many ranges are available. Next you can assign a style or color range to apply the look you want. The same steps can be used for soil types and many other types of data as well.
SITE GRADING Another important factor to consider is the site grading. We want to reduce the overall site grading to an absolute minimum, and if possible, to not have a single truck bring in or remove soil from the site. This will also save our clients money as well. After all, what tends to be one of the most expensive site improvements? Site grading of course! Let’s pretend we already have a grading group created for our design. The next thing we are going to do is to check our cut and fill. We are going to do a simple elevation adjustment to balance our grading to get it as close as possible to a net zero value. On the ribbon’s Home tab > Create Design panel > Grading, and select Grading Creation Tools. The Grading Creation toolbar will appear. Next select Grading Volume Tools. Take a moment to evaluate your current values and select the automatically raise and lower button on the far right. Presto! Like magic, Civil 3D has balanced this grading group for you. Evaluate the model to see if the result is acceptable.
March 2011
TRAINING AutoCAD Civil 3D contains some powerful tools that we often overlook or don’t utilize. These Map tools are built into Civil 3D. It is very common to get so overwhelmed with just learning Civil 3D that we take very little time to learn the Map functions and tools. Even the plain or “vanilla” AutoCAD functions tend to get overlooked by many civil designers. One of the biggest reasons for this, other than simply being overwhelmed with the number of features, is lack of training. Even expert CAD designers and the trainers themselves still need on-going training. I readily admit that I need lots of training and welcome any that comes my way. As for those who claim not to need training, well, they don’t know what they don’t know. Hence, they can’t recognize that they also need on-going training, just as every other CAD user does. I understand that often the reason we do not get the training we need or desire lies in management decisions over which we have little or no control. Believe me, I feel your frustrations! So explain to management that you need AutoCAD, Map, and Civil 3D training. After all, they bought the software already so why not use it to its fullest?
AutoCAD
Civil 3D 2011
Christian Barrett is an AEC Applications Engineer at Applied Technology Group, North Little Rock, AR. He has over 10 years of Civil and Surveying industry experience as a CAD designer using Land Desktop & Civil 3D, and has been a CAD Coordinator at Multi-disciplinary Engineering/Architectural Firms. He was the creator and author of Autodesk Users Group International’s (AUGI) Hotnews column “The Civil Side,” and is a Civil Engineering forum moderator for the AUGI organization. As a civil applications technician and trainer, Christian has guided many engineering firms in the implementation of Civil 3D for design and CAD management, National CAD Standards, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows.
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