Hello,
I've been using Civil 3D 2013 for maybe 3 months now and have been running into some issues that I just can't seem to resolve. I've been searching the internet for answers but have come up empty.
I'm working on a subdivision with attached homes, some rear loaded with alleys and parking along almost every road.
The problem I'm having is with the parking. I have not been able to find an efficient way to include these in the surface.
The closest thing I've came up with(shown in attached image) is to make a temporary template that extends the edge of pavement to the edge of pavement at the back of the parking stall, then draw a feature line around the parking stall edge of pavement, assign elevations based on the surface(with temporary template), then offset the feature line to create the curb.
This seems to work, except if I have to make vertical changes to the road, I have to repeat that entire process.
Is there no dynamic way to add parking stalls to my surface?
Thanks, let me know if you need any additional info.
I agree Joe. Extend the corridor.
If the OP went with FLines though they do not have to repeat the entire process. Specifically once you get the bottom of curb elevation use the Set Feature Elevation By Reference command instaed of making a new top of curb offset each time.
John Mayo
You could try a couple solutions to help eliminate a few steps with recreation of grading and "manual" updates.
Hope this helps!
Thank you all for your responses. I'm currently going through the steps for each of your suggestions. Which means I have no idea what you're talking about yet
I'm very knowledgeable on Land Desktop as I've been using it for 12 years. I'm sure you all have been through and remember the struggles of transitioning to Civil 3D. Please excuse my delay on providing feedback on your helpful suggestions as I need to educate myself first.
Ok so I've attached an image showing what I've got so far. I just added another template for the parking stalls. This will be helpful when adjust roads as I will be able to get the correct grading at the back of the parking stalls.
I'm thinking that as the design becomes more solid, or less unsolid rather, I will draw a polyline from the curb return to the back of the parking stall, convert it to a feature line and use the surface to automatically assign elevations. Then I will just offset with step, creating the curb for that area.
I tried doing the offset with reference and it didn't seem to do anything different that the offset with step. When I changed the original feature line elevation, the reference offsets did not change with it. Am I doing something wrong?
Let me know if you think this way could be improved, or if I'm just plain doing it wrong.
Thanks guys
Good news; I believe you are on the right track! If you wish to use a feature line for the pavement, and don't mind updating it when your corridor surface changes; Instead of creating the curb with a stepped offset, create a grading object (distance/slope or distance/relative elevation) from the pavement feature line to articulate your curb. the grading object will be dynamic to your feature line; so, if you update the feature line, your curb will also update.
I've treid the draping technique you recommend many times Eric. In order to follow the drape surface precisely (consider vertical curves in the road) you have to use the option to add intermediate elevation points when applying the elevations from surface. All those extra elevation vertices on the featurelines quickly overwhlems C3D and processing times become intolerable if there are gradings applied to them.
Here is another thought for you: your site looks like a multiple housing development so I look at them more like a parking lot with houses in it than a road.
instead of modeling the corridor the the exact tolerance, use the corridor surface as a "control surface". Forget the curbs in the assembly and over shoot the edge
turn all your curbs into alignments and use offset alignments for the back or curb.
create 4 surfaces:
Control = extended corridor (display = off)
BC= bottom of curbs ( display = off)
TC =top of curbs ( display = off)
FG= your finished plan ( display = your finish style)
paste the control surface into BC
paste the control surface into TC and raise it 0.5'( or what ever you curb height is)
now make surface profiles of all your curbs; face of curb read BC and Back of curbs read TC
now make featurelines from alignments for all the curbs
now you can do a few things; the knee jerk reaction would say add all the curb feature lines to FG, and that would be fine if that the route you want to take. And now all your curbs will be totally dynamic to any change in the road, and ther is no need to hand massage any returns.
Personally, I'd take the grading infill route and site management to avoid a lengthy list of crap in my surface definition
Spend the weekend learning how to properly use an Offset Assembly with your Corridor to address these roadway transition design scenarios.
That looks great!
I've been trying to figure out how you did that but haven't seen a very thorough tutorial.
Could you post a picture of what your assembly looks like?
Thanks
So I created an offset alignment, and it follows the edge of pavement just fine, but the gutter does hold the same width during the transition. Did I do something wrong?
Picture attached.
Thanks