Category Archives: Drawing Management

Drawing Management

Stream Bing Maps/Aerial/Street straight into your drawing…

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So many people have never seen this ribbon before in Autocad Civil 3D 2014.

Probably due to the fact that it is not loaded due to a bug in Civil 3D 2014.

It’s really annoying because we are all often asked to display aerial photos into our drawings and it should be as easy as two or so clicks.

EDIT.. by the way, this doesnt plot in 2014, it will plot in 2015 though! You can use the free method explained here to get around this

So if you can’t see this ribbon, here is how to bring it in..

1. Copy the attached CUIX into c:\Autocad\CUI
Download Geolocation.cuix here

2. Type CUILOAD and select the CUIX located at c:\Autocad\CUI\geolocation.cuix

3. Now just assign a coordinate system to your drawing (use MAPCSASSIGN or the drawing settings tab in propsepector)

4. Select what type of background you want (you will need to create an Autodesk Account if you don’t already have one)

5. Then Pow – Bing Imagery straight into your drawing!

Regards

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Drawing Management

Using Sheet Views Creatively – Managing Material Lists in Autocad

If you not using any dynamic referencing for your materials. or having problems managing repeating items in your drawings. Read on

See the screen shot below of my sheet views list from one of the jobs I am working on.

Whenever you have a bunch of materials been called out. Unit 1,2 etc… I have been using sheetviews to link them back to my drawings. Saves a whole bunch of time when it comes to fixing it all up later!

All I do is create an empty layout view under the category “materials”.

I also posted a screen shot to show you how much of the drawing can be controlled from this magical little list.

All you need is a Sheet Set… and comment below if you want to know more

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Drawing Management, Modelling

Importing 12DA files doesnt work?… Try This

UPDATE: *.12daz files are just zip files. Rename it to <YOURFILE>.zip and extract the *.12da file within

If anyone has been trying to use the 12DA import extension for Civil 3D and it isn’t working. Read on!

I have been having problems importing latest 12DA files. It doesn’t import anything for some reason.

A simple change to the 12DA files encoding fixes the error. Get NOTEPAD ++ Download Here

Old 12DA files encoded with “UTF-8 without BOM” will work. However new ones encoded with “UCS-2 Little Endian” won’t convert them and save as shown below. All working again!

Extra Bonus (courtesy lem_1020)

“Saved this way it actually allows you to open new version 12da projects in old 12d model versions also.”

Kapanther

Original Post Here

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D-General/A-note-for-People-Importing-12DA-files/td-p/4470095

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Drawing Management

The Fat True Type Text Issue! How to get rid of it forever!

If you use True Type text then you have probably seen this issue below

Sometimes a simple Z elevation fix will remove the dreaded fat text. Although ever so occasionally this will not suffice.

If you have fixed the z elevation and it still isn’t working it is usually due to the view center been out. To check, enter your viewport and type “VIEW”

If its wrong then it will probably look like so, (camera X and Camera Y display large values that should be 0)

To fix in the current drawing is quite simple

1. Select the little plus button in the top left corner of your viewport and select “Steering Wheels”

2. Right click and select “Restore Original Center”

3. It will zoom out your viewport, but zoom in and look at that fine dainty text!

4. While your at it, type “VIEW” again whilst in the viewport

Camera X and Y are 0 and we only get Camera Z. Which is how high the eye altitude is

Saying all this we can avoid all this hassle by making a simple change to our templates!

When a viewport is created it will take the settings from the last viewport that was created in that drawing. So if we add a viewport to all our templates in layout space with the fix already applied as shown above. All the viewports we create from here on out won’t have this problem!

To check

1. Open your Blank Template and create a viewport and check camera X Y Z etc.

2. AHHHHHH!!

3. Apply the fix to first viewport.

4. Create another viewport and check camera

Viewport is perfect!!

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Drawing Management

Creating and Managing Legends in Autocad – A Great Simple Solution

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UPDATE: Although I still recommend creating legends in model space of xref’s, this process really needs to be reviewed. As creating excess view ports in PSPACE can slow a drawing down significantly. Update should come soon.

We all create legends and keys regularly throughout our drawings. However creating them and managing them as we work proves difficult and cumbersome. I have a simple method I have been using for years that I notice regularly is not in use.

The secret is quite simple.

Place your legends in each xref! 


Then simply viewport onto each in each layout as required.

If you are like many other civil drafters and create many xrefs to separate different data types, then you will find this tip exceptionally straight forward and obvious. Hell, you may already do it!

If you don’t work with xrefs in this manner then I suggest its time to change, however you can still employ the same technique.

I’ll explain some of the intricacies below.

What do you expect from legends?

I want my legends to:-

  • Be dynamic and update as I change each viewports layer settings in layout space.
  • Be dynamic as I make changes to layers in the xref
  • Get scaling correct on hatches and linetypes.
  • Be able to update legends on multiple drawings at once.
  • Be able to leave some items off legends or mismatch items.

All of this is possible using this technique.

How it all works

Inside the xref you only create each component and its label for the xref in model space off to the side (I typically go right side). Like below.

Step 1 – Add each component to a dummy legend in your xref

Ensure you create the legend at the scale you intend to viewport onto it with. ( i always create legends at 1:1000)

Ensure that all the objects you have on your legend are on the same layer and are the same linetype scale as your data in the xref. If you have annotative objects like hatches make sure you have added the legend scale you intend to use.

Step 2 – Allow space and stack straight

If you have more xrefs that have data that needs to be on the legend. Make sure you don’t put it in the same place as your other xrefs. I xref in other drawings that have legends already and continue to make a big panel that runs up and down in model space. This makes it easier in each layout to construct my legend with viewports.

Then last of all xref in the data, if you haven’t already, and place a viewport at the scale you chose on your legend. If you want multiple items just create more viewports! Ensure you place the viewport with space to expand down and across. The legend below has legends from 3 (three) different xref’s. With the exception of the existing boreholes I have allowed room for the testing and geophysics items to move up and down accordingly.

Step 3 – Place viewports onto each xref’s legend component.
ensure you allow space to move.

If you change the colour on a layer in that particular drawing, the legend updates accordingly. If you have this same legend on multiple drawings and make a change in the xref, obviously it updates on all drawings. If you add a few items or so, they are all updated on each drawing and you do not need to go into the drawing.

A completely simple time saving technique that makes legends in Autocad extremely easy to create and manage. Give it a try some time!

 

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