Not all news here has to be about Civil 3D, right? Some of you use some of the functions in Map 3D as well - especially since it’s built right into Civil 3D. Well, here’s a bit of information that you may or may not know about Map 3D and some new (returned?) functionality for it. Follow the link for more information.

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I’ve been teaching a lot of our unlimited instructor-led training sessions lately, and we always try to integrate the EEProPack with each class. (Both unlimited training and the EEProPack are part of our CivilAccess package.)

One of the features that many people reach for in Civil 3D is setting points along a feature line. For some reason, it can’t be done “out of the box”. You have to explode the feature line into a 3dpolyline first, which destroys your feature line. Once that feature line is destroyed, it is pulled out from its job as a surface breakline or grading object foundation. Yuck!

The EEProPack includes a tool that will set point along your feature line, while keeping it safe and sound.

Read more after the jump.

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As I was thinking about a subject to write about today, I was engaged in a discussion an Autodesker (who shall remain nameless) and he pointed out something that he wasn’t aware of in Civil 3D, and I can understand why - it’s kind of a hidden setting. So if someone very familiar with the program was unaware of it, he figured (as did I) that some of you might not be familiar with it either. It’s all about point styles.

Ever drag a point label away from a point marker and got really irritated because the arrow head didn’t EXACTLY touch the point? Follow the link to find out how to fix this pesky problem.

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Last week, Dana presented a very informative webcast on surface modeling and TIN theory.  Personally, I’ve been building TINs now for almost 15 years and still learned a lot while watching her perform her magic. In two weeks, I plan on presenting what Mark and I have dubbed “Surfaces, Episode 1 - The Phantom Mesh.” This webcast will explore how to get the initial surface created in Civil 3D, and will showcase one of Engineered Efficiency’s solutions offering, VRMesh. This post isn’t really a plug for the webcast, even though we love when you sign up.  This is an effort to explain exactly how VRMesh can help you, especially if you are working with very large point files. Follow the link to find out more.

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The Magic Eight-ball sometimes delivers on your wishes. It’s not often that we give up free styles, but since this is one of my favorite hacks, and will probably be part of my AU class, here’s one for Sue. The point label style in the attached dwg file will label positive’s but not negatives with a sign. Follow the jump to see how.

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So you’ve decided that you’re going to tackle the two most often misunderstood things inside Civil 3D - Vault and the Survey Database. You’ve created a Vault project and you flip over to the survey tab of toolspace and notice that there’s now a Survey Database with the same name. Cool! This software really is smart, it knew I was going to create a Survey Database! You get ready to get down and get busy, and create a network - BZZZT! You get an error saying that the Survey Database isn’t writable, and that you may not have permissions to access it. Now you go into full-on panic mode, eventually slipping off into the muttering frenzy of how badly this software sucks and how it won’t do what you want it to do.  Settle down, there’s a really good explanation.  Follow the link to lower your blood pressure just a little bit.

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Have you ever had a point show up in your survey database and it wasn’t where you thought it should be?  Perhaps upon further examination you find that the point was located twice in the field and the survey database is reporting the first location from the raw data file.  Today, we’re going to look at two things - the “why” and the “how” - why does this happen, and “how” do I fix it?

Follow the link to read more…

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I spent most of last week in the training room of George Butler Associates, Inc. in Lenexa, Kansas.   I was there helping the survey department learn all about Civil 3D, and developing workflows to utilize the Survey Database in Civil 3D to make their jobs perhaps a bit easier.   I had a great time with Terry, Andrew, and most of all, John Postlewait.   As most companies tend to do, the survey department was hidden down in the basement, so I felt right at home, especially when John served us all his absolutely freakin’ incredible homemade chili.   A very heartfelt thanks to John and crew for showing me some real hospitality.

Now, one of the things that we discussed that I’ve heard before is about stakeout points - those points that are calculated in the office to be uploaded to the data collector and staked out into the field.   How do they fit in with the survey database?   There’s no inherent functionality to get those points into the survey database - or is there?  Follow the link to see how I came to figure out a way to do just that…

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They are for point elevations too. A short one this time. A client asked me to create a point label style that truncates the numbers to the left of the decimal to 2 digits. for example:

12.34 stays 12.34
349.22 becomes 49.22
6299.45 becomes 99.45
… you get the picture.

Check out the solution after the jump.

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No, I’m not talking about any type of programming - that’s way above my head.   I know I’ve been absent for the last few weeks, but I’ve had a bad case of writer’s block.   But today, I’ve had a chance to work on something that I want to document, more for me than anyone else, but I’m in the giving mood so I’ll document here.

After Mark posted our Trimble Dimensions paper, I received a few emails about it, and I’m really happy to see people actually trying to make use of the Survey Database.   Well, in writing that, I think I left something a bit vague, and I’ve since come up with a better way to do things.   Let’s talk about coding features for automated linework - and see how you code.    Follow the link to see what I’m babbling about.

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