PRODUCT FOCUS
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017
by: Jason Jenkins
The Surveyor and Civil 3D ➲W
e’ve all used those skills we learned back in kindergarten. Remember the one where we connect the numbered dots to create a picture? Reducing field work is essentially the same thing. With all of the tools and technology we have at our disposal, why do we keep reverting back to our kindergarten days? The “Field to Finish” workflow is not new, but I am constantly meeting people in the industry who are still not using it. After a very short learning curve, you will find it is a huge timesaver and can increase your profit margin on land surveys. When I first learned about the Field to Finish workflow, I was an independent surveyor doing small lot topos and some boundary work. My initial thought was “coding points to draw lines is only for the bigger firms and the huge projects. My surveys are so small that it’s easier for me to just draw the lines manually when I get back to the office.” Now that I have graduated from my kindergarten ways and embraced the Field to Finish workflow, my productivity has increased in both the field and the office. I can honestly say that this is the way to do things, even for the small jobs. Let’s go over the basic workflow and even touch on a few things you may not have tried before.
Linework Code Sets The Linework Code Set tells the software what to do with the feature. You can customize this to meet your company standards or just use the Sample set right out of the box (Figure 1). 38
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Figure 1 February 2017