Civil 3D

Chapter 1
Getting Dirty: The Basics of Civil 3D
Just as with any piece of software, understanding Civil 3D’s controls and operation is critical to its
mastery. With a dizzying array of options and settings, getting Civil 3D to just look and feel comfortable
can take some effort. A whole new host of dialogs and tool palettes are critical to driving
Civil 3D and getting feedback about your design. In this chapter, we’ll explore the makeup of Civil
3D as a CAD program, the unique components that make up the Civil 3D interface, and how you
can create a working environment that matches the way you design.
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
◆
Find any Civil 3D object with just a few clicks
◆
Modify the drawing scale and default object layers
◆
Modify the display of Civil 3D tooltips
◆
Add a new tool to the Toolbox
◆
Create a basic label style
◆
Create a new object style
Windows on the Model
If you’re familiar with AutoCAD, opening up Civil 3D won’t bring any major surprises—until you
look a little further. Civil 3D is a design package for the civil engineer, so special tools are needed.
The most obvious change to the interface is the addition of two new palette sets that you
won’t find in any other Autodesk product: Toolspace and Panorama. These two palette sets
offer Civil 3D users a way to interact with their data and watch their design change unlike anything
previously offered. Both of these palette sets can be docked and resized like typical
AutoCAD palettes and toolbars, making their use on screen as flexible as you like. Most users
find that they are constantly referring to information displayed in these palette sets, so Toolspace
and Panorama remain open nearly all the time. Figure 1.1 shows both of these palette sets
displayed in a typical environment.
2 CHAPTER 1
GETTING DIRTY: THE BASICS OF CIVIL 3D
Figure 1.1
Civil 3D 2008 in a typical
environment
Toolspace
Toolspace is one of the unique Civil 3D palette sets. Toolspace can have as many as four tabs to
manage user data:
◆
Prospector
◆
Settings
◆
Survey
◆
Toolbox
Using a Microsoft Windows Explorer-like interface within each, these tabs drive a large portion of
the user control and data management of Civil 3D.
Prospector
Prospector is the main window into the Civil 3D object model. This palette or tab is where you
“go mining” for data and also shows points, alignments, parcels, corridors, and other objects as one
concise, expandable list. In addition, in a project environment this window is where you will control
access to your project data, create references to shared project data, and observe the check-in/
check-out status of a drawing. Finally, you can also use Prospector to create a new drawing from
the templates defined in the Drawing Templates branch in your AutoCAD Options dialog. Prospector
has the following branches:
◆
Open Drawings
◆
Projects
◆
Drawing Templates
In addition to the branches, Prospector has a series of icons across the top that toggle various
settings on and off:
Project State Toggle
Turns on and off the display of project item state icons in the Prospector
palette—very important when you’re working with a team of designers so that you know when
others have made changes to project-related data. Leave this one on!
Drawing State Toggle
Turns on and off the display of the drawing item state icons in the
Drawings collection. This is how you know that an object is in use, has been modified, or has
dependent objects—profiles that depend on alignments. This same button on the Settings tab of
Toolspace will turn on the icons that indicate a style is in use or has dependencies that keep it
from being deleted. Another one to usually leave on.
Modifier Toggle
Turns on and off the display of the drawing item modifier icons at the individual
object level. For example, these icons will inform you when a surface is out of date or
when a corridor needs to be rebuilt. This information is important when working with project
data that has been referenced to your current drawing.
Item Preview Toggle
Turns on and off the display of the Toolspace item preview within Prospector.
These previews can be helpful when you’re navigating drawings in projects (you can
select one to check out) or when you’re attempting to locate a parcel on the basis of its visual
shape. In general, however, this one can be turned off—it’s purely a user preference.
Panorama Display Toggle
Turns on and off the display of the Panorama window (which
we’ll talk about in a bit). To be honest, there does not seem to be a point to this button, but it’s
here nonetheless.
Help
This should be obvious, but it’s amazing how many people overlook it.
4 CHAPTER 1
GETTING DIRTY: THE BASICS OF CIVIL 3D
Open Drawings
This branch of Prospector contains the drawings currently open in Civil 3D. Each drawing is then
subdivided into groups by major object type, such as points, point groups, surfaces, and so on.
These object groups then allow you to view all the objects in the collection. Some of these groups
are empty until objects are created. You can learn details about an individual object by expanding
the tree and selecting an object. See Figure 1.2 for a typical parcel object’s display in Prospector.
Within each drawing, the breakdown is similar. If a collection isn’t empty, there will be a plus
sign next to it, as there is next to the second Alignments collection in Figure 1.2. Selecting any of
these top-level collection names displays a list of members in the preview area. Right-clicking on
the collection name allows you to select various commands that apply to all the members of that
collection. For example, right-clicking on the Point Groups collection brings up the menu shown in
Figure 1.3.
Figure 1.2
A parcel shown in
the preview area
of Prospector
Figure 1.3
Context-sensitive
menus in Prospector