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
UPDATE: New Corridor Transitions in Civil 3D 2023 and beyond have somewhat solved this problem.. Although with some bugs..
You can’t really transition in a way that is simple, like 12d, LDT, MX etc.
You can change the slope easily, but not transition easily! I.E Cubic, Linear transition etc.
A few methods you can use include the following.
Use the Superelevation editor??
Click on the subassembly that you want to transition (The Daylight) and select a super elevation mode say “Left Outside Lane”.
Then select your corridor and add a superelevation view
Then go through the cumbersome tabular editor to populatd the grades on the graph.Should look like so.
The finished results looks a little like so, which is somewhat alright, but still not nice, as the transition is linear. And we get jagged edges on the contours.
Use the Override Stations Method.
Select the corridor and go to the section editor
Select the Parameters Editor and modify the grade.
Then apply to the station range I want.
Still only gets me halfway there, as there is no transition options!!, the only way to force the transition from here is to change the sampling on the corridor reducing the quality of the transition anyway!
Do It manually by working out the location on the surface you need to widen to. But that is just not realistic!
Use a fixed link and link the grade in the fixed link to the daylight link. Also horribly cumbersome, but gets the best result.
Draw a Profile that represent grade so (elevation of 0.4 = 40% etc.)
Add a link with elevation target to your assembly like vertical elevation. Make sure it is added before your daylight link or this wont work
Next Select your Assembly go to its properties and select the construction tab, you need to link your daylights slope to your fake links elevation
Finally target the elevation profile with your new elevation link and watch the magic happen.
Looks the best, and it is dynamic, but extremely infuriating to setup.
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.”
UPDATE 2: My new tool completely obsoletes this process.. Stage storage basin tool is available in my free tools package here. But read on if you want to be a dinosaur.. https://ceethreedee.com/ceethreedee-tools
UPDATE: Feeling Lazy. Watch the Video.
This deals with basic “basin” stage storage calculations. For more complex stockpiles etc. Read this post here
UPDATE: instead of using COT.lsp. Try the free “Table Exporter” App from the autodesk exchange from here. Only works in 2015 unfortunately 🙁
It will dump what ever table you select straight to excel though..
I see a lot of people still using this outdated tool in Civil 3D for calculating stage storage! For those who calculate stage storages read below!
Please stop using it! Although it is possible to get a relatively accurate result from it. There are a number of problems that I will merely bullet point below.
Can only have one contour at each level to get stage storage curve. (although you can sum them together in excel)
If contours are not closed this can create errors in the calculation.
Multiple islands and “flat areas” (i.e benching) can be easily miscalculated. Who has benching in their designs! :p
Higher Intervals reduces accuracy!
Not to mention it is cumbersome!
Civil 3D has always had the ability to do accurate stage storages, I will demonstrate below. (*with the assistance of a lisp!)
1. Create a Volume Surface comparing Water Level or Final Tailings level etc. and your completed design. (Yes you can calculate tailings stages as well!)
2. Drop down elevations in the analysis tab at the intervals you wish to calculate your volumes at. (use Range Interval with Datum)
3. Create a surface legend table that includes “Surface Range volume” and Surface Range 2d area)
4. Copy table to left or right and explode twice, then use the attached lisp routine to convert to an autocad table.
5. Export Table to CSV as shown above and then open in excel. You will need to sum the areas and volumes from the bottom up to get the correct results.
Finished Result, sum up the volumes from the lowest elevation, (so the bottom up). or reverse the order and sum them from the top down..
Elevation (m)
Plan Area (m²)
Cum. Area (m²)
Volume (m³)
Cum. Volume (m³)
102
5,872
143,202
280,514
1,432,735
100
5,751
137,330
268,936
1,152,221
98
5,969
131,578
257,244
883,285
96
13,903
125,609
240,933
626,041
94
26,862
111,706
200,242
385,108
92
42,463
84,845
126,689
184,866
90
31,232
42,382
51,424
58,177
88
11,149
11,150
6,752
6,753
86
1
1
1
1
You will notice that unlike the old stage storage tool that can vary in accuracy especially with larger intervals. This method is exactly right down to the triangle.
Comment below if you want to know more
Civil 3D news/tips/tricks from someone like you and also some Unity Game Development stuff
