The new advertised AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 features are not particularly focused on Civil 3D Survey improvement. Maybe that’s a good thing. If you already learned the benefits and tools of Survey inside Civil 3D, there is nothing serious to work up a sweat over. Right?
Where oh where did my COGO Editor go?
Some of our love-to-hate familiar Survey tools have moved around in the interface.
The former COGO Editor version in the Ribbon is deprecated to the command line in Civil 3D 2018 - type COGOEDITOR. That old CE saves you from learning the newer and much better create and edit interface available in the Traverse Editor introduced in via Enhancements, Extensions, and Productivity Packs in the last release(s). Oh. Start to type TRAVERSEEDITOR.
The newer Traverse tools are listed as a new 2018 feature. The new and better Traverse Editor and Traverse Adjustment tools can now be found in the Ribbons in Home >>Create Ground Panel. No. The Traverse tools are not anywhere on the default Survey Ribbon since no Survey Db required, I suppose. Basic instruction Civil 3D training videos are here.
Need I remind you that the classic Civil 3D Transparent commands combined with Civil 3D tools and even AutoCAD commands can save some of that sort of COGO labor. No sweat or should we say, “Sweatless”?
Where oh where did my Toolbox tools go?
Toolbox Upgrades
The previous Transportation Extension and Productivity Pack Toolbox tools are now in the Miscellaneous Utilities branch of the Toolbox. Yes. That does include the Survey RW5 converter. Whew!
Bang your head on the keyboard. It is way too easy forget about the classic Toolbox reports of Breakline Check and the Crossing Breakline Report in a fevered rush to get Survey Db Figures all sorted out. Yes. Resolve Crossing Breaklines tool is still hidden away in the Ribbon Survey>>Analyze panel pull down. You can use that tool to check and improve your design surfaces too.
Timeless Sweatless Survey
You do use Survey Dbs and Survey Queries all the time? Yes. This is true even for Civil design folk. Check out our Deliverables training course. Register and get that free. Alignment based Point Groups can quickly reengineer your publication process in Civil 3D for the better.
Ordered plan and profile viewports in Civil 3D 2018 help even more for mini-location based survey and design work. Huh? There’s a video here. You project is all about work in a series of intersections and locations down one or more alignments. This never happens in sanitary and storm upgrade projects?
You don’t use Survey Dbs and Survey Queries all the time? Lots more head banging is called for. We all admit it. The Civil 3D help for Survey Queries is focused on often irrelevant, arcane technical issues like extended Survey Db properties. You can fix that. Our Survey Query AddOn contains a whole detailed library of easy to edit and productive QML files to make your life easier. Fully integrated codes, Description Keys, et. al. make a huge difference. We got video.
Survey Query Essentials
Sadly, Autodesk did not fix the save of conditions in Exported Survey QML files. These still default to contains and still ignore fixes. Maybe next time. This is easy to work around, but very inconvenient and can I say, “Irresponsible?” It seems to rarely occur to programmers that people don’t use their good stuff simply because they don’t fix and error check their own code. Arrrgh.
Productivity Matters to You…It Matters to Us
Better Survey in Civil 3D…Get the Framework
The Framework and Civil 3D 2018 Posts
- Release 7 Framework products upgrade and run in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018
- Survey Civil 3D 2018 Changes
- C3D 2018 Superelevation and Offset Profiles
- Multiple Dynamic Baselines in Civil 3D 2018
- Offset Profiles in Civil 3D 2018
- Civll 3D 2018 Connected Alignment Upgrade