Initial Drawing Setup Basic Civil 3D Workflow Always use a Template (.dwt) for starting a new drawing. NOTE: an old drawing (. dwg ) can be used as a ‘template’ if there are any custom ‘styles’ that you have created within it you wish to use again. In your new drawing right click anywhere on the Model screen and select Options, from the pop up adjust the Autosave to around 30 mins NOTES: After any complex C3D operation it is a good idea to manually save your drawing. In Windows Explorer make sure that you have the correct ‘Pipes Catalog ’ (ANZ Metric Pipes and ANZ Metric Structures) and linestyle shapefiles (. shx ) stored on your ‘C’ drive and in the correct location within the Autodesk Civil 3D folders . Civil 3D requires a good graphics card and at least 16GB of RAMM memory. Avoid using the UNDO command after complex operations OR ‘save as’ before undoing. Bring in your CAD data 3d CAD data (. dwg or . dxf ) with X,Y,Z co- ords is used to build surfaces. Civil 3d can read other formats but not GENIO from MX. Any 2D information can be used to create Alignments. Select the surface on screen or from the Toolspace tree and try out the different display options or Surface Styles listed in the pop up drop down menu. NOTE In general it is good practice keep any eye on the COMMAND bar for prompts as these can be easily missed. Create a Surface A Surface is a TIN or ground model– From the drop down menu or by right clicking on the ‘Surfaces’ icon in the Toolspace - Prospector and select ‘Create Surface’, expand the tree below the surface and right click on ‘Drawing Objects’, select Add, from the Object Type drop down select ‘3D Faces’. On the screen select the 3d CAD items you wish to use, the surface will automatically update. Right click the surface and tick Rebuild Automatic if you want the surface to dynamically update any changes. NOTE: 3d Triangles from MX , 12d or a survey package are the best way to build an accurate TIN, you can also use contours but they tend to make large unstable models. Deleting redundant surfaces can be problematic if the contain other surfaces and edit information, if a surface cannot be deleted normally try selecting individual data in the toolspace with the mouse cursor and hitting delete. Create an Alignment Create a Profile from a Surface Alignments are 2d only and used for designing roads, pipes, swales, berms etc - From the drop down menu or Ribbon create an ‘empty’ alignment. Add/edit alignment data by either selecting or drawing a 2d CAD polyline or drawing an Alignment (layout) directly on the screen. Adjust to suit by selecting it with the mouse and moving the grips around. Experiment with how it looks by selecting it with the mouse, right clicking and choosing from the pop up one of the variable options. NOTE: if you are drawing directly on the screen for pipe alignments use ‘Tangent-Tangent (no curves)’. A Profile is a longitudinal section - From the drop down menu (or right click Ribbon icon) create a Profile, from the pop up window, select your Alignment and add the Surface(s) you wish to display, click the ‘Draw in profile view button’ select the style and information you want to display and click ‘Create Profile View’ and select a point on your drawing to display the profile. NOTE: All display attributes/styles/data bands can be customized to your requirements afterwards, also if you want to remove a surface from the profile select it on the screen and hit delete. Create a Profile by Layout ‘ Profile by Layout ’ creates vertical alignment geometry on a Profile – click on the drop down (or Ribbon icon), and select the Profile you wish to draw the vertical alignment on, after naming select the ‘Draw Tangents with Curves’ button from the pop up menu and draw an approximate alignment along the profile (OSNAP can be used if required). Adjust to suit by selecting it with the mouse and moving the grips around. Add geometry labels or vary the style by selecting it and right clicking to get a pop up menu. Add ‘bands’ to display Horiz or Vertical Geometry information by selecting Profile View Properties. Create / Edit an Assembly An Assembly is a typical section or template used to create a Corridor along an Alignment – NOTE: It is much easier to edit an existing Assembly copied from another drawing than create a new one. To create an Assembly; from the drop down menu select ‘Create Assembly’ and give it a name, select a baseline location on the screen (best located away from your surface and sections). Go back to the drop down and Select Subassembly Tool Palettes, scroll through the tabs to ‘Generic’ and select the type of Link you wish to use, ‘Link Width and Slope’ is commonly used. Click on the Assembly at the point you wish to insert the Link; normally start at the insertion point of the baseline (centre). You can adjust all the Assembly variables width, gradient, linestyle etc by selecting the item and adjusting the parameters in the Properties box. Create a Corridor Create a Corridor Surface A Corridor is a 3d entity made up from repeats of the Assembly at stated/set intervals created along an Alignment, it is not a Surface - From the drop down give it a name, select the alignment assembly and target surface (for daylighting etc ) click the apply button and a corridor should be drawn along the chosen alignment. Select the corridor on screen and right click and select Object V iewer to look at the ‘model’ in 3d, press escape to close. NOTE: Object Viewer can be used to view any cad element, parametric component, surface etc in Civil 3d A Corridor Surface is a TIN or ‘proposed’ surface ( eg a road, berm, swale etc ) . Corridor surfaces can be Detached into ordinary Surfaces if required (and the corridor then deleted). This separate surface can be ‘pasted’ onto other surfaces to create a ‘final model’. To paste a surface first create a new surface expand the tree, right click on Edits and click ‘paste surface’ this should be done in a logical fashion ie base surface first. Note: All surfaces can be interrogated for volumes cut/fill balances by creating Volume Surfaces ; from the Surfaces drop down click utilities and go to the Volumes Dashboard click on the new Volume Surface icon, give it a name and select a base and comparison surface.