Being Civil

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler: Importing SKP Model Materials

Autodesk Infastructure Modeler has many very cool features and can present quite the "wow" factor when showing clients and collegues what it can do. Just have a look at this video that was shared on Civil 3D's Facebook page. Given the realistic detail that can be achieved, you want to make sure everything is being imported properly.

In this case we will talk about SketchUp (SKP) models and having actual photos of the real buildings applied to said models. If after tying to import these models into Infastructure Modeler you find that you are missing the materials (photos) it may be due to the fact that Infastructure Modeler cannot "see" those materials.

If you are exporting to the DAE file format, you will get the DAE file and a folder with the same name. The folder contains the JPG required for the model textures.  To resolve this try moving the DAE file into the folder that contains the JPG.  That way, when the DAE is imported into Infastructure Modeler, the textures are found and used.

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.

Object Properties Missing After ProjectWise Is Installed

This week I learned about an issue that I would like to share with you. I don’t think many users will be affected by it, but I thought it was worth sharing because there was no information I could easily find online. The credit for this post goes to a customer of ours (Kevin Sabo – Thank you, Kevin) who raised the issue and was able to confirm a solution for us.

Basically, everything was working fine until they decided to install Bentley ProjectWise SS3 (we were noting this version 08.11.09.122 but other may apply, as well). In case you were not familiar with ProjectWise, that is Bentley’s content management and collaboration tool similar as Autodesk Vault). Now, fast forward...Ever since then they lost their AutoCAD object properties functionality. The way to access properties was by typing CH in command line, but then wanted to know what caused it and how to permanently resolve it. Luckily the issue was immediately noticed but uninstalling ProjectWise and reinstalling it with integration for ProjectWise switched off did not help. The reason for this is that the version of TLB file found inC:\Program Files\Bentley\ProjectWise V8i SS3\Bin\RealDWG was not for the version of AutoCAD we were using.

To see how to resolve this issue continue reading.

1. Close Civil 3D
2. With Windows Explorer go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\ and copyaxdb18enu.tlb file
3. Now, go to C:\Program Files\Bentley\ProjectWise V8i SS3\Bin\RealDWG
4. Paste axdb18enu.tlb file
5. Restart Civil 3D and confirm that Properties are now populated.

 

I hope this helps some out there.

How to identify a 4th generation MrSID®

While we await support for the 4th generation MrSID® file format in AutoCAD, how can you know if your MrSID® image is a 4th generation or not? Because all generations have the .sid extension, the file extension won't tell you. Here's one way you can find out:

1. Launch the program GeoViewer (a free download from www.lizardtech.com).
2. Go to File > Add Layer > Local Layer to bring in the image.
3. Once the image appears, go to Layer > View Layer Metadata.
4. Look under "Image properties". In the value for Format, a generation 4 MrSID will show MRSID/MG4RASTER.
Other generations will show other formats (e.g. MG2 if it's a MrSID generation 2).

You can also use GeoViewer to Export to TIFF (Tools menu). The file size will grow a bit, but it won't crash AutoCAD! :)

Transform Tab Missing

Before we all go off for a well-deserved weekend I wanted to share something with you. When inserting raster images (such as MrSID or ECW, TIFF,…) through Civil 3D or Map 3D with Raster Design out of 4 dialog one tab is not showing. If you remember once you select Image to insert you were given the wizard with 4 dialogs.

• Pick Correlation Source
• Modify Correlation Values
• Transform
• Insertion

In case you are not seeing Transform dialog check if your drawing has assigned coordinate system. If coordinate system is not assigned, you will not be able to make transformation. It’s very clear.

So to resolve this issue type: MAPASSIGN command and assign coordinate system.

Then just continue with insert and you will notice that Transform dialog is now available.

In case you still don’t see it then most likely you are on the path which may result in reinstall or repair.

Have a nice weekend, all!

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.

Cannot Remove Selection with SHIFT+Pick

There are hundreds of small things and settings in AutoCAD that make drafting lot easier, but when some of them accidentally get turned off or on, sometimes it’s really a major effort to look for them and set the settings the way we wanted. For instance, using Shift-pick for selecting and de-selecting… When selecting multiple objects in a busy drawing often some things get selected by accident, so instead of starting over, we want to be able to just deselect the item and keep selecting more. I also have a habit of using SHIFT to select/deselect objects when I have selected too many.

That’s what Shift+Click is good for. Off course, this all work pretty nicely until there was a change in setting introduced for any reason or by conflicting settings in Raster Design that may be installed on the same machine. Our user reported that suddenly the SHIFT+Pick stopped working after a crash. If you have raster Design installed and configured on AutoCAD Civil 3D and your SHIFT key stopped working for "Shift+Pick" to remove objects from selection sets, or "Shift+Pick" to make multiple grips hot, then this might be the solution.

Without further ado, I will go ahead and provide you two usual suspects.

• MAPIOPTIONS settings
• IOPTIONS settings

Please do following:

1. In command line run the IOPTIONS
2. Go to the User Preferences tab
3. Uncheck the toggle Shift+Left Click Image Select

Also

1. Run MAPIOTIONS command
2. Go to General tab and uncheck “Shft+Left Click Image Select"

 With these two selections unchecked program should work like before. 

 

Why Do I See Difference in Time Series Plot And Output Results / Analysis Summary?

A lot of times, SSA users find that there is a slight difference in the results seen in the Time Series Plots and the numbers seen within the Analysis Summary in the elements Property dialog as shown below:

Figure 1.0 Different results seen in the Time Series Plot and Analysis Summary

The Time Steps section within the Analysis Options is the key to resolve this difference seen in the results. It establishes the time step length to be used for the runoff computations, routing computations, and results reporting. The Reporting and Routing Time Step is the most important thing for network analysis.

SSA uses a default Reporting time step of 5 minutes and Routing time step of 30 seconds. In most cases users tend to use the default and define only the Start and End Dates to perform the analysis. A very important thing to note here is that the Output Report or Analysis Summary within the element properties windows shows the results based on every routing time step whereas the Time Series Plot is generated on the Reporting time steps defined. This is where the difference emanates.