Civil 3D 2012 System Requirements

That time a year again. Companies are downloading 2012 products and preparing to install. Below are the system requirements for Civil 3D 2012 to consider before the installation.

For 32-Bit AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

§  Microsoft® Windows® 7 (recommended) Enterprise, Ultimate, or Professional edition, Microsoft® Windows Vista® Enterprise, Business, or Ultimate edition (SP2 or later), or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional edition (SP3 or later)

§  For Windows 7 or Windows Vista: Intel® Pentium® 4 processor or AMD Athlon™ dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or faster with SSE2 technology

§  For Windows XP: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or faster with SSE2 technology

§  1 GB RAM minimium (4 GB recommended)

§  12 GB disk space for installation (7 GB for electronic download with at least 2 GB free after installation)

§  1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter (1,600 x 1,200 with true color recommended, multiple monitors are supported)

§  Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later

§  DVD drive

For 64-Bit AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

§  Windows 7 (recommended) Enterprise, Ultimate, or Professional edition, Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, or Ultimate edition (SP2 or later), or Windows XP Professional edition (SP2 or later)

§  AMD Athlon™ 64 processor with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron™ processor with SSE2 technology, Intel® Xeon processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology

§  4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB recommended)

§  12 GB disk space for installation (7 GB for electronic download with at least 2 GB free after installation)

§  1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter (1,600 x 1,200 with true color recommended, multiple monitors are supported)

§  Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

§  DVD drive

Additional 3D Modeling Requirements

§  Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3.0 GHz or greater, or Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2.0 GHz or greater

§  8 GB RAM or more

§  2 GB free hard disk available, not including installation requirements

§  1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Direct3D® capable workstation class graphics card

§  1,600 x 1,200 with true color (recommended, multiple monitors are supported)

FINDING and REPLACING Civil 3D 2012 STYLES

Onsite this past week a client asked if there was any way to delete a style that was being USED in the drawing.
I answered; sure if you can find it. Next time I will ask what version are you running?

NEW CIVIL 2012 FEATURE
Finding Where Styles Are Used in a Drawing
1. Simple right click the style in use and select Find Reference
(marked by a yellow triangle ).














2. Double-click an item in the dialog box to navigate to the reference in Toolspace.Typically works well, but some user input may be required. (see attached)

Had to right click View Frame Group and edit feature settings.

**NOTE:The right click menu also offers a REPLACE option.
Also checkout importing and purging styles. Download Civil 3D 2012 and New Feature Videos

Civil 3D Profile Ground Labels

Was hoping we could select no labels for profile 2 in Civil 3D 2012, maybe in 2013. Super simple Solu-around still required to show existing elevation and easily add finshed ground profile labels.

Solution: Import a new band to add FG labels to existing profile. See steps below for actual steps.

1. Create a profile band displaying existing grades only called EG elevations only.

2. Copy this existing style, rename it EG with FG elevations and add finish grade labels to the band.

3. Create existing ground profile and apply the EG elevations band only.

4.  Design finish ground profile, then select profile grid and click profile view properties.

5. Locate the band tab, click Import Band Set......

6. Select EG with FG, scroll over and update the profile 2 column.

Civil 3D 2012 Download and New Feature Videos

Download Civil 3D 2012 and start using it today.
Review New 2012 Features and Videos

Three simple commands are listed below to immediately enhance workflows for survey, design, and managing Civil 3D.
 
My favorite new design feature is the ability to see multiple baselines in Section View. Assemblies are shown through entire intersection.
Sampling Multiple Corridor Baselines

A feature all surveyors have been waiting for, the ability to rotate a symbol without the label. Select the point label and move the cursor over the top grip.

Move the cursor over the second grip to Rotate the marker.

For all users I like the ability to manage styles easier with the new import styles command. This was available previously for subscription users.

LEICA HDS POINT CLOUDS IN CIVIL 3D

Point Cloud Feature Extraction for Civil 3D Now Available!

Full review will be discussed in part 2 of HDS in Civil 3D.
Downloads and videos currently available.

Download and review the latest technology with POINT CLOUDS and CIVIL 3D

The last 11 years I have scanned and created HDS deliverables with Leica HDS scanners and software. 3D laser scanners are used in the field to capture existing conditions. The technology is still new to some, but for the early adopters it is a common workflow. As firms become familiar with this technology they often contract the scanning and look to benefit from the deliverables. To do this in the past firms were required to invest with 3rd party software.

It is exciting to see that Autodesk has released a new feature in Civil 3D 2011 that provides the ability to import HDS data directly into AutoCAD based products. This option is also available for Civil 3D 2010 subscriptions users.

Introduction to importing Leica HDS point clouds directly into Civil 3D.

Part 1 of 2
Leica point clouds are stored in an IMP format, and must be exported from Cyclone into a PTS format. Once this is accomplished, we are ready to import the point cloud into Civil 3D.

*Note: Any Point Clouds can be imported into Civil 3D if converted to an ASCII file format.

Once the point cloud is displayed, review it for pertinent data that was collected in the field. Moving the cursor over the point cloud displays elevation data.

STYLES 

Point Cloud color, like all Civil 3D objects are controlled with styles. The styles below were developed from Scaled Color Intensity and True Color (RGB).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
  Intensity                                                                                          

                                                                                                                  

True color (image required)

 
Elevation map
 
**Classifications color scheme, have no affect on HDS Point Clouds. They are used in combination with LIDAR Data only.




POINT CLOUD DISPLAY
For available options select the point cloud and locate the ribbon. To modify point density, change the slider to the right for more points.

**Note: To provide quicker response time with Point Cloud data it is encouraged to set regenauto to off.

The ability to snap to points in cloud is very useful.

The future of Point Clouds in Civil 3D

Full review will be discussed in part 2 of HDS in Civil 3D. Downloads and videos currently available.

Download and review the latest technology with POINT CLOUDS and CIVIL 3D

Shape extraction for Autocad

Point Cloud Feature Extraction for AutoCAD Civil 3D Now Available





Watermain Coverage Solu-Around

This solu-around provides a very efficient solution for checking the minimum coverage along the entire length of watermain . This could also provide an easy way to design watermain if utilized correctly.

The overall goal is simple. Copy the existing ground profile to a minimum depth.  

A few simple steps are provided.

1.Create a profile over alignment (pipe run). 2. Select existing ground surface in profile view and use the AutoCAD copy command to duplicate it. 3. Select new existing ground profile, select profile propertie and name it Watermain minimum coverage and set a unique profile style.

4. Select new profile, right click and select profile properties. Navigate to the Profile Data tab, and move the scroll bar until update is located. Change the watermain coverage profile to static.

5.Select the profile and notice all of the grips that are highlighted. The profile is no longer dynamic to the surface. Now we are able to move the profile down to check for minimum coverage.

6.With the profile selected pick geometry editor. Locate the raise lower PVI icon and select it. Set this to the depth required for minimum coverage. Make sure you specify a negative number.

 

 Two profiles should be showing.

Adjust the pipe to make sure it is below the new surface.

 

This concludes a simple watermain solu-around.

Corridor Driveways, Sidewalks and ADA Ramps - Autodesk University 2010 ONLINE

Autodesk University was great. Had a lot of fun in VEGAS, it’s like a play ground for grownups. If you were unable to make the conference this year check it out online. All classes are available for FREE if your company is on subscription. Autodesk University Website

Please check out my class this year and classes I did previously.

Endless Corridors with AutoCAD® Civil 3D_ CV422-2 -2010
Diversify Visually with Autodesk Civil 3D_DV322-1 - 2009
Don't be left out in the CODE_CV9314-1 - 2009

ENDLESS CORIDORRS
The most prolific topic that I discussed was utilizing Conditional Subassemblies, ConditionalHorizontalTargets to complete driveways, sidewalks and ADA ramps. Below is an example of how this works.

Plan view results applying one assembly. Notice the curb is removed from the drive ways, and the sidewalk continues through the walk, but is removed from the road. This is accomplished by simply placing polylines at critical locations. The conditional subassemblies have an option to look for the nearest or the farthest target and associating the correct subassembly. The red polylines placed on the driveway applies the gutter subassembly and the green polyline marks the target for where a region should be placed so no subassembly is applied. More elaborate subassemblies can be developed to utilize conditional subassemblies after each individual subassembly. Have fun and remember to place and test the targets are working, before applying the no target subassembly.

Review the class for further details on this concept and unique way to handle intersections

Compose subassemblies visually for FREE

Check out the latest in Autodesk Labs and the best part, the software is FREE. This tool was deleloped to modify or build custom subassemblies without .NET knowledge.

Features

The technology preview release provides a strong set of subassembly functionality for corridor modeling:
■ Define points and position them based on several positioning methods.

■ Define links between points.

■ Assign codes.

■ Define targets and input parameters.

■ Specify conditions for daylight and simple expressions.


Video link is provided for quick overview; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnNO9vzxp6A

Login to Autodesk Labs; http://labs.autodesk.com/

Link to subassebly creater; http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/civil3d_subassembly_editor/

CIVIL 3D POINT SYMBOL ROTATION ONLY

This solu-around rotates point styles (symbols) without rotating point label styles (text). Notice below the default behavior. Select the circular grip and the symbol and text is rotated.

At this time Civil 3D 2011 the effective solu-around is to change the point label style behavior setting for orientation reference from object to view. If the reference is set to object the text rotates with the object, but if this is changed to view the text is oriented with the view. See image below to set the point label style to view.

Now as the symbol/point is rotated the text remains oriented to the view.

To obtain desired results, create a new label style for symbols that may require rotation or create a point group with a point style override and only include the points that are rotated.

An alternative solution is to create a dragstate and set the point label style to stacked text. With this method only one color can be selected for the text. Drag the point to the right, and rotate the symbol using the circular grip. The text remains in the dragstate without rotating the text. Below are the settings for the dragstate and expected results.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
New point style for the symbols that require rotation. Set the rotation custom to the style.



Points Display Solution

To review points that are too close together simple change the drawing scale located in the bottom right. Points are automatically resized. See preview below where the scale was 50 and adjusted to 10.

Sometimes the simple approach is the ideal solution.