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Civil 3D Fundamentals 2021: Course changes

The Civil 3D Fundamentals course is a four-day course covering all aspects of Civil 3D at a basic level. In addition to this course, there are also two specialized courses dealing with Civil 3D on a fundamental level:

• Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Land Developers (Grading)
• Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Surveyors

These three courses all cover the basics and there is quite a lot of overlap among the three courses.

Over the past two releases of this course, a lot of changes have been introduced, primarily in the order of chapters within the book and the folder structure of the dataset. Prior to teaching the 2021 course, it is recommended the instructors study the course to familiarize themselves with the location of various files and the new flow of the course.

The outline of the Civil 3D Fundamentals courses (Metric and Imperial) for 2021 has been adjusted to reflect a more realistic workflow.  The folder structure has changed to mimic a professional Civil project, either on a local area network of housed in a BIM 360 hub. 

Folder Structure:

Prior to the 2020 version, all files were stored in the Civil3D-Training folder within the Civil 3D Projects folder. 

For the 2020 release, various configuration files for assembly sets, various templates survey databases were moved out of the Civil 3D-Training folder.

For the 2021 release, the Civil 3D-Training folder was renamed to "Working" to mimic a typical BIM 360 project, as well as typical project found on local area networks within an office environment. Other data-management practices have been established with the introduction to a "Reference" folder for GIS data, point clouds, images and data-shortcuts. A "Plans" folder has also been introduced where the finalized plans reside, as well as the location for the Sheet Sets. A "Documents" folder is also present, although not used in the course.

Course Outline:

Whereas the folder structure had already gone through changes in the 2020 release, the course had remained the same as it had for prior releases. For 2021, this has changed. The course now emulates a more realistic workflow:

• Introduction to Civil 3D
• Establishing existing conditions
  • Survey
  • Surfaces
• Preparing a project for multiple team members
  •    Project Management (incl. templates and style management)
• Design development
  • Alignments
  • Profiles
  • Corridors
  • Grading
  • Pipe Networks (enhanced Pressure Pipes)
• Finalizing the design
  • Sheet Production, Sheet Set Manager (incl. sections)
  • Quantity Takeoffs
  • Visualization (new to 2021)

The introduction chapter is shortened and less technical. The topics of templates and style management formerly in this chapter have been moved to the Project Management chapter (formerly Chapter 2, now Chapter 4).

The point cloud section and the 3D solids extraction formerly in the surface chapter have been moved to the appendix. With regard to the point cloud, the Quary Park.rcs file is now a separate download for the dataset.

The corridor chapter now includes sample lines and material quantities (formerly in the QTO\Sections chapter), along with an exercise on using the Corridor Section Editor.

The Plan Production Chapter now includes section generation and using the Plan Production Section tool to include sections in the project Sheet Set.

The course finishes with a bit of fun. The final chapter covers the QTO topics and then gets into the Civil 3D multiview blocks and visualization.

Conclusion

The intent on this rather drastic reorganization is to get the folder structure to fall in line with professional practices and typical folder organization within BIM 360 projects, as well as have the course flow with a typical workflow of Civil projects. It is anticipated that this outline and structure will remain in place for the subsequent future releases of this course.

With regard to the other two fundamental level courses (Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Land Developers and Civil 3D 2021: Fundamentals for Surveyors), they have already gone through major course outline changes in 2020 and for 2021, it is anticipated that the major changes in these courses will be only in the folder structure as has been done with this course.

 

 

 

Webcast follow-up: Using the AEC Collection Tools for Land Development Projects, Part 2

I thank everyone for attending my webcast on February 19th, 2020. This was the second part of a presentation I did at Autodesk University in 2019. Due to the length of the original I had to break the webcasts into two parts, the first part took place on January  22, 2020.

Here is a link to the Webcast follow-up blog I wrote for the first part: 

If you want to view the video for the the first part, follow this link.

In the second part of the AEC Collection Tools for Land Development Projects, we looked at three products:

Civil 3D
Revit 
Navisworks

I demonstrated how one can import an InfraWorks model into Civil 3D with minor amount of tweaking. Then I replicated the analysis, visual tools and conceptual work I had done in InfraWorks in Civil 3D to a more refined level for the design development stage. I created a Shared Reference Point file for Revit and then created a preliminary grading surface to be used in Revit. 

From Civil 3D I ventured into Revit where I looked at various design options. I brought different Shared Reference Point files into Revit and inserted the Topographies developed in Civil 3D. Finally I jumped into Navisworks and demonstrated its Quantification and Visualization capabilities.

 

To revisit the webinar, you may view the recording here. 

The webcast was prepared for:

Architects
Civil Engineers
Site Designers
Landscape Architects
Technicians

Topics covered in the webcast:

Importing an InfraWorks model into Civil 3D
Using Civil 3D as a design development tool.
Sharing surfaces and reference points between Civil 3D and Revit.
Using Navisworks for quantification and visualization.

These topics are covered in two of ASCENT's learning guides:

• Infraworks 2020 : Fundamentals for Conceptual Design & Visualization
• Civil 3D  2020: Grading

Webcast questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at: [email protected]

Webcast follow-up: Using the AEC Collection Tools for Land Development Projects, Part 1

I thank everyone for attending my webcast on January 22^nd, 2020, where I repeated a presentation I did at Autodesk University in 2019. Due to the length of the original I had to break the webcasts into two parts.

In the first part of the AEC Collection Tools for Land Development Projects, we looked at three products:

• Autodesk Sketchbook
• Autodesk Formit (and Formit Pro)
• Autodesk InfraWorks

I demonstrated creating conceptual sketches in Sketchbook and conceptual massing in Formit. Then I created an existing conditions model in InfraWorks (through Model Builder) and populated it with sketches, 2D drawings and 3D models to explore options for a land development project for preliminary grading and visualization.

In the second part, I will take the concepts into Civil 3D and Revit for the  Design Development and Detailed Design stages and finally into Navisworks for some visualization and quantification. 

To register for the second part of my webcast happening on February 19th, click here.

To revisit the webinar, you may view the recording here. 

The webcast was prepared for:

• Architects
• Civil Engineers
• Site Designers
• Landscape Architects
• Technicians

Topics covered in the webcast:

• Creating sketches in Sketchbook
• Creating conceptual massing in Formit
• Creating a model with InfraWorks Model Builder
• Using InfraWorks to analyze and visualize the developing concepts.
• Establish some preliminary grading within InfraWorks.

Below are some questions that came up during the webcast:

Q: ­Is BIM 360 connected all the software into one project­?

A: Currently BIM 360 can interface with Revit, Civil 3D and Formit.

________________________________________________________________

Q: ­Can InfraWorks data be imported into Revit­?

A: The Bridge Modeler in InfraWorks can be directly imported into Revit and it creates a dynamic link to manage changes. Other InfraWork objects can be exported as FBX files which can be imported into 3DS Max. For surfaces and topography, we will cover that in Part 2 of this presentation.

________________________________________________________________

Q: ­Will this series include any drainage analysis and how that integrates between Civil 3D & InfraWorks? ­

A: We are considering more topics for such integrated workflow topics. Advanced piping including gravity and pressure pipes, SSA and InfraWorks watersheds would be part of this topic.

________________________________________________________________

Q: What was the total time to develop the model?

A: Model Builder generated the initial model in less that 5 minutes, and it took about 10 minutes to download the model.

________________________________________________________________

Q:  Do you have info or a link to show how you created the slope and direction styles?

A: These topics are covered in the ASCENT InfraWorks 2020: Fundamentals for Conceptual Design and Visualization course. In InfraWorks, the Terrain Themes are accessible through the <Analyze your model> <Terrain Themes> menu.

Changes to the Newly Released Civil 3D 2020 Grading Guide

By Jeff Morris

A few changes for Grading

ASCENT currently offers these Learning Guides for Civil 3D:

• Civil 3D Fundamentals (Imperial)
• Civil 3D Fundamentals (Metric)
• Civil 3D for Surveyors
• Civil 3D: Grading

These are introductory Learning Guides with no prior Civil 3D experience required.  For the Civil 3D 2020 Grading release, you will note subtle changes throughout the Learning Guide.  I want to make this a more realistic workflow, but reuse as much of the previous year's courseware and dataset as possible, to keep the familiarity for seasoned trainers whilst introducing new concepts and a new direction of the Civil 3D courseware.

The goal of this book  is to create a preliminary grading plan for a Land Development project. The general changes made in this course are consistant with the changes made in the other Civil 3D courses listed above. The following summarizes some of these changes: 

• Rebuilt dataset:  
  • The Civil 3D objects have been rebuilt from the ground up to avoid problems with legacy Civil 3D objects.
  • The AutoCAD Xrefs have been purged, audited and layers renamed to NCS Standards.
  • The "Base-Proposed Engineering" xref has new building footprints which reflect the three Revit buildings used in the ASCENT Revit courses.
• Folders reorganized:
  • Within the traditional Civil 3D Projects folder there are now new subfolders for configuration files, data shortcuts, survey databases and project templates for a more realistic project folder structure.
  • The drawings for the objects that are in the data shortcuts reside in the C:\Civil 3D Projects\Civil3D-Training\folder and sub-folders.
  • The drawings for the grading exercises reside in the C:\Civil 3D Projects\Grading folder  and sub-folders.
• Persistent use of Data Shortcuts.
• Persistent use of Style referencing.
  • In the first chapter we create a grading template and a grading style reference drawing. This style reference drawing, along with a more generic style reference drawing is then attached to all subsequent exercise files throughout the course. 
  • These referenced style drawings reside in the C:\Civil 3D Projects\Ascent-Config folder
• Styles have been renamed with an ASC- prefix. (ASC for ASCENT)
  • This aims to help enforce the concept of CAD Management practices.
  • Allows students to easily identify customized styles and separate them from default styles.
• Xref files are overlaid and have annotative text (for the most common drawing scales).
• Named views streamlined for the chapters.
  • Each drawing includes named views only pertinent to the chapter.
  • The views are redefined so as not to affect the layer states of the drawing.

These changes impact the datasets that the students use to complete the exercises and there are some changes in the exercise steps that support these changes.

Beyond these generic changes, most chapters in the book remain as they were in the previous 2019 release. The exceptions are as follows:

• In Chapter 1 - Introduction to Grading, I introduce Data Shortcuts at a high level and provide a short exercise setting the Working Folder and Data Shortcuts folder. Data shortcuts are studied more in depth later on in Chapter 7 - Combining Surfaces (as was done in the previous 2019 release). The rest of the exercises throughout the course then take advantage of data shortcuts for surfaces and corridors. 
• The 2019 Chapter 6, Grading with Corridor Models, has been moved to the appendix. While it is a fascinating chapter dealing with complex corridors, it is quite complicated and rather intimidating, i.e. a bit too advanced for this fundamental level.  
• A new chapter dealing with using a corridor for parking lot grading is now Chapter 5 - Parking Lot Option. It follows the existing parking lot design chapter and provides an alternative parking layout done with a corridor using a feature line as its base.

• Chapter 8 still deals with Visualization, however rather than trying to use the limited tools within AutoCAD and Civil 3D, we now introduce the student to Infraworks and import the surfaces and corridors from the flegling Land Development project into Infraworks for visualization.
• We use model builder to create the initial model and then populate it with CAD  drawing overlays, Revit models, coverage areas and a bunch of city furniture. 
• We hope that the students will find this exercise enthralling and will leave the course on a positive note, perhaps even eager to learn more about Infraworks and take further courses!

Conclusion

As with the other releases of our Civil 3D courseware, these changes support the concept that the Civil 3D program is used in real-world projects. Proper CAD Management standards and procedures are being followed throughout the Learning Guides so the student will be familiar with such concepts in their own professional environment.   We invite your comments and questions.

If you are interested in learning more about ASCENT’s offerings for the 2020 release, please watch our recent Webcast - https://youtu.be/yVEcM8ah-U8

Changes to the Newly Released Civil 3D Fundamentals 2020 Guide

By Jeff Morris

Subtle changes

ASCENT currently offers three Learning Guides for Civil 3D:

• Civil 3D Fundamentals
• Civil 3D for Surveyors
• Grading

These are introductory Learning Guides with no prior Civil 3D experience required. Starting with the 2020 release of these titles you will note subtle changes to these Learning Guides. The first of these to be released was Civil 3D Fundamentals. The following summarizes some of the changes that were made with this title: 

• Rebuilt dataset:  
  • The Civil 3D objects have been redone from the ground up to avoid problems with legacy Civil 3D objects.
  • The AutoCAD Xrefs have been purged, audited and layers renamed to NCS Standards.
  • The "Base-Proposed engineering" xref has new building footprints which reflect Revit buildings used in the ASCENT Revit courses.
• Folders reorganized:
  • Within the traditional Civil 3D Projects folder there are now new subfolders for configuration files, data shortcuts, survey databases and project templates for a more realistic project folder structure.
  • The drawings for the exercises still reside in the Civil3D-Training folder.
• Persistent use of Data Shortcuts in the later chapters of the learning guide.
  • Once the existing conditions (and surface) are established at the end of Surface Chapter, the course now continues to utilize data shortcuts for the surface through the remaining chapters.
  • Once the corridors are built in Corridors Chapter, the course uses data shortcuts for the corridors.
• Persistent use of Style referencing.
  • Starting in the Parcels Chapter, reference styles are attached to the dataset.
  • In the Pipe Network Chapter, we also attach a Pipe-Styles drawing for style referencing. These referenced style drawings reside in the C:\Civil 3D Projects\Ascent-Config folder
• Styles have been renamed with an ASC- prefix. (ASC for ASCENT)
  • This aims to help enforce the concept of CAD Management practices.
  • Allows students to easily identify customized styles and separate them from default styles.
• Xref files are overlaid and have annotative text (for the most common drawing scales).
• Named views streamlined for the chapters.
  • Each drawing includes named views only pertinent to the chapter.
  • The views are redefined so as not to affect the layer states of the drawing.

These changes impact the datasets that the students use to complete the exercises and there are some changes in the exercise steps that support these changes.

 

Conclusion

These changes support the concept that the Civil 3D program is used in real-world projects. Proper CAD Management standards and procedures are being followed throughout the Learning Guides so the student will be familiar with such concepts in their own professional environment.  These subtle changes will  be made in the other ASCENT Civil 3D Learning Guides as they get released. We invite your comments and questions.

If you are interested in learning more about ASCENT’s offerings for the 2020 release, please watch our recent Webcast - https://youtu.be/yVEcM8ah-U8

 

ASCENT Courseware Update - Follow up to the Webcast

By: Jennifer MacMillan

Thanks to everyone for joining our most recent Webcast where Ronda and I discussed what’s new and coming in the ASCENT curriculum for the Autodesk 2020 software release. Click Here to view the recording.

Here are a few highlights and take away’s from our session:

• The main goal of this webcast was to explain the changes that are coming in the ASCENT curriculum and to introduce the courseware roadmap. I focused on explaining what is changing in the learning guides, not on what is new in the software. As books are released our Content Developers will post blogs if there are significant changes in the guides that warrant explanation.
• Our Roadmap is updated frequently and changes in priority will often require updates to our projected release dates. Please be sure to review this Roadmap as you prepare your schedules.
• And finally…. ASCENT can create custom learning guides that combine content from our existing books. Customers love this solution as it provides students with exactly the content they need in one professionally bound guide, instead of having to flip back and forth through multiple books. If you’re interested in this offering, please reach out!

 

We hope that you enjoyed the webcast. We host webcasts regularly (about once a month), so be sure to keep an eye out on our Events Page for other topics that may interest you.

Thanks,

Jennifer

Webcast follow-up: Data Exchange between Revit and Civil 3D

I thank everyone for attending my webcast on April 24^th where we examined ways of exchanging data between Autodesk Civil 3D and Autodesk Revit.  For Civil Engineers (or site designers), we looked at incorporating a Revit 3D model and/or 2D building footprint into the project, and for Architects, we discussed best practices to incorporate the Civil 3D surface in the Revit Project.

To revisit the webinar, we have posted the recording on the ASCENT YouTube channel at: https://youtu.be/yeToSGeVwZg 

I used the Civil 3D and Revit 2019.2 products because:

• Among the major changes from 2019.0 to 2019.1, Revit no longer can export to a Building Site format (*.adsk)
• A new feature got introduced, the ability to share surfaces.
• The Shared Reference Point is not (yet) available in the 2020 versions.

The webcast was prepared for:

• Architects
• Civil Engineers
• Site Designers
• Landscape Architects
• Technicians

Topics covered in the webcast:

• Export the Revit Model in a 2D and 3D format efficiently
• Link a Civil 3D surface at the proper location
• Reference a Revit Model in Civil 3D, choosing 2D or 3D
• Create a surface link for Revit
• Referencing the surface in Revit

Below are some questions that came up during the webcast:

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Q: When importing the surface from civil 3D into Revit, it comes as one piece. Because of that we can only apply one type of material. We would like to have the surface come in to Revit in a way that we can apply sidewalk material to the sidewalk area, pavers material to the pavers are and so on. Is there a way to achieve this?

This is a new tool and one can hope that as it matures, more functionality will become available. For now I would suggest using the Revit Paint tool to outline the areas of concern and apply a Revit material to this painted surface. I realize this will be cumbersome. Another more professional  approach would be to bring both the Revit Model and the Civil 3D surfaces (with properly defined materials) into Autodesk 3D Studio for rendering.

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Q: ­ Do you have a written list of settings recommended for view templates?­

Typically in Civil 3D one doesn't need the interiors of a building (however care must be taken as to what is visible through the glass from the exterior). Thus I recommend creating a View Template in Revit to control the visibility of such interior objects. Use the "Interior" filter, and ensure that this is set for the Revit objects that contain that setting. This will handle the Revit categories, however you still have to go through the 3D model and 2D site plan to turn off (or on) individual objects.

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Q: Any concerns importing Revit in Civil 3D "Feet" units or "US Survey Feet" units when exchanging information?

No concerns. The Shared Reference Point utility asks for a "local" origin point in the Revit Model and then the coordinates are relative to that origin point. Thus any differences between Feet and US Survey Feet become negligible at such short of distance (from the "origin"). 

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Q: Or millimeters I guess for us in the UK?

The demonstration used Imperial units for both Civil 3D and Revit, however it works just as well for Metric units. The Ascent courseware for these products come in Metric and Imperial versions.

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Q: Can this handle multi-building projects?  For other discipline Revit models (i.e. Structural, electrical, etc.) do you need to import the shared coordinate xml file into each of those as well?

For multi-building projects Civil 3D can handle it with simply inserting more xrefs. Revit on the other hand may have issues. Ascent has a course dealing specifically with this topic, in which a workflow for sharing coordinates with other linked files is outlined.

• Autodesk Revit Architecture: Site and Structural Design

Once a coordinate system is established in a Revit model, it can be published to other linked models (such as structural, electrical, etc.)

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Q: What should we do when surface changed in C3D by site designer?

As the site changes, the site designer re-publishes the surface and Revit will re-link to the shared surface through its reference manager. There is a new tab now for Topology in the reference manager.

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Thank you again! If you have ideas or requests for future webcasts, please let us know.

 

 

Using the new Transparent Commands tab in Civil 3D (2019.2)

By Jeff Morris

Transparent commands are nothing new in Civil 3D.

They provide shortcuts whenever Civil 3D is looking for points, when one can reference alignments, profile views, Northings and Eastings, etc. They are still accessible through a toolbar placed by default along the right edge of the Civil 3D drawing areas shown.

The only other toolbar routinely used in Civil 3D is the Point Filter, placed by default directly below the Transparent Commands toolbar. These Point Filters are used  only when  prompted for a point location during the certain transparent commands, such as when specifying Bearing/Distance, Azimuth/Distance, Distance/Distance, etc.

However, in 2019.2, these transparent commands and point filters are also placed in the ribbons and have their own dedicated tab. They also are in the right-click menu when locating a point.

The additions of these valuable tools into the standard Civil 3D ribbons and right-click menu make them more accessible and useful. Furthermore, when using the Station Offset Transparent command (in the Plan panel), another ribbon appears where one can select different alignments and type in Station and Offsets, rather than typing them in on the command line or picking them on the screen.

By adding these tools to the ribbon and right-click menu, the toolbars are no longer needed. However, they are still loaded in the standard CUI of Civil 3D.

Learning Guides and Instructor Guides from ASCENT

By Jennifer MacMillan

It is that time of year again when Autodesk releases their newest software versions! ASCENT has been busy preparing and getting our learning tools ready for you. There a couple of changes to our products we want to make you aware of for the new release.

The first change you will see with the 2019 release is that we now use the term Learning Guide in place of Student Guide. This is a subtle change and came about simply because not everyone using our products is a student. Many people attend a class to learn these software products, but many people learn on their own. We feel Learning Guide is more representative of the wide range of users of our printed books and digital eBooks.

The second change affects the resources we offer for instructors. In the past, an instructor would use the Learning Guide and a separate instructor tools document that contained information such as a suggested class schedule and answer keys for the chapter review questions. Now, instructors can purchase a single Instructor Guide that combines the content of the Learning Guide with the instructor-relevant information embedded. Some key highlights include the following:

Instructor Notes – An Instructor Notes section has been added at the beginning of the Instructor Guide to explain the specifics about the layout of the book to help instructors prepare.

Instructor Presentation Slides (if available) – If instructor presentation slides are available for the title, a download link is provided directly in the Instructor Guide to download the slides that can be used as instructional aids for the course.

Class Schedule – A suggested schedule for each chapter is included to help manage time while teaching. The entire class schedule is included in the Schedule section and we have also conveniently listed the chapter’s teaching time on the first page of each chapter.

 
Practice Completion Times – An estimated time for completion of each practice exercise is provided in the margin adjacent to the objectives. This is intended to provide guidance on how long students need to work on the practice so you stay on schedule. These practice completion times appear only in the Instructor Guide, not in the Learning Guide.Answers to Review Questions – Instructors no longer need to reference the answer key in a separate Instructor Tools document. All answers to the review questions are now included in the margins of the Instructor Guide, adjacent to the question.

The Learning Guides continue to be available in print and eBook formats, and now we offer the Instructor Guides in these formats too. And don’t worry, the page numbering will be consistent between the Learning Guides and the corresponding Instructor Guides.

We hope that you like the new format and please let us know if you have any questions.

Jennifer

[email protected]