Sunday, March 13, 2011

Using Civil 3D Expressions with Profile Design Check Parameters

While our last post looked at using an Expression to control the labels of our pipe lengths which is typically used at the final drawing production stage, this post deals with using Expressions to help at the preliminary design stage.

Here is the scenario...

The client is working on a 15 kilometre road reconstruction project that has a lot of vertical grade difference and needs to identify areas of the existing road that has a vertical grade of 6% or greater that may be considered for improvements based on the jurisdictions requirements.

How do we quickly identify these areas on a Civil3D profile?

By using the Expressions dialogue box and the Profile Design Check Set functions !

Here's how we do it.

Once you have your Civil3D Surface Profile and Profile View created select the profile and right click>Profile Properties.

Click on the Design Criteria tab and check the Use design criteria file check box







Click on the Create New in the Use Design Check Set section











Set the Type to Line and select then the Create New button from the pull down

Enter a name for the Design Check

Using the Insert Properties and Functions buttons add the following in the Expressions section and click OK








We should have the slope percent in degrees so lets enter into our Expression the equivalent of 6% in degrees which is 3.43363.


Click the ADD button to add it to the set




Click Apply and OK twice.

Select the Profile, right click and select the Edit Profile Geometry command and from the Profile Grid View button the violations will be displayed.
























This Expression will check the profile and flag as a violation any grade greater than 6% or greater than -6%.







Don’t forget, even though we used Expressions this is still a Design Check so the function will be located under the Design Check Sets of the Profile Settings.





Stay tuned for more fun with Expressions!!

dh

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Civil 3D Label Styles-Using Expressions

For every project we use either the out of the box styles or create new styles to meet the specific requirements of the company we work for or the project we are working on

Once they are included in our template we have everything covered, right?

But what if you need to display a property of an object that isn’t available under the Label Style Composer? Or maybe we want to display the label in a different way based on a certain value of the object?

Over the next few posts we are going to dig into the use and application of Label Expressions that can be applied in a variety of simple and complex labeling situations.

First, let’s take a quick look at the fundamentals of the Expressions.

Expressions are located under the Settings tab of the Toolspace, under the Label Styles folder.







The New Component dialogue box consists of a number of components that are used to create the Expression

1. In the Name field enter a relevant, identifiable name for your Expression

2. The Expression field will contain all the formulas and properties as the Expression is developed.

3. Buttons that may be used to aid in the development of the Expression (you can enter by the keyboard if you prefer)

4. The available object properties that may be inserted in the Expression field.

5. Functions that may be used in the development of the Expression

6. Chose how the results of the Expression are to be formatted. Usually always Double. (Unitless)



As an example let’s create an Expression that will truncate a pipe length label to the nearest 0.50 metre.

We get this request at times because not everyone wants the accuracy of a pipe length shown to the tenth of a metre.

To create the Expression right click on the “Expressions” and select New







As an example let’s create an Expression that will truncate the pipe length label to the nearest 0.50 metre.

1. In the dialogue box enter a name and description for the Expression that reflects the resultant label style.

2. Pick the Formula button to expand the Expression Functions, in our case select the ROUND function








This inserts the ROUND function to the Expression window.


Next we need to add the Object Property by picking the Object the Properties button and picking the appropriate Property.


In our case we will select 2D Length-Center to Center which is automatically inserted into the Expression window.







Now we just need to add a little more math to complete the Expression and then click OK.






The new Expression will be displayed in the Previewwindow of the Toolspace>Settings tab under the Pipe Label Styles and is now available to be applied to a pipe label







To add the Expression to the Label Style create a New pipe Label by copying and editing an existing style.







Copy the default Length Description and Slope label style and rename it Rounded Length and Slope







Select the Layout tab and in the Text section on the Contents row pick the corresponding cell in the Value column and pick the Ellipse button to access the Text Component Editor







In the preview window of the Component editor highlight the “2D Length…” string and press delete to remove it from the label




In the Properties section pick the down arrow and locate the “Pipe Length to Nearest 0.5m” Expression that was created, set the Precision to 0.1 and click the UPDATE arrow to update the label in the preview window

Click OK twice to closer the Component Editor and Label Composer.




Apply the new pipe label to the pipe object and the center to center length with be rounded to the nearest 0.50m

Pipe Label



Actual Pipe Properties







Now that we have the basics down our next post will address a few more complicated Expressions and their applications.

cheers

dh

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Civil 3D Object Tooltips

If you’ve been using Civil 3D for a while, you’re probably loving the object tooltips! The reason for this blog post is the few support calls we’ve received recently.

The typical technical call is along the lines of “Some of our project Surfaces / objects are not displaying the Tooltips? – help!!!”

Before I get into solving the problem, let’s explore a bit more on tooltips.

The following are from Civil 3D help documents:

There are 2 types of tooltips for C3D objects: proximity and rollover

Rollover

A rollover tooltip displays information about an object when you hover the cursor directly over it. If the object highlighting setting is on, the object will be highlighted when this tooltip is displayed.

Proximity

A proximity tooltip displays information about the current location of the cursor with respect to one or more objects in the drawing. More specifically, it displays information about the proximity of the cursor to the objects. These tooltips are displayed without having to hover the cursor over any specific entity in the drawing.

The most important object information is displayed at the beginning of the tooltip. For alignments and surfaces, the tooltip displays the station/offset information for the closest alignment to the cursor and the elevation of the topmost surface.

If you keep your cursor in the same location, additional information is displayed in an expanded tooltip that shows up to four more items. Which items are displayed depends upon the objects in the drawing and whether tooltips are enabled for that object. If there are five alignments and five surfaces in the drawing, for example, the proximity tooltip will display three alignments and three surfaces. Alignments are shown in order of proximity to the cursor. Surfaces are shown in order from highest elevation, to lowest elevation.

Ok, that’s enough “help”; let me get back to the technical support question.

On the Toolspace Settings tab, right-click Surface --> Edit Feature Settings


Notice the “New Entity Tooltip State”

On: Sets the default state of tooltips for new objects to be turned on.

Off: Sets the default state of tooltips for new objects to be turned off.

Click OK and voila the tooltips are back on all surfaces.

Well, the C3D world changes to a certain extent every release, mostly for the better, but sometimes the changes are painful :)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011













The First Ground Breakers Meeting of 2011

Wednesday, January 19, 2011
7:00pm - 9:30pm


Brix Napa Valley Grille & Wine Bar
230 Commerce Valley Drive, East #1
Thornhill/Richmond Hill L3T 7Y3

Meeting Topics

  • Introduction to the Meeting: Brian McCorriston, CAD MicroSolutions
  • BIM for Civil Engineering: Derek Gauer, IBI Group
  • Autodesk Subassembly Composer: Prem Joseph, CAD MicroSolutions
  • User Group Executive Committe Selection
  • Topics of Interest for the Next User Group Meeting
  • Networking Opportunities

REGISTER NOW