Thursday 25 June 2009

Surface editing using section line data

Before I start on the above post, just to remind that a hotfix for Civil 3D 2009 have been released to resolve section display and volume calculation issues.  Hotfix and installation instructions can be found here.

Now to the main topic.  We were recently asked to compute earthworks volume quantities of different geological materials for a 5km highway scheme.

Ground investigation data in spreadsheet were provided, import them in to Civil 3D using points, create a surface and cut sections to see how the materials look- no problem.

However due to the distance between borehole locations, the data is not sufficient to correctly model the surface of the underlying material.  On the section shown below, the unsuitable material layer in some chainages are above the existing ground.

Section_01

This will obviously generate erroneous volume quantities.  I thought of two ways to do this.  First, is to edit the surface by adding points along the sample lines with the correct levels either by adding COGO points or surface points.

Another way is to edit the section, copy and paste the section data to a spreadsheet and import them back.  We preferred to use this option as we have these instances on a couple of sections.  Here's how we did it using Civil 3D 2008.

Change all the material's section lines to static. Right click a sample line> Sample Line Group Properties.

SL-RC

In the Sections tab, change the material's update mode to Static and click OK.

SLGP

This should enable the section line grips.

Grips

Grip edit the section. 

Grip edit

After editing the section, right click the section line> Edit section. Right click the table, click Copy All. 

Edit section_copy

Paste the copied table on a spreadsheet.  Continue editing the section lines for the other chainages and adding section data to the spreadsheet as you go along.

On the spreadsheet, delete the Section Gradient In and Out columns and the header row.

SS_01

Replace the point number column with the chainage number where the section was taken from and remove the unit "m" from the values using the replace command in Excel.  Save as a comma delimited (.csv) file format.

SS_02

Import the file to Civil 3D.  Points menu> Create Points - Alignments> Import from file.

Import from file

Note that the file type it will look for is .txt.  Type *.csv in the File name field to see the file.

SS_03

When asked for a file format, choose '2' - Chainage, Offset, Level.

IF_01 

Choose ‘2’ – Comma for delimiter type and hit Enter for the next two prompts.

IF_02

Select the alignment and the points should appear along the section sample line.

IF_03

Create a new surface and use all the project points (existing and added).  I’ll leave the volume calcs to you. smile_teeth

Sunday 21 June 2009

Update 3 and Skill Builders

It is a bit late I know but might still be of use to some. Autocad Civil 3D 2009 Update 3 was released a few weeks ago. This fixes problems and issues on some Autocad features. Update 2.1 is a prerequisite and remember to read the ReadMe document.

I also noticed two new skill builders for Civil 3D 2010 from the Support page.

I particularly like the dynamic GENIO data link to Civil 3D workflow. We also use Bentley MX at work and this can promote collaboration between our MX and C3D users.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Rename command

A colleague asked me yesterday how to rename an Autocad block. To do this, I normally explode the block, create a new one with the desired name and purge the old block.

I just discovered the RENAME command in the Autodesk discussion forum.

Not only can it change block names but also Dim styles, Layers, Mleader styles, Linetypes, etc.