Tips from Experts

Publish Corridors and Other Tips and Tricks

12/6/2019

Seth Cohen of Digital Drafting Systems Inc walks through a number of important and useful Civil 3D Corridor Model publishing Tips and Tricks.
From the Digital Drafting Systems Inc YouTube Channel.

Comments

Seth does a great high-speed job of covering some of these significant and nuanced production issues in Civil 3D using the FDOT State Kit as an example.
Tips and Tricks Covered:

• Why you should employ Reference Templates (TREFs) and how to use them
  See the Reference Templates video page for more details and mechanics
• Label and documenation tricks for Section View publication without exploding them
• Tips and Tricks for Subassembly Link Codes in Section publication
• Use Profile Views to produce and publish live model Detail section views
• How to employ Corridor Feature Line output to tie a Corridor model to ponds and/or other structures and produce the Sections
• The basics of FDOT Quantity Takeoff and the use live Excel Sheets in AutoCAD Tables
  See the Legends and Lists page for more videos on the Excel linked table functionality in AutoCAD

The FDOT State Kit for Civil 3D is a useful source of many Civil 3D tools and resources (e.g. PKT files and Pipe Catalogs).
The FDOT State Kit us available for free in the public domain.
Say thank you to the taxpayers of Florida who make it available and the FDOT folks who do the good work.

Superelevation and Design Criteria File Edits

11/09/2019

Kyle Evans delivers a detailed review of how to modify Superelevation Design Criteria file XML data and the available resources in Civil 3D.
From the Kyle Evans' YouTube Channel.

Comments

Kyle covers the necessary details of updating the Super calculation tables in Civil 3D in this video for the province of Alberta Canada.
Does this matter to US Civil 3D users? You bet!

I'd bet that simplified or even specialized built-in Design Criteria file tables would help smooth out the work your production projects.
Separating the wheat you need from the chaff you don't need always helps.
The odds are many jurisdictions and you don't employ the full range of AASHTO tables and super slope percentages supplied in the resources.
Don't forget to get the slighter mighty updates delivered to your user's local install locations.

The Civil 3D 2020.2 Update includes the newer AASHTO 2018 Standards files.

I tend to copy and rename the XML resources files first before editing them inside Civil 3D. Then again I am lazy.
You can also cheat and rebuild the XML table record changes in the structures from a spreadsheet and an XML capable text editor.
There are Framework for Civil 3D Spreadsheet Tools that do exactly that sort of thing for Figure Prefix Dbs and Survey Queries.

The Best Map 3D Tools for Civil 3D Projects

8/20/2019

Seth Cohen of Digital Drafting Systems Inc walks through a review of the many useful and powerful Map 3D Tools for use in Civil 3D Projects.
From the Digital Drafting Systems Inc YouTube Channel.

Comments

Seth does a great job of covering the best of Map 3D functionality and tools in Civil 3D without getting bogged down in the details.
Seth covers the best of Map 3D in less than an hour. No small challenge. His large Surfaces from Map Attached drawing Queries is alone worth a look see here.

Map 3D is one of the best things built into Civil 3D that many ignore and therefore work way too hard.
This is best Map 3D tools overview I have seen in a long time. Thanks Seth!
If you don't use MAPCLEAN on a regular basis, we can only ask, "What Are You Thinking?"