Share coordinate systems between AutoCAD Civil 3D and Revit

Autodesk Labs has come up with a BIM  tool for assisting in the sharing of data between Civil and Architectural world.

 The tool specifies one common XYZ point and its orientation in the XY plane between the two coordinate systems. This reference point defines the relationship between the building and site grid.

After downloading the installer, you will see that Shared Coordinate component has been added to the toolbox.

Upon executing the utility, you will be asked to select the origin point of the building or structure.

You will also be asked to select a second point on the same structure.  This second point allows for the rotation.

You will be given the option of determining the drawing units.

Finally, you will save the coordinate system file that you can send to your counterpart on the Revit side.  This will allow you both to keep your data in the proper location at all times.

May the "Force"main be with You

One of the major new features in Civil 3D 2013 is the addition of pressure pipe.  The tools provided now give some new methods for laying out pressure pipe such as water main.

As you can see above, pressure networks have their own place to reside on toolspace.  

There are also pressure network part list similar to the one seen above.  In these parts list, there will be pipes with appropriate sizes and materials similar to what we would be expected from previous sanitary and storm parts lists.  These new parts lists will also include fittings such as tees, elbows, and crosses.  Under appurtenances, such items as gate valves will be available.  Upon creating a pressure network, you see the following options available on the ribbon.

After choosing the appropriate size, material, and depth, you can proceed to start laying out pipe.  

Notice the yellow circle and ticks as pipe creation is taking place.  The tick marks represent various angles for predefined elbows that are available to use. 

As you can see, there is no a parametric part that represent the fitting.  It is worth noting, the arrow grips allow us to flip the fitting, the diamond grip allows us to pull the pipe, and the rectangular grip allows us to change the location of said fitting.

Besides creating and editing pipes in plan view, the preview above shows how we can edit in profile view as well.  The following shows the curve pipe option.

The follow surface option is displayed below. 

As you can see from the information I have included, Autodesk has provided another great tool within the Civil 3D arsenal for designing pressure pipe.  

Volume Dashboard Extension for 2012

A few months ago, Autodesk released the Volume Dashboard Extension for subscription customers.  The volume dashboard is a more compact way of tracking multiple volume surfaces, bounded volumes, and finally generating reports within or outside of the drawing.

You should now see the dashboard under the extension manager.

After you right click and select execute, the new volume dashboard should appear.

The new dashboard allows you to keep track of all the volume surfaces created.  The boundary option is similar to the bounded volume tool that currently exists in the software.  As seen in the capture below, the dashboard boundary allows for tracking bounded areas within a given volume surface.

Finally, the dashboard allows for creating a volume report, or inserting a table into Civil 3D respectively.

Users will be now be able to calculate, report and visualize surface volumes very quickly and all in one location.

Added Data Band Labels Along Vertical Curves at Incremental Distances

Over the last two weeks, I have had two separate clients ask if there was a way to add additional labels in the profile data band where a vertical curve is present.  Also, besides adding labels, they would also like them at a given increment such as 25 feet.

After giving this question some thought, I arrived at two possible solutions.  The first solution is to create an additional data band below the profile view at the appropriate increment.

The new data band will be similar to the other with the exception of the dragged state being set to as composed.  Also, you will need to add a line component to the data band so as to mimic the line that currently separates the existing and proposed elevation.

As you can see from the screen capture above,  the new data band allows for dragging the label. 

Finally, we can drag the labels that we need from the extra data band from below into the data band in the profile view.  The second solution is to create a profile view label that extracts both the existing and proposed elevation at a given station value.

As seen in the screen capture above, the profile view label is meant to mimic the data band labels.  It is important to note that the profile view label seen above is created from two reference text labels and a line component.  The reason for the reference text is to hold the existing and proposed elevation at a given station despite dragging it up or down in the profile view.  A normal profile view label will change elevation as it is moved about the view.

Project Silverstar

Autodesk Labs has come up with a preview technology called Project Silverstar.  Silverstar uses optimization techniques to design a layout or finished ground  profile with respect to earthwork costs.

Upon downloading the application, it will be added to the toolbox under Technology previews.

Upon executing profile optimization, you will be asked to log into your individual Autodesk account.  The reason for the log in is to email you the solution that is being derived by the application.

After logging in, you will then be prompted to select the appropriate alignment that you would like a profile designed for.  Notice in the upper right the email address, this is why the log in information is requested from the previous screen capture.

You will also be given access to a cost table to assign appropriate costs associated with earthwork.

Once you select the appropriate alignment and corresponding surface, you will proceed to the borrow/waste option.  This is where we can define station to include a borrow or dump location similar to that of a Mass Haul diagram. 

The next screen allows the user to define minimum and maximum grades that will be permitted, along with allowable tangent lengths.

Finally, the optimization table allows the user to control the intensity of PVI's, along with solution precision and time.  It should be noted that the more profile options selected and other precisions chosen will determine the time frame to process the profile and email an optimization profile.

After finishing the wizard, you will then be sent an email containing the following information.

The pdf report will contain the optimization determined by Silverstar from the information provided as seen below.

Finally, the text and xml provided can be used in Civil 3D to generate the profile created in the optimization report.

Corridor Solids

Autodesk Labs has come out with an extension for creating corridor solids from Civil 3D subassemblies.  The extension allows for creating solids that can be used for better visual renderings, class detection, and coordination between various team members using various Autodesk applications.

After downloading the extension, you will see that it has been added to the Toolbox residing on Toolspace.

Upon executing the command, you will get the following pop up box.

The options in the box are simple to follow. We simply need to select the corridor we wish to generate solids for.  We can also assign layers to our subassembly shapes.

The final box allows us to generate the solids in our current drawing or in a new one.

Here is the output generate by the extension in plan view.

Finally in plan view.  Now it is available for a variety of uses.

Caice Extension for Civil 3D 2012

For those of you who use Caice or have data in a Caice format, Autodesk has created an extension for bringing Caice data into AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012.  The following is from the support - utilities and drivers section of Civil 3D on the  Autodesk website  As always, be sure to download the proper version for your operating system.

Upon installing the extension, you will get some additional Caice tools added on the Toolbox tab of Prospector as seen below.