The Dirt

3DConfig Setting For Civil 3D

I am in Dallas at Autodesk Tech Camp.  I just spent 10 minutes with the guys from Nvidia video cards at their booth.  My Dell Precision M90 laptop has one of their cards in it so I wanted to know if they knew any tricks for speeding up video performance, etc.

What I learned I have to share . . .

1. At the command line in Civil 3D type 3DCONFIG.
2. Toggle off ADAPTIVE DEGRADATION
3. Select the Manual Tune button
4. Toggle on HARDWARE ACCELERATION
5. Pick OK twice to exit the 3DCONFIG command

Now enjoy the difference.  It made such a big difference on my laptop I had to run up here to room to make this post.  Thank you Willy Ortiz with PNY.  3D Orbit and the Object Viewer are once again a pleasure to use!

Forgive me if this is old news and I'm the last to know - that has happened before.

Filtering Large Point Files

Here's a Civil 3D tip from Sean Twomey's blog, forwarded to me by Aaron Gathright with CVIS.  It illustrates a complicated (although innovative) way to filter large point files down to reasonable size for DTM creation, etc.

Pretty cool trick!

The First vClass

Some friends of mine are offering web-based, Civil 3D training in two weeks.  It's free and I don't have to leave my desk, so I'll be tuning in!  Here are the details:

Title: AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 Surfaces - vClass

Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Time: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM EST

System Requirements:

For PC-based attendees:

• Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

For Macintosh®-based attendees:

• Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/153142973

Adding Civil 3D Extensions to a Pulldown Menu

Jerry Bartels, Autodesk AE, has provided us with a useful tip for adding the Civil 3D extensions to a pulldown menu.

Jerry also shares with us a tool for creating several tool palettes to access much of the MVBLOCK content that ships with Civil 3D.

The CUI and the tool palettes may be found in the following ZIP file. The following AVI shows how to configure both the extension menu and the tool palettes.

Download civil_3d_stuff.zip

Download civil_3d_stuff.avi

Note:  Use of the menu assumes the extensions have been previously installed in the default locations.

Thanks Jerry!

Copying a Surface with Civil 3D

I still get asked a lot how to copy a surface with Civil 3D. This is a really important step to become familiar with prior to pasting surfaces together. So here's how:

1. To copy a surface (DTM) in Civil 3D, select the surface and then right-click. 
2. In the pop-up menu select BASIC MODIFY TOOLS, then select COPY.
3. When prompted to enter the base point, enter 0, 0 at the command line, and press ENTER.
4. When prompted to enter the second point, press ENTER
5. Notice the new surface in Prospector.
6. Right-click on the new surface and select SURFACE PROPERTIES.
7. Type in a new appropriate name for the new surface.

Handout for Autodesk University 2007 Class

For those of you who just attended my class "Integrating Laser Scanning Data with AutoCAD Civil 3D the PDF", the handout is available below:

Download CV210-3.pdf 

If you did not take this class and are interested in how high definition laser scanning data (a.k.a point clouds) can be used in Civil 3D, I urge you to review this document.

The document assumes that you have the following software:

• AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 w/ Service Pack 2 and Survey Link
• Leica Cyclone / Cloudworx

Laser Scanning to me represents the next generation in land surveying. I firmly believe that we are past the point of, "Wow, this is pretty cool technology." Laser scanning is inevitable. The times remind me of the early nineties when GPS was just beginning to go mainstream.

Parcels man, parcels!

Here is a great tip from Jerry Bartels that I put to good use recently while working on a 200-lot subdivision. I hate to think how long it would have taken me to renumber the lots had I not come across this new feature in Civil 3D 2008. Jerry, I owe you!

To see how it's done, download this demonstration. (WMV format)

Got a cool tip?  Then send it to me!  If I post it to The Dirt, I'll send you something cool.

WinPointer, courtesy of Lucy Kuhns

Many of you know my good friend and fellow Autodesker, Lucy Kuhns. Lucy is indeed the high priestess of all things Civil here at Autodesk. If you have seen Lucy present, you may be wondering about the utility she uses to highlight items in Civil 3D.

It's called WinPointer and it's almost free. Download WinPointer. 

Thanks Lucy!

Got a cool tip?  Then send it to me!  If I post it to The Dirt, I'll send you something cool.

Uploading Description Keys and Figure Prefixes to Trimble Data Collectors

If you use Trimble data collectors, try this method of uploading your description keys and figure prefixes directly to your data collectors. This is a great way to get surveyors to follow field coding standards.

To view a demonstration, download DesckKeyUploadtoTL.wmv.

Draping an Image over a Terrain Model

Here is one of the coolest new features in Civil 3D 2008.  I use Google Earth to bring in an image, then I drape it over the terrain model with Civil 3D. 

To see a demonstration, download ImageDrape.wmv.