My “FAB 5” Features of Everyday Civil 3D Use
I use Civil 3D almost every day and mostly for single family land development projects. These are some of my daily commands I just can’t live without! Almost every project I start, or potential project, begins with some sort of GIS data, either for boundaries or for topo, prior to sending out my survey crews to capture data. Couple a rarely used surface analysis with the stage storage analysis and you just saved yourself valuable time!
MAPWSPACE
By far my favorite command in Civil 3D is MAPWSPACE!! One simple command can open the portal to utilizing the power of GIS data. You could change your Civil 3D workspace to the Planning and Analysis tab, but this gets you started with using the GIS data.
Once you type in MAPWSPACE, you then turn on the Task Pane. The Task Pane gives you quick access to frequently used features, and groups these features into task-related views. Use the Task Pane to create, manage, display, and publish maps. You’ll notice 4 tabs; in this case we will focus on the Display Manager.
In the Display Manager, you can simply select the DATA icon and connect to numerous data sources! Here you can import shapefiles, connect to external databases and even bring in imagery.
Did you know you can simply select your shapefile from Windows Explorer and drag and drop it on your screen? By far the easiest way to import GIS data!! Once dragged onto your screen, the layer will show in the task pane where you can query, theme, style, label and access all the attribute data within the DBF file. If your coordinate system is set, it will project to the correct location, or re-project as needed.
***TIP: Need to do a quick concept plan? Drag and drop your parcel shapefile, select the property you wish to use, right click, check out feature and explode!! This creates a polyline that you can then utilize the parcel features on. And if your CAD manager asks who told you to explode something in Civil 3D….it sure wasn’t me!***
Select the entire layer from the Task Pane, or even a feature from within model space, right click and choose SHOW DATA TABLE. This will display all attributes for that selected feature.
Right click again on the layer from the Task Pane, you can perform all sorts of analysis and creation tasks right from here. Want to label and change the display? Simply select Edit Style.
In the style editor, you can perform many helpful tasks. You could, for example, theme the parcel shapefile and look for all parcels between 5-10 acres. This works great for soil types, utility line sizes and many other uses. You could also edit the style (hatch pattern/polyline) as well as add a label based on the feature attributes.
All this from dragging and dropping a shapefile and using the Task Pane! All without switching workspaces and great for just getting started with GIS data.
Create Surface from GIS Data
I see a lot of people struggling with creating surfaces from GIS data, specifically large datasets with a lot of contours. Users tend to import as polylines and add the polylines, with millions of vertices, to a surface and wonder why the slowdown or crashing happens.
From the Home tab of the ribbon, on the Create Ground Data panel, select surfaces and about halfway down there is a Create surface from GIS Data option!
In here, you can connect to 3 different data sources:
- ArcSDE
- Oracle
- SHP – Typically most common
When connecting to a SHP file, select the SHP as the source, and path to the SHP file. Then select LOGIN (no username or password needed) and NEXT. On the Data Mapping dialog box, simply map the elevation attribute to the elevation Civil 3D Property!
Prospective customer calls needing a quick concept? Need a quick topo map added to that concept? Have access to County or state LiDar data? If so, simply combine those first 2 commands and turn out quick concept plans in minutes!
Stage Storage Analysis
Need a quick volume analysis from a pond for example? Need that analysis every 0.25’ within the pond? The Stage Storage Tool in Civil 3D is an oldie but a goodie!!
First, you need to decide what interval you need to report on. Your surface style will control the results/interval within the report. For example, if I want the following pond volumes in 0.50’ intervals, I simply edit the surface style to display the correct interval, prior to running the analysis.
After you have edited your style, select the surface you wish to analyze, and from the Analyze panel of the ribbon, choose Stage Storage.
This will launch the report dialog box, fill in the blanks as needed, and select DEFINE BASIN.
You want to then select Define Basin from Polylines and select the Extract Objects from Surface button.
Select the surface, select DEFINE back on the dialog box and select up to the polyline you wish to analyze. The dialog box should reappear with your results! You can save this report to a text file, or even better, save it as a file to be used within SSA!!
User Defined Contour Analysis
The User Defined Contour analysis is a very versatile tool. For example, if you have a high-water mark (say 4719.35), and you'd like to know the volume of a pond at that specific elevation, just run the user defined contour analysis, then display the USER CONTOUR in your surface style.
Once that is displayed, use the Stage Storage tool to extract the volume!
Another great use for that tool is to help identify a water pressure zone within your development! I use this often to easily identify those zone, which could be one elevation or multiple!
Intersection Workflow
Yes, we could use the intersection tool to create this, but sometimes that just doesn’t accomplish what we want to do. Sometimes you need just a bit more control, and feature lines will allow you to do so.
Let’s take a 4-way intersection for example. I first start with extracting the centerline feature lines as a dynamic link to either my profile or corridor. In this case I chose to use my FG profile as the feature to extract a feature line from (we will keep both crowns maintained).
1. From the Home tab > Create Design panel > Feature Line drop-down > Create Feature Lines from Alignment
2. Select your alignment, then select the profile you wish to dynamically link to. You will then have a dynamic feature line, therefore when your Alignment and/or Profile changes, your feature line does as well.
3. Create your feature lines along the Lip of Gutter (Edge of Asphalt) using either a polyline and create from objects command, or manually draw in your feature line.
4. Set the grades as you would like along that feature line. For this example, I will assume you know how to do so.
The example I am using would look something like this. The corridor has already been started, with gaps for the intersection area to be modeled.
Once we have our assembly created and our feature lines in place, we are ready to begin modeling the intersection.
5. Select the Corridor, go into your Corridor Properties and select the Parameters tab.
6. From the parameters tab, select ADD BASELINE. The Create Corridor Baseline dialog box will appear, select FEATURE LINE from the Baseline type.
7. Use the icon next to the Feature Line dropdown to select your feature line from the screen. Once selected, you may be prompted to name the feature line, I chose to name mine NW Quad INT 1. Select OK.
8. The Baseline is now added to your corridor, and we need to add the region and select the assembly.
9. Right click on the new baseline and select ADD REGION.
10. Choose your assembly and select OK. Rebuild corridor if needed.
This will now be put in the assembly along that feature line, and no need to do a stepped offset!! Pretty good so far, right? Let’s finish up the intersection quadrant by targeting our centerline feature lines for width and elevation. I use the contextual ribbon for some very useful shortcuts. Use these to really speed up your corridor modeling workflows!
11. Select your corridor from the screen.
12. From the contextual ribbon for said corridor, select EDIT TARGETS from the Modify Region panel.
13. Select within the region for the intersection. The Target Mapping dialog box will appear.
14. We first will select the targets to set our Width. Select NONE next to Width Target for the asphalt portion.
15. Set the object type to FEATURE LINES, SURVEY FIGURES AND POLYLINES. Then select both centerline feature lines from the screen.
16. Select OK.
17. We now need to select the same feature lines for the Outside Elevation Target. Select NONE next to Outside Elevation Target and follow the same steps as outlined about for setting width targets.
18. Select OK to exit the Target Mapping dialog box and Select OK to complete the Corridor edits.
Repeat all the about for each intersection. Remember to use your contextual ribbon to assist. There is a MATCH PARAMETERS command that is very helpful in this case. This will allow you to set similar targets without going through all the same steps.
Your resulting intersection should look something like this. You may need to reverse feature lines from time to time as well, keep that in mind.
Conclusion
So that’s my FAB 5 of everyday Civil 3D use. There’s a few more that almost made the cut, such as using parcels for drainage design instead of catchments, but I’ll save that for an upcoming article!! Hope to hear from you on what your favorite use cases are.
