A Quick Spin on Autodesk Civil 3D™ · 4. Tooltips – In Civil 3D, you will notice that tooltips automatically provide feedback from the design data in the CAD drawing area. For

December 2-5, 2003 ◊ MGM Grand Hotel Las Vegas

A Quick Spin on Autodesk® Civil 3D™

A Hands-On Exercise

Shawnita Sterett, P.E.

CV21-3L During this hands-on lab, we'll learn the basics of using a dynamic civil engineering design model to explore more design scenarios more quickly than ever before! We'll explore relationships between points, surfaces, alignments, parcels, and profiles to make design revisions quick and easy. In addition, we'll discuss how to use style-based drafting to quickly generate plan graphics directly from the design data.


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A Quick Spin on Autodesk® Civil 3D™ A Hands-On Exercise

Introduction Autodesk Civil 3D 2004 is the only civil engineering tool that creates intelligent relationships between objects so design changes are dynamically reflected. Data is entered once and the software makes changes automatically according to your preset design rules and criteria. The enhanced 3D interaction makes it easy to explore and visualize what-if scenarios and to correct errors on-the-fly.

During this session, we’ll work with Civil 3D™ in various situations to explore its interactive nature and its intuitive tools for layout and edit. In addition, we’ll introduce the concept of styles to control the appearance and annotation of drawing graphics.

Getting Started

Drawing Data vs. Project Data We will not be introducing the project management aspect of Civil 3D during this class. Instead, all of our design data will be contained in the drawing itself. If you are familiar with Autodesk Land Desktop, this is a very new concept. Civil 3D has the ability to work in a shared project environment, but in this class, we will explore working with design scenarios contained in a single drawing.

Loading the Quick Spin Tool Palette If you don’t already have the Civil 3D Quick Spin Tool Palette loaded for use, the following procedure will help you load it. We will use the tool palette as a mechanism to keep the class moving and to keep everyone in the same place. Mostly, it includes tools to simply zoom you into a particular area or to set up viewports to view the data in a certain way.

1. Select Tools Tool Palettes Window from the pull-down menus

2. Right-click on the Tool Palettes Window, select “Customize”

3. Select the Tool Palettes Tab

4. Right-click, select “Import

5. Navigate to CV21-3L\Tool Palette\Civil 3D Quick Spin.xtp

6. Select Civil 3D Quick Spin.xtp, select “Open”

7. Select “Close”


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Getting Familiar with the Civil 3D Interface

You will notice that Civil 3D is built on AutoCAD 2004, so that you will immediately be comfortable with the look and menu configuration reducing the learning curve. Civil 3D product is easy to use, intuitive and has a consistent look and feel between menus. Let’s begin by discussing the new areas in the Civil 3D design environment. Some of this new terminology will be very useful to refer back to during our session.

In the diagram to the right, you can see the four main new interface features of Civil 3D:

1. Toolspace – The Toolspace in Civil 3D actually has two tabs.

a. Prospector Tab – Prospector allows the user to “dig” into all of the design data contained in the current drawing. The tree area much like a file explorer, by allowing you to expand various trees for additional information. A large number of commands are available by simply right-clicking on the appropriate area of Prospector. In addition, the preview area allows you to view your design data either in a graphical view or a data list depending on the type of data that you have selected. In a shared project environment, Prospector allows the user access to project data for “check-in” and “check-out”.

b. Settings Tab – The settings tab allows the user to control all of the settings of the current drawing including all styles for the different design objects and labels. It also is expandable like a file directory tree and has a number of right-click commands available.

2. Civil 3D pull-down menus – The new pull-down menus in Civil 3D allow the user access to commands for creation, edit, and labeling of various design elements like points, parcels, alignments, profiles, grading, and sections. You will notice that they are very consistent in their ordering, so that you will quickly be able to locate commands. In addition, the General menu has tools for data import/export and report generation.

3. Transparent Commands Toolbar – These transparent commands are available in addition to standard AutoCAD transparent commands for the entry of point locations during another command. For example, during the polyline command, you might use the Bearing/Distance transparent command if the direction and length of the line to be drawn is known by those parameters. This toolbar may be docked or turned off and on like any other toolbar.

4. Tooltips – In Civil 3D, you will notice that tooltips automatically provide feedback from the design data in the CAD drawing area. For example, if you have a surface model in your current drawing, a simple pause while mousing over the surface will give you a tooltip containing the surface name and it’s elevation at that location. Also, if you have alignment defined in your current drawing, the tooltip will also provide you with the alignment name, station, and offset at that particular location.


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Creating a Civil 3D Drawing We’ll begin this exercise by exploring the new concepts of Civil 3D in an existing drawing that contains no design data at this point.

1. File Open

2. Navigate to the directory where the Civil 3D drawings are stored CV21-3L\Maplewood\01-QuickSpin-Intro.dwg

3. Select the 01-QuickSpin-Intro.dwg file

4. Select Open

This drawing currently contains no design data. We’ll begin by creating a surface model from an existing Land Desktop surface. We can manage the surface data with Prospector. By simply navigating to the data that we would like to work with and right-clicking, commands will become available.

5. In Prospector, Expand the tree view to see “Surfaces”

6. Right-click on “Surfaces, select “Import TIN…”

7. Navigate to CV21-3L\Maplewood\Data Files\Phase 6 Orig Ground\Phase 6 Orig Ground.tin, select “Open”

In just a few moments, the surface object will load into your current view. As you mouse over the contours in the drawing, you will see tooltips like the one to the right. Civil 3D uses tooltips to relay information such as the surface elevation back to the user.

8. Mouse over the surface to see tooltips with the surface elevation

9. Pick on the boundary for the surface to Highlight the surface object

10. With the surface highlighted, right-click

Notice that the right-click menu includes context-sensitive content related to surfaces.

11. Select “Surface Properties…” on the right-click menu

This properties dialogue will look similar for all objects in Civil 3D. The first tab, the Information tab allows you to select an object style, name and description for your surface.

12. In the Object Style drop-down list, select “Border & Contours”

13. Make the Definition tab current.

14. Expand the Build tree under Definition Options


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Note the various operations under build options that will allow you to control how the surface model is calculated. Specifically note the options for maximum triangle length and crossing breaklines. Also note the option for surface smoothing under the Edit tree. In the lower section of the Definition tab, notice the operation history showing that this surface was created from a .tin file.

15. Select OK

Notice that now the display of our surface has changed to show contours. Selecting one contour highlights the entire surface model. A surface is an object in Civil 3D. The contours that we see on-screen are the current display of the object according to its style. We can create and manage styles to control the display and annotation of all design objects in Civil 3D according to company standards. Styles are stored in the drawing and may be saved with a drawing template.

16. Zoom into the heart-shaped contour area in the middle of the surface, or use the “Surface Add Points” button from the Civil 3D Quick Spin Tool Palette

17. From the pull-down menu, select Surfaces Labels Add Contour Labels

18. Pick two points to define a line as shown

19. Select <Enter> to complete the command and to dismiss the contour label layout dialogue

You can easily grip edit this label line to change the location of the string of contour labels. In addition, we can easily put it on a layer that will eliminate it from our final plots.

20. Use the layer control drop down list to move the line to the C-TOPO-LABL-LINE layer that is currently turned off in the drawing.

21. Highlight Points in the Prospector tree area, notice the point listing in the preview area (or lack thereof)

22. Right-click on Points, Select Create…

The Create Points dialogue box in Civil 3D has some characteristics new to Autodesk civil solutions. Notice that as you mouse over the dialogue, it becomes active. As you mouse over the drawing area, you can use zooming commands, etc.

23. Select the push-pin toggle on the upper-right hand corner of the Create Points dialogue


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Mouse back and forth over the Create Points dialogue and notice how it will expand and contract automatically. Look for this same functionality in other dialogues of Civil 3D!

24. On the Create Points dialogue, Select Import Points from the Category drop-down

25. Select PNEZD Comma Delimited from the Command drop-down

26. Browse to CV21-3L\Maplewood\Data Files and select the SpotelevPNEZD.txt file

27. Select add to Point Group Spot Elevations

28. Select OK to complete import.

29. In Prospector, expand the Spot elevations Point Group, note that the new points are included in the list in the preview area

30. Expand the Prospector tree to Surfaces\Phase 6 Orig Ground\Definition

31. Right Click on Point Groups, and select Add

32. Select Spot Elevations from the List, and select OK

The contours updated automatically! When we added the point group data to the surface definition, the actual surface object changed. Remember the contours are simply the display of the surface object according to it’s current style.


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Exploring Styles Let’s explore styles a little more to see how they affect the display of the surface object.

1. Select the Surface 2D/3D View Option from the Quick Spin Tool Palette

Note the display on the right and on the left. On the left you see the surface displayed with contours. On the right, you see the same surface displayed with 3D elevation banding. The surface style controls both the 2D and 3D display.

2. Mouse over the surface in both the 2D viewport and the 3D viewport to see that the tooltips still relay the surface elevation in both views

3. Highlight the surface in one viewport to verify that it is the same as the surface in the other

4. Right-click on the surface, Select “Edit Surface Style”

5. Select the “Display” tab

6. Select 2D & 3D alternately from the “View Direction” drop-down list to review what is viewed in each viewport

The 2D display option includes the display of contours and the border only. They are set to appear on certain layers and have colors set “Bylayer”. This means that when we need to share our Civil 3D drawings with users that use AutoCAD or Land Desktop, they will be able to manipulate the colors easily in the layer control dialogue box. The 3D display option includes only the display of elevations.

7. Select the “Analysis” tab

8. Expand the “Elevations” tree

By using the “Scheme” drop-down list, we can easily change the display of the 3D elevation banding to a different pre-defined range of colors.

9. Select the “Contours” tab

10. Expand the “Contour Intervals” tree

11. Change the Minor Interval to 5’

12. Change the Major Interval to 25’

13. Select OK

Note how the surface display has changed according to the new style settings. The display of all objects in Civil 3D are controlled by the use of styles. Let’s take a quick look at points.

14. Select “Restore Initial View from the Quick Spin Tool Palette


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15. On the Create Points dialogue, Select Import Points from the Category drop-down

16. Select PNEZD Comma Delimited from the Command drop-down

17. Browse to CV21-3L\Maplewood\Data Files and select the TreesPNEZD.txt file

18. Check “Add Points to Point Group”

19. Select the Point Group Manager button,

20. Create a new point group called “Trees”

21. Select OK to complete import.

The display of these new points are controlled by description keys defined in our drawing file. By the description of the point, symbols are automatically placed on screen.

22. Zoom into the area where the tree points are located

23. Highlight a tree point, since the points are part of a point group, the entire group is actually selected

24. Right-click, select “Object Viewer”

25. Orbit the points and notice how the display changes in 3D

The point display is controlled by styles much the same as the surface display was controlled. In the case of points, the symbols are actually multi-view blocks. You can establish different looks for plan, elevation, and other views.

We can also control and edit styles from the toolspace. If we would like to edit all styles in a drawing, the Settings tab is very useful. In this next example, we’ll simply change the style of our surface from Prospector.

26. In Prospector, highlight “Surfaces”

27. In the preview area, pick on the style name

28. In the Style selection dialogue, select “Watershed”

29. Review the new information displayed from the surface object

30. Reset the surface to “Border & Contours” style

In this way, styles are not only useful for controlling company standards, but also for the easy display of analysis information that a designer might need to make engineering decisions.


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Working With Alignments Alignments are also intelligent objects in Autodesk Civil 3D. During the next series of exercises, we’ll quickly explore how to layout and label alignments.

1. From the pull-down menu, select Alignments Create by Layout

2. Set the Alignment Style to be “Design Style”

3. Set the Alignment Label Set to be “Major Minor & Geometry Points”

4. Select OK

Now you will see the alignment layout toolbar. In Autodesk Civil 3D, we will see a very similar interface for laying out other design elements such as vertical alignments and parcels.

5. Drop-down the first button on the layout toolbar

6. Select “Curve Settings…”

In Civil 3D, you can set up standard curve settings to use while laying out your alignments and vertical profiles. We’ll begin by establishing some setting to create our new roadway.

7. Set Radius to 300’

8. Select OK

9. Drop-down the first button, select Tangent-Tangent (With Curves)

10. Begin laying out a roadway across your existing ground surface. Zoom in to see the “rubber-banding” of the alignment and the rapid creation of station labeling.

11. Select 4 or 5 PI’s to get about halfway across the surface.

12. Stop. Do NOT hit <ENTER> or <ESC>.

13. Drop-down the curve creation list from the layout toolbar

14. Select “More Floating Curve—Floating Curve (Attach to entity end, through point)”


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15. Select the last tangent at the prompts

16. Select a point for the curve to pass though at the prompts

17. Stop. Do NOT hit <ENTER> or <ESC>.

18. Drop-down the tangent creation list from the layout toolbar

19. Select “More Floating Lines – Floating Line (Always tangent to the end of entity)”

20. Select the last curve drawn at the prompts

21. Select two points to define the length of the tangent at the prompts

22. Select <ENTER> to complete the command and to dismiss the Alignment Layout Tools

We’ve just created an intelligent alignment object in Civil 3D. Notice how the station labeling is created immediately, and the alignment geometry appears in different color settings according to its style. The alignment also has a dynamic nature. By simply grip editing the linework on the screen, I can make design changes to the alignment. Notice that its grips vary depending on how we originally created the alignment. In addition, the different grips will cause the alignment to respond according to those original settings.

23. Highlight the alignment to expose its various grip points

24. Grip edit the alignment with a few different points to see how it responds

In addition to easy grip editing, there are a number of intuitive tools in Civil 3D to make editing very interactive.

25. Highlight the alignment

26. Right-click, select “Edit Alignment”

Notice that the Alignment Layout Toolbar is loaded again so that we can utilize its graphical tools for edit. Instead, we will use two different tabular editors to edit the alignment values specifically.

27. Select the Alignment Grid View button from the toolbar


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This loads the Panorama Window which will allow you to view different vistas. For instance, the current vista is the alignment vista. If you were in the process of editing multiply types of objects, you would have different tabs related to them to access the different vistas, ie. points, alignments, etc. The Panorama Window allows you to see all editable data associated which the aligment at one time. For instance, in any instance that the curve radius is editable, it will show up in black. In addition, we can review all constraints placed on the alignment during layout.

28. Edit a view entries in the alignment vista of the Panorama Window

Similarly, the Sub-entity Editor allows you to edit one element at a time as opposed to the entire alignment.

29. Select the Sub-entity Editor button from the Alignment Layout Toolbar

30. Select the Pick Sub-entity button from the Alignment Layout Toolbar

31. Select a segment of your alignment at the prompts

32. Use the Editor window to edit a few values for your alignment

33. Close the Alignment Layout Toolbar to save changes and dismiss the editor

Now we’ll edit our alignment through its properties dialogue. We’ll adjust the stationing and add a station equation.


35. Right-click, select “Alignment Properties”

36. On the “Station Control” tab, set the starting station to 1000

37. Select OK and review the changes


39. Right-click, select “Alignment Properties”


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40. On the “Station Control” tab, select the “Add Station Equation” button

41. Pick a point on-screen for the new station equation

42. Edit the “Station Ahead” on the “Station Control” tab of the Alignment Properties dialogue

Labels for alignments are composed of many different pieces, ie. station increments, tick marks, PC’s, PT’s, equations, etc. Each of those pieces is controls by a label style. To simplify the creation of labeling for alignments, all of the pieces can be combined into “sets”. These sets may be exported or imported to an alignment for easy use. Our current label set does not include a label style for the station equation. We’ll need to add one for the equation to show up in our drawing.

43. On the Labels tab, select the “Station Equation” type and the “Station Ahead and Back” style

44. Pick the “Add” button to add the label style to our current set

45. Select OK to review the changes


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Working With Profiles Now that we have an alignment defined, let’s create a profile to show the existing vertical data for the centerline. Profiles in Civil 3D are composed of two components: the profile object and the profile view. Basically, there is a profile object for each ground surface or for each finished grade line that is defined. The profile view is the actual grid on which the alignments are drawn.

1. Select the Plan & Profile View button from the Quick Spin Tool Palette

2. Zoom your upper viewport to adequately view your alignment

3. From the pull-down menu, select Profiles Create from Surface

4. Select your alignment

5. Select your existing ground surface

6. Select Add>>

7. Select the Draw in Profile View button

The Create Profile View dialog is where we can set the display of the grid, as well as the display style it uses.

8. Set the Profile View Style to use ‘Clipped View’

9. Select OK to place the Profile View

10. Pick an insertion point in the lower viewport

We now have the profile for the horizontal alignment that we just created. We can continue to make design changes here quickly and effectively.

11. If you do not like the placement of the profile, simply highlight the grid and move it to another location. Everything will move together.

12. Highlight the alignment to expose its grips

13. Grip edit move PI grip (triangular)

Now, as we change our alignment, the profile updates as well. Let’s now create a finished grade profile for our new roadway.

14. From the pull-down menu, select Profiles Create By Layout

15. Select the profile grid at the prompts

16. In the Create Profile dialogue, select “Finshed Ground” profile style

17. Select “Complete Label Set” label set

18. Select OK to bring up the Profile Layout Toolbar

19. On the Profile Layout Toolbar, select the first drop-down button and open “Curve Settings…”

20. Set some values for crest and sag curves for K value or length. Note that you can also create curves other than parabolic type.


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21. Set the first drop-down toggle to “Draw Tangents with Curves”

22. Similar to on the alignment layout tools, rubber-band your profile across the grid placing PVI’s.

Notice that if your profile geometry will not allow the creation of a curve according to your settings, a curve will not be created. Again, you will have grips for easy edit of your profile and will be able to make edits with both the Panorama Window and Sub-entity editor. You may notice that the curves are not currently labeled. That is because the label set that we selected did not include labels for curves. Let’s add the labels to our current label set.

23. Highlight your finished grade profile

24. Right-click, select “Edit Labels”

25. Select Sag Curve type, Sag style, Add>>

26. Select Crest Curve type, Crest style, Add>>

27. Select Save Label Set

28. Name the set FG Labels

By saving the label set, we can easily use it again on all of the profiles we create for this subdivision so that they have a consistent look.


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Working With Parcels Next, we will explore parcel layout in Autodesk Civil 3D.

1. File Open,

2. Navigate to the directory where the Civil 3D drawings are stored CV21-3L\Maplewood\02-QuickSpin-Parcels.dwg

3. Select the 02-QuickSpin-Parcels.dwg file

4. Select Open

This drawing contains a number of parcels that have already been created with Civil 3D. Parcels are objects similar to the surfaces and alignments. Parcels are related to each other by a sort of network or topology. Changes to one parcel will affect those around it. Parcels and alignments are both contained in what is called a Site. In this scenario, the site is defined by the perimeter of Phase 6. A site could actually be a bounday of a property to be developed or could simply be something arbitrary to contain all of your site specific data like parcels and alignments.

We can easily manage parcel data through the use of Prospector.

5. Expand the Phase 6 Site in Prospector to see Parcels

6. Expand the Parcels tree in Prospector

7. Select various parcels and note the preview are of the toolspace

8. Select Single-Family:604, note its preview, and locate it in the drawing area

We will begin by subdividing the parcel named “Single-Family:604” using the interactive layout tools in Civil 3D.

9. Parcels Create by Layout

10. Select the (Attach Lot Line) button from the Parcel Layout Toolbar

From our previous exercises, this dialogue should have begun to look very familiar.

11. In the Create Parcels dialog, set the parcel style to ‘Single Family’, and the Label Style to ‘Number Only”

12. Select OK

13. Select a location on the Cul-De-Sac.

14. Select ENTER to create a perpendicular line


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You probably noticed that depending on where you have selected on screen, the previewed lot line changes. If you mouse close to the boundary line for example, the line will be perpendicular to it. If you mouse closer to the right-of-way, the lot line will be snapped perpendicular to it by default. Simply hitting enter at the end of the command forces the perpendicular. You may also chose a different angle by selecting another point on-screen.

15. Continue subdividing the area to add several new lots

16. Hit <ENTER> <x> to complete the process and to dismiss the layout toolbar

Notice that with the placement of each new lot, the lot number label was automatically placed. With the parcels completed, we can easily annotate them or create an area table.

17. Parcels Labels Add…

18. Set Label Type to Multiple Segment

19. Set the Line label style to “Bearing Over Distance”

20. Set the Curve label style to “Standard”, but use the drop down list to make a “Create a Child of the Current Selection

By creating a child of the “Standard” label style, we are creating a style that is always dependent on the other. For example,if the text style of “Standard” changes, so will our new style.

21. On the “Information” tab of the Label Style Composer dialogue, name the new style “Standard—Tag Only”

22. On the “General” tab, change the “Display Mode” to “Tag”

23. Select OK to dismiss the Label Style Composer

24. Set the Curve label style to “Standard-Tag Only”

25. Select “Add”

26. In the drawing window, select the lot number labels for several lots and note the labeling. At any time, select other label styles and label other parcels.

27. Select “Close” to dismiss the Add Labels dialogue

Let’s now edit some of our lots using the interactive tools in Civil 3D.

28. Highlight a lot line to expose its grips

29. Grip edit the perpendicular grip to slide the line around the right-of-way


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Note how all of the annotation dynamically updates as we make changes to the parcel layout. In addition, Civil 3D has tools such as Slide Bearing that will allow you to size to a particular parcel area.

Next, we’ll add a curve table to contain the data for all of the tags that we have created.

30. Parcels Tables Add Curve…

31. Set the Table Style to “Length Radius & Delta”

32. Check the “Standard-Tag Only” label style for inclusion on the table

33. Set the Selection Rule to “Add Existing and New”

34. Select OK to pick the table placement on-screen at the prompts

35. Modify some lots to see how the table updates

36. Subdivide some additional parcels to see how the table updates

37. Note: You may add the curve tags and line labels as you are creating parcels. Set your Create Parcels dialogue to the settings shown on the right and after the complete the layout command the labels will be added.


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Civil 3D Benefits With Construction Documents Since all object oriented annotation in Civil 3D is controlled through the use of styles, making changes to drawing scale is a very simple task.

1. File Open,

2. Navigate to the directory where the Civil 3D drawings are stored CV21-3L\Maplewood\03-QuickSpin-Layouts.dwg

3. Select the 03-QuickSpin-Layouts.dwg file

4. Select Open

5. Zoom into an area where you can see the size of the parcel labeling

6. Make the “Settings” tab in the Toolspace current

Remember, the Settings tab may be used to control all of our drawing settings including styles.

7. Right-click on the drawing name, select “Edit Drawing Settings…”

8. On the “Units and Zone” tab, change the scale of the drawing

9. Select OK, review the changes

10. Change the scale back to 1:40

In the same way, changing the drawing rotation to better fit the plotted sheets is also very easy!

11. Double-click into Model Space

12. At the command line, type “DVIEW” <ENTER>

13. <ENTER> for the selection

14. Type “TW” for twist, <ENTER>

15. Type “270” for the angle, <ENTER>

16. <ENTER> to complete the command

17. Pan the plan to better fit into the viewport

18. Double-click into Paper Space

19. Review the changes!

About the Speaker: For the past 3 years, Shawnita has worked as a civil applications engineer at Autodesk helping engineers in the United States find appropriate design solutions through technical demonstrations, seminars, and workshops. Prior to joining Autodesk, Shawnita worked for 7 years as a civil engineering consultant using Autodesk® solutions in residential and commercial subdivision development projects. With a primary focus on grading and drainage design, her experience also includes utility planning, roadway design, traffic analysis, and surveying.

Shawnita Sterett, P.E. Applications Engineer--Infrastructure Solutions Division Autodesk, Inc. [email protected] Note about this presentation: Portions adapted from the Civil Solutions Demonstration written by the 2004 US ISD AE Team (Lori Copeland, Steve Gonda, Anthony Governanti, Toby Jutras, Mike Maibach, & Shawnita Sterett)