Being Civil

RESULTS FROM MULTIPLE STORM ANALYSIS

I had a user questioning – “My SSA model runs fine, however it would not provide me any reports; all the reporting tools are grayed out, the time series plot does not contain any elements and the profile plot does not show HGL & EGL and no reports in the table below. The Excel Report contains only the input data.”

Figure 1. All reporting tools are grayed out after the analysis.

There are two options to obtain the results from Multiple Storm Analysis in SSA. The first option is to select the required design storm for the program to generate the reports immediately after performing the analysis (likewise performing a single storm analysis). One has to select the require design storm in the “Load output file:” at the bottom for the Storm Selection tab as shown in the image below.

Figure 2. Selecting the design storm to be loaded after the analysis.

The second option is to manually load the solution file for the required design storm you wish to analyze. Below is the pictorial instruction on loading the solution file within the Time Series Plot.

Figure 3. Manually selecting the solution file to be loaded for analysis.

I hope these little tips save your precious time wondering what is going on with the program. Keep tunning in for more.

Raster Design - Standalone/Network

The licensing options for Raster Design changed a little a few years ago.  Since it's a frequent topic in support, I'd like to direct you to this TS that spells out the details:

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS18566069.

but the summary is:

Network Raster and Network AutoCAD: OK

Standalone Raster and Standalone AutoCAD: OK

Network Raster and Standalone AutoCAD: OK

Standalone Raster and Network AutoCAD: Not OK

Import JOB File Into AutoCAD Civil 3D

Civil 3D is a program that works pretty well with other programs and it also allows other third party applications to be installed and configured to work with Civil 3D.  Many times, especially if working with survey data, you may receive JOB file which you would like to import into Civil 3D. Although you can’t directly import JOB file in Civil 3D, there is a way to make it work. See how after the jump.

To use survey information collected in JOB files we have to have Trimble Link extensions installed, so we can import job files. You may install them from Trimble web site http://www.trimble.com/link_ts.asp?Nav=Collection-27103

Here are the steps to take to make conversion of JOB file into FBK.

1. Create drawing from any available templates (_AutoCad Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS Extended.dwt) and save it

2. From Trimble ribbon that will show up after you installed Trimble Link choose Import Job

3. From Open dialog click on Create New Device icon

4. From Create New Device dialog box select Survey Data Card 

5. Browse to the folder location of your .job file, OK and Next and name New Device (Trimble files)

6. Back in Open dialog box, select newly added Device (Trimble files) and Open 

7. Select .job file, Open to initiate file conversion which will bring Check In dialog box, hit OK. 

8. Program will convert JOB file into FBK on your Desktop and you will be able to import  FBK file

Note: You have some additional options in the dialog; please use help to get familiar with it.

9. In Import Survey Data Select Survey database or create new one

10. Then just continue with creating Survey database and import into drawing. At the end you will be able to see your Survey Database in Survey tab and your line work in the drawing.

 

Using the Map 3D functionality on Civil 3D...

Hello everybody ... Lately we've been seeing lots of Civil 3D user trying to get more out of their Civil 3D. As all of you know, the engine of Civil 3D (partially) is Map 3D. So, here you will find some series of videos showing how to use more of your Map 3D tools.

Geospatial data can be link with external data bases and files, like Access and Excel which probably are the most common ones. The data has more information than a regular AutoCAD drawing because we can create and work with attributes and data tables from it.

Something to check and consider first, if you are working on a 64bit OS. 64-bit operating systems and Excel/Access connections

Enjoy the videos and happy mapping!

Connect Access Data Using FDO

How to create and link ODBC data using FDO

Joining data with shape files and ODBC connect through FDO

MAPCLEAN: Order Matters

Although Almas has previously written about the Drawing Cleanup Tools (MAPCLEAN) in a post way back from 2009, I thought that these two words could be very helpful in using this tool: Order Matters. The order in which you send your Cleanup Actions over to the Selected Actions can produce different results when running the Cleanup.

The tool will run the first Action until completion, then run the second Action, third, forth... you get the picture. For example you run the following Actions in this order:

1. Zero Length Objects
2. Break Crossing Objects
3. Simplify Objects

The tool will run and address Zero Length Objects until completion, then proceed on to Break Crossing Objects. The part that gets tricky is the fact that if the Break Crossing Objects action creates any zero length objects they will not be addressed because that function has already be run, as it was first in the list. Running it a second or third time should address all the actions.

It would appear at first glance that the tool is not working correctly, so this should be something you need to be aware of when using Drawing Cleanup.

Error "IAeccSurveyDataMigrator ->CreateInstance() failed, please check server registration."

We witness that today very large percentage of e-mail traffic and also a significant number of web sites are infected by malicious code that may attack your system. These days, it is hard to imagine any serious system without some form of virus protection running. Things like Trojans, worms, spyware, denial of service attacks (DOS), etc. are very common. I guess that may be one of the reasons virus scanners and registry cleaners are invented - to fight those attacks and to keep intruders away from the system. So this is pretty common knowledge, but not everybody is aware that settings in virus scanners and registry cleaners could be adjusted not to be so aggressive towards all services that may be running.

These scanners/cleaners basically scan each incoming package of code and if they notice something suspicious they may block some of them or even remove them. That may cause some other issues such as that your program suddenly could stops working or you may see some error messages. Sometimes turning the scanner off or running AutoCAD in diagnostic mode may reveal if there is a conflict with third party apps which scanners basically are - third party applications. 

 

Fine tuning FDO labels

There's a new feature that was introduced in the 2012 release of Map 3D that hasn't gotten a lot of use, but is really useful if you want full control over your labels: Label to Text (MAPLABEL2ANN).

Support for Windows Vista

We have been planning to spread the world about this but things slipped out of radar and we didn't. Autodesk have decided to formally stop supporting Windows Vista in 2012. It will still linger for a litle bit more and if you would like to know more about it as well as to get familiar with reasons behind it please see a following link:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=18424371