Quick Profile

Just found out today that the Quick Profile command is available from the default right-click menu when an object is selected! I don't know which version that started to be in there (maybe the first version!?) but really handy to have.

NCOPY and Civil 3D corridors

Quick post to remind myself.

If NCOPY is used to a corridor, Civil 3D creates a new copy of it.

Civil 3D 2015 Surface to Navisworks 2015 Problem

I was recently appending a Civil 3D surface (2015) into Navisworks Manage 2015.  For some reason, I only get a rectangle in Navisworks.  It however appends into Navisworks Manage 2013 fine.

Thanks to this blog, found out that I needed to install the Civil 3D 2015 object enabler.  The link on the blog seems to be broken so here's the link to the Civil 3D 2015 OE.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 Object Enabler

Isopachyte and Surface Analysis Tools

An isopachyte shows level differences between 2 surfaces using different colours to represent level ranges. They're mostly used on earthworks projects to indicate the areas of cut and fill.  The example figure below shows areas in cut as red and fill in purple.



To produce an isopachyte, create a TIN volume surface and choose the base and comparison surfaces.

 

Under the Analysis Tab of the surface properties, set the number of ranges needed and click the Run Analysis button.



Ranges can be changed to suit.  Say if cut and fill areas are only needed, set the range to 2 and change the maximum and minimum levels to 0 for ID1 and ID2 respectively.



A table can be added as a key to the level ranges of each colour.





There are tools included within the UK and Ireland Country Kit that help copying surface analysis from one surface to another without redoing the changes made to the range table.















Surface Analysis - Import from a file / Export to a File 
These can be used if copying a surface analysis from a drawing to another.

Surface Analysis - Copy Analysis to Another Surface
This can be used if the surfaces are in the same drawing.

Have a good weekend!

GENIO Import/Export Extension for Civil 3D

The ability to export corridor and alignment objects from Civil 3D to MX using the GENIO export extension has been useful for me the past few months whilst working on a highways scheme that uses MX as the main design package.  I designed 2 local roads using Civil 3D and exported the corridor featurelines so we can add to the main MX model. The featurelines were named correctly in Civil 3D to be recognised in MX (ie. CExx for edge of carriageway, IAxx for daylight, CBxx for back of kerb, etc where xx is a 2-digit number).

One thing to remember is that the exporter doesn't give the ability to choose which design profile to export but will export all designed profile for the chosen alignment.

The tool uses the profile that was created first and ignores the rest.  

The GENIO screenshot below shows my superseded profile within the red box and current design profile in blue box.  For info, MX ignores any coding lines that has 3 spaces before of it.  

Something to be mindful of when using the tool and always check the GENIO output before using.