Civil Training on the Web

Civil 3D Superelevation Basics Overview

2/03/2017

The Overview of the Basics of Civil 3D Superelevation Part 1

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Alan Gilbert of Autodesk explains the basics of Civil 3D Superelevation and the core Alignment and Subassembly mechanics to make it work.
From Alan's YouTube Channel.
and the Civil Imersion blog.

New Civil 3D users often stumble over the critical Alignment Design Speed and Subassembly specific properties covered here.
You do have choices of appropriate roadway design criteria Standards to apply.
Please note how Alan plans to and then builds up the superelevation detail instead of doing everything at once.

Civil 3D Superelevation Design Criteria

2/10/2017

How Civil 3D Superelevation Design Criteria Works Part 2

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Alan Gilbert of Autodesk explains in detail how Civil 3D Superelevation Design Criteria lookup works and the key places and methods to make changes if you must.

The Part 2 video is a deeper dive into the lookup tables of the Civil 3D Design Criteria XML files and Civil 3D mechanics of Superelevation.
This video review will help you grasp where values are coming from and provides the basics of how you might customize things. Again - if you must.
In reality you should only edit and make changes in the XML when you actually have a new Standard to apply and have the values in hand.

The tip about clearing the Superelevation data is mission critical. This is good practice even if you do not change the Super method Alignment Settings.
Anytime you have to redo a superelevation calculation it is probably good practice to start from scratch. Ok. Not always.
In some older releases of Civil 3D, the software will hold onto earlier super values when you do not expect it.

Civil 3D Superelevation Design Criteria Formulas

2/24/2017

How Civil 3D Superelevation Design Criteria Formulas Work Part 3

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Alan Gilbert of Autodesk explains in detail how Civil 3D Superelevation Design Criteria formula lookup works and the key places and methods to make changes if you must.

The Part 3 video is a deeper dive modiffing how formula lookup changes and their modification may affect the application of lookup table values of the Civil 3D Design Criteria XML files and Civil 3D mechanics of Superelevation.
This video review will help you grasp where values are coming from and provides the basics of how you might customize things. Again - if you must.
In reality you should only edit and make changes in the XML when you actually have a new Standard to apply and have the values in hand.
The point of this video is that you can modifiy by formula how the table values are applied if that is required for your Standard.

Corridor Structure Material Volumes

2/23/2017

How To Calculate on Corridor Structure Material Volumes

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Jeff Bartels of Autodesk walks through the basics of Structure Materials Volume calculation mechanics from a design Corridor in Civil 3D.
He covers the creation of the specific Structure based Material List Styles and how these are related to the Sample Line publishing Feature.
From the Jeff's YouTube Channel.
and the Civil Imersion blog.

The video playlist of Jeff's Corridor Section Materials and Volume Series

All of Jeff's other Volume calculation videos:
Cut and Fill Corridor Volume Mechanics
Corridor Structure Material Volumes
Calculate Complex Material Volumes with Subcriteria

The Sample Line publication Feature in Civil 3D can be a bit befuddling to the new Civil 3D user.
Why do I need all these styles to get a "simple" Average End Area report? Because Civil 3D needs to know exactly what you mean by that.
You want to do this work in a publishing drawing and not a project design drawing. Civil 3D can do the work from an XREF corridor model.
Did you pay attention to the application of Material Styles to the Shapes in the Corridor Sections as a QAQC tool?
It is way too easy to miss that.
The Alignment is the Design Control Manager in Civil 3D. You will need one in the publication drawing to collect the Sample Line Group and its parts.
Even our most basic Templates Only product includes all the necessary Style tools prebuilt for you.

Generate Surface Highs and Lows

2/14/2017

How to Generate High and Low Points on a Civil 3D Surface

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Jerry Bartels of Autodesk covers the Civil 3D Toolbox command AECCDRAWSURFACEHIGHLOWPOINTS.
The command creates COGO points at High Points and Low Points on a Civil 3D surface or a portion of a surface.
From the Jerry's YouTube Channel.
and the Civil Imersion blog.

Sadly, this handy command is still NOT XREF aware. However, the surface can be a DREF.
The boundary you select must be an 2D polyline object in the current drawing too. No Parcels allowed.
Yes, in a complex surface you can get a lot of new COGO points.
Also left unsaid by Jerry is a reminder that you might want to set your current COGO point number in advance.

I always thought this would be more useful if you could choose to create only low points for example.
That would be handy for Catchment creation. As it is you just have to delete the high points which are separated by Style.