Hi Folks!

I’ve been on the road – and am exhausted. 4 cities in 4 days, and get to start all over next week. To all the customers I’ve met this past week, it’s been a blast. From the feedback I’m receiving in my rollout presentations, there’s a significant interest in Civil 3D, as well as a much higher than normal interest in training.

OK, so you mainly come here for tips, and I aim to please. So, here goes…did you know that you can export Civil 3D data to Google Earth? Well, neither did I until I received an email today from Anthony Governanti explaining how to do this – and yes, he gave his permission for this to be posted. Here’s the process:

1) Assign a coordinate system to your drawing. It’s best to use the same coordinate system as the DEM or surface that you’re working with.

2) Create a new surface definition.

3) Add a DEM file to your surface definition. This is best because DEM file data closely approximates the surfaces used by Google Earth. Be sure to transform the DEM to the coordinates set in the drawing setup.

4) Create your civil design, including alignments, vertical profiles, assemblies, and corridors.

5) Create a top surface for the corridor. The next command is hard coded to use the first surface in the list, so there’s no need to create more than one surface.

6) (Here’s the secret) Run the EXPORTGOOGLEEARTH command. If you’re calling this command from a routine or a button, you can use aeccexportgoogleearth.

7) Select the corridor, then name and save the file.

To access your Civil 3D Data in Google Earth:

1) Open Google Earth.

2) From the File menu, select OPEN.

3) Select the .KML file that was created above in step 7.

Have fun!