Civil 3D contains numerous details that can come back to bite us when we proactively tackle Civil 3D Style Maintenance and Improvement. We do tend to take for granted the classic AutoCAD Styles. We already know all about that Layer, Block, Textstyle stuff we’ve lived with for all these years.
We believe that…
“We already have all of that ACAD stuff covered in our current CAD Standards.”
And we do.
Is the real problem we face in Civil 3D only a conversion of our past into the present?
This is where we all start.
The past is unlikely to be where we want to end up.
Proverbial Thoughts
Can we pour new wine into an old wine skin?
Sure, then we wonder why Civil 3D becomes a bitter pill.
Recycling AutoCAD wineskins usually does not produce acceptable, maintainable, and consistent Civil 3D Style results.
Perhaps you beg to differ?
Some cannot even see the opportunity they toss into the proverbial dumpster.
You know the drill- Penny Wise and Pound Foolish.
Whoa! Proverbs from Jesus and Franklin in the same paragraph!
We can easily make our Civil 3D implementation much more difficult and easier to adapt to changing project demands. Around here we call that Adaptive Standards.
Folks don’t want to talk about that.
We believe that we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
The school of hard knocks quickly teaches us to avoid those bridges.
AutoCAD Style Update Methods
The most mission critical AutoCAD Styles related to Civil 3D Style maintenance are AutoCAD Layers, Blocks, and Textstyles. These AutoCAD Style resources are regularly referenced and nested inside Civil 3D Styles.
In this post we’ll focus on the first two.
See the recent A Lost and Found Reference post for some details about AutoCAD Textstyles and font references.
The critical path information management problem is that all Civil 3D Styles and Civil 3D Label Styles nest and refer to these AutoCAD Style resources.
We have a great many Civil 3D Style and Civil 3D Label Style nests to manage.
We practically face an exponential growth problem that we must manage.
AutoCAD Style Standards Cautions
Failure to systematically manage these integral AutoCAD Style standards and details can significantly complicate the downstream Civil 3D Style management and maintenance issues.
The maintenance and upkeep of all the many aspects of AutoCAD Style is best managed outside of the software.
The Civil 3D software really does not support or include the tools to perform the required systematic maintenance of AutoCAD Style resources internally.
Do we want the virus-like Civil 3D Object Model injected into all our Layer and Block Standards resource drawings?
In a word – no.
AutoCAD .dwg or .dws files may be an acceptable place to store the refined resources.
Raw AutoCAD alone is hardly any better at the construction and maintenance of these AutoCAD Style Standards.
Attempts to manage these AutoCAD Style and Standards resources inside of the Autodesk software usually only produce less than acceptable and inconsistent results. Often as not, many more man-hours are invested in that form of effort.
AutoCAD Style Standards Principals
- The consistent System Management of these referenced AutoCAD Style resources is assumed inside of Civil 3D.
Civil 3D is built so that the software doesn’t care about the AutoCAD Style garbage we reference into the Civil 3D Styles and Label Styles.
We will sooner or later. - All the AutoCAD Style to Civil 3D Style references are created, sustained, and maintained only by the unique AutoCAD Style names (Layer name, Block name, Textstyle name, etc.).
- We can Rename AutoCAD Style references
Most of the time the name modifications update the inherited Civil 3D Style references.
Civil 3D Drawing Object Settings, a Figure Prefix Db, and Description Key Sets are some notable and important exceptions. - The graphics of any AutoCAD Block reference can be updated by changing/updating those specific graphics in a separate drawing with the same name.
- The font references of any Textstyle can be redirected to any other font definition.
We will have more practical success with font replacement when the character spacing is similar in both fonts.
The is a Font Family thing.
Some understanding of Font Families, True Type, and Fonts with complete (and/or appropriate) Unicode character sets are important if we must address CAD software conversion issues.
The Productive Benefit of the Power of Names
The fact that we can replace any and all of the referenced AutoCAD Style resources inside Civil 3D is a significant productivity benefit.
We can, in effect, adapt the CAD Standards employed in our projects or only in our deliverables (via Reference Template (TREF) publishing templates) to meet more diverse CAD Standards demands.
That Adaptive Standards ability is only possible if we recognize those resources should be constructed, stored, and managed from the ground up to make those same replacements possible.
In other words, the content itself is somewhat less important than a consistent storage structure and naming convention of the AutoCAD Style Standards resources.
We should recognize this perspective is backwards from our classic AutoCAD customization viewpoint where the explicit and specific details are usually considered more significant than the names of the content.
Layers and Layer States
The maintenance and upkeep of all the many aspects of Layer Standards in Civil 3D is best managed outside of the software. The software really does not support or include the tools to perform the required systematic maintenance of complex Layer Systems internally.
The Framework for Civil 3D employs an NCS-like, key-based methodology to create and maintain Layer Names and the various dynamic properties of those layers.
The Framework employs Layer States help users more easily manage the dynamic properties that are part of the daily production use of any Layer system.
The Framework’s supplied Excel-based Layer Standards Spreadsheet Tools allow us to systematically manage the many potential details. This includes the necessary rename and the potential Layer property state changes that can and do occur in our production environments.
- Typical implementation of Layer Standards and Layer State changes and/or update to new Standards are commonly performed via AutoCAD scripts.
- Multiple scripts may be chained together via the AutoCAD SCRIPTCALL command and the resultant chained scripts.
- SCRIPTCALL and scripts may be employed in conjunction with some basic LISP inside the Civil 3D Batch Save Utility to automate, in part or in full, layer standards maintenance updates or complete Layer scheme changes.
- Updates to the Dynamo for Civil 3D functionality include the ability to both call scripts and for the Dynamo Player to be called in scripts. Dynamo methods can therefore supply more user interaction and choice to a Layer Standards management process.
Reference Template Tool Layer Details
The Reference Template (TREF) Tool:
- Does not currently import Layer States
Layer States may be imported manually from a layer standards resource drawing that includes them. - May replace named Layer references if those TREF reference drawings include selected layers.
- Does not check for consistency in the Layer references from different referenced resource drawings.
The TREF tool relies solely on resource stack order and in Tool’s Settings selection(s). - The Reference Template Tool may be employed in Templates and project drawings created from those Templates.
The best practice is to employ separate AutoCAD Standards (.dws) files to maintain the Known Good for our Layer Standards and Layer State resources outside of Civil 3D.
The Framework supplies these AutoCAD Standards (.dws) files in resource libraries along with the integration tools, and the maintenance scripts for multiple NCS Layer Standards variants.
Take care to match all the Layer scheme resources employed in a Reference Template (TREF) stack.
AutoCAD Standards Files
The process to create AutoCAD Standards (.dws) files and new updates in best performed in an Additive fashion.
Tests in realistic project drawings with Civil 3D Styles and Label Styles that reference the Layer scheme in detail are essential.
Take the time to do a thorough and documented assessment of the preferences and changes we need to make to layers.
The Layer Standards Spreadsheet Tools do make it easier to perform a PDCA (Plan|Do|Check|Act) iterative improvement process.
The odds are if we do not work the entire PDCA process we will be unhappy with the results.
Regular repetitions of the process are essential for successful Standards upkeep and.
Blocks and Symbols
The graphics of any AutoCAD Block reference can be updated by changing/updating the graphics in a separate drawing with the same name.
From a maintenance perspective, it is critical to understand that name of the symbol resource is more important than the specific content included inside the Block resource.
We can update Civil 3D Templates and project drawings with the new graphics with the command line version of the -INSERT command and employ the full path to the drawing file proceeded by an asterisk (*) character.
The newer Block Palette Tool can update Block definitions from drawings or folders of drawings.
Block replacement may be accomplished either manually, by command, or most commonly via an AutoCAD script.
- Typical implementation of Block or Symbol Standards changes and/or updates to new Standards are commonly performed via AutoCAD scripts.
- Multiple scripts may be chained together via the AutoCAD SCRIPTCALL command and chained scripts.
- SCRIPTCALL and scripts may be employed with the Civil 3D Batch Save Utility to automate, in part or in full, layer standards maintenance updates.
- Updates to the Dynamo for Civil 3D functionality include the ability to both call scripts and for the Dynamo Player to be called in scripts. Dynamo methods can therefore supply more user interaction and choice to a Block or Symbols Standards management process.
- May replace named Block references if those reference drawings include selected Block instances.
- Does not currently check for consistency in the Block references from different referenced TREF resource drawings.
The TREF Tool relies solely on resource stack order and the Tool's Settings selections. - The Reference Template Tool may be employed in templates and project drawings created from those templates.
Reference Template Tool Block Details
Block Libraries and Updates
The best practice is to employ separate AutoCAD drawing (.dwg) files to maintain the Known Good for our Block resources outside of Civil 3D.
The better separated and more organized the block resource library the better and more consistent the results.
Folders of raw AutoCAD block drawings can be easily imported into AutoCAD Tool Palettes and then refined as Tool palette production tools. How to do that is detailed in the AutoCAD Help.
The Framework for Civil 3D supplies these AutoCAD Block and related Civil 3D Point Style resource drawings (.dwg) files in a Symbol Set resource library and includes the Symbols Maintenance Spreadsheet Tool that supports the creation and integration of the drawing maintenance scripts.
The Symbol Exchange Tool employs that Spreadsheet Tool to generate typical scripts to replace set of named blocks with another set from an external folder. Symbol Exchange Tool employs the SCRIPTCALL command as discussed above. The Symbol Exchange Tool and script generation code is supplied in the Symbols Maintenance Spreadsheet Tool in an example Sheet inside the supplied Symbols Maintenance Spreadsheet Tool.
Take the time to do a thorough and documented assessment of the preferences and changes we need to make to blocks. The Symbol Exchange method does make it easier to perform a PDCA (Plan|Do|Check|Act) iterative improvement process.
The odds are if we don’t work the entire process we will be unhappy with the result.
More PDCA repetitions produce better quality-controlled results.
We must perform the AutoCAD Style Maintenance Loops in Civil 3D or we go loony.
The first couple of trips around the Style Maintenance mountain can be rough and tedious.
If we Do the Do, the work and man-hours go down significantly.
Release the Power Beyond the Code
Get the Framework for Civil 3D
The Civil 3D Style Maintenance Handbook Post Series
Updates, additions, and fixes to the posts in this series are on-going.