don't general Read more:Crossing
PVLS PART 2: Creating the Style for the Connecting Pipe Flowline Elevation Label 2008-04-10 20:09:27 This is Part 2 of a series on Profile View LabelStyle
s (PVLS). You can view Part 1 of the series here.Here's the step by step guide to creating the Station Elevation Profile View Label Style. The way this style is created will enable you to easily establish offsets in child styles as needed. That will be explained in a Part 4 of this series.If toolspace is not visible, type showts at the command line and press enter.Select the Settings tab.Double click "Profile View" in the list under your current drawing name.Double click "Label Styles".Right click "Station Elevation" and select "New...".On the Information tab, type a name for your style. I'll use Connecting
Pipe Label for this example.On the General tab, set the layer as required. I'll use PROF-VIEW-TX for this example.On the Layo Read more:Creating
PVLS PART 1: Creating Profiles for Labeling Crossing or Connecting Pipe Flowline Elevations 2008-04-10 19:57:23 This is Part 1 of a series on Profile View Label Styles (PVLS). I will discuss how to label the flowlines of connecting pipes in a profile view. Armed with this information, you should be able to create your own style that shows flowlines of pipes at crossings and at changes in pipe sizes.Well this is one label style with which I've been wrestling for some time. Then while creating an offset label style the other day, it just hit me how easy it would be to get the two flowline elevations into one style. Now, at this point, the pipe size in this particular style has to be edited manually, but maybe this style might give you some ideas on how to get everything you want labeled automatically.The first thing you need to do is create a profile style with Line, Circular Curve, Symmetrical Pa Read more:Crossing
, Connecting
, Creating
, Profiles
*Warning* Multiply owned object 2008-04-25 22:58:10 Since I'm already having to use this in Civil 3D 2009, I'm going to post it here so it's easier for me and others to find in the future.Isn't it frustrating when you get this type of warning message?Great. Now what do I do? Is the drawing corrupt? Do I have to start from scratch?Some discussion forum posts suggest that wblocking the drawing can help. Yes, it does get rid of the warning messages, but you could lose all your styles, object layer settings, defaults, etc. That's not acceptable.Well, according to Scott's Superman post, there is a command you can type to get rid of the problem object (Replace C5C with the handle shown in your command line):(entdel (handent "C5C"))Since it is possible to lose a style or two by running this command, I'd like to know what I'm deleting. So aft Read more:Multiply
How Many Inches in a Meter? 2008-04-27 18:02:42 I know that the easiest way to convert your existing template to a new version of Civil 3D is to just open and save the template. However, you will be missing some of the new settings that just got implemented into the new version of the software.One of these new settings can be found in the Drawing Settings dialog box, Units and Zone tab. There is a new "Imperial to Metric conversion" setting there. It defaults to "International Foot(1 Foot = 0.3048 Meter
s)" for the OOTB templates. This means that when you open and save your existing template, it will also be set to "International Foot".So depending on your location and project, you might need to change this setting to "US Survey Foot(39.37 Inches per Meter)".Although it could be found in previous versions, you may not know that there
From Deed to Polyline with Civil 3D 2008-05-01 07:58:02 Drawing a line or polyline based on bearing and distance in AutoCAD based products can be accomplished in several different ways. Today I'm going to discuss the method that I use in Civil
3D.The first thing you need to do is to change a setting to make entry of bearings as degrees minutes seconds much easier. If the Civil 3D toolspace is not already visible, type showts and press enter at the command line. Select the Settings tab, then right click on the drawing name and select "Edit Drawing Settings...". Select the Ambient Settings tab.In the Property column, scroll down to the section labeled Direction. Verify that the Unit Property is set to degree, then lft click on the value column next to the property labeled Format. It may be currently set to "decimal" or something similar. L
Recommend Site To A Friend
