Civil 3D Bullets in the Buckets

In a recent post we discussed the term Bucket and the important concepts of mini-buckets.

This Bucket speak helps make Autodesk Civil 3D Features a bit easier to understand. We discovered that there are What, How, When, and Model mini-buckets in the Civil 3D Feature Bucket. There are important Where mini-buckets in some Features too. This long post is about how the simple and banal may become the sophisticated in Civil 3D.

For all that esoteric stuff we learned in the Civil 3D Production Buckets post, we have only one mission critical task.

Each Civil 3D Feature MUST have a unique name.
The Power of Names is the Rule of Law in OOP (Object Oriented Programming). In Civil 3D our Names connect the moving parts in that project-based creature we call the Dynamic Model. The Dynamic Model works because of this primary principal. The lack of, or creation of, a Managed Dynamic Model is then up to us.

Ripples in a Bucket

The newbie Civil 3D user may think the Name Templates boxes found in every Create Feature dialog box are perhaps a waste of time, something to ignore, or some form of confused geek-speak.

Here’s an all-too-common scenario – This is an object lesson in what not to do in Civil 3D.

A User manually inputs “Main Road” into the Create Alignment box. The OK button instantly makes an Alignment bucket. The User then bails or quits out of the Alignment Layout tools box without adding a single Segment to the Alignment. The Yser built a valid “Main Road” Alignment bucket. The Alignment bucket is just empty.

Next our User wants to edit the empty “Main Road” Alignment. Nothing to see here. The newbie user hits the Home Ribbon and Create Alignment tool once again – This appears to be the obvious Ribbon menu thing to do.

The Create Alignment box shows the User the same “Main Road” name (Civil 3D remembers our last Name preference). We think we are adding to and editing the first “Main Road” when the Alignment Layout tools open. We aren’t. We are now working on a new Alignment named “Main Road (1)”.

It is Easier to Edit than Create

For most Civil 3D Features empty Features are perfectly acceptable. We must remember that in Civil 3D self-generated Feature resolution is the end goal. Our confusion comes from the fact that Feature resolution does not always produce to a picture on the screen. Nothing visible on the screen does not mean something doesn’t exist.

We have to remember to Cycle Our Focus Skill in Civil 3D.
Needless to say, an Invisible or No Display Feature Style representation state may further confuse things.

Our Main Road Alignment exists over in the Toolspace>>Prospector>>Alignments>>Centerlines collection. (We are simplifying.)
Select that in the collection branch; pick Geometry Edit from the Ribbon.
Say what?
The modern Select first and act second (noun verb syntax) is not the old school CAD (verb noun syntax) behavior.

CAD Dementia

Civil 3D interface behavior is not always initially intuitive. We tend to focus on the screen and Ribbon menus as the primary reality. We must learn to Manage the Features (data buckets) from the Civil 3D Toolspace. That’s what it’s there for.

The chuckling Civil 3D expert will say, “Come on man.”
It’s not silly. We all did this (or a variation of it) ourselves in the beginning.
We learn. Experts automatically do something else now.

Name Templates

Every Civil 3D Feature has a Name Template to make the intrinsic naming process easier on the User. Our newbie discovered there is always a numeric counter there. Civil 3D is going to apply that counter to avoid duplicate names as the solution of last resort.

Unique names are the basis of the Rule of Law in Civil 3D.

The default Name Templates are By Intent generic to make them more flexible and adaptable to many civil engineering design tasks. We may as well employ a counter (or other unique difference) that makes sense to us in our Feature’s Name Template.

Feature Name Standards

It helps to have a plan.

Did they tell us that Civil 3D always expects that we have a plan based on the way Civil 3D works and not on the way we think about it?

We can automate a Feature Naming Standard based on simple rules built into the Name Templates in our production templates.  If we don’t have Feature Name Standards, it is something we need to work on if we really want a more Managed Project Structure and better Managed Dynamic Models.

Let’s put that another way…

The Name Structure Projects Itself

Reference Surface, Alignment, Corridors, and all other Data Shortcut (DREF) Features in drawings are tangible data Buckets. We create a Data Shortcut (a new bucket) and pour in the resolved contents from somewhere else.

In a DREF (data reference) the Model bucket data is simply “over there” where the published data shortcut points. Simple enough.
We learn the hard way that there are ripples.

All our established Name dependencies, be they structured or chaotic, come along for the ride.

The Bullet in the Bucket That We Cannot Dodge

Many of the wizard interfaces in Civil 3D (the Corridor, Intersection, and Offset Alignment Create tools for example) employ generic Name Templates to make the dynamic model construction hook ups (by name) easier.

The Name Templates tend to be hidden away on different panes in the wizards. It’s an interface thing. Perhaps we’d all prefer a single wizard Settings pane where they are all set up, but that’s not how Civil 3D works today.

We can employ Feature Settings and even the more detailed Command Settings in Civil 3D to optimize the Name Templates.

Barring that – We must Stop and think before we accept the default Name Templates in any wizard. Small changes to the current Name templates can make the difference between a plan we and others understand and chaos.

What’s a Placeholder Dummy?

Here’s a not so silly question about Civil 3D project data and structure,

“Can we share an empty Civil 3D Feature?”

If we didn’t now understand and expect it to be true, that would be pretty confusing.

We’ve pointed out in a few other posts that for certain types of work, it’s often handy to have an arrangement of pre-made empty Civil 3D Features where our production Users can just fill up the mini-buckets with the specifics.

If we’ve employed Civil 3D for a while, we already have the named Features with functional name structures in our existing projects. We can now freeze-dry or can them to automate our project world into a better place to work – aka a mini-bucket industrial revolution.

Templates within Template

The concept of employing Placeholders or Dummies is a powerful, and all too often overlooked, benefit of model-based software. Even in old school CAD we could employ dummy XREFs to create the same result. Skilled Animators and BIM folk have no problem with this idea – they must do it in their typical workflow – aka we build our structure before we fill in the details.

Civil CAD people seem to struggle a bit more with this – most rarely employ Placeholders in their traditional workflows. The traditional civil CAD workflow is more linear because of how the older software was built. No matter.

What Do the Dummies Mean?

Sooner or later we might discern that a task-centric Dummies structure is one of the potential and more productive purposes for a Civil 3D Project Template. That begs some weird questions…

• Can we accept the fact that Civil 3D Style is always temporary and is separate from the data behind?
• Do Dummies mean a Civil 3D Template should really be upside down and backwards if we can reference Styles?
• Do we need a template with pre-built Dummy Features with hardy any preloaded and therefore preordained Styles?

These questions don’t make much sense if we believe in the one template to rule them myth.

Maybe this Features first template appears to be the opposite of what we initially learned about what is important in a drawing template for Civil 3D.

For many production tasks and workflows the root structure may be as mission critical to User productivity as a choice of Civil 3D Styles.

Prior to the introduction of the Reference Template Tool it was more difficult to pull this off. There is too much work involved in building and maintaining all the different templates. Things were difficult because getting the copies of the Styles to stay in synch was detailed and problematic.

The Root of the Issue

Sounds to me like we might want to look differently at those Root template(s), and Setting Templates in our new Reference Template implementation plan. They may contain new buckets of bullets - some high-power productivity ammunition.

Make Civil 3D Work Better
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The Civil 3D Buckets

Updates, additions, and fixes to the posts in this series are on-going.