Being Civil

Infrastructure Modeler Performance tip #1

Don't like seeing this in Task Manager when trying to multitask?

Before working on your first Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler (AIM) model, be sure to go into the options under 3d Generation and restrict the number of Generator threads that the software can run simultaneously.  I find that 1 or 2 fewer than the total number of cores works will - it lets me work in Map 3D, run Outlook and a browser, etc, and AIM still processs pretty quickly.

On the plus side, AIM has true multithreading!  The CPU time below reflects all the cores in use, so rather than waiting 4 actual hours to get this much processing done, it's only been about 23 minutes (x 12 cores).

 

And yes, I fogot to use my own tip. :)

 

Quick Tip: Civil Objects disappeared after using the Section Editor?

Have you ever noticed after editing your corridor in the Section Editor, then closing the Editor that everything in Model Space doesn't look quite right? Civil Objects seem to be missing, and the drawing appears empty? This may occur after an improper shutdown of the Corridor Section Editor. For example a sudden close or crash when working in the Editor.

What appears to happen is the Plan view in model space needs to be reset. Simply type in the command PLAN, then hit ENTER, ENTER. This should bring Model Space back to its original state and all your objects should be present and accounted for.

Why My Profile View Grid Looks So Strange?

It’s not very uncommon that Project Managers change the beginning and end stations of an alignment. The request may come in early designing phase or after most of the work on the drawing done and after the profiles were being cut. Changing start station of the alignment is really not a task that should create any trouble to anyone, but if there are objects depending on the alignment, they may get pretty “confused” about the change. Here is the scenario:

After the manager’s request  the alignment start station is changed from 630+00 to 0+00.  Setting new station in Alignment Properties will update the stations.

 

In a plan view it all shows fine and the alignment stations update accordingly, but profile views get pretty messed up (see picture below). To see how to address this after the jump.

Corridor Surface Contours Not Matching Target Surface?

You may have noticed that occasionally when creating your corridor surface that the contours from the corridor surface sometimes do not "match up" as expected. Contours will never “perfectly” tie in because contours are not the TIN, they are an approximate representation of the TIN. We are modeling surfaces, so it performs an exact match from edge of TIN to edge of TIN.

As you may have noticed in your corridor some places can seem worse than others. This is due to the frequency set in the corridor parameters. A very wide frequency will cause the surface creation to interpolate between those intervals, and if the terrain varies quite a bit between those frequencies, the interpolation can produce less than desireable results. Although the results appear to be incorrect, it is just Civil 3D doing the best with the information provided. The trick to resolving this issue is to shorten the frequencies in these areas and you will see your contours begin to tie in to existing ground much better.

Moral of the story: tighter frequency=tighter contours

The fodder of this post was obtained from a conversation with the one and only Jason Hickey. Thanks Jason!

Line and Curve… Curve Delta (∆) symbol Label issue…

Hi everybody… This one has been around for a little while. When you use a Line and Curve Label over a curve the delta symbol will not display. It will show as "D" but when you drag the label it will show the delta symbol. You can get in the label style composer and no matter what you do the delta symbol will not show. So now, how do I make this work?

Here is a little trick to make the impossible possible...

First you need to:

1. Go to the Setting tab -> Parcel -> Label Styles -> Curve, select the Delta over Length and Radios labels.

2. Right-click on it and choose Edit to get into Label Style Composer

3. In the Label Style Composer's Layout tab, select the Delta component. and click on Contents

4. Go to the Text Component Editor - Contents, highlight the component of the label and Copy it (CTRL + C)

5. Then cancel all out.

6. Now edit the Distance - Radius and Delta label for Line and Curve:

7. On the Layout tab, select the Delta component.

8. Go to the Text Component Editor again.

9. Paste the content that you just copied from the Parcel label; this will add an extra component on the properties of the label that wasn't available before.

10. Make your changes and adjustment for Precision and Format.

11. Save the label.

This will fix the delta issue. In case that you get lost trying to follow the steps, here is a video so you can see how to make it work.

Recycled post: Fork in the Road: How to Start Troubleshooting

Before we all are off to a well-deserved weekend I just wanted to make you aware of a great post that our own former co-worker and manager Justin Ziemba wrote about troubleshooting. Believe us, it is all common sense but worth mentioning over and over again. It also brings soem very imporant topics regarding storage, security of data and best practices. Please take a few minutes and read it. 

http://beingcivil.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/fork-in-the-road-how-to-start-troubleshooting.html

Thank you and have a nice weekend!

Converting Land Desktop Points and Preserving their Layers

With the release of the 2013 products we see Land Desktop finally becoming an upsupported product. I know many of you have already made the jump to Civil 3D in years past, but if you are still moving your older data forward you may come across this issue again.

When using the command CONVERTLDTPOINTS you may notice the option to "preserve the original point layers". What you may not see is the fact that you need to set the "Disable Description Keys" setting in the command settings to TRUE. By default this is set to FALSE. You can find this command setting in SETTINGS tab>POINT>COMMANDS>CreatePoints, right click on CreatePoints and select EDIT COMMAND SETTINGS:

Coordinate System Resources

Coordinate systems can be pretty confusing, and there are a lot of options.  Luckily, when everything is configured right, your transforms just happen in the background like magic.  For those occasions when things aren't showing up where you expect them, here are a few good resources to look to:

• The help on Autodesk.com
• The Map 3D and Civil 3D forums (search before you post!)
• Spatial Reference (external site)
• This excellent explanatory article (external site)
• Wikipedia for a basic overview and good links (external site)
• A site with a fairly easy to read transform listing (external site)
• The EPSG guides have much of the source material.  Number 7 part 2 may be the most useful.(external site)

Have fun!