Civil 3D and Third-Party Apps
Shortly after the debut of AutoCAD® in the early 1980s, we were provided with a programming language that could control AutoCAD. AutoLISP programs have been at the right hand of every AutoCAD Power User. They have helped us complete drawings with tight deadlines faster by streamlining tedious workflows or completely automating various tasks in the software.
For many years, and even still today, we can use LISP routines found in the depths of the Internet that will assist our basic AutoCAD workflows. However, in progressing forward, other software products including AutoCAD vertical products such as Civil 3D® have changed greatly to the point where AutoLISP has become limited in its capabilities. Civil 3D in particular became primarily accessible only to higher level programming languages such as VBA and .NET. These changes have made it more difficult to find custom code to automate tedious workflows. The Autodesk App Store helps to close that gap.
So how can we leverage 3rd Party Apps in Civil 3D? And where can we find them? This article looks at some of the optional add-ons for Civil 3D and the Autodesk App Store.
Autodesk App Store
The Autodesk App Store debuted in late 2012 aligning with the rest of the software industry. Nearly every large software developer has created an online store—an easy stop for users to find add-ons that can assist them in their tasks. It makes perfect sense for Autodesk to do the same and assist in centralizing a location for software add-ins. You can find the app store at https://apps.autodesk.com.
Apps for Many Products – The App Store provides a portal for many different Autodesk products and may not be limited to the list shown below in the future. Clicking on one of these links will take you directly to apps that work within that specified software. The AutoCAD and Civil 3D sides of the store are two that contain the most apps.
Instant Satisfaction – The App Store makes it simple to find the tool you need and to get it installed quickly so that you can focus on your deadline. Apps found on the store are all held to a similar package format and review by Autodesk, an MSI file that installs to an Autodesk directory setup for apps, a ribbon CUIx button or tab, and a help document. Most of the apps you find on the store can all be installed in a matter of minutes and are relatively easy to use and implement on a project.
Purchasing – When purchasing apps on the App Store, it’s important to be aware of a few items:
- Autodesk Account – You must have an Autodesk Account set up and be signed in to make a purchase. With that being said, it’s also important to note that any apps purchased with that account stay with the account. Therefore, company procurement personnel will find it beneficial if the apps are purchased using an Autodesk Account tied to the company versus the individual. This way apps can stay with the company.
- Pop Up Blockers – Be aware that upon selecting the Buy Now button, a second page will appear to complete the purchase. If nothing appears, it’s likely being blocked by a pop up.
- Payments – Payment methods are selected by the app developer and are either PayPal or BlueSnap and offer a secure method of accepting payments with major credit cards.
App Reviews – One of the biggest benefits of the App Store is the ability for users to rate and comment on apps. I am usually reluctant to purchase something when I am unclear of what it could actually do for me, so these reviews can help tremendously. Seeing an app with 5 stars and many great comments has drawn my attention countless times to see if it’s something that would benefit my workflows.
Connect and Easily Contact Developers – The App Store can also assist in helping you find a developer who might be able to write that small program you had in mind. When you are on an App’s page, the right side under the Buy Now button lists out the app information as well as the developer information. Feel free to send an email and ask the developer any questions you might have.
Third-Party App Spotlight – Red Transit Consultants, LLC
Now that we know where to find the apps, let’s take a look at a few examples of Civil 3D Apps that can increase your productivity. For all of the examples here, you can find the apps on the Autodesk App Store by searching for the name. More information and videos of the apps in action are available on the App Store.
Slope Across Pipes – Tired of modifying pipe elevations by clicking on each pipe and going to pipe properties? This app provides tools for quickly modifying pipe elevations and slopes. The app supports modification of elevations by centerline, crown, or invert while offering a command for single pipes and a command for handling multiple pipes at once.
The Pipe Slope Single command allows for quickly setting the elevations and slope of a single pipe. The command allows for selecting pipes/structures in plan view or pipes/structures in profile view and offers two modes, by slope and by elevations. With mode by slope, select the pipe in plan or profile view by the desired end of the pipe to modify the invert and apply a slope holding the selected end and invert of the pipe. With mode by elevations, select a pipe in plan or profile view by a desired end and the app will prompt for elevations for either end of the pipe and set the slope based on those elevations. The command also provides the ability to select another pipe and inherit its elevation to be used in the modified pipe.
The Pipe Slope Multiple command allows for quickly setting the slope of a number of pipes within a common pipe network and applying pipe drop across each structure. The command allows for selecting pipes/structures in plan view or pipes/structures in profile view and offers two modes, by slope and by elevations. When selecting parts in profile view, the command also provides the ability to extract the selected point elevation from the profile to apply to the pipe network. For both modes, the command does not care if the upstream or downstream end is selected, nor does it care if the start and end points of the pipes are in the same configuration throughout.
Pipe Network Productivity Tools – This set of tools was initially built upon the Slope Across Pipes app, and includes it within. The app offers 14+ tools for various tedious tasks dealing with Civil 3D Pipe Networks.
Many of the commands offer three selection methods to obtain your collection of parts to modify: Network – All Pipes and Structures; Multiple – Randomly choose pipes and structures as desired; Path – Select a start manhole/pipe and end manhole/pipe and it will collect all pipes and structures in between. Additionally, these commands offer the ability to filter that selection by the PartSizeName, making it incredibly simple to select all parts of a specific size within a network.
With the above selection process, you can use the follow commands to ease the design process with Pipe Networks:
- Swap Multiple Parts
- Rename Parts
- Modify Part Descriptions
- Modify Part References (Alignments and Surfaces)
- Modify Pipe Hydraulic Properties
- Modify Pipe Elevations with Slope Across Pipes, or adjust the pipes to a specific distance above/below a surface
Additional tools offered in the app are:
Daylight Pipe to Surface – easily and automatically adjust a pipe end to the point where daylights on a surface based on its current elevations and slope.
Wye Connections with dynamic update button
Label Pipe Crossing with dynamic update button
Label Pipe Elevation – computing the elevation of a pipe at any point along it.
Grade Slope Along Surface – The Civil 3D waterdrop tool can be very helpful by drawing a 3D polyline across a surface in the direction that water would flow, but have you ever needed to plot a 3D polyline following the exact slope/grade across a surface? Perhaps you’re trying to grade in an access road into a pond and it needs to be no steeper than 8 percent or you need to grade in a diversion berm on the side of a landfill that needs to have a grade no steeper than 2 percent. This app can help you with that task.
Simply by choosing a start location and the grade/slope you desire to plot, this tool will utilize the triangles in the surface and calculate where the exact grade entered crosses the triangle (if possible), and then add the necessary points to a 3D polyline, and move on to the next neighboring triangle. The app repeats the process until a solution can no longer be found, resulting in a 3D polyline that follows your surface at the exact horizontal and vertical positioning that meets the desired grade/slope.
Import/Export Surface Analysis – Do you perform frequent surface analyses? Do you ever wish you could create more standardized analyses settings? Import/Export Surface Analysis can assist in doing this.
The app allows you to save the applied analysis settings to an exported ANL file (basically a text file) and allows for reimporting the file and applying to another surface as opposed to clicking on the colors/linetypes/lineweights for each range in an analysis. Additionally, the app is smart enough to tell you if the current surface style is capable of displaying the type of analysis you are attempting to apply. It has the ability to search your drawing for a surface style that is capable of displaying the analysis and/or modify the current surface style to the correct settings for displaying the analysis. The app will also handle true colors.
Import/Export Surface Labels – Prior to Civil 3D 2016, you were not able to modify a surface label’s reference surface. The software now allows for this, but it still does not solve the issue of labeling a surface in the same manner as another. Perhaps you are labeling a final surface and a subsurface—both surfaces exist in separate drawing files.
This app allows you to export surface spot elevation labels, contour labels, and slope labels to a text file. Then you can import the text file and recreate the labels on another surface. The app also maintains drag state positions for spot elevations, all types of contour labels, and both one point and two-point slope labels, while also maintaining any style settings and marker style settings.
Conclusion
If you’ve already been purchasing/downloading apps from the App Store – thank you! If you have not looked into purchasing apps from the App Store, hopefully this article will encourage you to take a look. There are some great ideas/tools out there that can assist in your daily workflows.
If you have any ideas or suggestions on my existing apps or if you have new app ideas that you’d like to see implemented, feel free to send over an email. I’d love to hear from you!
