AutoCAD Civil 3D
Existing Utilities Existing utilities are a different matter. The vertical locations are not always known, especially in the case of dry utilities. It’s important to indicate their presence in the published set of construction documents and to anticipate a vertical design around them. A great way to coordinate their placement into profile view is to mark them with points, collect them in a point group, assign elevations from your frost line surface, and project those points into profile view. Point groups are a great way to manipulate more than one point with a common property. In this case, one of the functions of the point group would be to control the display or non-display of the points in plan.
Figure 7: Points at utility crossings are projected into profile view.
product focus
2011, 2012
The point group also functions as a selection set for assigning elevations from the frost line surface and for projecting points into profile.
Pipe Profile Aesthetics In the past, waterlines have been drawn in AutoCAD with a combination of linework, blocks, and text. So far, the discussion has taken us down the road of defining this waterline with an alignment and profile, coincidentally—just like we do with roads. The next step in road design would be to create a corridor. That is also the next step with this pressure pipe design. Creating a pipe corridor will enable us to create the waterline’s bottom linework in profile by projecting the resulting feature line into the profile view. Creating the subassembly for this is quick and simple. Use the generic link LinkVertical. Create an assembly for each pipe size. When the pipe size changes in a run of pipe, split the region and change to the appropriate assembly. To closely match the curvature of your top of pipe profile, use a frequency of 5’ or 1.5m on profile curves. Tangents and horizontal curves need not be changed.
Figure 8: Bottom of pipe indicated by a feature line generated by a corridor based on the water alignment and profile.
Figure 9: Use LinkVertical generic subassembly to generate bottom of pipe feature line. September 2011
STRUCTURES Structures for pressure pipe can be handled using two similar methods: Block Definitions or Points. Blocks: Most users already have a block library containing standard water symbology so the block definition method could be adapted quickly. Points: Blocks representing water structure symbols can also be configured to point styles. Scaling can be managed either through description keys or point styles. Description keys can be used to manage point styles, point label styles, and parameter usage. Water structure points can be collected and managed in a point group. Ultimately, once the blocks or points are placed in plan, they can be projected into profile. The elevation of these points can be controlled by a surface generated at the top of pipe. To generate the surface, a generic link called LinkOffsetAndSlope can be added to the existing pipe assemblies that extends from the top of pipe marker out 2’ @ 0%. After the corridor rebuilds, a surface can be created in corridor properties. With this method, structures will always be anchored to the top of pipe in profile so if the vertical design of the top of pipe changes, the structures will follow. Also, if the horizontal location of the structure changes, the profile will update.
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