The Underutilized GIS type functionality of Civil 3DAndrew Manninen – Westwood Professional Services

DescriptionIn this class we will look at how to successfully create GIS type object data for your own linework inside of Civil 3D, annotate your linework automatically and export the linework with object data for ease of use in GIS applications. (Parcels with the owner name and more as object data) Clients who use GIS greatly appreciate the ability to bring in linework with object data already attached. We will also look at how we can leverage our new found knowledge on annotating object data to see how that can help us work with externally sourced data files. (PLSS linework and labeling sections and townships)

Learning Objectives At the end of this class, you will be able to:

Creation of Object Tables for fun and profit Annotate objects that have Object data for ease of use by all GIS type analysis, corridor analysis and color code by data Proper exporting of objects to SHP files for less phone calls and much praise

BiographyAndrew Manninen is the Corporate CAD Manager at Westwood Professional Services. He has worked on a variety of projects from Survey to Civil Engineering. Andrew has been a leader in the development of standards and training for the multi-office firm as well as helping push the company to find innovative and cost efficient design solutions for over 10 years.

Just how do you use this GIS functionality?!

You need to either load the MAPCLASSIC pull-down menu or the tool bars; I prefer the pull-down menu although this means you need to have your MENUBAR on (set to 1). MAPCLASSIC.CUI is available in your user profile under the ROAMING\AUTODESK\C3D 20XX\ENU\SUPPORT folder.

Lastly we need to load some resource files else we will be missing dialog boxes when using some MAP commands:1. On the command line type _OPTIONS2. Go to the Files tab and expand the section Support File Search Path3. Add the path : C:\program files\autodesk\autocad 2015\map\support\en-us4. Apply, and close the OPTIONS dialog boxRestart Civil 3D (a restart IS needed

Object Tables – What are they and how do I benefit?

Object Tables hold attribute data that can be attached to line work and leveraged for labeling and collaborating with others. Do you create a data table when you import a SHP file? You better! That is where most of the benefit of using publically available GIS data comes from!

Create your own data table and putting it into use:

To start off, you will need to create a “New Table” to store the information in that we will attach to the parcel polylines. To create a new table, select the pulldowns as shown:

MAP OBJECT DATA DEFINE OBJECT DATA

In the proceeding dialog box, click the “New Table…” button, and fill in the pertinent information. The Table name should make sense, such as “Parcels”. The object data fields should cover at the very least, Owner name, PID number and or proforma parcel number. In this Example all fields should be set up as a “Character” Type.

Now with the Table defined we can start adding the parcels into the database by attaching the data to the objects.

MAP OBJECT DATA ATTACH/ DETACH OBJECT DATA

In this dialog box we need to make sure the current table is set to the table we just made: “Parcels”. Now we just punch the “ATTACH TO OBJECTS” button and choose our polyline parcels. After the data has been attached to the objects, you should see some extra data fields that correspond with the field you entered into the table you created, in the properties of the polylines.

Fill in your parcel information as appropriate, by having the polyline selected and editing the properties. With the Object data entered, next we need to import the text for the parcels.

Annotate Object Data (Your own or from a SHP file)

MAP ANNOTATION EDIT ANNOTATION TEMPLATE

In this dialog we will create a new template and fill in our info linking the field data to the text objects to be created. Click the “CREATE NEW TEMPLATE” choose an appropriate name such as “Parcels” and AutoCAD will open the block editor. A new toolbar should have popped up when AutoCAD entered the

block editor such as this: , to create the annotation text objects you will need to hit the button on the left, which is “EDIT ANNOTATION TEXT” (or use the command MAPANNTEXT if you don’t have the button) then press enter to create a new text object, which pulls up this dialog box…

So to create our first text object, we will name the TAG “OWNER”, the value is a little tricky. If you hit the button on the right side of the “VALUE” you will get a new dialog called the “EXPRESSION CHOOSER”, here you can dial in the OBJECT DATA PARCELS OWNER

Upon selecting the OWNER property, your value should be filled in with “:Owner@Parcels” This is the actual linking mechanism tying the database information to the annotation. Then, back in the annotation text dialog box, fill out the rest of the form with object layers per the standard, text size and so on. When you are done changing the properties of the text, you will need to enter the insertion coordinates. When you are making the annotation objects like the three line text package shown in this example, the justification you will want is: 1st line: Bottom Center (inserted at 0,25), 2nd line Top Center (inserted at 0,0), 3rd line Top Center (inserted at 0,-68). This should space the text out and still keep the centroid somewhat centered on the text when it gets dropped into the parcel.

Some formatting to the text properties: Owner and PID number seem to work well being a leroy text size 28. A Proforma parcel number looks nice being Bold with a text size of 35.

Once the text objects are made you can always edit the objects by having them selected and then modifying the text size and so on, in the properties window. In the properties window is where you also can assign obliqueing angle. When you are done editing the text you want to show, just click

the right button shown here: to save the new annotation template.(or just close the block editor and choose to save the template, if you do not have the button) Now we can label our parcels with the tool: MAP ANNOTATION INSERT ANNOTATION…

Choose your newly created annotation template, and click the INSERT button. Choose the parcels you want to label, and hit enter. Voila! Labeled parcels are inserted that can be exported to GIS enabled clients.

If any of your data needs to change, the best way to change it is to modify the properties of the polyline, and then hit the UPDATE command in the ANNOTATION part of the MAP pulldown.

Analysis of GIS data

We have a great data set but how do we work with this data? MAPWSPACE is your new best friend. Turning the MAP workspace on gives you access to a variety of functions from importing publically available data straight from the source, to theming and analysis. This is an alternate to importing the data as we can work with the data through a data connection. This is where we start to blend the line between Civil 3D and ArcGIS.

With the map task pane, we can connect to SHP files on our own hard drives or servers, MySQL servers, WMS connections and more. In our example we will bring in a SHP file on our own hard drive. We connect to our data using a SHP file connection and “ADD TO MAP”. Once the data has been added to our drawing we can now theme the data using a STYLE, this allows us to differentiate between subsets of our data using a variety of factors. In this example we are using a field in the data set that classifies the type of lake, is it deep, shallow, pit etcetera. This takes our otherwise “dumb” data and instantly allows us to get a handle on the data just from the color of the lake. We can also query our data to filter out unneeded and unnecessary items. Maybe we only care about lakes that are over a certain size or of a certain type.

Exporting SHP files of your data

As always, make sure that the objects you have selected are not getting filtered out! As seen in the screen capture above, looking in the lower left of the shot. If you have objects being filtered out then

your selection method is not working correctly, or you have accidentally grabbed data you probably did not want. You can always ask an ArcView user to double check your shape file before you send it to a client.

Sometimes the client may want POLYGONS instead of POLYLINES, this helps them out by enabling THEMEING and other such GIS type tools, this is easy to accomplish by using the following command:

MAPPOLYLINETOPOLYGON

BUT! Be advised this will make the objects hard to use in CAD as polygons are filled objects and thus create all sorts of problems with overlapping objects. A sneakier way to supply the client with POLYGONS is to specify polygons when you export the shapefiles! The OPTION to convert polylines to polygons is shockingly found in the OPTIONS tab of the export shapefile dialog box, as seen below.

One last thing, when exporting to a Shape file, please remember to select the new attributes from the object data to be included with the parcel polylines, or all our work was for naught!

Bonus: Shape File Imported for contours

You import some sweet contour data from a SHP file but the imported objects do not have any elevation information other than zero. As such, it is pretty useless when it comes to creating surfaces.

So let’s get to business, first we know that you can’t import Z values from ESRI shape file directly. But with following workflow, you will be able to get elevations and continue creating surface. This workflow has two phases: import shape file and attaching it and setting up query.

First we need to setup a dummy drawing to import the Contour SHP file into. Import the SHP file from the Import Type drop-down menu and browse to the folder where the shape file you want to import is located. Click OK.

Be sure to create the object data in the Import window, click in the Data field […]. The Attribute Data dialog box, select Create Object Data and click on Select Fields

You don’t have to bring in all the data either, using the Select Fields, select the Elevation or other fields that you want to include, when done OK out and import the file. After the shape file has been imported, save and close the drawing.

Step 2:

Next we need to attach the drawing we just created and define a query so that program can adjust the data we want and use it.

Open the drawing you want the final contours to reside in. Next, attach the drawing you saved previously, in the MAP pulldown choose QUERY and DEFINE QUERY and click on the DRAWINGS button. Navigate to your drawing and select it.

Back in the Define Query dialog box, click Location and choose ALL, and then click OK. In the Define Query dialog box, click the Alter Properties button. In the Set Property Alterations dialog box, click Elevation and then click the Expression button. In the Select Data dialog box, verify that the Object Data option is selected, and then select the object data field that you want to use as your elevation data. Click OK.

Back in the Set Property Alterations dialog box, click Add, and then click OK. In the Define Query dialog box, verify that the Draw option is selected, and then click Execute Query. Find a contour and verify the elevation is set by looking at an object's properties. Congrats!