Civil 3D DWFs Markups and Project Managers

Can you hear me laughing? It’s true. The publication of Plan Set Deliverables in Autodesk Civil 3D probably has more nuances than Lady Gaga has dresses. Some of those details can be quite elaborate to say the least. One could probably record hours of How To videos to get all the way through Sheet Set Manager publication and cover the meat of the matter. Eheh. Folks at Autodesk have. There is a whole section of SSM videos on this site.

The recent post - The Civil 3D DWF Publication Reprise and video covers some of the many DWF essentials. The focus is an in-depth walkthrough of Intelligent Publish on Demand (iPOD) methods when employed along with DWF publication mechanics. The video covers important tools in Civil 3D and DWF publication nuances with the emphasis on building standard forms of managed production output.

Civil 3D DWFs Markups and Project Managers

DWF publication rocks. Do the Do.
I hope you invest some time and practice to perform the Learn and Burn to make DWF work for you.

The DWF publication from a working project drawing method and those replaceable published DWFs in an XREF stack do work like a form of higher performance publication magic.

This stacked DWF collection in a project XREF method effectively makes the collections stacked DWFs project- based resources instead of the individual DWFs becoming individual drawing file dependencies.

I trust that the project management and maintenance problem of lots of independent file dependencies in a Civil 3D project is a familiar and painful one?

The Familiar and The New

We are simply employing the best parts of the classic Civil 3D Publish Live Model (PLM) method with our brains engaged to construct an improved Managed Production Process and workflows.

Perhaps the biggest challenge will be on achieving agreement on all the many new things we have to name. Then we must execute that name convention and file and folder structures into our Civil 3D Project Templates to implement them quicker and more successfully. Just sayin’.

DWF Details

Someone asked. Yes.
DWF produced AutoCAD Details are wonderful at avoiding a ton of plan set publication issues.
It’s really great to discover that someone’s ancient choice of CTB or STB publication isn’t really such a big deal anymore. Dooh.

An Important Nuance of Named Views

In the DWF Publication Mechanics video, I employed the Insert View tool available on the Layout Tools ribbon to drag a drop the scaled Views on a Layout.
Someone complained that their named Views didn’t make it to the Layout with the correct Annotative Scale assigned.
Where is that coming from?

The Annotative Scale must be set correctly when you save the Model View.
The only way I know is to update a View with that data is to overwrite the View definition.
Back in the day I whined that you should be able to edit the Annotative Scale for a named Model View. Who listens to me?
Autodesk’s response at the time…Do more work or do it “right” the first time. Eheh.

Autodesk’s Insert View tool is also smarter than the average bear which we don’t expect BooBoo. If your saved View is too big to fit on the page assigned to the Layout, Insert View will suggest a more appropriate larger scale. Check the Layout page size first.

Layer States in Viewports

I also do not typically save Layer snapshots with the named Views.
I find that applied standard Layer States produce more consistent results within the overall Civil 3D project publication context. Layer States are transportable, and Views are not…but Layouts are. Hmmm?

View Setup Geometries

Standardized and canned View setup geometry can be easily implemented with ACAD primitive geometries in easy to build and maintain Tool Palette tools.

The Civil 3D Plan Production Tool will create and DREF share Alignment-based Viewframe Groups throughout the entire Civil 3D project. Those Alignment and ViewFrame Groups are about publication not design geometry which is a separate thing indeed. Sadly, the Plan Production Tool still will not make and name the twisted Views automatically for us. Arrrgh.

Sorry. I didn’t check if this task can be automated as yet in Dynamo. Silly me.

Pilgrim’s Progress and Way of QAQC

Hopefully, sooner or later we come to recognize that the mandatory Civil 3D publish QAQC loops we all must do anyway are right on the path to a better and faster DWF production deliverable.

That’s saying something important if you catch the drift (or the shifted DWF). Eheh.

Project Managers and DWF Markup

There is some important human nuance imbedded into the electronic Markup method resistance almost everyone who tries to implement it encounters. Monitor size and practice matters. There is more to this resistance than that.

The Project Manager Markup thing is an interesting bit of social, business, and human science.

Redline Markups can become a Decision Avoidance Mechanism!

Many times, I discover that Project Managers and senior design staff will make folks fix irrelevant stuff (move this or that here or there) simply because something about the plan, as yet unrecognized, just bugs them.

The nagging expert doubt is exactly what they get paid for. Been there. Got the t-shirt.

Acknowledged Doubt Can Be a Good Thing

Sometimes PMs are just afraid their team members will be assigned to other projects. Oh No.

We should recognize that CAD appears to create and demand much quicker decision-making timeframes.

Civil 3D is faster yet. One skilled person can accomplish the work of four.

Hence - I preach to team members to always submit back choices. Never just fix anything.

“Boss. Pick A or B or C. Which is better and why?”

Funny thing. Systematic Design Iterations seem to work out better most of the time.

Performance design optionality is a learned and immensely valuable skill.

This practice also encourages Project Managers and senior design staff to train others how they make the design decisions and communicate civil engineering nuance or at least think about it.

Leave the fear, uncertainty, and doubt behind. Eheh.

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