If you haven't hidden your head in the sand the last few years, you know the world of land development is all about going 3D. It's the next jump from the board to CAD to the model. The magic question of course is, "How do I get there?" If you're part of the Autodesk world—as so many engineers, land planners, and surveyors are—then the answer to that question is AutoCAD Civil 3D.
With the growing maturity of the Civil 3D product, more and more users are making the jump from AutoCAD Land Desktop or other civil engineering software suites, and that means the user base is growing. Part of that growth is the new or occasional user who just wants to understand what all the hubbub is about, and how to make some use of all this modeling information. Civil 3D is a complicated product, and after five years, most users will still say they learn something every day, in spite of being the experts in their office. This book isn't for them. This book is for the project manager who needs to understand what his engineers and designers are doing. This is for the engineer who has moved more into a team-management role, but still contributes to the design process. This is for the new student who wants to get a feel for all the pieces that make up a Civil 3D model, and why all these tools are used instead of just lines, arcs, and polylines. If you're looking to get a basic understanding of what Civil 3D is all about, and to get a quick peek at the full toolset from points to project data management, then this is the book for you.
This book covers the basics of creating, editing, and using the elements that make up the Civil 3D universe. You won't find every setting covered in detail or presented with the most complex uses. You'll find straightforward examples and language that give you a clear path to understanding and a level of confidence to begin taking on bigger tasks within your Civil 3D designs.
The book is essentially a catalog of tools, arranged according to features and object sets. Each chapter describes an object and a bit about why it's different from your stock AutoCAD objects. You'll get some discussion, and then you will go right into step-by-step exercises that walk you through the creation of most objects types in a couple of different ways. You'll look at some of the most common creation options, with further exercises that let you explore these as well. After you have created some Civil 3D objects, you'll move to editing and styling objects to suit your needs. Each chapter wraps with a quick summary to help you remember all that was covered and the purpose a given feature serves.
This book assumes a basic understanding of the core AutoCAD package and Microsoft Windows. Although you won't get into complex AutoCAD commands or sequences, this book assumes that you can draw lines and arcs, copy objects, and use osnaps within the program.
Running Civil 3D is not a job for your old computer. Although the models and exercises presented here are very basic, hardware deficiencies are some of the most common sources of frustration with Civil 3D. It's simply a very demanding application even in basic design models. In case you're curious, here's a list of the recommended specifications according to Autodesk:
Microsoft Window Vista Ultimate/Business/Enterprise or XP (SP2 or SP3)
Intel Pentium 4 (3GHz or higher) or AMD Athlon
4GB RAM
7GB free disk space for installation
1,280 × 1,024 display with true color, 1,600 × 1,200 or greater recommended (OpenGL® accelerator with full OGL ICD support not required)
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6.0 (SP1 or later)
DVD drive
You can (and should) visit the Autodesk website (www.autodesk.com) and review system requirements for any changes since this publication.
Before you even flip through the rest of this introduction, point your web browser to www.sybex.com/go/introducingcivil3d2010 and begin downloading the data and drawings that go along with the exercises. This way, once you're done with this introduction, you'll be ready to roll right into the text.
This book moves through the Civil 3D program in a way that seems to match the way most people use and learn it. It starts with the general setup, and then moves on to points, surfaces, and corridors, and ends with team data management. Each chapter covers a general feature, and although some chapters build on skills or concepts covered in previous chapters, most stand alone as well. If you're set on hitting a specific topic right off the bat, we'd still suggest that you start with Chapter 1 just to get familiar with the Civil 3D environment—you're not in AutoCAD anymore, Toto.
The first two chapters cover the changes to the Civil 3D environment:
Chapter 1: Welcome to the Civil 3D Environment discusses the Prospector and Panorama, along with the other interfaces you'll use to understand and build your Civil 3D model. You'll also explore Civil 3D styles and how they make the display of your models easier than ever to manage.
Chapter 2: General Tools covers tools you'll use throughout your Civil 3D experience, including the Civil 3D–specific Inquiry and Tool Palettes. You'll also explore some standard AutoCAD tools that are part of the Civil 3D package, but you might not have used them before.
The next few chapters look at getting the initial data into the model:
Chapter 3: Lines and Curves teaches you how to use existing legal descriptions or linework to begin creating your Civil 3D drawing data and how some Civil 3D tools can be applied to regular AutoCAD linework.
Chapter 4: Survey takes the model from the outside world into your computer. Working with field books and figures, you'll see how to translate basic on-the-ground survey data into the basis for a Civil 3D model.
Chapter 5: Points gives you hands-on practice importing points from outside data, creating points for your own modeling use, and labeling them as needed.
With a basic idea of the site in place, you'll want to look at setting out your site and reviewing it. The next two chapters tell you how:
Chapter 6: Parcels covers the creation of parcels and getting your basic labeling together to create plans you can submit for review.
Chapter 7: Surfaces begins to get to the heart of the 3D environment. You'll explore how to build a basic surface from Google Earth information and from points. You'll also explore how contouring and labeling can help you understand this surface better.
The next two chapters work hand-in-hand to help you begin your design work:
Chapter 8: Alignments gives you hands-on practice creating alignments from existing linework and from scratch, as well as labeling and stylizing them to meet your requirements.
Chapter 9: Profiles and Profile Views shows you how to cut profiles, and then lay in a design profile to describe your proposed model. You'll also learn how to manipulate the profile views, setting different scales and attaching labels to make the data more understandable.
With the basic elements of Civil 3D in place, you'll begin looking at all the parts that make up the finished model.
Chapter 10: Assemblies and Corridors is all about Road Design in Civil 3D. You'll build a typical cross-section called an assembly and use the alignment and profile data to create a 3D model of that road. You'll also look at creating a surface from the corridor, the first step in preparing a final ground model.
Chapter 11: Sections walks you through the process of cutting sections, displaying them in your drawing, and making arrays of sections to make plotting easier.
Chapter 12: Grading covers feature lines and grading groups, the two primary tools for building the part of your model that isn't defined in a corridor. You'll create feature lines from objects and alignments and use a single feature line to set the grades for others. You'll also make a grading group based on a feature line, building a drainage channel as a function of a single feature line and some parameters. Finally, you'll put both the feature lines and grading group into a composite finished ground model and run a quick earthworks analysis.
Chapter 13: Pipes walks you through picking the parts for your pipe network, the layout of your network, and getting it displayed just right. You'll also push those pipes and manholes into a profile view and explore the relationship between plan and profile as you edit.
Chapter 14: Projects looks a bit outside the technical engineering aspect of Civil 3D and at how to pull the team together using the data shortcuts feature. You'll see how to make a typical project folder structure, how to make a new project within Civil 3D, and how to share your design data with other members of your team.
Appendix: More Exercises is filled with more work to take your Civil 3D skillset to the next level. A few more of everything and some miscellaneous tools that weren't part of the main chapters round out your exploration of the application.
The idea for this book came from the growing number of users who have said, "I wish I had some way to explain the basics of Civil 3D to my boss and the new guys." We've attempted to incorporate the things that make us excited about Civil 3D and what we would show to someone who asked us to explain why we're so excited to be involved with this product. With that in mind, there are always things that could be covered in more detail, or perhaps features that we should include here. If you have ideas on how to improve this text, please contact us both at [email protected]. Although we can't reply to every message, we do read every one and we value your feedback.
Sybex strives to keep you supplied with the latest tools and information you need for your work. Please check their website at www.sybex.com, where we'll post additional content and updates that supplement this book if the need arises. Enter Civil 3D in the Search box (or type the book's ISBN—9780470481523) and click Go to get to the book's update page. You can also find updates and more information at www.civil3d.com/errata.
Thank you for picking up Introducing AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010. We appreciate it.
—James Wedding, P.E. and Rick Graham