IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Creating a Custom Tab in the AutoCAD Tool Palette

James Branagan | Applications Expert

If you find yourself using a few tools on your Tool Palette regularly, why not make a favorites tab for them?

Making a custom tab in your AutoCAD Tool Palette is very straight forward. To open the Tool Palette, on the Home Tab > Palettes, click Tool Palettes (or Ctrl +3). This will open the Tool Palettes. If you are in Civil 3D it will default to the Civil Subassemblies, imperial or metric depending on which version of the program you are in. Right-clicking on the name bar for the Tool Palette will allow access to the other Tool Palettes available within AutoCAD. Also in this right-click menu is the ability to add a New Palette, Customize Palettes, and Customize Commands, along with various other options.

Clicking on New Palette will open a new blank palette. Right-clicking the tab of the new palette will allow you to move the palette up or down in the list of palettes, view the options, as well as delete or rename the palette.

Right-clicking in the main body of the palette will allow you to add text and separators to better organize your palette.

Now that we know how to set up a new palette, how do we get content on to it? If there are items that already exist on another palette, locate the item, right-click and select Copy. Next, in the new Tool Palette, right-click and select Paste. It really is as simple as just copying and pasting. You can also import subassemblies using the Import Subassemblies tool in the right-click menus shown above. The Tool Palette doesn’t just have to contain one type of item, subassemblies, blocks, visual styles, etc. can all be placed on the same palette.

One of the best things about Autodesk AutoCAD and AutoCAD-based programs is its ability to be customized to meet specific user’s needs.  This customization ability allows designers to leverage the power of the program to be highly productive by putting the tools needed quickly and easily accessible.

Using Fields for Assembly Labeling

James Branagan | Applications Expert

We all know how important is it to name your Autodesk Civil 3D assemblies well. Keeping your assemblies well organized and named can save not only you, but others who need to be in the model, time and frustration when building corridors. In an effort to keep your model organized and to be able to see at a glance which assemblies there are in the model, have you considered labeling the assembly with text? Beyond just using text, how about using a field value to automatically grab the name of the assembly and keep it updated if the name changes?

In order to use a field, first, insert text using the Annotate tab > Text panel >  MTEXT command.

Place the text where you like and specify its length. You do not need to insert any text. Instead click on the MTEXT contextual tab > Insert panel >  Field command.

In the Field Dialog box, for the Field category choose Object. In the Object type, click on the Select Object button to select the object in the model and then select your assembly baseline. This will populate the Object type property with the properties from the assembly. Choose Name from this list of properties. In the Format box, choose the format you want the name to display in. When you have everything selected click OK.

Notice that the text box has been populated with the name of the assembly. Not only that, if the name of the assembly is edited, the text will also be updated.

When inserting a field, the text will automatically be given a light gray background mask to indicate that there is a field being used. The mask does not print, however, if you would like to turn it off the system variable FIELDDISPLAY will enable you to do so.

Structures & Pipes Masking – Civil 3D

Jeff Morris | Sr Applications Expert

Pipes & Structures

A gravity pipe-network in AutoCAD Civil 3D consists of one or multiple branches of pipe runs. The individual pipes are connected via structures (Null or otherwise). As the structure location changes, the pipes remain connected.

Structure Styles

Structures can represent different objects, such as catch basins, manholes, headwalls, etc. In order to distinguish catch basins from manholes, a different style is used for the structure, although the structure itself may not change. These structure styles can conform to the organizations graphic standards for said manholes or catch basins.

If blocks are being used to define the style, Civil 3D places a mask under the block so the connecting pipes are not shown within the structure – i.e. masked out. More often than not, these styles are “annotative”, meaning they will change size as the annotation scale changes, much like the Civil 3D labels change size.

Changing Annotation Scales

When one changes the Annotation Scale in Modelspace of Civil 3D, these masks don’t update and either gaps or overlaps between the pipes and structures appear. Even in Paperspace, the gaps / overlaps carry over, regardless if the viewports are locked or not!

The regular fixes such as the Regen or Regenall or even Redraw don’t work, the overlaps remain. One cumbersome fix is to select a structure and SLOWLY doubleclicking on the square grip in the middle of the structure (usually used to move the structure).

This will resize the mask, but must be done on each structure.

The other option is to invoke the Audit command. By agreeing to “Fix any errors detected?” [yes], all gaps or overlaps will be corrected. If one chooses not to fix detected errors, the gaps/overlaps remain!

Keep in mind however that auditing a drawing can take a long time.

 

Conclusion

Even though this behavior between pipes and structures when changing annotation scales in Modelspace is annoying, two fixes are available.

Without these fixes, these gaps / overlaps will plot as it is displayed on the screen (Modelspace or Paperspace).

Thus even more reason to audit your Civil 3D drawing regularly, especially before you plot!

CAD and BIM Management Services: A Cost-Effective Way to Work More Efficiently

by Kevin Breslin

We recently conducted a survey of the civil engineering industry which found that insufficient time is one of the biggest challenges to completing projects on time and on budget. What if your firm had access to experts that could increase your team’s efficiency, without increasing headcount and incurring the costs of hiring full-time staff?

Civil engineering firms can now hire IMAGINiT experts to serve as a part-time, remote CAD manager for their teams. IMAGINiT’s BIM and CAD Management Services are designed to help firms work smarter:

• Get more work done without taking on more staff. Over half of the civil engineering industry survey respondents (55.7%) indicated that their organization doesn’t have a full-time CAD manager. Unfortunately, this often means that valuable employee time is devoted to CAD management. A better alternative is using IMAGINiT’s experts to provide day-to-day tactical assistance to the team. A part-time CAD manager is the perfect resource to answer technical questions, assist with content creation such as documentation and styles, configure and deploy software, provide ad-hoc guidance for staff members, and more. 
  
  
• Enable in-house CAD managers to work on strategic projects. Of the survey respondents who have a CAD manager, around one quarter (25.6%) indicated that the CAD manager spends more time on reactive support issues than on proactive work like planning and deployments. Having a backup resource from IMAGINiT is a proven way to address this issue. 
  
  
• Access industry best practices in a flexible way. IMAGINiT’s technical services team has extensive experience with CAD in the civil engineering and surveying sector. Part-time CAD managers from IMAGINiT bring this knowledge to clients. Assistance is tailored specifically to customer needs in a cost-effective way. 

To learn more about how IMAGINiT Technologies’ CAD and BIM Management Services could help your firm, feel free to contact us. We’d love to learn more about your unique environment and business needs.