Datasheet

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CHAPTER 1 GETTING DIRTY: THE BASICS OF CIVIL 3D
There are a couple of ways to approach this tab:
◆
Top to bottom—Expand one branch, handle the settings in that branch, then close it and
move to the next.
◆
Print and conquer—Expand all the branches using the Expand All Categories button found on
the lower right . Once you have them expanded, right-click in the middle, and select Copy To
Clipboard and paste to Excel for review, like we did with the Object Layers tab.
After deciding how to approach these settings, get to work. These settings are either dropdown
menus or text boxes in the case of numeric entries. Many of these are self-explanatory and common
to land development design. The General branch of the Ambient Settings tab is new to Civil 3D, so
let’s look at its settings in more detail (see Figure 1.7).
Figure 1.7
The Ambient Settings
tab with the General
branch expanded
Plotted Unit Display Type Remember, Civil 3D knows you want to plot at the end of the day.
In this case, it’s asking you how you would like your plotted units measured. For example,
would you like that bit of text to be 0.25˝ tall or
1
/
4
˝ high? Most engineers are comfortable with
the Leroy method of text heights (L80, L100, L140, and so on), so the decimal option is the
default.
Save Command Changes To Settings This setting is incredibly powerful but a secret to
almost everyone. By setting this to YES, your changes to commands will be remembered from
use to use. This means that if you make changes to a command during use, the next time you call
Sharing the Workload
The second approach makes it easy to distribute multiple copies to surveyors, land planners, engineers,
and so on and let them fill in the changes. Then, creating a template for each group is a matter of making
their changes. If you’re asking end users who aren’t familiar with the product to make these changes, it’s
easy to miss one. Going line by line is pretty well foolproof.
67403.book Page 10 Friday, August 31, 2007 2:12 PM