Archive for May 16th, 2006

OK, you all know that you can change the styles of objects and labels. However, let’s say that you create this new surface style that you have named “Our Company Contour Standard” that you want to have applied to every style that you create. How do you do this? Do you just pick it each time you create your surface? What if you could have it as the default style? Well, good news, because you definitely can do this.

Once again tonight, we’re working on the Settings tab of our Toolspace. Note that this technique will work on almost any type of Civil 3D object, but we’re going to use Surfaces for this example. Go to Surface and expand the tree there. At the very bottom of that group, you’ll see an item called Commands. Expand this - this is where we’re going to edit the command that we use to create our surface. In case you’re lost, here it it:

Now, we’re going to edit the CreateSurface command. Right click on that command, and select Edit Command Settings. Now, a very familiar box pops up (especially if you worked through the previous tip). The 5th option here in this list is Default Styles. If you expand that tree, you can edit the styles that are applied each and every time you create a surface:

If you’re brave, browse in this window and see what else you can modify - you can select your build options, or the type of surface that you create each time.

As always, Have Fun!

The Event Viewer in Civil 3D is a pretty useful feature. It shows you “events” - if you create a data reference, it lets you know. If you have errors, or something wrong with your drawing, it lets you know. If certain events happen (crossing breaklines on a surface, for instance), it will let you know, and also let you zoom to that area where you’re having the problem. However, sometimes it seems like it shows TOO MUCH information.

For my purposes, I like to keep it turned off. The good news is that this is a drawing-specific setting. To access it, you go to the Settings tab of your Toolspace, right click on the drawing name, and select Edit Drawing Settings. In the dialog box that comes up, select Ambient Settings. In the property list below, expand the GENERAL tree. The third option down allows you to turn off the event viewer. Here’s an illustration:

Have fun!

This one comes from Dana Breig Probert from Cadapult. She’s a frequent poster on the Autodesk Civil 3D discussion group, and frankly, I was wondering when she’d start a blog
Welcome Dana - I look forward to reading!

After 282 hits so far this morning, I’ve surpassed 10,000 hits. Yes, in less than 3 months of this blog being online, we’ve had 10,000 page loads.

Now, a guy with a big ego would be proud that he was so popular. However, I’m happy that so many people are interested in Civil 3D. To me, that means job security.

So, to all my faithful readers, thank you very much for your support. And for anyone else, please let me know if I can help you and your company with implementing Civil 3D.