Transportation

Civil 3D Superelevation View Editing

I recently had some questions regarding the use of the Superelevation View in Civil 3D to customize and/or edit superelevation.  To that end, I decided to create a video playlist that walks through many of the editing techniques available in the super diagram view.  This video series starts with the creation of superelevation and goes all the way through the testing of your edits within a corridor.  I hope these are beneficial!

 

-Alan

Civil 3D Custom Subassembly for Overlay and Widening

Recently during a customer visit, we were discussing options for overlay and widening within Civil 3D.  A question arose regarding how to customize the “OverlaywidenMatchSlope1” by adding a leveling wedge between the lane and proposed shoulder.  Below is a video playlist that walks through the creation of a subassembly to achieve this using the Subassembly Composer tool.  It also shows the application and testing of this subassembly using a Civil 3D corridor.  I hope these are beneficial!

 

-Alan

FDOT Civil 3D Corridor Modeling Symposium

On Monday and Tuesday of this week Edmundo Herrera and I visited FDOT District 4 and District 6 to present a full day of Civil 3D corridor modeling training at each venue.  The sessions were open to the FDOT Districts, local governments and engineering service providers.  We had a great turnout with nearly 150 attending the sessions.

Content for the training ranged from foundational template based modeling concepts to advanced techniques including: traffic separators and medians, multiple PGL assemblies, crown transitions, parameter overrides, superelevation strategies, and the creation of custom subassembly components.

District 4 - Ft. Lauderdale session…

District 6 - Miami session…


As always it’s a privilege to be able to work with the Florida DOT to offer these sessions. They do an outstanding job organizing the classes and making them available to a wide audience through the use of their training facilities.

Would you be interested in reviewing some of the content offered at these sessions?
Please use the links below...

Civil 3D Advanced Roadway Modeling
 

Civil 3D Advanced Intersection Modeling
 

The complete dataset for all sessions can be downloaded here - http://a360.co/1Pte4xI

The Subassembly Composer documentation can be downloaded here - http://a360.co/1O0Kcr1

We look forward to returning to Florida soon to offer more sessions!

-Jeff

Civil 3D Can Help You Do the Splits

When a proposed design includes areas with steep grades, you can easily end up with profile views that are too tall to fit on construction drawings. At times like these, profile views need to be split such that the entire vertical design can be seen on the sheets.

In the past you may have created split profiles manually, by creating multiple copies of a profile view, and then assigning each copy a unique station and elevation range. While there is nothing wrong with a “hand crafted” approach to profile views, Civil 3D is more than willing to do most of this work for you.

Using Civil 3D’s Split Profile View feature, you can easily convert profile views like this…

into this…

with just a few mouse clicks!

If you are interested, use the video link below to see how Civil 3D can help you incorporate semi-automatic split profile views into your workflow.

-Jeff

  

“I’m Terrible With Names!”

Civil 3D makes quick work of building Assemblies using its pre-built library of subassembly parts. As each “road part” is dragged from the Tool Palettes to an Assembly, Civil 3D assigns it a generic name. By default, the assigned names will match the part names shown on the palettes, thus filling your Assemblies with components called “LaneSuperelevationAOR”, “UrbanCurbGutterGeneral”, or “DaylightStandard”.

As Assemblies become more complex and involve the targeting of surfaces, alignments and profiles, these generic subassembly names can make it nearly impossible to tell components apart. In fact there is nothing more frightening than a Target Mapping dialog box that looks like this…

At times like these we have no choice but to visit the Assembly Properties and begin the painstaking process of logically naming each subassembly component.

Fortunately, managing subassemblies doesn’t have to be painful. If you are a “Subassembly Naming Procrastinator” like me, you may appreciate a Civil 3D setting that reminds you to name subassembly parts as they are added to the drawing.
Here’s how it works…

Step 1. On the Settings Tab of the Toolspace, expand the Subassembly category followed by the Commands group.

Step 2. Right-click on the CreateSubAssemblyTool command and select “Edit Command Settings” from the menu.

Step 3. In the Edit Command Settings dialog box, expand “Subassembly Options” and click in the Value column next to “Subassembly Name Prompt” to turn the feature on.

Step 4. Click OK to close the dialog box.

From now on, each time a subassembly is added to the drawing, Civil 3D will pause allowing you to give the component a logical name.

If a design involves complex corridor modeling, there is a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing your subassembly components are well organized and logically named. By making a simple tweak to Civil 3D’s command settings, you may never again have to sift through a “crime scene” Assembly in an attempt to identify all of the pieces.

-Jeff