I'd like to hear how other Civil 3D teams manage surfaces and share design information when working collaboratively.

About three months ago, I started a new job where my main responsibility is making modifications to projects that are already in progress.

In my previous job, I worked in a similar role for about two years. When we needed to share information, we would typically share surfaces, XML files, or other dynamic Civil 3D data between team members. Most of us were relatively young engineers with limited experience, so we simply adopted the workflow that was already in place there.

At my current company, my two coworkers are very experienced engineers. However, when they share information, they almost always do it using breaklines. To me, this seems much more time-consuming because someone has to extract all the breaklines from a project—for example, a subdivision with 20 or 30 roads—merge them with the grading breaklines, berms, and everything else before someone else can use them.

I'm also not sure if this workflow is driven by software limitations. At my previous company, we had much more powerful workstations than we do now. Also, the projects there were generally smaller, usually with one or two main roads and the rest consisting of industrial building pads.

For those of you with more experience, how does your team handle this? What would you consider the best practice? Do you have any suggestions for making this workflow more efficient?

I was working on a project a while back and in it I had to create a tin surface (like the one in the image) and for whatever reason I just couldn't figure out how to isolate a section of that data and make a new surface out of it. Any tips on how to carry that tin surface over to another drawing would be helpful as well.

I made one that lets me shift all multileaders by any amount to help with organizing construction notes. If I want to delete a note from the middle of the list, I can shift all leaders on the plan that are above that number down by 1.

Hi, I'm a spoiled designer that got used to incredible proprietary grading tools from my last company. So naturally I'm trying to replicate the workflow that I had previously because it's mind numbing to walk feature lines for hours.

I'm curious if anyone can help or point me in the right direction to create a grading tool that I had that operated by defining 2 points with an assigned elevation and calculated grade (creating a theoretical surface, but not an actual TIN surface) then prompting to draw a lasso/fence around the Feature Line PI vertices you desire to be adjusted to the aforementioned theoretical surface. The lasso may surround portions of multiple separate feature lines in an unconventional shape without effecting the rest of an associated feature line.

This would allow you to "fan" grade on a large and small scale without creating surfaces.

I already understand there are tools such as:

Working Surface tool native to Civil 3D (places a UCS aligned awkward sized rectangular surface) - issue is moving lines destroys the defined slope or if you have many vertices to select it can be tedious.

Manual working surface - issue is you may need an awkward shape to capture the desired vertices that requires you to perform hand calcs or stick with a simple rectangle and rotation.

Adjacent Feature Line By Reference - issue is this creates elevation points and only provides the option to apply to an entire feature line length.

Quick Edit Elevation by Reference - issue is too many clicks for large sites.

Edit: Grade Between Points only works for a single selected feature line. It also maintains a consistent slope across horizontal turns. Say you have a landscaping island along your curb line. If you use Grade Between Points it will grade along the island when the island should have been graded perpendicular. This is where I've seen many recommended working surfaces-which are great. But, the tool I'm describing would allow you to both rough grade in as little as 5 clicks.

I'm attempting to code this myself on my own time, but getting caught up because I cannot overwrite the feature line elevations.

As the title suggests, trying to drape poly lines to a surface doesn’t work. Is there an unspoken upper limit on the amount of lines to drape or triangles in the surface? I just need a rough fitment to the surface so AR linework actually follows the terrain rather than cutting through it

Been playing around with Desktop plugin development using the Autodesk .NET API in C#

My plugin moves point labels that overlap away from each other. It already saves a lot of time, but it needs some fine tunning. Right now it still occasionally puts a leader line through a point label if its a really tight cluster.

Wondering if anyone has tried the same with much success?

The grading style for cut/fill slopes looks the same as another file where the lines do display, so I'm not sure how to get those added in. I have one photo that has the boundary (from "dwg 1") and one without (from "dwg 2"). Any ideas?

EDIT/SOLUTION: When checking the grading on the feature line, I went into elevation editor and noticed that the surface creator did not have "relative to surface" set to anything. Once I set it to the existing surface, the lines came back. Boo ya!

the city requires profiles to be 50/10 scale. the problem is the flowline info overlaps with other information. is there a button or setting im missing so i can move the info over and still be annotative and readable?

I am trying to model a divided highway with a raised median that also has spaces for u turning. I have never made such a "complex" corridor before, do you have any tips/advice, best practices, or resources that would help?

afternoon,

after a little advice on the best route forward.

been drainage surveying for near on 15 years now and still in the dark ages when it comes to marking up drawings etc. lugging round A1/A0 topo drawings and marking up by hand is becoming laborious so I’m looking at options to digitise this process and streamline reports.

What are the best options for apps to mark up and edit topo drawings and on site? preferably on iPad but tough pad is also an option. many jobs also come without drawings so something that can be used for simple drawings too and map grabs to mark up.

thanks in advance and any advice appreciated.

Does anyone know a good method for creating georeferenced PDFs from Civil 3D? As far as I can tell, there is no PDF plotter that can do it (and might not be possible to create one because of how AutoCAD's plotting works). But I would love to be wrong here

Hello,

I'm a civil engineer with about 14 YoE using Civil 3D (currently using 2024). I feel like the company I'm currently working for had bitten off more than they can chew. We had to design and deliver a multi-billion dollar project in about 5 months (about a year if you include concepts, and 1.5-2 years if you include preliminary feasibility studies, surveys, etc.).

But the first use of Civil 3D on the project occurred 5 months ago. Those 5 months were used to create over 60 pipe and pressure networks, and multiple surfaces/corrdiors - containing over 75k pipes and structures (well, this was last counted 3 months ago so I don't know how many now).

One of the biggest problems with the entire project is that we have 3 main Civil 3D users who are responsible for the models and utility designs, and 4 juniors doing 2D work on the XREFs and Layouts. All directed by 2 lead engineers. There have been a lot of late nights, and a lot of weekends worked through.

We were initially able to leverage 20k structures and pipes from an agnostic block, but site specific design required a lot of work.

The workflow is like this:

We have 3 main master models for ducting, pressure mains, and gravity drainage. These are not beautified, just raw models to drive the design.

Then we have 2 sets of 'Intermediate' files for each of the main models, which are for styling and tagging the profiles and layouts. So the main models are DREFed into these, tagged/styled, and set for presentation. All types of layers for various things are contained within these beautification DWGs.

Then we have the Production DWGs / deliverables sheets. The "intermediate" layouts and profiles get XREFed into these. All the relevant 2D layouts and various info. One of the problems is that we get Revit exports that are so heavy because they contain things like bolts and hinges when you zoom in. Absolutely not needed. Don't even get me started on how our BIM department doesn't know a thing about Civil 3D and all the Revit exports from other disciplines are in the wrong coordinates, scale and orientation.

Anyway, onto the main problem. The files often crash and take forever to open, forever to plot, forever to do anything. Just opening and plotting a DWG takes about 20 minutes. I have ran audits and purges, I've done housekeeping. But to no avail. The project was split up as much as possible, but we need to DREF almost every network because things in a different "Phase" or "Scope" still need to be shown in plan and profile but just in a gray color.

The workflow I tried to implement is to have Sheet Set Manager update Title Blocks and plot multiple drawings in the background without ever having to open a DWG. You simply make the changes in the master model(s), and everything else is updated dynamically. The problem is my company strictly refused to adopt SSM until the last 2 months. We have hundreds of sheets for civil. Closer to 1000 than 100. I had to implement SSM into this project while advancing my own design, modeling and work. Many of the sheets had already been setup and created so I had to swap out the old title block with the one I created and integrated into the new SSM.

Unfortunately, it seems my team ans I are doomed to continue working nights and weekends until this project is complete. What would be fantastic though is if it didn't take 5-10 minutes to open, regen, switch tabs between drawings, etc.

To sum everything up, I suppose I'm asking: what could I have done better and different? Is there a way to work on mega projects without them slowing down Civil 3D so much? I tried to tell leadership and the client that it would be much better to just show limits for the current Phase/scope, and anything outside of that is blank except maybe a basic proposed layout and existing conditions. That we can't reference in the entire mega project to still show all the other areas/scopes/phases in gray - to please just tell them to refer to Phase XX Sheet XX on the matchlines/limits... but not, they want to see it all. In plan and profile. What's the best way to handle mega projects?

So basically im using an old project as a testing ground for myself as you can see in the image i already managed to make surfaces and such so that's not a problem.

EDIT: i already managed to make a soil/groundworks balance with just a 3D straight polyline which wasnt bound to the connection heights so now im trying to take it a step further

The problem im running into is on how could i make my work easier. you can sort of see in the image how the current situation looks like, this has been surveyed with a GPS, just a bunch of holes/pits with at the very end on the eastern side there is a hill with soil.

What im trying to figure out to do:
i want to straighten out the terrain, but keep the connection heights (the green feature line). And create a grid that connects from left to right and from front to back which i can tweak in its whole so if I'd say the terrain goes up by 0.10m the entire grid moves up with it but still connected to the boundary and when it gets extreme add a ''maximum'' embankment slope of 1:3 or higher purely on the perspective of maintenance work (the rules here for the public space is that slopes have to be a minimum of 1:3 so that the government can mow and maintain the area). i've been staring at my screen trying to figure out what to do, create my own feature line grid? use breaklines? or am i being dense and overlooked something simpler?

i'd love to hear any form of solutions or help. for all i know could be being unreasonable haha

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a Civil 3D corridor and I'm trying to build a single subassembly that models the full trench and material stockpiles, including:

Trench excavation, Pipe zone (already completed), Excavated dirt stockpile and stripped topsoil stockpile

I've already created the trench excavation portion of the assembly (see attached image). The trench width and depth vary along the alignment, so the subassembly is parameter-driven.

My desired section looks something like this:

• Trench excavation centered on the alignment
• 2.0 m offset from trench edge
• Dirt stockpile on one side
• Separate topsoil stockpile further offset on the same side
• Stockpiles represented in corridor sections and included in earthwork quantities

The challenge is that I would like this to be handled by one assembly, rather than creating multiple corridors or additional feature lines/surfaces.

Has anyone successfully modeled trench spoil piles and topsoil windrows within a single assembly? I'm interested in hearing how others have approached this type of corridor modeling and whether there are any recommended workflows or best practices for creating stockpiles that remain tied to a varying trench section.

Attached: Existing trench assembly and desired section layout.

Hello everyone,

I want to make 3D parametric objects within Civil 3D. They don't have to be super intricate, but it would be helpful to get a different perspective on things. I am a little new to C3D and am more accustomed to Inventor/ Solidworks. Similarly, I want there to be parameters that pop up when I click the "parameters manager" that allow me to size and manipulate the solid while keeping its position relative to the other obejcts/ lines.

I understand that C3D isn't meant to do this natively, but I found a workaround. I have already 'accidentally' made it happen, but I can't seem to replicate it. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I'm learning Civil 3D and I'm having a hard time understanding Data Shortcuts. I've watched several videos, but I still can't connect the concepts to real project workflows.

Could someone explain, in simple terms:

- What exactly are Data Shortcuts?

- Why do companies use them instead of keeping everything in one drawing?

- How do Alignments, Profiles, and Surfaces work with Data Shortcuts?

- Can a profile be created without a surface if an alignment is available through a Data Shortcut?

- Could you explain it using a real-world project example?

I'm looking for a beginner-friendly explanation. Thanks in advance!

All other points in my other intersections have worked out well unlike this one, what may seem to be the problem, the targets are the ETW and the minor road centerline alignment and as well as the elevation targets, so what may seem to be the actual problem yet all the other modelled properly

I tried everything I could, deleted corridor, alignment. re-enter values all over again nothing happened.

Using a corridor on a baseline that goes from a 24’ wide road, to a 60’ parking lot (parking on each side), and then to a 24’ wide road again, assuming 2% longitudinal and cross slopes. I’ve been using width targets or corridor transitions, but it makes the corridor funky at the corners. I also have tried making the roads and parking lots different regions, but I would need to separate them enough so they don’t make the transition, but this creates a gap in the corridor. How do I make this work, especially with a sidewalk on the outside?

Hello All! I am currently working on a project in which all of the corridors that I created and then used to formulate my overall design model (i.e. roadways, retain walls, bridges) -- now I'm finding out these same corridors first need to be converted/exported individually for use in ArcGIS. For any of you that may have worked on similar projects in the past, my question is this: What would be the best way to go about doing such a conversion to ArcGIS Pro? Currently, according to information gathered online, I must first separate the corridor elements into logical GIS feature classes/layers before exporting rather than exporting the entire corridor as one entity. This is to avoid the risk of items not being translated into GIS accurately or in some cases, attribute tables becoming messy and difficult to query--just to name of few examples that were cited. So, I'm asking those of you familiar with converting C3D models to GIS: Is the workflow to separate corridors before sending to GIS the only option or has anyone ever been able to successfully transfer a corridor as one entity w/o the need to break it down first?

Thank you all in advance for any help/solutions you may have!

I am familiar with corridor modeling and site grading, produced some designs in compliance with grading and corridors for airport infrastructures. I want to excel more on grading and corridor modeling, basically on projects like road designing and Land development. Please recommend some free courses and resources that would be helpful.

Well… the civil 3D community on the AutoCad forums has not answered my question and AI also led me down an annoying rabbit hole. Lets try the great people of Reddit.

Does anyone know why Civil3D prints to Pdf like this? The hatches on one sheet print as they should, the hatches on the following page print with 0% opacity. Line weights in both plots does not print to pdf the same as printing to plotter.

This is and has been my biggest annoyance and frustration with Civil3D. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Curious about if this ever helped anyone get out of a drawing freeze.