Being Civil

Where’s my Civil Right-click Options?

This variable has stumped even the most seasoned CAD user, and I don’t go more than a month without someone asking about this.  Typically, the call or email comes in from a frantic user who no longer has access to their Civil options when they right-click on a Civil object, such as a Surface.  Instead, they are either greeted by the standard AutoCAD options, or possibly a repeat of their last command.

So instead of getting this:

They are getting this:

This is an easy fix.  There is a system variable called PICKFIRST.  This allows you to pick an object first, and then make a command, such as right-click.  Type this variable at the command line and set it to 1.

This will get you back up and running in a matter of seconds!

Tips: Section View label display and Plot to PDF missing symbols

I got few minutes and just wanted to share a couple of useful tips with you. The tip number 1 is showing why centerline band labels shows wrong data that looks like it’s using metric units while the rest of the drawing is in feet. Situation looks like in the figure. Grid shows range between 90–110 feet while band label shows 33.15:

 

This month's Civil PS video - understanding drawing migration

Hey all, our latest Civil Product Support video has been posted to the Autodesk YouTube channel.  This month we feature an in-depth explanation of using drawings between different versions of Civil 3D and/or AutoCAD.  Please have a look, give it a rating and any comments.

Further, note in the left sidebar we have a Poll regarding video content in general - take a few seconds to let us know what you think!

Raster Design 2010 Hotfix for Licensing and Civil 3D Feature Update Released

The Raster Design 2010 Hotfix for Licensing and Civil 3D Feature Update has been released. It addresses the license issue and allows AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 network licenses to be installed with supported standalone AutoCAD 2010 applications. The hotfix will not allow a standalone AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 installation to install with network deployments of host applications.

Download the the readme and read before installing, please. You can find the download for both 32 and 64 bit operating systems here.

AutoCAD tip: Dimmed XREFs

One of the new features in in AutoCAD 2010 (and Civil 3D 2010) is the ability to control the amount of dimming of the Xref in the main drawing. Many of you using one of more Xrefs in your drawing requested that these Xrefs be set to display differently so that the objects being designed are easier distinguished from the referenced data. Note that this is only visual and that your drawing will plot just like it should once you are ready to send it to the plotter. Now with the introduction of AutoCAD 2010 there is ability to control it with system variable called XDWGFADECTL. It defaults to 70 and if you attached your referenced drawing it will come up faded on the screen.

 

Troubleshooting guide for plotting Raster Images

With raster images being used much more commonly than in the past, I wanted to address some of the possible reasons a user may have trouble with the plotting of these images.  We are going to discuss 3 places to look when you have problems, and which order to start your troubleshooting:

• RASTERPERCENT Variable
• RASTERTHRESHOLD Variable
• Raster Slider Bar