Tech Preview of Corridor Solids for AutoCAD Civil 3D Available on Autodesk Labs

[scott.sheppard]

The Corridor Solids Technology Preview for AutoCAD^® Civil 3D^® 2012 software provides functionality to create AutoCAD^® solids from AutoCAD Civil 3D Subassembly shapes that are contained in an AutoCAD Civil 3D Corridor Model. By creating solids from subassembly shapes, representative real-world objects such as tunnels, retaining walls, and pavement layers can be more easily used for visual analysis, design verification, and construction coordination through enhanced model sharing between various project team members who are using applications such as Autodesk^® Navisworks^® 2012 products, Autodesk^® Revit^® Structure 2012, Autodesk^® 3ds^® Max Design 2012, and the new Autodesk^® Infrastructure Modeler 2012 software.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/civil3D_corridor_solids/

[henrikljungberg5467]

Yep, it varies in all directions (i.e. width, height)... really complex geometry...

[BrianHailey]

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@jmaeding wrote:

since no one provided a link, and it seemed easy to find the class in the AU Archives tab, I can only think there is another place you are referring to.

the link I found was:

http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=5287

I tried both the class material zips with no luck, just dwg's in them.

What's the link you guys are looking at?

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I found it in the link in the class called "Internat. Assoc. Math. Geology". Not sure why it's called that but the .zip file contains just that .lsp file.

[neilyj666]

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@BrianHailey wrote:

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I found it in the link in the class called "Internat. Assoc. Math. Geology". Not sure why it's called that but the .zip file contains just that .lsp file.

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Thanks to Brian for that - got the lsp now....

[lazicr]

There are a few ZIP files available for download on the class' page. It's in one of them...

[JamesMaeding]

oh, you mean the one with the video icon by it.

Dumb AU site, I would not have expected that to be a zip, since the other zips are labeled with ".zip".

This lisp is the same thing as the other one though, make a bunch of solids from each triangle and union.

I think this approach is only realistic for almost trivially small surfaces though, in terms of speed and a final product that is not too heavy for real use.

I will try on one with 100k faces and report back.

[JamesMaeding]

I reworked the lisp to be faster, have defaults, and no extra global variables.

It does not save every 5000 triangles like before, it unions them at the end so no point saving as you go.

The prism creation is pretty fast, maybe 40 a second.

The union operation takes about 1/2 as long as making the triangles.

I only tried on 1500 3d faces at once, took about 50 seconds total in both 2009 and 2012 on 64 bit win 7.

Multiply that by 10 or 20, and you might have a ball park time number for a small to medium size surface, if the union operation handles that many.

I attached the much revised lisp, command is FACE2VOL.

It reports times for prism creation and union operations on command line.

[neilyj666]

Great update to the routine - much faster...!!!!!

[JamesMaeding]

now we need to pester Kean or someone to do it in .net, that would likely speed things up by double again.

[neilyj666]

Do you reckon he would .NET the code?? Can you start the pestering??

[JamesMaeding]

tried, he does not have time currently.

I can do it but its not high on the to do list unfortuantely.

[CRThorn]

Surface to a solid would be very useful if you have the ability to control the thickness of the surface in different areas. i.e.

Take and existing topo and draw a poly kine or some other line around all the roads and save this is 350mm deep, then draw a line around all the grass areas and say 150mm, then everything else has a default depth of choosing.

Then do the same to a proposed composite surface in the areas you don't have a corridor.

All of a sudden our Cut and fill models become massivly more accurate.

Chris

[neilyj666]

Just like LSS (www.dtmsoftware.com) has been able to do for years........and also to compute volumes to the top and/or bottom of these surfaces.

[JamesMaeding]

I've been looking for a non-Autodesk dtm engine lately.

I want it to be .net compatible, as that is my language of choice.

Wonder if the free ones are best, or a commercial one...