Being Civil

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014 New Feature: Important changes to drawing templates in Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014

The import styles and settings command can assist you in updating your existing drawing templates with the new settings and styles.

Drawing Settings

Feature	Description
Drawing Settings dialog box, Object Layers tab	Pressure Network Section layer: C-WATR-SCTN Pressure Part Table layer: C-WATR-TABL

General Settings

Feature	Description
Multipurpose Styles	Projection Style: Solids Identical to the existing Basic projection style except for the following: As Drawn check box on the Section Tab: Selected Section check box on the Section Tab: Selected

Pressure Network Settings

Feature	Description
Command Settings: AddAppurtTable	Table Creation properties: Table Style: Standard Split Table: True Maximum Number of Rows: 20 Maximum Tables Per Stack: 3 Table Spacing: 0.5" / 40.00 mm Tile Direction: Across
Command Settings: AddFttingTable	Table Creation properties: Table Style: Standard Split Table: True Maximum Number of Rows: 20 Maximum Tables Per Stack: 3 Table Spacing: 0.5" / 40.00 mm Tile Direction: Across
Command Settings: AddPressurePipeTable	Table Creation properties: Table Style: Standard Split Table: True Maximum Number of Rows: 20 Maximum Tables Per Stack: 3 Table Spacing: 0.5" / 40.00 mm Tile Direction: Across
Command Settings: CreatePressureNetworkFromObj	All settings inherited from Pressure Network Feature Settings
Command Settings: CreatePressureNetworkReference	All settings inherited from Pressure Network Feature Settings
Styles	Existing pressure pipe, fitting, and appurtenance styles have been modified to include settings for the Section View Direction on the Display tab: Walls: Visible Hatch: Not visible Existing fitting and appurtenance styles have been modified to include settings for the Section tab: Display Section option: Selected
Table Styles	Basic styles have been added for pressure pipe, fitting, and appurtenance table styles.

Section Settings

Feature	Description
Command Settings: Default Name Format	Section Name Template changed to the following: <[Sample Line Group(CP)]> - <[Sample Line Name(CP)]> - <[Section Surface Name(CP)]>(<[Next Counter(CP)]>)

New Layers

Feature	Layer Name	Description
Pressure Networks	C-WATR-SCTN	Water Network: section
	C-WATR-TABL	Water Network: table
	C-WATR-APPT-PATT	Water Network: appurtenances, hatching
	C-WATR-FITT-PATT	Water Network: fittings, hatching

Binding a Raster Image in AutoCAD...

Not too long ago one of our customer asked me this question, how can I bind a raster image in AutoCAD?... As you probably already know raster images can only be referenced into AutoCAD drawings. If you send the drawing to someone else, you must send the image file also, if not you will end up with a broken reference.
One way to get it done is inserting the image as an OLE object.
Go to the Insert Tab and look for OLE Object or just type INSERTOBJ on the command line.
Choose "Create New", and then choose "Paintbrush Picture".

Next, Windows Paintbrush should open up.

In Paintbrush, choose from the ribbons -> Paste, then Paste from...

Select your existing image file (JPG, BMP, PNG, TIF, etc.)

Close Paint and save your AutoCAD drawing.

Quick Tip: Abbreviations

When dealing with complex designs and issues day in and day out, sometimes it is the simplest things that trip us up. I fall into that particular catergory today. I had what seemed to be a simple question from a customer who wanted to change the default PT and PC abbreviations to something that complied to the local regulations. Of course I overcomplicated things and ended up spinning my wheels when the answer was right in front of me the whole time: DRAWING SETTINGS>ABBREVIATIONS tab. Here you can change all the default abbreviations found in Civil 3D.

Although this is probably something a lot of you already know, it really isn't a frequently visited part of Civil 3D so hopefully this quick reminder will help someone else out there!

Text… Custom Linetypes!!!

Sometimes we have the need to create a new custom linetype to denote different lines in our drawing, like water lines, gas lines, fences, etc… For those of you that have some custom linetypes with text and have been moving this LIN file alone from older releases, here is something that you may not know.

When we talk about text custom linetype we need to consider: Text Styles, Scale, Rotation, X offset, and Y offset. Probably the rotation is being the most painful one, because is not the same to draw a line from left to right, that from right to left…. So we end up with things like this...

Here is how this line looked like until 2010:

*AUTODESK, BeingCivil ---- ADS ---- ADS ---- ADS ----

A,.2,-.2,["ADS",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.25

But since 2011 Autodesk did something really nice for us… they change the rotation parameter, and give us the ability to manipulate this factor in a different way, introducing U and A, beside the original R. What this mean to us?
R=value
R= specifies relative or tangential rotation with respect to the line.
U=value
U= specifies upright or easy-to-read text.
A=value
A= specifies absolute rotation of the text with respect to the origin; that is, all text has the same rotation regardless of its position relative to the line.
So in any AutoCAD based software, this is how my custom linetype with text looks now.

Here is how this line looks like since 2011:

*AUTODESK, BeingCivil ---- ADS ---- ADS ---- ADS ----

A,.2,-.2,["ADS",STANDARD,S=.1,U=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.25

Remember, text styles can be annotative as well, so that is another thing that you could consider when creating and working with text in custom linetypes.

Here is the location on Vista and Win 7:

C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\C3D 201X\enu\Support\acad.lin

My viewport always zoom extent when it's activated…

Hello everyone…. I was working with some cases regarding this and I thought that it will be good to share in case that you come across with this situation in some point.

You are creating viewports or copying layout tabs and when you double click the viewport to activate it. Because you need to change the scale, regen or zoom to a different location your viewport does an automatic zoom extend. If you have a lot of information on your drawing this could become a really anoying problem.

Change the UCSFOLLOW system variable to 0 inside the viewport.

The UCSFOLLOW setting is saved separately for each viewport, paper space and model space, when you create a new viewport it always maintains the setting use on model space.

Hope you will find this helpful.

Windows 8 Support and Infrastructure Products

I know some of you have been asking about Windows 8 support for Civil 3D and the rest of the Infrastructure products. Just released is the current list of support Autodesk products on the new Windows 8 platform. At this time none of the Infrastructure products (Map 3D, Civil 3D, Infrastructure Modeler, etc.) are included in this list. The only one that is supported from the Infrastructure Design Suite at this time is 3DS Max Design.

Please follow this link to the technical solution for more information: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS19048377 

This technical solution will be updated as new Windows 8 compatibility information becomes available.

How much of my MEMORY RAM is my drawing really using?

Hi all.

Have you ever wandered about the amount of RAM memory that your drawing is really using?

Maybe you are one of those that don’t like to relay on your Windows Task Manager.

Here is a quick tip, open the biggest, baddest dwg that you have and type STATUS on the command line.  It will show you the amount of RAM that your drawing is using alone with the complete statistics of the drawing.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Hotfix 2 Released

In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Hotfix 2 which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team.

This Hotfix includes the updates contained in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Hotfix 1. For more information about it, please see readme.