The results of the comparison are displayed in an automatically created third drawing. Prior to selecting Compare, you can modify the color choices if you wish (Figure 7). It will then create a third drawing with the two overlaid. Once you select DWG Compare, the dialog box will ask you to select which two drawings to compare. You can also access it from the new Collaborate ribbon tab (Figure 6). It’s available in the main Application menu when no drawing is active or under Drawing Utilities when there is a drawing active. You can now quickly review changes to drawing features such as 2D linework, Civil 3D objects (pipes, surfaces, etc), text, and pretty much anything within your drawings. I think this is a fantastic addition to AutoCAD-based products such AutoCAD Civil 3D. PROFILE Tools – There are several great commands for laying out items in plan or profile.POINT NUMBER – Want to draw a line snapping from point to point in sequential order? Just evoke the command and key in the numbers (i.e., 212-272).POINT OBJECT – When drawing breaklines, feature lines or for any reason you want to snap to the node of the point and pick up the elevation, USE THIS! You don’t have to snap on the actual node-just select any part of the point label or point marker and it knows what to do from there.Maybe when Civil 3D introduced the ribbon, people turned off the toolbar? Not sure, but now the transparent commands are located on the ribbon (Figure 5), making them easier to read and simple to use. I don’t see transparent commands used as much as I once did. For example, if you have a streetlight, sign, or fire hydrant block, you can select your view, launch the command, and project the block, along with customized label, into your profile (Figure 4).įigure 4 Transparent Commands (Now in Ribbon) You can also use this for projecting 2D objects. This is especially helpful when needing to see the elevation of a feature line, for example (I use feature lines for dry utilities), or when you want to project a test pit/bore hole info into profile. You can select a profile view, from the Launch Pad panel of the ribbon, select Project Objects to Profile View and pretty much add any object to your profile (Figure 3). This has been around awhile, but don’t forget about this tool. For example, the alignment can be projected, and crossing markers, label styles, and auto or user set elevations assign! You then select the object(s) you wish to project, evoke the command, and you get the dialog box shown in Figure 2. Select your profile view and now on the ribbon, under the Launch Pad panel, you will find the Add Crossings To Profile View command. Crossing alignments are shown as vertical lines in the profile view because they do not have elevations, but you can specify an elevation value for the crossing alignment labels. I’ve been using this often for intersection/crossing alignments. You can set up unique styles for each type of crossing object so you can display and label them differently. When you add crossings to a profile view, you specify which marker and label styles to apply to the crossings. You can use the profile crossing tool to add crossings and labels to profile views for the following types of objects: This takes the Project Objects tool just a step further. You can add crossings to profile views to identify where linear objects cross the profile relative to the parent alignment (Figure 1). Here are some of my favorite little tasks, some new, and some oldies but goodies! Profile Crossing Tool (New in 2019) There are a lot of little things that go unnoticed in AutoCAD® Civil 3D®-probably due to the fact that there are a million icons and commands! Whether they are hidden away within your Toolbox, or several layers deep within the ribbon, there are some really good tools that are often overlooked. Ĭopyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Back April 18th, 2019 Civil 3D Tips & Tricks This is a short excerpt from Mastering AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2016, an Autodesk Official Press book by Cyndy Davenport and Ishka Voiculescu. In many cases, you will want to leave the snapshot in place if you do not want the changes to affect the surface. If you rebuild the snapshot, a new snapshot is created, incorporating all changes to the surface model from the point of its initial creation. If the operations prior to the snapshot become outdated, you will see a yellow status icon next to its node in the Prospector tree. After a snapshot is removed, the surface will behave as if the snapshot was never there. This option will remove the snapshot from the build operation. Once a snapshot is created, the icon next to Definition in the Prospector tree will change to a camera icon. By creating a snapshot, you add a build operation that captures the surface information in the current state. If you right-click a surface’s name in Prospector, you will see three options related to snapshots: