Tips from Experts

Create 3D Block Markers on a Feature Line

12/28/2018

Jowenn Lua walks through a neat trick to place 3D blocks on a Corridor Feature Line with Point Codes from a Code Set Style in Civil 3D.
From the Autodesk AKN Civil 3D Screencasts
See Jowenn Lua's AKN page

Comments

Corridor Code Set Style can automate some amazing stuff in Civil 3D. They sort of serve as an output Layer Manager for Corridors afterall.
This trick pretty much requires a separate Corridor for the Feature Line onto which you want to place regular blocks.
You certainly need a plan to name the blocks and appropriate Point Codes or it is easy to get lost and confused by the references.

You might also chose to employ the Corridor Station Point Labels workflow to generate point locations on the Corridor Feature Lines instead.
This method would allow you to swap on demand a set of 2D Plan symbols or 3D block symbols at the locations by Description Key Sets.

Drape Shapes to Surface to Get a Solids

12/23/2018

Jowenn Lua shows a work around on how to produce 3D Solids with Property Set volumes from a polyline shape draped onto a Civil 3D Surface.
From the Autodesk AKN Civil 3D Screencasts
See Jowenn Lua's AKN page

Comments

An interesting quick and dirty method to get to the goal.
You could also employ surface projected Feature Lines and offsets of those to produce the results with the Civil 3D volume tools and reports.
People also tend to forget that Parcel Segments are potential grading features which is another way related to the Feature Line method to attack the problem.

Employ Map FDO for Files

11/27/2018

Ron Couillard of USCAD walks through Map FDO usage and capabilities for various common file types and folders in Civil 3D.
See the USCADBuilding YouTube channel
and Ron Couilard's blog on USCAD.com

See the link at the top this page to the original post that includes more videos.

Comments

FDO is one of the most useful Map tools that we have access to in Civil 3D.