AutoCAD® Land Desktop 2009 Getting Started 2009 April 2008
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Contents Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AutoCAD Land Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Installation Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing on a Single Computer . . . . . . . . . Installing on a Network . . . . . . . . . . . First Things to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setup Profiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Settings . . . . . . .
Accessing AutoCAD Land Desktop Commands . . . . . . . . Toolbars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Transparent Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . Establishing Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . User Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drawing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prototype Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data File Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using the World Coordinate System for Creating Data . . . . Working with Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Using Point, DEM, Contour, Breakline, and Boundary Data in Surfaces 64 Working with the Terrain Model Explorer . . . . . . . . . . 65 Creating Surface Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Creating Breaklines to Use in Surface Generation . . . . . . 67 Creating Contours to Use in Surface Generation . . . . . . 68 Creating Boundaries to Use in Surface Generation . . . . . . 69 Building Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Creating Finished Ground Data for Surfaces . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 8 Introduction to the Civil Engineering Tools . . . . . 119 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 . 120 . 121 . . . . 123 Overview of Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . Finished Ground Data . . . . . . . . . . Using Grading Objects and Daylighting Commands . . Creating a Grading Object . . . . . . . . . . . Editing a Grading Object . . . . . . . . . . . Creating Contours and Surface Data from a Grading Object Creating a Grading Plan Using Daylighting Commands . Working with Ponds . . . . . . .
Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Editing Vertical Alignments . . . . . . . . . . Vertical Curve Calculator . . . . . . . . . Editing Vertical Alignments Graphically . . . . Generating Reports From Vertical Alignment Data . Calculating Vertical Curve Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing and Editing Roads in Section View . . . Viewing and Editing Roads in Section View . . . . . . Cross Section Database Files . . . . . . . . . Creating Existing Ground Cross Sections . . . . . . .
Chapter 16 Introduction to the Survey Tools. The Survey Tools . Chapter 17 . . . . . . . . . . Getting Started with the Survey Tools . Survey Settings . . . . . . . Establishing Drawing Settings . Establishing Data File Settings . Chapter 18 . . Entering Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entering Survey Data . . . . . . . . . . The Survey Observation Database . . . . . . Entering Observed Data . . . . . . . . .
Introduction 1 AutoCAD® Land Desktop is based on AutoCAD and In this chapter some components of AutoCADΤΜ Map 3D. Using ■ AutoCAD Land Desktop AutoCAD Land Desktop, you can create, maintain, output, and analyze all the data in your land development projects. ■ The Installation Wizard ■ First things to know ■ How to use the documentation set ■ Finding information This Getting Started guide contains information for both AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009 and AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Companion 2009.
AutoCAD Land Desktop AutoCAD Land Desktop is designed for professionals in the land planning and development industries, and includes the following products: AutoCAD® Land Desktop: This is the AutoCAD for land development professionals. It provides a base level of functionality for land planners, surveyors, civil engineers, drafters, and anyone who creates supporting documents. AutoCAD Land Desktop contains all the functionality of AutoCAD and some components of AutoCAD Map 3D.
First Things to Know This section is designed to introduce you to the elements that form the foundation of AutoCAD Land Desktop: projects, prototypes, templates, setup profiles, settings, and loading menus. Projects The project is a basic unit of AutoCAD Land Desktop. It is a directory structure that contains all the data and settings relevant in designing a job. Data includes points, surfaces, drawings, and any other data created or referenced in your work.
For more information, see “Working with Projects” on page 24. Tip Although it is not required, we suggest that you save the drawings in the \dwg subfolder that is created in the project folder. This keeps the drawing and the project files together for easier archiving. Prototypes Prototypes provide a convenient way for you to maintain standard settings for the drawings. After you set up the drawing settings by using the Drawing Settings command on the Projects menu, you can save them back to a prototype.
Tip When you base a new project on a prototype, the entire prototype folder is copied to the new project folder. You may want to store commonly-used files in a prototype folder so they are automatically copied to new projects. Templates When you create a new drawing, you can base it on a drawing template. A drawing template is a drawing file with pre-established settings for new drawings and has the extension .dwt. For example, you can set up all standard layers in a drawing and save the drawing as a .
Settings AutoCAD Land Desktop settings are comprised primarily of two types: user preferences and drawing settings. ■ The User Preferences control program-wide preferences such as the project paths for various files, the AutoCAD overrides, and the drawing setup method. The preference settings are stored in the following folder: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Land Desktop \\Data\pref The file name is .dfm.
■ AutoCAD Map 3D documentation provides help with commands in the Map menu. Note If you install Trimble Link or Carlson Connect software, you can access Help for each of these programs from the product menu.
Path Naming Conventions When referring to the AutoCAD Land Desktop program folder, the documentation uses the following convention to represent the program path: c:\Program Files\Land Desktop If you installed the program on another drive or if you used another folder name, please substitute that path for the path described in the documentation. When you install the program, a folder for storing the project data is also created.
Accessing Help files (continued) Method Result Benefits Move the pointer over a command in a menu using the up and down keyboard arrows and press F1. Displays the Help topic that describes the commands in the menu. This topic has links to specific Help topics for the commands in the menu. From a dialog box, click a Help button. Displays the Help topic that describes how to use the dialog box. This topic provides the information you need without having to search for it.
Tip For the most accurate results, select the Search Titles Only check box at the bottom of the Search tab. ■ The Favorites tab is a location where you can store frequently accessed Help topics. When you are viewing a Help topic you want to add to your favorites, click the Favorites tab, and then click Add. In addition, you can limit the search to specific parts of Help, such as only AutoCAD Land Desktop features or only AutoCAD or AutoCAD Map 3D features.
The following illustration shows how the information on the Reference tab changes as you move your mouse over a different command name. Using the Tutorial AutoCAD Land Desktop has an online tutorial that you can use to learn the basic program concepts. The tutorial is set up in lessons that you can perform sequentially or non-sequentially. Access the online tutorial by choosing the AutoCAD Land Desktop Tutorials command from the Help menu.
steps in a task are titles of relevant Help topics. For example, you can use the Search tab in the Help to locate the topic, “Changing the Point Database Setup Settings.” To set up the point database Step Use to locate 1 From the Points menu, choose Point Management ➤ Changing the Point Point Database Setup to display the Point Database Setup Database Setup Settings dialog box. The following example describes how you can locate a specific topic title in the Help.
To use Help to locate a topic title (continued) Steps 5 Double-click the name of the topic to view the Help topic.
14 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Getting Started with AutoCAD Land Desktop 2 To start working with AutoCAD® Land Desktop, you In this chapter need to know the basics of operating the program. ■ Starting AutoCAD Land Desktop These basics include loading menu files, and project, prototype, and drawing management.
Starting AutoCAD Land Desktop To start AutoCAD Land Desktop, select the Land Desktop icon from the AutoCAD program group or from the Windows desktop, the Start Up dialog box is displayed. If you do not want to see this dialog box every time you open AutoCAD Land Desktop, then clear the Show This Dialog At Start Up check box. To redisplay this dialog box, click User Preferences on the Projects menu and select the Use Land Desktop Startup check box.
The AutoCAD Land Desktop Drawing Environment The AutoCAD Land Desktop drawing environment is shown in the following illustration. Map Explorer Command line Menu bar Status bar To display the menus in the AutoCAD Land Desktop, select Land Desktop in the Workspaces toolbar list.
When you start AutoCAD Land Desktop, the AutoCAD Map 3D Workspace is displayed by default. You can use the Project Workspace to attach drawings to the current Map drawing, to define queries, and to attach databases. Note You can run multiple sessions of AutoCAD Land Desktop on one computer. Within each session, however, only one drawing can be open at a time.
■ AutoCAD Land Desktop has additional context-sensitive menus that you can access by selecting an object and right-clicking. To change the menu display, change the current workspace. ■ ■ ■ In the Workspace toolbar list, select another workspace from the list. To display the Workspaces toolbar, click Projects menu and choose Workspaces. Enter WSCURRENT at the command line, and then enter the workspace name.
Transparent Commands You can use the command line to access a second command without leaving the first command. To use a command transparently, type an apostrophe (’) before the command name on the command line. For example, if you are using LINE to draw a line, you can type ’zoom (’z) or ’pan (’p) to change the view of the drawing and the LINE command remains active. After you have finished using a command transparently, the suspended command continues.
Establish file paths. Specify the dialog box displayed by the Open and New commands, or at the start of a session. Select the method you want to use for Drawing Setup. Drawing Settings The Edit Settings dialog box is a centralized location from which you can modify settings that are specific to each drawing. To display the Edit Settings dialog box, select the Edit Drawing Settings command on the Projects menu.
project that is based on that prototype. You can establish the settings once and then apply them to each new drawing. Prototype Settings Every AutoCAD Land Desktop project must be based on a prototype. A prototype stores drawing settings. These settings are copied to each drawing that is created in the project. AutoCAD Land Desktop includes a prototype for meters and a prototype for feet. The Prototype Settings dialog box provides a centralized location from which you can modify prototype settings.
can access and modify import/export formats, speed tables, label styles, tag styles, and contour styles. To display the Edit Data Files dialog box, choose Data Files from the Projects menu. 1. Choose the program. 2. Select the data file that you want to edit. 3. Click Edit Data. 4. The data file is opened so you can edit or create new data files.
and the following civil engineering features ■ Sheet Manager label and grid styles Using the World Coordinate System for Creating Data When you use a default drawing template to start a new drawing in AutoCAD Land Desktop, you are in the world coordinate system (WCS) automatically. The X axis is horizontal, the Y axis is vertical, and the Z axis is perpendicular to the XY plane. Warning! If you create data with AutoCAD Land Desktop, it is very important that the coordinate system be set to World.
use the Project Details dialog box to establish the project name, description, and keywords, as well as a prototype on which to base the drawing settings and a location for the drawing files. Select a prototype to establish initial drawing settings. Type a name for the project. Type an optional description for the project. Type optional keywords for the project. Choose a location for the project's drawing files.
Project Drawing Location Each project must have a location for all the drawing files that you create within a project. It is recommended that you store drawing files in the project \dwg folder, for example, c:\Land Projects \newproj\dwg. You can, however, also establish a different, fixed path for the drawing storage location.
From the Project Management dialog box, you can ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Create new projects. If you are a CAD Manager, then you may want to create the projects from within the Project Management dialog box so that others can start their drawings and reference the same project data. Create new project paths. By default, the project path is c:\Land Projects , but you can create new project paths if desired. View the project details, including project description, keywords, and drawing storage location.
When you install AutoCAD Land Desktop, a prototype folder (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Land Desktop \\Data\Prototypes) is created by default. Each default prototype, and each prototype that you create, is represented by a subfolder of this root prototype folder.
To create a new drawing Steps Use to locate 1 From the AutoCAD program group, choose the AutoCAD Land Desktop icon. 2 On the File menu, click New to display the New Drawing: Starting a New Drawing Project Based dialog box, as shown in the following illustration. Enter the name of the new drawing. Select the project name if one exists. Choose a drawing template. Or you can click Create Project to create a new project.
Setting Up Drawings By default when you start a new drawing, the Drawing Setup wizard is displayed, as shown in the following illustration. You can use this wizard to select the current zone, and to adjust the drawing units, the horizontal and vertical scales, the current text style, and other settings. Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ 30 | Chapter 2 Set up the drawing units and scale based on a plot scale.
Opening Drawings You can open an existing drawing by selecting the Open command from the File menu or by typing open at the command line. If you open a drawing that is associated with an existing project, then the drawing is linked automatically to that project. If you open a drawing that is not associated with a project, then you must select a project or create a new project for the drawing to work with AutoCAD Land Desktop commands.
When an AutoCAD Land Desktop drawing is opened in another AutoCAD program, the Proxy Information dialog box is displayed. The Proxy Information dialog box identifies the missing application and the number of proxy objects in the drawing. The dialog box also contains three options: ■ ■ ■ Do not show proxy graphics: Does not display proxy graphics. Show proxy graphics: Replaces custom ARX objects as proxy graphics. Show proxy bounding box: Displays a box surrounding custom ARX objects called a bounding box.
Working with COGO Points 3 COGO points are used in almost every land In this chapter development project to identify locations in space. ■ Point markers and labels COGO points contain northing, easting, elevation, description, and name information that is stored in an external point database.
Introduction Points that AutoCAD Land Desktop creates are called COGO points. COGO stands for Coordinate Geometry. COGO points are stored in an external database and are organized by their point numbers. COGO points have extended entity data associated with the points that includes point number, point name, description, elevation, northing, and easting. COGO point data is stored in an external database file called points.mdb, which is referenced by all drawings in a project.
Point Markers and Labels When you create points, you have the option to display point markers or point labels, or both. Point markers can include point number, elevation, and either raw or full description, and are controlled by settings on the Text and Marker tabs in the Point Settings dialog box. If you want to label points with additional data and insert description key symbols, you must use point labels.
Points and CAD Commands The commands from the Points menu create COGO point objects that have extended entity data. These objects are different from the simple CAD point nodes that you can create with the POINT command. The following illustration shows a CAD point node created with the POINT command on the left. On the right is a COGO point object created with a command from the Points menu. The point text was dragged away from the marker and a leader was created automatically.
the point data is added to the point database and the observation data is added to the observation database. ■ ■ ■ All programs included with AutoCAD Land Desktop use the point database. You can set up the point database so multiple people can access it over a network. The point database stores all the point information outside of the drawings, which keeps the size of the drawing files smaller.
Creating the point database involves ■ ■ Setting the character limit for point descriptions (2 to 254). Choosing whether to use point names, and then setting the character limit for point names (2 to 254). After you create the point database, you can choose the database open mode by running the Point Database Setup command. To run this command, choose the Point Database Setup command from the Points ➤ Point Management menu.
Establishing Point Settings Before you create or import any COGO points into a drawing, you should set up the point settings. Note Changing the point settings does not affect points that are already inserted into the drawing. To update points in the drawing with changes to the point settings (such as marker style or automatic leaders, for example), re-insert the points into the drawing.
When you import points, the Insert To Drawing As Created setting is used, but certain point settings, such as elevation, point number, and description, are not applied. The Import Points command uses the information in the file that you are importing. If more than one person working on a project over a network is creating points, then each person can adjust the current point number to avoid confusion.
Use the Text tab to control how the point text is displayed. Control the visibility of number, elevation, and description. Show full or raw point descriptions. Set the test size relative to the screen or an absolute size. Create leaders automatically when moving point text. Creating Points Use AutoCAD Land Desktop point creation commands to create points in many ways, such as by northing/easting, along an object, by turned angle, and so on.
To create points by northing/easting (continued) Steps Use to locate 2 Click the Create tab to change the Point Creation settings. Changing the Point These settings determine the data you are prompted for, Creation Settings the data created automatically for the points, and whether the points you create are inserted into the drawing. 3 Click OK to close the Point Settings dialog box. 4 From the Points menu, choose Create Points ➤ Northing/ Creating Points at Northing/Easting Easting.
All points you import are added to the project point database. To create an import/export format and import points Steps Use to locate 1 From the Points menu, choose Import/Export Creating a Point Import/ Points ➤ Format Manager to display the Format Manager Export Format dialog box. 2 You can choose from several default import/export formats. You can select one and then click View to see how the format is set up. 3 Click Add to display the Select Format Type dialog box.
To create an import/export format and import points (continued) Steps Use to locate The Point File Format dialog box is displayed. 5 Click the column headings (the buttons) to establish the format. The Select Column Name dialog box is displayed.
To create an import/export format and import points (continued) Steps Use to locate 6 Select the name of the column. For example, if the first column in an ASCII file contains the point number, then the first column must be set up for point numbers. Each column must be unique—after you use one column name option, it is removed from the list of available column names.
To create an import/export format and import points (continued) Steps Use to locate 12 From the Points menu, choose Import/ Export Points ➤ Import Options to display the COGO Database Import Options dialog box. 13 Use the options in the COGO Database Import Options dialog box to determine the following: ■ ■ ■ Changing the COGO Database Import Options How to resolve duplicate incoming points. What to do when point numbers are assigned by the source file.
To create an import/export format and import points (continued) Steps Use to locate 16 Select the Add Points to Point Group check box to add the imported points to a point group, then select or create a point group. 17 Click OK to display the Import Options dialog box. 18 Click OK to import the points. Coordinate Zone Transformations You can perform coordinate zone transformations while you import points.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ Point filters remain active until you turn them off by typing the filter again, or until you select another filter. You can use the .p filter to select points that are in either the drawing or in the project database. Points must be displayed in the drawing in order to use the .g graphical selection filter. Editing Points The recommended method to edit COGO points is to use the Edit Points commands on the Points menu.
To edit points using AutoCAD Land Desktop commands Steps Use to locate 1 With points in the drawing (or in the point database only), Editing Points choose a point editing command, such as Move, from the Points ➤ Edit Points menu. 2 Select the points you want to move. 3 Select a base point and a point of displacement to move the point(s). Move Objects To edit points using CAD commands Steps Use 1 With points in the drawing, select an editing command, such as ERASE, and select the point to edit.
To change the drawing so that it matches the project point database, or to change project points to match the drawing, you can use the Check Points commands on the Points menu. You can use these commands to ■ ■ Add project points to a drawing, or remove them from a drawing, so the drawing matches the project. Add points in the drawing to the project, or remove points from the project that are not in the drawing, so the project matches the drawing.
Point group features in AutoCAD Land Desktop include the following: ■ ■ Persistent Properties: Point groups have persistent properties. This means that if points that match the properties of a point group are modified in some way, or if points were added to or removed from the point database, you can be alerted to update the point group.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ You can show additional columns of data in the Point Group Manager. To show all columns (including point name, grid northing, and grid easting, which are not shown by default), right-click a column heading and choose Show All Columns from the shortcut menu. When you assign overrides, point groups can override existing point data that is contained in the point database. From within the Point Group Manager, you can lock a point group to prevent it from being updated.
To create point groups (continued) Steps Use to locate 4 Select the points for the point group by using the Raw Desc Matching tab, the Include tab, and the Exclude tab. Click Apply to update the Point List box at the top of the dialog box. All the points in the Point List box are included in the point group when you click OK. 5 Define overrides for the point groups by using the Overrides tab.
When you define description keys, you assign a description key code, a description format (or “full” description), a symbol, a point layer, and a symbol layer. When you create or import a point with a raw description that matches a description key code, the point is placed in the drawing with the symbol, the point and symbol are placed on the specified layers, and the raw description is replaced with the full description.
To create description keys (continued) Steps Use to locate 3 Under Search Path for Symbol Block drawing files, click Browse, and locate the following folder. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ AutoCAD Land Desktop \\Data\Symbol Manager\cogo 4 Under Point Labeling, select the Use the Current Point Label Style When Inserting Points check box. NOTE In subsequent steps, you create the point label style to use for the new points.
To create description keys (continued) Steps 9 Click Use to locate to display the Create Description Key dialog box. Creating a Description Key 10 For this example, type UP* as the DescKey Code. The asterisk (*) matches any point description that starts with UP. For example, UP5A or UP5B. Using Wildcard Characters These wildcard characters keep the point description the in Description Keys same as when you enter it, so you can distinguish between UP5A and UP5B.
To create description keys (continued) Steps Use to locate 18 In the Data list, choose Point Number and click the Text button. 19 After {Number} in the text box, press ENTER to insert a carriage return. 20 In the Data list, choose Description and click the Text button. 21 Under Description Keys, select the DescKey Matching On check box, select the description key file, and select the Insert DescKey Symbol check box. 22 Click Save and then click OK.
Hundreds of different zones are provided in AutoCAD Land Desktop, including UTM projections, and NAD27 and NAD83 State Plane grids. You can also use commands to edit zones and create new zones. You can use geodetic calculations, related to the current zone, whenever you have any high-order survey calculations to complete, or if you must tie a survey into either state plane coordinates or UTM map projections.
In the following task, two separate GPS latitude/ longitude readings are taken on two different points, and the local northing and easting readings of these points are recorded. To calculate State Plane coordinates from GPS data Steps Use to locate 1 From the Projects menu, choose Drawing Setup to display the Drawing Setup dialog box. 2 Click the Zone tab and select the current zone for the drawing. Changing the Current Zone for a Drawing 3 Click OK to close the Drawing Setup dialog box.
To calculate State Plane coordinates from GPS data (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 Enter the latitude and longitude of the first point that you observed with the GPS. The calculator automatically displays the grid northing and grid easting coordinates for the point that is related to the current zone that you selected in step 2. Make a note of these coordinates. 6 Enter the latitude and longitude of the second point that you collected and make a note of the grid northing and grid easting coordinates.
To calculate State Plane coordinates from GPS data (continued) Steps Use to locate 10 the Reference Point section, enter the grid northing and grid easting coordinates for the first point that you calculated with the Geodetic Calculator. Enter the local northing and easting coordinates for the same point. Or, if you already placed that point in the drawing, you can click the Reference Point button and select the point from the drawing.
62 | Chapter 3 Working with COGO Points
Working with Surfaces 4 You can use points, DEM files (digital elevation models), In this chapter contours, breaklines, and boundaries to generate a ■ Working with the Terrain Model Explorer model of the earth’s surface. From this model, you can ■ Creating surface data create contours and sections, and by comparing two ■ Building surfaces surfaces, you can calculate volumes.
Introduction After you have entered data into a project, you can create a surface model from that data. A surface model is a three-dimensional geometric representation of the surface of an area of land. Surface models in AutoCAD Land Desktop are made up of triangles, which are created when AutoCAD Land Desktop connects the points that make up the surface data. The triangles form a triangulated irregular network (TIN) surface.
In addition to points, you can also build surfaces from DEM files (Digital Elevation Models), contour, breakline, and boundary data. You can have the contours treated as individual points where the contour vertices are used as surface points, or you can have the contours treated as breaklines that prevent triangulation lines from crossing the contours. Surface TIN lines typically do not cross contour lines. To build a surface accurately, you must provide more information than points and contours.
Use the shortcut menus to add the surface data to the surface folder, and then build the surface. The Volume folder in the left pane of the Terrain Model Explorer contains information about grid and composite volume surfaces that are created from the volume calculations commands on the Terrain menu. Use the Terrain Model Explorer to view properties about the volume surfaces, as well as open, close, and view volume surfaces. You can keep the Terrain Model Explorer open while you use other commands.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ When you import a point file into the Terrain Model Explorer, the point data is not added to the point database. The data is used exclusively for building the surface. To add contour data to a surface, you must have contour objects or polylines in the drawing. To add breaklines, you must use the commands on the Breaklines shortcut menu in the Terrain Model Explorer.
You can define three types of breaklines. ■ ■ ■ Proximity breaklines: Defines breaklines using the surface points nearest to the breakline that you draw. You do not have to snap to exact points. Wall breaklines: Defines the elevations of a wall-type object on both sides of the wall. For example, triangulation is linked to the bottom of the wall on one side, and then begins again from the top of the wall on the other side.
You can use contour data either as breaklines or as points when you add the contour data to the Terrain Model Explorer. When you add contour data to the surface folder, the Contour Weeding dialog box is displayed. When the Create as Contour Data check box is selected, the contours are treated as breakline data, so no triangulation occurs across contours. When the Create as Contour Data check box is cleared, the contour vertices are treated as point data for the purposes of triangulation.
The following illustration shows the effect of an outer boundary. Building Surfaces After you choose the information to include in a surface, you can build the surface. When you build a surface, all the surface data is processed and the program calculates the surface triangulation. The triangulation is calculated by combining the breakline, contour, DEM file data, and boundary data with the surface point data and interpolating the results.
■ You can access surfaces simultaneously across a network. The first user who opens the surface has read/write access to it. All other users have readonly access. To build a surface Steps Use 1 From the Terrain menu, choose Terrain Model Explorer to display the Terrain Model Explorer dialog box. Using the Terrain Model Explorer 2 Right-click the Terrain folder and choose Create New Surface from the shortcut menu. Creating a New Surface to locate 3 Open the new surface folder to display the icons.
To build a surface (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 After you add all the surface data, Right-click the surface Building a Surface name and choose Build from the shortcut menu to display the Build Surface dialog box. 6 Enter a description for the surface. 7 Choose the surface data to use in the surface by modifying the Surface Data Options. You can also choose to build the watershed model, calculate extended statistics, and create an error file when building the surface.
Creating Finished Ground Data for Surfaces AutoCAD Land Desktop has many commands that you can use for creating finished ground data to use for surfaces. The following table summarizes a few of the point, 3D polyline, and contour grading methods you can use for creating finished ground surface data.
Editing Surfaces After building a surface, you should evaluate its accuracy. Did the TIN lines generate as expected? If not, you can go back and define new surface data like points, breaklines, and boundaries. Or, if the changes are small, you can edit the surface TIN directly. For example, you can ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Flip the faces of triangles to match ridges or depression areas. Add TIN lines to force retriangulation. Delete TIN lines that extend beyond survey boundaries. Add, delete, move, and edit points.
Edit History Whenever you rebuild a surface, you must reapply the edits that you made to it. To save time, all edits that you make to a surface are saved in the Edit History folder in the Terrain Model Explorer. The Edit History folder stores all the edits that you make to a surface so you can automatically repeat them when you rebuild the surface later. You can open the Edit History folder to view the edits you have made to a surface, as shown in the following illustration.
You can use AutoCAD Land Desktop to create existing ground or finished ground contours. To create contours, you can ■ Generate contours from the current surface model. ■ Convert polylines to contours. ■ Vectorize contours on a raster image. ■ Digitize a paper contour map. ■ Copy contours. ■ Offset contours. Note You can use contours to represent features other than elevations. For example, contours can represent rainfall intensity, soil contamination lines, and so on.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ Contour styles store groups of settings in the drawing so you can use them again without having to redefine the settings you want to use. Choose a contour style when you run the Create Contours command from the Terrain menu. You can use the Manage Styles tab to save contour styles to an external file and also to add contour styles from an external file. This is helpful when you use the same contour styles in more than one drawing or in different projects.
To create contours from a surface Steps Use 1 From the Terrain menu, choose Create Contours to display the Create Contours dialog box. Creating Contours from a Surface to locate 2 Select the surface from which you can create contours. By default, the current surface is displayed in the Surface box. 3 Specify the elevation range. 4 Specify the vertical scale. 5 Specify the minor and major contour intervals. 6 Under Properties, choose either contour objects or polylines.
To create contours from a surface (continued) Steps Use to locate 8 Use the Contour Style Manager dialog box to smooth contours, and to specify the contour appearance, the text style for contour labels, and the label position. You can also use this dialog box to save contour styles and add styles from other drawings. 9 Click OK to return to the Contour Style Manager dialog box, and then click OK to generate the contours.
To calculate volumes Steps Use 1 Define at least two surfaces, such as existing ground and proposed ground. Building a Surface to locate 2 From the Terrain menu, choose Select Current Stratum to Defining a Stratum create a stratum that defines the two surfaces that you compare. 3 From the Terrain menu choose Site Definition ➤ Define Site to define the site area. Defining a Site for Volume Calculations A site is essentially a rectangular area in which all volume calculations are performed.
To calculate volumes (continued) Steps Use to locate 6 You can create volume reports, print the results, or include Creating a Total Volume them in a table in the drawing by using commands from Table for a Site the Terrain ➤ Volume Reports menu, as shown in the following illustration. 7 If you used the section volume calculation methods, then Plotting a Single Volume you can plot the cross sections in the drawing by selecting Section Terrain ➤ Section Volumes ➤ Plot Single.
82 | Chapter 4 Working with Surfaces
Working with Alignments and Parcels 5 Creating alignments and parcels with AutoCAD Land In this chapter Desktop is a two-step process. First, you create the ■ Working with alignments geometry, such as the roadway centerlines and parcel ■ Working with parcels boundaries, and then you define the geometry as alignments and parcels.
Introduction You can draft horizontal alignments and parcels at any time during the project process. You can begin by drawing objects, such as lines, curves, spirals, or polylines, to represent the geometry of an alignment or parcel. Then, you can define an alignment or parcel to a database. All data is stored in an external database and all drawings in a project can access that data. Because of the external database, you do not need to draft alignments or parcels in a drawing to reference them.
alignment, you can set a different alignment current or you can close the Alignment database. To share an alignment database with someone using Release 1 of AutoCAD Land Development Desktop, you can save the alignment database in the previous format of the alignment database as a project.adb file. Choose the Save as .adb command from the Alignments ➤ Alignment Commands menu. Drawing Alignment Geometry Begin an alignment design by drawing alignment geometry.
To create alignment geometry Steps Use 1 Create a layer on which the alignment centerline is to be drawn. Use a name such as “CL” for Centerline. Create and Name Layers 2 Use one of the line drawing options from the Lines/ Curves menu. Drawing Lines 3 To add curves, use the curve commands from the Lines/ Curves menu. Drawing Curves to locate You can add a curve between two tangents, from the end of a tangent, and more. These options ensure that the curve is drawn tangent to the selected lines.
Making an Alignment Current When you work with alignments, make sure that the correct alignment is current. Alignment commands work only with a current alignment, and only one alignment can be current at a time. When you define an alignment, it becomes the current alignment automatically. You can select the current alignment either from a drawing, from the Alignment Librarian, or by alignment number.
To make an alignment current (continued) Steps Use to locate 2 Select the alignment using one of the following methods: ■ ■ ■ If the alignment is drafted in the drawing, then click the alignment with the pickbox. When prompted to select an alignment, press ENTER, and then select the alignment from the Alignment Librarian. When prompted to select an alignment, press ENTER. Click Cancel to close the Alignment Librarian, and then enter the number of the alignment to make it current.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ The Horizontal Alignment Editor is linked dynamically to the drawing. Changes that you make in the Editor update the alignment automatically in the drawing. You can use the Horizontal Alignment Editor to modify PIs (Points of Intersection) and alignment curves and spirals. The editor is similar to a spreadsheet. You must select inside the cell that you want to modify.
Key Concepts ■ ■ All annotation is based on the current alignment in the database. To station or create offsets for an alignment, it must be defined to the database. To draft road results Steps Use 1 Select the current alignment. Making an Alignment Current 2 From the Alignments menu, choose Create Offsets to display the Alignments Offset Settings dialog box. Creating Offsets for an Alignment 3 Select the offsets that you want to create, and then enter names for them.
To draft road results (continued) Steps Use 6 From the Alignments menu, choose Station Display Format. Changing the Station Display Format to locate 7 Select the station format options, and click OK. 8 From the Alignments menu, choose Station Label Settings Changing the Alignment to change the station label settings.
To draft road results (continued) Steps Use to locate 9 From the Alignments menu, choose Create Station Labels Creating Station Labels on to create station labels. The labels are displayed as shown an Alignment in the following illustration. Working with Parcels When you create base maps or work with subdivisions, you must define parcels of land. You can define parcels from survey figures, points, lines, curves, or polylines. Parcel boundaries define the area and the limits of each parcel.
After you define a parcel, you can calculate its earthwork volumes using the grid and composite volume methods. For more information about earthwork, see “Calculating Volumes” on page 79. You can use the AutoCAD Map 3D commands to create a database of parcel numbers, owners, cost, and so on to help manage parcel maps. Drawing Parcel Geometry To draw the parcel boundaries, you can use the commands from the Lines/ Curves menu, or other AutoCAD commands such as LINE or PLINE.
The following illustration shows how a parcel is defined by using the Slide Bearing command. Depending on the parcel settings, these commands can define the parcel to the parcel database, and they can also label the parcel that is calculated. You cannot use the Parcel Sizing commands to modify a parcel that is already defined to the parcel database. To change a parcel definition, you must delete the existing parcel definition and redefine the parcel.
To define parcels to the parcel database (continued) Steps Use 2 From the Parcels menu, choose Parcel Settings to display the Parcel Settings dialog box. Changing the Parcel Settings to locate 3 Under Options, select the Label Parcels as Defined and the Automatic Label Placement check boxes. 4 Under Parcel Numbering, select the Sequential On check box to number the parcels sequentially. If you clear this check box, then you are prompted for the parcel number each time you define a parcel.
To define parcels to the parcel database (continued) Steps Use to locate 9 Select the polyline that represents the parcel. The parcel is then defined to the parcel database. Managing Parcels You can use the Parcel Manager to ■ ■ Import, delete, and rename parcels. Report area, inverse, and map check information. To access the Parcel Manager, shown in the following illustration, choose Parcel Manager from the Parcels menu.
■ ■ You can report parcel information such as area, perimeter, map check, and inverse results. After you review the results, you can either print them or save them to a text file for final reports. If you created a parcel definition from a Survey figure, then you can report additional data about the parcels by using the Survey figure display, inverse, map check, and perimeter closure commands. To report parcel areas Steps Use 1 Define the parcel to the parcel database.
98 | Chapter 5 Working with Alignments and Parcels
Listing and Annotating Plans 6 To check object characteristics, you can perform inquir- In this chapter ies which list object data at the command line or in a ■ Listing object data dialog box. To label objects with selected information, ■ Labeling objects you can create dynamic and static labels, and you can create object tables that list detailed information about tagged objects in the drawing.
Introduction To check object characteristics, you can perform an inquiry on a drawing object. An inquiry shows you information about the selected object on the command line, the status bar, or in a tracking window. If you want a more permanent solution for identifying drawing objects— especially when you are ready to plot the drawing—you can label the drawing objects at any time during the drawing process. AutoCAD Land Desktop can create dynamic labels, which update whenever you edit the drawing objects.
Inquiry commands (continued) Command Function ID Point Displays the coordinate values of a location. Time Displays the date and time statistics of a drawing. Status Displays drawing statistics, mode, and extents. Set Variable Lists or changes the values of system variables. AutoCAD Land Desktop Inquiry Commands To query AutoCAD Land Desktop-specific objects, use the Inquiry commands. Most commands on the Inquiry menu are list-based, meaning that the information is displayed on the command line.
To track the elevation of a surface Steps Use 1 Build a surface. Building a Surface 2 Make that surface the current surface. Making a Surface Current 3 From the Inquiry menu, choose Track Elevation. Tracking Elevations to locate 4 Move the pointing device over the surface. The surface elevation is displayed on the status bar. If you move the pointing device outside the surface area, then an out-of-bounds message is displayed.
Labeling Objects You can label the lines, curves, spirals, and polylines in drawings by using the AutoCAD Land Desktop labeling commands. Each object can have more than one label. You can customize label styles to apply to the drawing objects, or you can use one of the predefined label styles included with AutoCAD Land Desktop. You can include the information either along an object, at a point next to the object, or in a table.
Style Properties Dialog Bar To choose the current label styles, you can use the Style Properties dialog bar to switch between tag and normal label styles, to change the label settings, and to edit label styles. To display the Style Properties dialog bar, select Show Dialog Bar from the Labels menu. You can dock the dialog bar either on the top or bottom, but not to the side, of the graphics window.
To label lines with dynamic labels (continued) Steps Use 3 Verify that the icon is displayed. When this icon is displayed, the Current Label Style list shows only regular label styles. Selecting the Current Label Style from the Style Properties Dialog Bar to locate If the icon is displayed, the list of styles shows only tag label styles. You can click the tag icon to display the labels icon. 4 Click the Line tab. 5 Select a style from the list, such as Direction Above, Distance Below.
To label lines with dynamic labels (continued) Steps Use to locate 11 Right-click, and then choose Add Dynamic Label from the Creating Dynamic Labels shortcut menu. Labels are added, as shown in the following illustration. 12 If you click a grip on one of the lines and drag it to a new location, the labels are updated with the new distances and angles.
To label lines with tag labels and create a table Steps Use 1 Draw some lines by using the LINE or PLINE command. Draw Lines to locate 2 From the Labels menu, choose Show Dialog Bar to display Using the Style Properties the Style Properties dialog bar. Dialog Bar 3 Verify that the icon is displayed. When this icon is Selecting the Current Label displayed, the Current Label Style list shows only tag label Style from the Style styles.
Editing Label Styles AutoCAD Land Desktop includes several different default label styles. You can edit these styles if needed, and you can create new styles. A label style controls the appearance of the label text, such as the style, label offset, text layer, and text justification. A label style also controls what pieces of information the label contains, such as direction and distance. These are called data elements.
To edit a line label style (continued) Steps Use to locate 3 From the Name list, choose the name of the Label Style that you want to edit. 4 When you select a style, the Text Above and Text Below sections of the dialog box display the selected data elements. The Preview area on the right shows you a preview image of this label. If you want to modify any elements of the selected style, then you can enter modifications in the Text Above and Text Below text boxes, or delete existing text in these boxes.
110 | Chapter 6 Listing and Annotating Plans
7 Importing and Exporting Data in LandXML Format When you use the Import LandXML and Export In this chapter LandXML commands, you can export and import ■ Using the LandXML Import and Export commands points, surfaces, parcels, and alignments in LandXML format using the LandXML schema.
Using the LandXML Import and Export Commands LandXML is a data exchange standard for managing data, such as points, alignment geometry, and other information. It is based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML), a global standard for exchanging data via the Internet. You can use the Import LandXML and Export LandXML commands to export and import point, surface, alignment, and parcel data in LandXML format, and to export pipe run data.
Exporting Data in LandXML Format Using the LandXML Export command, you can export the following LandXML data from an AutoCAD Land Desktop project: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ COGO points Point groups Description keys Surfaces Parcels Alignments Profiles Cross sections Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM) data Pipe runs The following illustration shows the LandXML Export dialog box, which you can access by choosing Export LandXML from the Projects menu.
■ ■ ■ ■ When you select the alignments to export, you can also choose to export profiles, cross sections, and Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM) data. Use the Export Data Options to control the data precision, the imperial unit foot type, the units of exported angles and directions, and whether to export raw descriptions, full descriptions, or both. Use the Export File Options to control the level of detail contained in the exported file.
To export data in LandXML format (continued) Steps Use 5 To specify the location and detail of the exported file, the default schema location, and to select an XSL style sheet to apply to the data, click File under Export Options. Changing LandXML Export File Options to locate NOTE You can use Autodesk LandXML Reporting, a stand-alone application that is installed when you install AutoCAD Land Desktop, to produce reports from LandXML data.
■ By using the LandXML Import Region Selection dialog box, you can limit the import of data to a specified region in the project. Use a polyline or a window selection to specify coordinates in the current drawing.. To import LandXML data Steps Use 1 From the Projects menu, choose Import LandXML to display the LandXML Import Select File dialog box. Importing LandXML Data into AutoCAD Land Desktop 2 Select the LandXML file to import and click Open to display the LandXML Import dialog box.
To import LandXML data (continued) Steps Use to locate 4 Under Data Processing, select the Translate/Rotate check box to translate or rotate the values in the LandXML file. Select the Select Region Boundary check box to limit the import to a specified region in the project.
118 | Chapter 7 Importing and Exporting Data in LandXML Format
Introduction to the Civil Engineering Tools 8 The features described in this chapter are available when In this chapter you install AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Compan- ■ Civil Engineering Tools ion 2009. The stand-alone version of AutoCAD Land Desktop does not include these features.
Civil Engineering Tools The civil engineering tools are included with the AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Companion 2009. The stand alone version of AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009 does not include these features. To access the civil engineering tools, start Land Desktop and load the CivilDesign workspace. The civil engineering tools are for people who need advanced civil engineering commands for site grading, hydrological studies, road design, sheet plotting, and pipe design.
Menus The Civil Design workspace adds the following menus to AutoCAD Land Desktop: Pull-down menus included in the Civil Design workspace Menu Functionality Grading Perform site grading using grading objects, points, and daylighting; create grading plans for detention ponds Layout Create intersections, cul-de-sacs, parking stalls, and sports fields Profiles Create existing ground and finished ground profiles Cross Sections Create existing ground and finished ground sections Hydrology Perform hydr
122 | Chapter 8 Introduction to the Civil Engineering Tools
Using Grading Commands 9 Use the commands on the Grading menu to create In this chapter finished ground surfaces for a site. You can create and ■ Overview of grading edit grading objects, calculate daylighting information, ■ Using grading objects and daylighting commands calculate volumes, and create and shape detention pond ■ Creating a grading object definitions.
Overview of Grading When you add or remove soil, rock, and other materials to shape the land for a project, you generally develop a grading plan to indicate how the finished surface appears. The grading tools enable you to model the existing and proposed ground surfaces and analyze the design. After you develop a grading plan, you can then create a proposed surface model.
■ ■ ■ Finished grade labels: Labels surface elevations. Stratum: Defines a group of two surfaces where the differences between the two surfaces can be used to calculate volumes and elevation. Pond models: Used in planning stormwater management and in hydrology calculations. After you have created all finished ground grading data, you can then create a finished ground surface. NOTE It is recommended that you create new layers for the finished ground data.
Creating a Grading Object A grading object is a three-dimensional object that represents finished ground grading schemes. It is designed specifically to provide a fast, efficient 3D-modeling tool that accurately represents such design elements as roadways, embankments, parking areas, excavations, and ponds. You can create a grading object by drawing a footprint, defining slopes, and defining grading targets, which are elevations, distances, or a surface that you want to grade to.
■ You can calculate general volume statistics and balance volumes for a grading object when its grading target is a terrain surface or an absolute elevation. To create a grading object using the Grading Wizard Steps Use to locate 1 From the Grading menu, choose Slope Grading ➤ Grading Wizard. Click Next and Back to move through the pages. Creating a Grading Object Using the Grading Wizard Configuring the Grading 2 On the Footprint page, enter a Grading Scheme Name and Description for the footprint.
To create a grading object using the Grading Wizard (continued) Steps Use to locate 4 On the Slopes page, enter the Cut Slope and Fill Slope. You can add and delete slope tags and edit stations. Configuring the Grading Slopes Settings 5 On the Corners page, choose a corner treatment for all Configuring the Grading corners, or enter corner treatments for individual corners. Corners Settings 6 On the Accuracy page, select a method for spacing, and enter increment values for the projection lines.
Editing a Grading Object After you create a grading object, you can modify it in the following ways: ■ ■ ■ Change the grading properties. Use grips to edit the grading object. Edit the grading object by right-clicking the object, and choosing commands from a shortcut menu. To edit a grading object, it must be unlocked to update automatically. If the grading object is locked, you can make changes, but they do not take effect until you unlock the grading object.
To grip-edit a grading object Steps Use 1 Select a grading object in the drawing. Using Grips to Edit Grading Objects 2 Select the grip you want to edit. The following illustration shows the location of grading object grips. TIP You can choose the grips to be displayed on a grading object by changing the appearance settings in the Grading Properties. 3 Move the grip to edit the grading object. The data in the Grading Properties dialog box reflect the changes you made using grips.
Creating Contours and Surface Data from a Grading Object To use the 3D information for a grading object in a terrain model surface, you have the following options: ■ ■ ■ You can create a new surface from the grading object. You can create contours. You can create breakline data from the grading object for any new or existing surface. Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ Surfaces are created using 3D information from the grading object footprint, daylight lines, and projection lines.
To create contours from a grading object Steps Use to locate 1 Create a grading object. Creating Grading Objects 2 From the Grading menu, choose Slope Grading ➤ Create Creating Contours from a Contours. Grading Object 3 In the Create Contours dialog box, change the settings as Creating Contours from a needed and click OK to create the contours. The Create Surface Contours dialog box is used to create contours from a surface as well as from a grading object.
The following illustration shows footprint and daylight line locations. Creating a Grading Plan Using Daylighting Commands To create grading plans, you can use the Daylighting commands, which determine slope daylighting from a polyline footprint to a surface based on slope criteria. These commands calculate the daylight match line, which is drawn as a 3D polyline. Elevational points and breaklines, representing the daylight slopes, can also be generated. Use all these elements to generate a surface.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ To use the Daylighting commands, an existing ground surface model is required. You can use either lightweight, 2D, or 3D polylines to draw the footprint outline. A match line is projected perpendicularly from each vertex on the polyline to the surface model. The more vertices, the better the proposed daylight match line.
To create grading plans using daylighting commands (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 From the Grading menu, choose Daylighting ➤ Create Single to determine the daylight match line at a specified slope. This command applies a constant slope to the entire polyline footprint. Calculating Daylight Points Based on a Single Slope The command checks for both cut and fill automatically. It also draws temporary objects that represent the location where the projected slope matches into existing ground.
Working with Ponds The Grading menu contains commands to design and define ponds. You can use these commands with Hydrology commands to create and edit ponds or any type of water-retention structure. The first step in a detention design is to use Runoff commands from the Hydrology menu to calculate the runoff from the watershed and to create the inflow hydrograph for the design storms. For more information, see Chapter 4, “Hydrology and Hydraulics.
There are six groups of commands on the Grading menu that you can use to define ponds and shape them: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Pond Settings: Changes settings for contours, slope control lines, and benches. Pond Perimeter: Draws a pond perimeter, changes its elevation, adds vertices to the perimeter, fillets the perimeter, and saves and imports perimeter shapes. Define Pond: Names or renames a pond, defines pond geometry by selecting existing polylines or contours, or deletes a pond from the drawing.
To design a detention pond (continued) Steps Use to locate 4 From the Grading menu, choose Pond Slopes ➤ Draw Drawing a Pond Slope Slope Template to draw the pond slope template polyline. Template There are several ways to shape the pond. One method is to use a pond slope template, as shown below. The pond slope template is essentially a cross section view of the pond perimeter. You draw the pond slope template at a 1:1 scale, and then you can apply it to the pond perimeter.
Hydrology and Hydraulics 10 The civil engineering tools provide a variety of methods In this chapter you can use to calculate runoff from a site, perform ■ Hydrology and hydraulics routing, and design detention basin inflow and outflow structures.
Hydrology and Hydraulics Early in the process of evaluating a site, you must evaluate how the proposed development affects watershed runoff. In general, most urban and rural developments alter the runoff characteristics of a site by reducing the pervious surface area, which ultimately decreases infiltration and travel times.
Sample Hydrology Files If you have AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Companion 2009 installed , sample hydrology files are installed into the following folder: c:\C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Companion \\data\hd Use these files to help you learn how to use the Hydrology commands. The following table lists some of the file names and descriptions.
Gathering Data for Hydrologic Analysis As you evaluate a site to determine whether development is feasible, you must consider what effect the development of the site has on area runoff. The first step in this process is to gather hydrologic data about the site, primarily for the pre-development model. To use the civil engineering tools for this, you must have an existing ground surface, and you must know the soil types and current land use of the site.
To add watershed and drainage data to the drawing Steps Use to locate 1 Create an existing ground surface for the proposed site. Using the Terrain Model Explorer 2 Generate watershed data for the existing ground surface model. Creating a Watershed Model After Building the Surface 3 From the Terrain menu, choose Surface Display ➤ Slope Drawing Arrows on a Arrows to draw arrows that follow the slope of the existing Surface that Show Surface surface.
An error message is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box whenever you make an error entering data. The civil engineering tools include the following hydrology calculators: ■ ■ ■ Time of travel Time of concentration Runoff (Rational, TR-55, and TR-20) You can use the calculators in two different ways: independently or nested. If you use the calculators independently, you use only one dialog box at a time.
Calculating Runoff Runoff is the water that flows out of a watershed subarea as a result of a storm event. It is typically expressed as a flow rate in cubic feet per second, or as a volume in cubic feet or acre-feet. The runoff volume is equal to the volume of rainfall that occurs on the area, minus the volume of rainfall that is infiltrated by the ground, is intercepted by foliage, or is held in small depressions.
Before calculating runoff you should check with your local city or county for their applicable requirements. For a general guide refer to the following table. If you want to … Then use … size a storm pipe or culvert the Rational Method or TR-55 Methods. calculate runoff from multiple subareas the Rational Method or TR-55 Tabular Method. create a hydrograph for a storm event with a 24-hour duration the TR-55 Tabular Method or the TR-20 Method.
Using the Hydraulic Structure Calculators In addition to the Hydrology calculators described previously (see page 143), the Hydrology menu provides calculator-type dialog boxes for analyzing and designing various hydraulic structures, including the following: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Pipes (both pressure and gravity flow) Channel Orifice Weir Riser Culvert The following illustration shows a Manning’s n gravity pipe calculator.
Routing Ponds One of the most common requirements for post-development storm water management is that the post-development discharges not exceed the pre-development discharges for one or more storm frequencies. The detention basin is generally the least expensive and most reliable measure for controlling post-development peak discharges. To begin the process of designing a detention pond, start by calculating the post-development runoff using one of the runoff calculation methods.
Working with the Layout Commands 11 Use the commands from the Layout menu to automate In this chapter the process of creating intersections and to add details ■ Using the Layout menu to site plans. Details can include intersections, cul-de-sacs, parking stalls, sports fields, and walks and patios.
Using the Layout Menu You can use the commands from the Layout menu to add finishing touches, such as intersections and cul-de-sacs, to alignments that you created using AutoCAD Land Desktop. As you plan a site layout, design efforts focus on the identification, sizing, organization, and location of site elements. These site elements can include open space areas, walks, and paths. You can also use the Layout commands to add details to site plans, such as parking stalls and sports fields.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ Use continuous linetypes, instead of dotted or dashed lines, as you design alignments that meet in intersections. The Intersection commands can be used only for alignments with symmetrical left and right offsets. The width of intersecting roads must be the same. You can use AutoCAD commands, such as BREAK, TRIM, and FILLET, to create intersections when you do not want to use the automated Intersection commands, or when the intersecting roads are asymmetrical or have varying widths.
Creating Parking Stalls The Parking Stalls commands from the Layout menu configure how the program draws and labels parking stalls in a drawing. With these commands, you can draw a specific number of stalls and then label them, modify the length and width of the parking stall, and fit several stalls within a given space. All stalls are drawn using the length and width dimensions you specify and these values are valid for the current drawing session only.
Creating Walks and Patios When you use the Walks and Patios commands from the Layout menu, you can create paver walks and patios, as well as brick walks, patios, and hatching. The centerline of the walkway, the hatch pattern, and the boundary line are placed on the current layer. Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ For Paver Walks and Brick Walks, you draw a centerline and assign a width to define the walk geometry. For Paver Patios and Brick Patios, you draw a boundary to define the patio geometry.
154 | Chapter 11 Working with the Layout Commands
Viewing and Editing Roads in Profile View 12 You can generate a roadway profile by using an existing In this chapter ground profile from a horizontal alignment and an ■ Viewing and editing roads in profile view existing ground surface. After you have created a roadway profile, you can modify and label it, and then create output files that export profile information.
Viewing and Editing Roads in Profile View After you draft and define a horizontal alignment for a road, you can create a road profile (also known as a vertical alignment or long section) that represents the existing and finished grades along the roadway centerline. To work in profile view, create an existing ground profile for a defined alignment by sampling elevation data from a surface.
Changing the Profile Settings To change profile settings, choose Profile Settings from the Profiles menu. Before you work with profiles, set up the following profile settings: These settings … Control … Sampling How the existing ground data is sampled. Existing ground layer Layers on which the existing ground profile graphics are placed. Finished ground layer Layers on which the finished ground profile graphics and labels are placed.
surfaces, you must first create a file of the surface names using the Select Multiple Surfaces command. Then, before sampling the data, enable the multiple surfaces by selecting Toggle Multiple Surfaces. The Sample From Surface command accesses the files that were created when you originally generated the surface, and then creates a file containing existing ground elevations along the defined alignment. You can use the existing ground elevations to create an existing ground profile.
After you create the existing ground data for an alignment, you can generate a profile. Create a full profile to define a finished ground alignment, or to annotate the profile. A full profile, as shown in the following illustration, includes a datum line, datum elevation, existing ground, existing ground text, and grid base. Or, you can create a quick profile, which is created without a horizontal or vertical grid base or station elevations, as shown in the following illustration.
When you generate a profile, you can do the following: ■ ■ ■ ■ Import the left and right profiles (if you sampled left and right offsets for the existing ground). Specify the station range and datum elevation for the profile. Control whether the profile is created from left to right, or from right to left. Control whether a grid is inserted with the profile. NOTE By specifying the station range, you can import a subset of the entire profile.
Creating Finished Ground Profiles After you create an existing ground profile, you can draw the proposed finished ground profile elements that include the finished ground centerline, offsets, and ditches and transitions. The profile view of the roadway geometry is called a vertical alignment. Vertical alignments are composed of vertical tangents and vertical curves. The procedure for defining a vertical alignment for a ditch or transition is similar to defining a finished ground centerline.
To create a finished ground profile centerline (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 From the Profiles menu, choose FG Vertical Alignment ➤ Define FG Centerline to define the finished ground centerline. Defining the Finished Ground Centerline as a Vertical Alignment When you select this command, all layers, other than the FG Centerline layer, are turned off so you can quickly select only the FG Centerline objects.
Before you use the Superimpose Profiles command, you must complete the following minimum requirements: ■ ■ The destination profile must be plotted in the current drawing. The source alignment must be adjacent to the destination alignment and must have vertical alignment data defined for it. Key Concepts ■ ■ The Superimpose Profiles command provides a method to control the template transition elevations along a transition alignment as well as a method to show the relationship between profiles.
Editing Vertical Alignments You can use the Vertical Alignment Editor dialog box to create and edit existing ground or finished ground profile points of vertical intersection (PVIs) and vertical curves, as well as to generate vertical alignment reports. If you have sampled the existing ground surface, then you can use this tabular editor to view or edit the generated information. You can open the Vertical Alignment Editor, by choosing Edit Vertical Alignments from the Profiles menu.
■ ■ Use the geometric calculator section to calculate vertical curve length based on empirical formulas. Use the lookup table section to calculate vertical curve length based on defined design speed and lookup tables. To use the lookup table section, you must first assign one or more design speeds to the alignment by using the Design Speed button in the top part of the Vertical Alignment Editor. For more information about the vertical curve calculator, see “Calculating Vertical Curve Length” on page 166.
You can control the display of the profile preview graphics, adjust the size and color of the current PVI marker, and adjust the color of the working profile and bounding boxes. IMPORTANT The Vertical Alignment Editor is not linked dynamically to the drawing. You are prompted to import the finished ground centerline after you modify it, but you must manually re-import any other alignment offset you modify to update the drawing.
Geometric calculator section Click this button to commit the curve length value to the vertical alignment. Lookup table section Double-click a length value to send it to the geometric calculator on the left. In the geometric calculator section of the curve calculator, you can review information about crest and sag vertical curves for a selected PVI. For crest curves, the calculated K value, as well as passing and stopping sight distances, are shown for a specified curve length.
168 | Chapter 12 Viewing and Editing Roads in Profile View
Viewing and Editing Roads in Section View 13 To design a roadway in cross-sectional view, you can In this chapter create a roadway template and then apply it to the plan ■ Viewing and editing roads in section view alignment and profiles. As you work in section view, you can superelevate and transition the road to meet design requirements.
Viewing and Editing Roads in Section View After you have created a roadway alignment and profile, you can generate cross sections. Cross sections are cut at specific stations along an alignment.
Design process for creating a cross section for an alignment (continued) Step Description Drawing and defining templates A template represents the finished ground surfaces, such as the asphalt and granular surfaces, and may contain predefined subassemblies for curb and shoulder surfaces. Editing templates Use the Edit Template command to add information to the templates, including superelevation regions, transition control, and point codes.
Creating Existing Ground Cross Sections The first step in working with cross sections is to establish the existing ground surface information. You can create the existing ground cross section data in one of three ways: ■ ■ ■ Sample the data from one or more surfaces Sample the data from a text file that contains station/offset/elevation data Enter the data manually by using the Existing Ground Section Editor As you sample the existing ground, elevational values for the cross sections are created.
Key Concepts ■ ■ You can plot sections that show existing ground conditions along the roadway. To create existing ground cross sections, you must define a road alignment. A design profile, however, is not required until you apply a template to the sections. To generate existing ground cross sections Steps Use 1 From the Alignments menu, choose Set Current Alignment to make sure that the proper alignment is set as current.
To generate existing ground cross sections (continued) Steps Use to locate 4 From the Cross Sections menu, choose Existing Ground ➤ Edit Sections to modify the cross section data in a tabular editor. Editing the Existing Ground Cross Section Data 5 You can plot a single section, a page of sections, or all sections by selecting a command from the Cross Sections ➤ Section Plot menu. Sections are plotted into the drawing based on the current horizontal and vertical scales.
After you have created a template, you must define datum, superelevation, and transition points. You can also edit the template to change settings, such as subgrade depths and the shape of the template. Drawing Templates You can draw template surfaces using the Draw Template command or PLINE. As you use the Draw Template command, the vertical exaggeration of the drawing is automatically taken into account. If you use PLINE, however, you must keep in mind the vertical exaggeration as you draw the polylines.
on. Normal surfaces are the elements of the template that make up the upper part of the template, such as pavement surfaces, median islands, shoulders and curbs. A typical subgrade surface is made up of granular substances, such as gravel. The following illustration shows normal and subgrade surfaces on a template. Many of the subgrade surface parameters are defined using the Define Template command instead of the Draw Template command.
cally along the bottom of each subgrade layer. Each datum line is numbered in ascending order, starting from the lowest subgrade on the template. Before you define templates, do the following: ■ ■ ■ Set the template storage path by using the Set Template Path command. This is a project-based setting that ensures all drawings associated with a project use the same path. Draw the template surfaces as 2D polylines with either the Draw Template command or PLINE.
When you use the Edit Template command to add surfaces, it creates two polylines for each surface: one for the left side and one for the right side. The command also displays any attached subassemblies. Although they cannot be modified, subassemblies can be attached to the current template. To use the Edit Template command, the template and its subassemblies must be in the folder that you specified with the Set Template Path command.
To work with templates (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 From the Cross Sections menu, choose Templates ➤ Edit Template to add transition points and superelevation points, as necessary, to the template. Editing Templates You can also add top surface points to the template that you can later import into the drawing to use as finished ground data. Working with Subassemblies Subassemblies represent optional design elements, such as shoulders or curbs.
■ Draw, define, and modify the necessary templates and subassemblies Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ You can use two methods to modify the cross sections after you process them. You can use the Edit Design Control command to modify a range of cross sections, or you can use the View/Edit Sections command to change individual sections. If you want to apply superelevation or transition control to finished ground cross sections, the template must contain transition and superelevation control locations.
To create finished ground cross sections (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 From the Cross Sections menu, choose Design Control ➤ Edit Design Control to set up the design control parameters and process the sections. Using the Edit Design Control Command to Process and Edit the Cross These parameters control the template you can use when Sections processing cross sections, ditch values, slope control values, transitions, and superelevation.
■ ■ ■ ■ Depth control slopes use different slopes in cut and fill for various depth ranges. These are based on the depth slope tables that you can create by choosing Design Control ➤ Depth Slope from the Cross Sections menu. This option determines the depth of cut or fill for each section, and then uses the appropriate slope. You can apply benching to simple slopes or depth control slopes based on height criteria. You can define the width and grade of the bench.
Viewing and Editing Sections Use the View/Edit Sections command to view and modify sections one-byone. The following illustrations show how sections are displayed when you use the View/Edit Sections command. What you see using the View/Edit Sections command Station 42+00 Station 42+50 Station 43+00 The following command prompt is displayed when you use the View/Edit Sections command. You can use the Next, Previous, and Station options to move to a section you want to view or modify.
Transitioning a Roadway To transition a road from one set of dimensions to another, you can create plan and profile transition regions on the finished roadway design. For example, if the highway design includes a passing lane on a hill, you can add the additional lane to the plan view of the roadway, define the edge of pavement as a transition alignment, and then update the cross sections using the Edit Design Control command.
To transition a roadway (continued) Steps Use 4 Draw and define horizontal or vertical transition alignments. Defining a Ditch or Transition as a Horizontal Alignment For example, you can draw a horizontal transition alignment for a passing lane, or you can draw a vertical transition alignment for a ditch. 5 To apply the transition alignments to the template, from the Cross Sections menu, choose Design Control ➤ Edit Design Control. To attach horizontal alignments, click Attach Alignments.
Superelevating a Roadway Superelevation occurs on roadways where the horizontal alignment curves and the road must bank to accommodate the speeds of automobiles. As a car approaches a curve, the roadway cross slope changes until the roadway reaches a full superelevated state, and then the cross slope returns to normal as the car exits the curve. To define superelevation for roads, define superelevation regions on a roadway template.
To superelevate a roadway (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 In the Superelevation Control dialog box, click OK to display the Save Status dialog box, and then click Yes to apply superelevation parameters to all existing cross sections. The Superelevation Section Sampling dialog box is displayed. 6 In the Superelevation Section Sampling dialog box, you Adding Sampled Cross Sections to Key can choose to sample sections at key superelevation stations.
Use the Draw 3D Polylines From Point Codes command to create 3D polylines that connect all points that have the same point code along an alignment. Use the Draw Daylight 3D Polyline command to create a closed 3D polyline that represents the locations where the road top surface matches into the existing ground surface. The 3D polyline is created by connecting the cross section catch points along the alignment. You can also create a 3D grid of the roadway by selecting Cross Sections ➤ 3D Grid.
Designing Pipe Runs 14 Use the Pipes commands to create conceptual and In this chapter finished pipe runs in plan and profile views. Begin a ■ Overview of designing pipe runs pipe design by laying out conceptual plan and profile pipe runs. Then, import finished draft pipe runs to create symbols and labels.
Overview of Designing Pipe Runs The Pipes menu in contains commands to design and draft pipe runs of storm water or sanitary sewer collection systems. You can start a design by drawing conceptual pipe runs, represented by single lines, or you can import predefined pipe runs into the drawing. You can use terrain models to obtain elevational data for the pipe runs and you can associate a pipe run with a roadway alignment for horizontal location data.
Drawing and Defining Conceptual Pipe Runs The first step in designing the pipe run is to lay out the conceptual pipe run in a drawing. Conceptual pipe runs are single-line representations of plan and profile view pipe runs. They serve as quick sketches of pipe run configurations, which you can use to check a particular pipe run for proper layout and location. To draw and define a pipe run Steps Use to locate 1 From the Pipes menu, choose Settings ➤ Edit to display the Pipes Settings Editor.
To draw and define a pipe run (continued) Steps Use to locate 2 Click Node to display the Node Data Settings dialog box. Changing the Default Node Data Settings These settings control the node name and structure reference description and node head losses. Make changes to the settings, as necessary, and then click OK. 3 After you have made all the changes to the pipe settings, click OK. 4 From the Pipes menu, choose Define Pipe Runs ➤ Draw Pipe Run, and then enter a new pipe run name.
To draw and define a pipe run (continued) Steps Use to locate 6 After you specify each point, press ENTER to Add the point to the pipe run. An “X” is temporarily displayed at the current point, and a triangle is temporarily displayed at each node, as shown in the following illustration. 7 Enter the first point’s rim elevation (when it is not being extracted from the current terrain model). 8 Add the next point by station and offset or by manually picking the point.
Drafting Conceptual Pipe Runs in Profile View You can draft a conceptual pipe run in profile view if you associated the plan pipe run with an alignment or defined an alignment from the pipe run. You can use the conceptual profile view of the pipe run to check for problems with inverts and to make graphical changes to the run in profile view. Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ Before you define a profile, you must have a defined alignment for the pipe run.
To draft a conceptual profile pipe run (continued) Steps Use to locate 5 Click Profile in the Layer Data section to display the Profile Changing the Profile Layer Layer Settings dialog box, and review the names to be Settings for Pipes used for the profile layers. 6 From the Pipes menu, choose Conceptual Profile ➤ Import Run to import the run into the profile. Importing Conceptual Pipe Runs into Profile View A conceptual profile is drawn, as shown in the following illustration.
Editing Pipe Runs Graphically After you lay out a pipe run, there are two ways to modify it in plan and profile views. You can make changes to it on screen, adjusting the entities that make up the pipe run, or you can make changes to it in tabular editors. This section describes how you can use the Edit Graphical command to edit a plan view pipe run in a drawing. To modify a conceptual plan pipe run Steps Use 1 Define a conceptual plan pipe run.
Working with the Pipes Run Editor You can use the Pipes Run Editor to modify a conceptual pipe run in a dynamic spreadsheet format dialog box. You can use this dialog box to adjust pipe sizing and flow rate parameters of the pipe runs. You can choose the columns of information that you want to display in the Pipes Run Editor. You can select one of the defined views from the View list to view specific column groupings. For example, you can pick the Node view to view the columns that only pertain to nodes.
■ ■ Pipe segments are listed with pipe size (diameter), start and finish invert elevations, slope, drop, and flow values, as well as roughness coefficients for use in Manning, Darcy-Weisbach, and Hazen-Williams pipe flow calculations formulae. Critical flow and depth values for each pipe segment are listed. Contributing flow data from one or two laterals is listed, with lateral names, discharge point invert elevations, and flow values.
To draft a finished plan pipe run (continued) Steps Use to locate 4 From the Pipes menu, choose Finish Draft Plan ➤ Draw Pipes, and then select the pipe run. Creating Finished Draft Runs in Plan View You can select the pipe run from the drawing by clicking on it, or you can press ENTER to display the Defined Runs dialog box where you can select the run. 5 Specify the layers for the finished plan pipe run labels. 6 Specify the option for placing the structure labels: Picking or Offset.
Drafting Finished Pipe Runs in Profile View After you configure= final details of a pipe run with the Pipes Run Editor, you can draft a finished profile pipe run in the current profile. Illustrative structure blocks and labels for nodes are inserted, and then pipes are drawn and labeled between nodes.
Creating Plan, Profile, and Cross Section Sheets 15 You can use Sheet Manager commands to automate the In this chapter creation of plan, profile, and cross section sheets. When ■ Creating plan, profile, and cross section sheets you use a sheet style customized for the project, you can quickly generate updated sheets with complete annotation as the project data changes.
Creating Plan, Profile, and Cross Section Sheets You can create sheets that show the current project’s alignments, profiles, and cross sections by using the Sheet Manager commands. You can create three types of sheets. ■ ■ ■ Plan/Profile Sheets: A series of sheets generated for an alignment and profile. Each plan/profile sheet contains a station range of the profile and the corresponding plan view. Profile Sheets: A series of sheets generated for sequential station ranges of a profile.
Getting Started with Plan/Profile Sheets The simplest way to get started with sheets is to generate a plan/profile sheet series based on a default sheet style. To create plan/profile sheets, you lay out the series, then you generate the sheets, which creates a separate .dwg file for each sheet. The following illustration shows a representative plan/profile sheet.
In plan/profile sheet series, the view definitions are positioned over the horizontal alignment, as shown in the following illustration. The dimensions of the view definitions are based on the viewport dimensions of the sheet style you select. Default sheets styles provided with the program are located in the AutoCAD Land Desktop \data\sheets folder.
Sheet Manager Terminology When you are using the Sheet Manager commands, you may come across the following terminology. Many of these terms are described in further detail in following topics. Frame Frames are part of a sheet style. They are rectangular polylines that position labels on the sheets as the sheets are generated. Label styles (also called frame components) are attached to frames.
Sheet Style A pre-defined template used for generating sheets. A sheet style determines the location and scale of the alignment, profile, or cross sections, and also determines how they are labeled. You set up sheet styles in paper space at 1:1 scale. A sheet style typically contains a border, a title block, viewports, frames, and label styles. View Definition A rectangular polyline that is placed over the plan or profile when you lay out a sheet series.
To customize an existing plan/profile sheet style (continued) Steps Use to locate 2 Open the sheet style that you want to edit by choosing Sheet Styles ➤ Load Sheet Style from the Sheet Manager menu. Loading a Sheet Style In the Load Sheet Style dialog box, select a sheet style (*.dwg) to open. For plan/profile sheets, you can select sdskplpr.dwg. The sheet style is opened in paper space.
To customize an existing plan/profile sheet style (continued) Steps Use 5 From the Sheet Manager menu, choose Sheet Styles ➤ Text Label to edit or to create label styles. Creating a Text Label Sheet Manager provides a sampling of text label styles that you can modify, or you can create new styles with many different codes and code categories (such as cross section cut centroid labels). 6 From the Sheet Manager menu, choose Sheet Styles ➤ Create/Edit Frame to draw frames.
Text Label Styles When you customize sheet style annotation, you work mainly with text label styles. A text label style controls what is labeled on each sheet in a series, as well as how the label is positioned on the sheet. When you are create and edit text label styles, you will come across the following terminology. Code Category The category of data to label. For example, Alignment, Profile, and Cross Section are different code categories.
The following illustration shows view frames for the plan and profile viewports, and label frames positioned adjacent to the profile viewport. Two other frame types, table and section, are used when creating section sheet styles and when labeling non-graphical data, such as volumes. The following is a brief summary of the various frame types. 210 | Label Frame Positions labels to the sides, above, or below profiles and cross sections.
Creating a Plan/Profile Sheet Series In addition to laying out and generating sheets, you must take other steps when you create plan/profile sheets, such as customizing settings and selecting the current alignment and profile in the drawing. Key Concepts ■ ■ The layout of a plan/profile sheet is determined by the length of profile that can be displayed per sheet. The plan view is then aligned to coincide with the profile view.
To create a plan/profile sheet series (continued) Steps Use to locate 6 Click OK to place the view definition rectangles along the alignment. Each view definition represents one sheet that is created, as shown in the following illustration. 7 Edit the layout, if necessary, from the Sheet Manager menu, by choosing Plan/Profile Sheets ➤ Edit Sheet Layout.
Creating a Section Sheet Series When you create a section sheet series, you do not lay out the series as you do for plan/profile and profile sheets. This is because section sheets are based on cross sections that are stored in the database rather than drawing entities that you can view through viewports. A section sheet style, therefore, does not contain viewports. Instead, you use a section frame to control where the cross sections are placed on a sheet.
The following illustration shows the settings that affect the layout of generated cross section sheets. To create a section sheet series Steps Use to locate 1 Create finished ground cross sections using the commands in the Cross Sections menu. Working With Cross Sections You do not need to plot the cross sections in the drawing. 2 Select the current alignment and profile.
To create a section sheet series (continued) Steps Use to locate 6 Select the sheet style to use, set the starting sheet number, the starting section number, and the starting and ending stations. 7 Click OK to generate the sheets. The following illustration shows a representative cross section sheet.
216 | Chapter 15 Creating Plan, Profile, and Cross Section Sheets
Introduction to the Survey Tools 16 The features described in this chapter are available when In this chapter you install AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Compan- ■ Survey features ion 2009. The stand-alone version of AutoCAD Land Desktop does not include these features.
The Survey Tools You can use the survey functionality to download, create, and analyze survey data. The survey features extend the base functionality of the AutoCAD Land Desktop by streamlining the process of transferring field-captured survey data to and from the office. The survey features provide a complete set of tools to collect survey data, perform surveying calculations, and automate symbol placement and line work.
Getting Started with the Survey Tools 17 This chapter describes how to access the survey tools In this chapter and establish the drawing and data file settings.
Survey Settings You can establish the settings for a Survey drawing from the Edit Settings dialog box and Data Files Settings dialog box. TIP The survey tools have an interface that you can use for managing and editing survey control point data, survey setup data, survey observation data, and survey figure data. For more information, see Survey Toolspace and Panorama in the online Help.
a prototype, the settings are used automatically whenever you create a new drawing in a project that is based on that prototype. You can establish the settings once and then apply them to each new drawing. Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ ■ The drawing settings are controlled on a drawing-by-drawing basis unless you save them back to the prototype on which the project is based. This is designed so that individual drawings in a project can have different settings.
Establishing Data File Settings You can use the Edit Data Files dialog box to access data files for AutoCAD Land Desktop, and the civil engineering(Civil Design) and surveying (Survey) tools. Using the surveying tools, you can edit ■ ■ ■ Command synonyms Equipment settings Figure Prefix Library 1. Select the program. 2. Select the data file that you want to edit. 3. Click the Edit Data button.
Entering Observations 18 This chapter has information about the different In this chapter methods provided in the survey feature that you can use ■ Entering survey data to enter data into a drawing.
Entering Survey Data There are several survey options that you can use to enter data into the Survey Observation database. One observation database holds all the observed angles and distances for each point. To enter survey data, you can ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Download data from a data collector. Create field book files—text files that contain the observed point data— which you can import into a drawing.
■ ■ The sideshot data, such as manhole and hydrant locations, positions along features such as driveways, top and bottom of slopes, drainage ditches, and corner locations of buildings. Equipment settings for the survey instrument. You can enter observations from a data collector or total station, Traverse or Sideshot Editor dialog boxes, menu commands, or the Survey Command Line. Regardless of the method you use, all the observation data used to create the points is stored in the observation database.
Using a Data Collector If you capture field observations with a data collector, then you can download that information directly into a drawing using one of the data collector programs included with Survey, Survey Link DC or Geodimeter. You can also use the Data Collection/Input ➤ Other command to customize your menu to run other data collection software programs.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ The program recognizes a closed traverse by ending on the same point number you started the traverse with. The program recognizes an open traverse by ending on a different point than the point at which you started the traverse. You can import existing “raw” data files into a drawing. From the Data Collection/Input menu choose the Convert Pre-7.6 Raw Files command. After you start the DC Link program, you can access documentation for the program by choosing Help ➤ Index.
. To define a baseline using menu commands Steps Use to locate 1 From the Data Collection/Input menu, choose Baseline ➤ Define Baseline. Using Baseline Commands 2 On the Survey Command Line you are prompted to enter the baseline origin point number. Using the Survey Command Line To enter data by typing command names, use the Survey Command Line method by choosing Data Collection/Input ➤ Survey Command Line.
Key Concepts ■ ■ ■ When you enter observations using the Survey Command Language, you can start by setting up your station and backsight points on existing points in your drawing. If the points do not exist, then you are prompted to enter known northing/easting/elevation coordinates. You can enter observation data directly into a text file. Type the information into a text editor, such as Microsoft® Notepad, using the Survey Command Language.
To use a batch file Steps Use to locate 1 From the Projects menu, choose Edit Drawing Settings to access the Edit Settings dialog box. 2 From the Program list, select Survey, and from the Settings list, select Command Settings. Changing the Survey Command Settings 3 Click Edit Settings to display the Survey Command Settings dialog box. 4 Select the Use Batch File check box. 5 Enter a batch file name. 6 Click OK.
To view the batch file Steps Use to locate 1 From the Data Collection/Input menu, choose Batch File ➤ Edit Batch File. This opens the batch file in Notepad where you can edit the observations you entered. Editing a Survey Batch File 2 From the Data Collection/Input menu, choose Batch File ➤ Run Batch File to automatically update your drawing. Running a Survey Batch File 3 From the Data Collection/Input menu, choose Batch File ➤ Slow Motion to view each change.
■ ■ The Traverse Editor has an option you can use to create a field book file from the data that you enter into the dialog box. You can enter traverse data through the Traverse Editor, Survey Command Line, field books, batch files, data collectors, and Traverse entry menu selections. Inputting Sideshots using the Sideshot Editor You can use the Sideshot Editor to make changes in sideshot data. The Sideshot Editor is a dialog box, set up like a spreadsheet, where you can enter sideshot information.
Adjusting Data and Working with Figures 19 This chapter describes different methods for adjusting a In this chapter traverse and how to use figures to represent the linework ■ Editing and adjusting survey data in a survey project.
Editing and Adjusting Survey Data You can use several methods to edit and adjust your survey data for closure. The traverse adjustment tools use the data you entered in the observation database. These adjustments can update both your project points and the line work entered with your survey. Figures represent the line work from the survey. You can use these lines to check bearings and distances, and to provide descriptions for boundary areas or linear features.
■ ■ Transit Rule: A method of balancing a traverse where the closing errors are assumed to be caused less by the errors in the observed angles than by the errors in measured distance. Corrections are distributed according to the ratio of the latitude and departure of each leg of the traverse to the sums of the latitude and departures of the entire traverse. Least Squares: A method of balancing a traverse.
By using figure names with figure prefixes, you can simplify the process of turning observed data into lines and curves in a drawing. If you plan to query a figure, such as perform a mapcheck on a figure that represents a particular parcel, then you should give it a unique name.
Creating Breaklines from Figures You can use figures located in your survey drawing, such as a centerline of a road, edge of pavement, or centerline of a ditch, as surface breaklines. In the process of making a surface model, you can easily select the figures to use as breaklines. After you define breaklines, the surface triangulation follows the breaklines by placing triangle edges coincident with the breakline segments. To create breaklines from figures Steps Use to locate 1 Create at least one figure.
238 | Chapter 19 Adjusting Data and Working with Figures
3D grid, roadway, 188 A accessing commands, 18 civil engineering tools menus, 121 alignment editing, 164 profile, 161, 164 superimposing profiles, 162 alignment database, 84 alignments, 84 editing, 88 exporting as LandXML data, 113 importing as LandXML data, 115 listing, 101 making current, 87 making into one object, 86 offsetting, 89 stationing, 89 annotation, sheet styles, 209 ARX objects, 31 bounding box, 32 ASCII point files, importing into project, 42 associating drawings with projects, 3 AutoCAD Land
creating figures, 235 downloading data collectors, 226 field book files, 225 sideshot data, 232 Survey Command Line, 228 using menu commands, 227 data, exporting in LandXML, 113 database, points, 36 daylighting commands, 125 creating grading plans, 133 defining surface templates, 176 DEM files, 65, 70 in surfaces, 64 deployment, network, 2 description key codes, 226 description keys, 53 example, 54 exporting as LandXML data, 113 importing as LandXML data, 115 designing intersections, 150 pipe runs, 190 dial
grading plans, creating using daylighting commands, 133 Grading Wizard, 127 grips editing grading objects, 130 H Help accessing, 8 how to use, 9–10 horizontal data files, storing, 156 hydrologic analysis in site development, 142 hydrologic studies, 140 hydrology introduction to hydrology tools, 140 routing, 148 See also pond routing using Hydrology commands, 140, 146 hydrology calculators, 143, 147 methods for calculation, 146 runoff from watershed areas, 145 I importing alignments, 115 LandXML data, 115
matching drawing points, 49 multi-users, 38 setting up, 37 point groups, 50 exporting as LandXML data, 113 importing as LandXML data, 115 new features in Land Desktop, 51 persistent properties, 51 saving to prototype, 51 point labels, 35 point markers, 35 changing settings, 40 points COGO point objects, 36 creating, 41 creating point groups, 50 creation settings, 39 description keys, 53 editing, 48 geodetic transformation, 57 importing, 42 marker settings, 40 point database, 36–37 point filters, 47 point la
file paths, 20 modifying in drawing, 21 point creation, 39 point marker, 40 point text, 41 points, 39 prototypes, 22, 25 saving to a prototype, 220 settings for profiles, changing, 157 setup profiles, 5 Sheet Manager, 202 cross section sheets, 202 definition of terms, 205 frames, 210 label styles, 209 plan and profile sheets, 202 profile sheets, 202 sheet series, 205 plan/profile, 203, 211 section, 213 sheet styles, 206 annotation, 209 frames, 209–210 plan/profile, 206 types, 202 shoulders.
traverse adjustment tools, 234 traverse loops, closing, 234 traverse points, displaying as polygon figure, 237 triangulation from breaklines, 237 turnarounds in cul-de-sacs, 151 tutorial, AutoCAD Land Desktop, 7, 11 U updating points, 50 user preferences, 6 generating reports, 166 horizontal data files, 156 sampling existing ground data, 157 See also roadway profile vertical curves calculating length, 166 creating, 164 lookup table, 164 view definitions, sheets, 203 view frames, sheet styles, 209 volumes
