Over the last few releases of Civil 3D Autodesk has made a pretty concerted effort to improve the design, analysis, and the important annotative functionality of Pipe and Pressure Pipe Systems. Many of us who use Civil 3D complain about all of this for good reason. For many civil engineering and survey organizations this type of work in their projects is their bread and butter. Particularly in operational departments in more than a few governmental agencies, this work is the work they must focus on.
Isn’t it funny how that buried and hidden infrastructure is so important to our economy and downright mission critical to our way of life? Maybe that’s why we call it public works? Funny. We’ve been arguing about who gets to pay for it and how for all of recorded history.
Speaking of Hidden and Buried
Funny. Autodesk keeps saying that the Civil 3D Object Model didn’t change with each new initial release of Civil 3D. Left unsaid in the fact they already changed that in a previously released Update to the prior release.
Autodesk has quietly changed the Civil 3D Object Model in Civil 3D continuously since the release of Civil 3D 2018. Civil 3D Object Model changes made are cascaded back to older releases via Updates.
In other words:
- The initial Civil 3D 2018 release did not include new Styles now available in the Civil 3D 2018.3 Update.
- The initial Civil 3D 2019 release did not include new Styles now available in the latest current Civil 3D 2019.2 Update.
- All of these new Styles introduced into the current Civil 3D Object Model are obviously available in Civil 3D 2020.
For the most part this strategy allows you to open drawings created in new releases in older release software if you have the latest Update for the older release installed.
No. You don’t get all the new interface and functional improvements in the older release, but the drawing can be opened and edited without dire consequences provided you obey the published rules of the road detailed in the latest Update release Civil 3D help files.
Most of these 2018-2020 cascaded Object Model changes focus on new Label Style tools centered around Profile Views and Section Views and the aforementioned Pipe and Pressure Pipe Systems. More on that in a bit.
Make Your Bread and Eat It Too
Maybe you prefer bread grilled like an English Muffin to oven-baked bread like an Artisan Country Sourdough loaf? In any case, you want the result to be well-structured and tasty. Smarter craftsmen will both work the process and, on that process, to produce better results. There is art, innovation, and considerable competitive advantage to be found there. We can all agree that great results hot out of the oven taste best.
Make the Best even Better
The Framework for Civil 3D supplies the core and detailed Civil 3D Template and Civil 3D Style Tools to make Pipe and Pressure Pipe Systems in Civil 3D work. The Framework has done this in too many releases of Civil 3D to bother to count at an unmatched level of detail.
Civil 3D Pipe Dreams
The next Release 8 and Release 7 of the Framework for Civil 3D 2020 products include major Style Tool updates and upgrades to Civil 3D Style Tools centered around Profile Views and Section Views and, in particular, Pipe and Pressure Pipe Systems. You can now do more. We will supply you the better Style and Label Style tools to make those all work in your projects.
If you upgrade to a Framework for Civil 3D 2020 Jump Kit product in either Release 8 or Release 7, the new supplied resources can be imported and employed in Civil 3D 2018.3 and Civil 3D 2019.2. We expect they will run great in upcoming Civil 3D Updates to any releases.
Framework for Civil 3D 2020 Style Updates
The Profile View and Section View Label Style additions fully support the Civil 3D 2020 ability to display linear object Crossing objects in those View Features. Note the current limitations in Civil 3D 2018.3.
Pipe and Pressure Pipe system Style and Label Style Tools are substantially upgraded in the Framework for Civil 3D 2020 Jump Kit product.
Better Naming Conventions
There are new, improved, and easier to use naming conventions employed for all the detailed Label Style collections supplied. These are now easier too modify if you employ automated prefix and suffix changing Style rename tools.
Better Depth of Coverage
We improved the number and contents supplied of style resources. There are many more typical working, publishing, and QAQC Label Styles included for all systems.
Better Ease of Use
We significantly improved the granularity of the supplied Style and Label Style resource collection drawings to make it easier to select, import, and employ those resources in your templates no matter how you choose to implement those templates. In effect, all Pipe and Pressure Pipe System Style and Label Style Tools collections are now Adaptive Building Blocks which are therefore now much easier to separately include in your templates.
General Marker Styles
- Display System adjustments to appropriate Marker Styles for new linear Alignment Marker components
Profile Views and Section Views
- There are new Name conventions for the Profile View and Section View Crossing Label Styles
- Added Profile View Crossing Label Styles in Insertion, Bottom Up and Top Down formats
Currently Profile View Crossing Label Styles are only supported in Civil 3D 2019.2+ - All Section View resources were rebuilt for Civil 3D 2018.3+
- Added Section View Crossing Label Styles in Insertion, Bottom Up and Top Down formats
Currently Section View Crossing Label Styles are supported in Civil 3D 2018.3+
Additional new Jump Kit Library Profile and Section View Crossing drawing resources are supplied.
Pipe Systems
There are new separate Sewer, Storm, and Water Gravity Pipe System resource drawings supplied that exclude the other systems. The new resource collections are Adaptive Building Blocks for gravity systems and may be employed in either classic Civil 3D template targets or Reference Template Tool template targets.
Pipe Network Styles
- Removed all duplicate Pipe and Structure Label Styles from supplied resources
- Updated and fixed broken Parts List the separate Sewer, Storm, and Water Network supplied resources
- Renamed separate Sewer, Storm, and Water Network supplied resources to generic names
- Validated and checked all updates back to Civil 3D 2018.3 and Civil 3D 2019.2
Pipe Label Styles
All duplicate Pipe Label Styles removed from some InstantOn resources for consistency so you can load only what you need from the Jump Kit Library resources.
- There are new Name conventions for the Pipes Plan Profile, Crossing Section, and Profile Crossing Label Styles
- In-depth support for Sewer, Storm, and Water gravity systems
- Removed old Flow Rate Expressions and references from Pipe Label Style collections
- Added many Plan Profile Labels with Center to Center and Inside Edges lengths
A variety of Pipe Details are supplied with and without Flow Rate included are new NOPLOT configurations - Plan Profile Labels are supplied in both Feature Anchor and Stacked configurations
- Added Pipes Crossing Section Label Styles in Insertion, Bottom Up and Top Down formats
A variety of Pipe Details are supplied included are new NOPLOT configurations - Added Pipes Crossing Profile Label Styles in Insertion, Bottom Up and Top Down formats
A variety of Pipe Details are supplied included are new NOPLOT configurations
Additional new Library drawing resources separated by Sewer, Storm, and Water system are supplied.
Pressure Pipe and Conduit Systems
Pressure Pipe and Conduit Systems are supplied in separate resource drawing collections. The new resource collections are Adaptive Building Blocks and may be employed in either classic Civil 3D template targets or Reference Template Tool template targets.
The following Systems are supplied with detailed Styles and Label Styles:
- Cable Conduit
- Communications Conduit
- Electrical Power Conduit
- Fiber Optic Conduit
- Fuel Oil
- Generic Utility
- Irrigation
- Landscape Irrigation
- Industrial Waste
- Natural Gas
- Telephone Conduit
- Recycle Water
- Sewer
- Storm
- Water
Note the Conduit systems may be easily employed as simple cable systems with minor modifications.
Pressure Pipe Network Styles
- Removed all duplicate Label Styles from supplied resources
- Updated and fixed broken Parts List the separate supplied system resources
- Renamed separate supplied resources to generic names
- Validated and checked all updates back to Civil 3D 2018.3 and Civil 3D 2019.2
Pressure Pipe Styles
Upgraded the existing supplied Pressure Pipe Styles to conform to similar Pipe Style standards for consistency of resolution and behavior.
Typical Pressure Pipe Styles include Crossing, Double Line Filled, Double Line, Single Line and Walls configurations.
In older Civil 3D 2018.3 and Civil 3D 2019.2 the resolved display of some Pressure Pipe Style components may vary.
- Added new Crossing Pressure Pipe Styles for piping and conduit systems
These display only the Outer Pipe Walls in Profile and Section Views. - Fixes to existing Pressure Pipe Styles of Display components
Removed the display of Pipe Hatching in Section Views per user requests. - Updates and corrections to Pressure Pipe Style Descriptions
Pressure Pipe Label Styles
All duplicate Pressure Pipe Label Styles removed from some InstantOn resources for consistency so you can load only what you need from the Jump Kit Library resources.
There are new separate Pressure Pipe and Conduit System resource drawings supplied that exclude the other systems.
Reference Alignments do not currently resolve in Pressure Pipe Crossing Section Label Styles.
- There are new Name conventions for the Pressure Pipes Plan Profile, Crossing Section, and Profile Crossing Label Styles
- In-depth support for Pressure Pipe and Conduit Systems
- Renamed Pressure Pipe Plan Profile Labels
A variety of Pressure Pipe Details are supplied with new NOPLOT configurations - Pressure Pipe Plan Profile Labels are supplied in both Feature Anchor and Stacked configurations
- Added Pressure Pipes Crossing Section Label Styles in Insertion, Bottom Up and Top Down formats
A variety of Pressure Pipe Details are supplied included are new NOPLOT configurations - Added Pressure Pipes Crossing Profile Label Styles in Insertion, Bottom Up and Top Down formats
A variety of Pressure Pipe Details are supplied included are new NOPLOT configurations
Additional new Library drawing resources separated by Pressure Pipe and Conduit System are supplied.
Caveats
To be perfectly clear, the Framework for Civil 3D products do not supply custom Pipe and Pressure Pipe catalogs and/or custom part libraries constructed with the Infrastructure Parts Editor.
The Framework does supply the Styles and annotative Imperial units Label Styles to resolve, display, and publish the stock Civil 3D resources and any custom catalogs and/or Infrastructure Parts libraries. If you supply those custom resources as a Civil 3D product, please feel free to drop me an email and we’ll be happy to test and validate them.
Innovate or Work Too Hard
The Framework for Civil 3D is available in both Release 8 (NCS 6.0 compliant by default) and the older Release 7 (NCS 5.0+ compliant by default) versions for multiple releases of Civil 3D. Both of our Releases include the resources and tools to support the Adaptive Layer Standards.
Release 8 includes our Adaptive Building Block libraries and more resources not included in Release 7.
Two Releases of the Framework for the Price of One
Buy a Jump Kit for 2019 in Release 8 or Release 7 before our new Framework for Civil 3D 2020 products ship and receive a free upgrade to a Jump Kit 2020. Tick...Tick...Tick...
Unleash the Innovation Beyond the Code
Get the Framework for Civil 3D Release 8