Sometimes the simple tricks are the best tricks! This post discusses grip editing in Civil 3D and vanilla AutoCAD. These are fundamentals for creating and editing content but some are not ‘in your face’ and go unnoticed by even the most seasoned of users. Check it out and let everyone know which you did, or did not, know (comments section).
Archive for Civil3D2007
Polylines, Alignments, and PI’s
You’ve created an alignment from a polyline, but upon inspection, there are no PI’s (line extensions) at any of the curves. Why? And, how can can I get ‘em? Read on…
Category: Alignments, Civil3D, Civil3D2007, Civil3D2008, Civil3D2009, Civil3D2010, Civil3D2011, Polylines /
Displaying Lat/Long in Decimal Minutes
We recently had a client request that we display the Latitude and Longitude of Cogo Points formatted as degrees and decimal minutes. This format seems to have become a standard display format of many hand-held GPS units. Unfortunately, Civil 3D does not contain a built-in option for formatting Latitude and Longitude in decimal minutes. No problem, I thought… I’ll simply use some expressions. But it turned out to be a much more difficult task than I expected… Read on for the details.
Category: Civil3D2007, Civil3D2008, Civil3D2009, Civil3D2010, Civil3D2011, LabelStyles, Points, Styles /
Intersection w/ FLs and Supers to Change X-slope
For those of us still using Civil 3D 2009 or less:
There are lots of times when grading an intersection of two roads with steep slopes that you need to adjust a lane cross slope to make the intersection drain properly. Lets review how to grade an intersection using Featurelines (FL) – the fastest way if you don’t need to run pavement quantities off the Corridor model, until you upgrade to Civil 3D 2010, 2011, etc… – and also lets look at a fast way to adjust road cross slopes using Superelevation points.
The first step is to extend the Corridor Model up to the curb radii. Unless the roads are coming together at exactly 90-degree angles you will need to add a region to the corridor model and create an assembly that is only the right – or left – lane (see image below).
Hiding Surfaces the Quick and Dirty Way
Sometimes you don’t to show existing ground beneath proposed grade. While a hide boundary is a relatively simple thing if you’re working in the original file, you can’t modify a data reference. And could pull out a mask, but that can get a bit convoluted if you’re trying to punch a whole that’s not a nice simply rectangle. So what’s a linework-obsessive Civil 3D user to do? Well, this one reaches in to the old bag of tricks that don’t always work nicely, but work when you need them. See my solution after the jump.
