Datasheet

26 CHAPTER 1 GETTING DIRTY: THE BASICS OF CIVIL 3D
The Underlying Engine
Civil 3D is part of a larger product family from Autodesk. During its earliest creation, various
features and functions from other products were recognized as important to the civil engineer-
ing community. These included the obvious things such as the entire suite of AutoCAD drafting,
design, modeling, and rendering tools as well as more esoteric options such as Map’s GIS capabil-
ities. An early decision was made to build Civil 3D on top of the AutoCAD Map product, which
in turn is built on top of AutoCAD.
This underlying engine provides a host of options and powerful tools for the Civil 3D user.
AutoCAD and Map add features with every release that change the fundamental makeup of how
Civil 3D works. With the introduction of workspaces in 2006, users can now set up Civil 3D to
display various tools and palettes depending on the task at hand. Creating a workspace is like
having a quick-fix bag of tools ready for the job at hand: preliminary design calls for one set of
tools, and final plan production calls for another.
Workspaces are part of a larger feature set called the custom user interface (referred to as CUI in
the help documentation and online). As you grow familiar with Civil 3D and the various tool
palettes, menus, and toolbars, be sure to explore the CUI options that are available from the
Workspace toolbar.
The Bottom Line
Find any Civil 3D object with just a few clicks. By using Prospector to view object data
collections, you can minimize the panning and zooming that are part of working in a CAD
program. When common subdivisions can have hundreds of parcels or a complex corridor
can have dozens of alignments, jumping to the desired one nearly instantly shaves time off
everyday tasks.
Master It Open Sample Site.dwg from the tutorials, and find parcel number five without
using any AutoCAD commands.
Modify the drawing scale and default object layers. Civil 3D understands that the end goal
of most drawings is to create hard-copy construction documents. By setting a drawing scale
and then setting many sizes in terms of plotted inches or millimeters, Civil 3D removes much
of the mental gymnastics that other programs require when you’re sizing text and symbols. By
setting object layers at a drawing scale, Civil 3D makes uniformity of drawing files easier than
ever to accomplish.
Master It Change Sample Site.dwg from a 200-scale drawing to a 40-scale drawing.
Modify the display of Civil 3D tooltips. The interactive display of object tooltips makes it
easy to keep your focus on the drawing instead of an inquiry or report tools. When too many
objects fill up a drawing, it can be information overload, so Civil 3D gives you granular control
over the heads-up display tooltips.
Master It Within the same Sample Site drawing, turn off the tooltips for the Avery Drive
alignment.
Add a new tool to the Toolbox. The Toolbox provides a convenient way to access macros
and reports. Many third-party developers exploit this convenient interface as an easier way to
add functionality without disturbing users’ workspaces.
Master It Add the Sample Pipe macro from C:\Program Files\Autocad Civil 3D
2010\Sample\Civil 3D API\COM\Vba\Pipe, and select PipeSample.dvb.