IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Interoperability between SDF and Civil 3D parcels

GIS is playing an increasingly important role in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies by supporting all phases of infrastucture management. In the recent years it has become evident in the industry that the GIS groups within AEC companies have been elevated to a position of not only mandating digital standards but are also responsible for the management of the massive amount of digital design data that is created by their Engineering and Geomatics departments.

So how does the GIS department easily and efficiently move data between the different groups and software, not only to create a GIS database but also to address the creation of BIM?

Autodesk has provided us with the suits and although suits were to address BIM, let’s take a small peek at the interoperability between Map3D’s SDF file and Civil3D parcels as it realties to the traditional GIS data management.

In a recent Map class I was teaching a topic on connection to a SDF file and the tools on how to split and merge features. However it is evident that C3D provides a far superior tool to creating, merging and splitting parcels than those tools available in Map3D. That is the topic of this paper, how to create and edit parcels in Civil 3D and push it back to the SDF file.

So here is the scenario. The GIS department manages all the data for the parcel property. The parcels may have up to a dozen (ten if you want to be metric) feature data. Our Geomatics department is tasked with subdividing a parcel and once completed it needs to be pushed back up to the original SDF file.

Figure on the left is the original parcel layout and the one on the right is the subdivided parcel.         

 Map3D SDF to Civil 3D parcels and back again to Map3D SDF, essentially a roundhouse effect.

Bring the data in make changes and push it out again.

Phase 1 extracting the parcel from the SDF file and subdividing using Civil 3

1. In this first step you need to import the parcels from the master SDF file. To do that, in the insert tab, select Map Import command.
2. Select the master parcel sdf file
3. In the import dialog, in the data column select the browse button and select the create object data button. This will import the feature properties from the SDF file as object data.
4. In the import dialog also make sure you check the Import polygons as closed polylines. Define the area that you want imported and select the OK button. This will import polylines with object data.
5. Now that you have polylines you can use Civil 3D to create and subdivide parcels.
   • Alternatively you could create a FDO connection
     to the sdf file, check out the feature, Extract the geometry from feature and
     explode the feature to create a polyline and finally erase the feature from the
     drawing and check in all features to update the SDF. However this is a longer
     process.
6. In C3D export the parcels to a new SDF file, note none of these parcels have the feature data from the original SDF map feature.

 

Phase 2, appending the civil 3D parcels to original SDF file.

1. Start a new drawing.
2. Create an FDO to the master SDF file.
3. As you will need to update the master SDF file with the changes, the first step is to check out the feature parcels that were subdivided in step 5 above. Erase these parcels and select check in all features. The master SDF file has now been updated with the revised parcels removed. In the next step we will attempt to update the master SDF file with the newly created parcels.
4. Import the civil 3D parcel SDF file created in step 6 above. This step will create MPolygon objects in your drawing
5. Select the command create from geometry and select one parcel at a time and hit enter.
6. Map 3D will create a map feature and push it to the master SDF file.

 

So the round house did not work as planned, the tracks did not line up perfectly. Currently it is the only solution I could come up with. I have been in contact with Autodesk technical. But at the end of the day my wish list is

1. Ability to create a parcel from a checked out polygon feature and retain the feature properties even if it is only as object data.
2. When subdividing a civil 3D parcel all subdivided parcels should carry forward the feature properties or object data.
3. And finally, if there is a final in a software wish list. The ability in civil 3D, depending on the workflow, to either check in the C3D parcel feature or the command New Feature from geometry to allow you to push the C3D parcel back to the SDF file.

For now, the issue I have encountered, and will hopefully address in part 2, is how to, one, easily append in bulk, all the newly created parcels to the master SDF file and, two, how to retain the original feature data properties.

Note,
this paper is not meant to be a detail tutorial but merely a workflow outline.
If there is a demand for a step by step tutorial format, I will rework it into
part 2.

4-Way Intersections – Maintain Primary Crown

This blog’s entry covers the assembly group’s construction and logic for a 4-way intersection that maintains the primary roadway crown. My next blog entry will cover four way intersections that maintain both primary and secondary roadway crowns.

When creating the intersection assemblies, it is a challenge to determine what assembly configurations are needed to complete the intersection. The assembly configurations are determined by the type of intersection you are designing. When the intersection is a 4-way and holds the
primary crown the intersection flattens the secondary road when it intersects the primary road. When creating this type of intersection, the primary road intersection assembly must have both roadway lanes.  See the left side of Figure 1.

Figure 1: Maintain Primary Crown and Maintain Both Crowns

The reason for this difference is how the secondary road completes its portion of the intersection.  To create an intersection that maintains the primary crown, the primary road’s intersection assembly contains only the primary roadway lanes. The curb assembly completes the intersection between the
primary and secondary roads. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: Secondary Road’s Curb Sweep Follows the Primary Road’s ETW

When creating an intersection holding the Primary roads’ crown, the intersection assembly contains only the primary road’s lanes. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: Primary Road Through Section

Assemblies – Primary Road

The assemblies for the primary road are found in Figure 4. When the intersection is a 4-way and it holds the primary roadway crown, the intersection uses Primary Through Section.

The Primary Road Half Sections –Right and Left are used only if the primary road has any widening. The wizard assigns both assemblies to the intersection even though they may not be used.

Figure 4: Primary Road Intersection Assemblies

Assemblies – Secondary Road

The secondary road assemblies are in Figure 5.

The last assembly in Figure 5 is the curb return assembly. The curb assembly follows a curb return alignment and creates the secondary’s portion of the intersection. The intersection creation process prefers the right curb assembly.

The Secondary Road Half Section –Daylight Left and Right sections are used when there is a secondary road widening.

With a 4-way intersection with no widening, only the secondary road full section and curb return are used to create the intersection.

Figure 5: Secondary Road Intersection and the Right Curb Return Assemblies

Intersection Assembly Assignment

When creating the 4-way intersection, you must assign the correct assemblies. Figure 6 has the assembly assignments for a 4-way Intersection that holds the primary roadway’s crown elevations.

Figure 6: Assembly Assignment for a 4 Way Intersection Holding Both Crowns

Corridor Properties – 4-Way Intersection Maintain Primary Crown

The resulting intersection from a 4-way intersection holding the primary road’s crown with no widening creates a corridor with the properties shown in Figure 7. The primary road intersection assembly is Rosewood – (2).

Figure 7: Corridor Properties for a 4 Way Intersection Maintaining Primary Crown

Happy intersection designing!

Styles Getting Stuffy? Get 'Em Checked Out

Have you ever been to a doctor who prescribes medicine without understanding the ailment?  Or how about a mechanic that replaces parts until the problem is fixed?  Both of these scenarios can be overly expensive and downright dangerous!  The diagnosis of your CAD environment is no different.  If you’ve got a backfire in your workflows or an ache in your standards, proper diagnosis is key to developing a plan to fixing it.  This diagnosis process is the basis of IMAGINiT’s Civil 3D Health Check.

The Health Check focuses on your organization's people, processes, and technology to uncover any and all bottlenecks that might be holding you back from experiencing the full potential of the investments that have been made in these areas.

Processes - Through the course of the Health Check, interviews are held with key personnel representing multiple departments and offices within a firm.  The goal of these interviews is to gather information on the type of project work being done, the lifecycles of those projects, data management, project structures and data structures, as well as project collaboration techniques.

People - The aim is to provide very specific data on function areas where skill levels are high and where they can be improved through training.  During this stage, IMAGINiT provides access to a web-based learning management system where your staff performs skills assessments. The results are collected and documented in aggregate and individual form which is the basis of a specific, topic based, educational pathway.

Technology - The evaluation of technology centers around a qualitive look at the standards and technology currently deployed within your environment.  This evaluation provides a 3^rd party, non-biased look at the portions of the setup that work, what could be improved, and what is yet to be developed to move to that next stage of advanced utilization of your technology investments.

Overall, our Health Check process offers a thorough status audit to which a plan can be developed for improvements to be made within the facets covered.  From this status, a road to success can be developed and fulfilled with the prescription of parts that are required to get to the destination.  It provides a snapshot in development that can be used as a baseline metric to measure the success of efforts put into play to combat the ailments of inefficiency and unrealized productivity potential.

Where to find GIS data

Recently our team at IMAGINiT was asked to provide “links to sites where you and/or your customers have found easily accessible and free data. I’m especially interested in GIS data…”

I cannot take credit for this, our fearless leader; Kevin Breslin compiled the following list from contribution by members of our Civil team.

Hopefully these links are of some interest to you. If you have a favorite link for your province or state that is not in this list please send it in, maybe we can create a comprehensive list and add it as a sticky to this blog.

WMS
Data – FDO (free)

Open Street Maps http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Blog Post: http://blogs.rand.com/civil/2012/08/open-source-maps.html

USDA
Geospatial Data Gateway – Variety (free) http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

USGS
Geodata for Ohio (free) http://gis3.oit.ohio.gov/geodatadownload/data.aspx

Map
Warehouse (Paid for) Ontario, CA http://maps.firstbasesolutions.com/

Geobase
Maps (free) Canada http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/index.html

GeoDiscover
Variety (Mix) Canada http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/

USGS
– Variety (free) http://nationalmap.gov/viewer.html

Cornell
University Geospatial Information Repository-Variety (free) New
York http://cugir.mannlib.cornell.edu/mapbrowse.jsp?series=counties

FEMA
Maps Service Center-Flood Maps (Paid for)https://msc.fema.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/FemaWelcomeView?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1