AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

Has anyone come up with a relative short "Flow Diagram" for setting up objects and styles? I seem to be jumping around and selecting things that will eventually work but not really sure how I got there, therefore I have to start all over again. Thanks, Bill

[#2]

Hey Dr. Wedding; You've spoken to this point the most here in the NG's. Would you have anything to suit the gentlemen's needs? -- Don Reichle Hacker Engineering, Inc. "King of Work-Arounds" "wfb" wrote in message news:4177a8d1_3@newsprd01... > Has anyone come up with a relative short "Flow Diagram" for setting up > objects and styles? I seem to be jumping around and selecting things that > will eventually work but not really sure how I got there, therefore I have > to start all over again. > > Thanks, > > Bill > >

[#3]

I'm still figuring out to be honest. Different things call for different approaches. I had a long winded answer regarding my approach to building styles, layers, children, etc. Let me see if I can dig it up. -- James Wedding, P.E. IT Manager Jones & Boyd, Inc. Dallas, TX XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G LDT2005+C3D http://au.autodesk.com Sign up now for AU2004!

[#4]

Sometimes we ask for things and when we get it, we wonder why. I may have found something in the HELP section of the Civil3D program files "civilauto-reference.chm". Even printed on a 12x18 sheet it is hardly readable because of its size. Another useful file " . . . .civil3d2005_v_ldt2005.pdf" is somewhat informative, but after printing the nine pages, the illustrations are unreadable. Bill "James Wedding" wrote in message news:417cf5ee$1_2@newsprd01... > I'm still figuring out to be honest. Different things call for different > approaches. I had a long winded answer regarding my approach to building > styles, layers, children, etc. Let me see if I can dig it up. > > -- > James Wedding, P.E. > IT Manager > Jones & Boyd, Inc. > Dallas, TX > XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G > LDT2005+C3D > http://au.autodesk.com > Sign up now for AU2004! > >

[#5]

This is from a post asking about point styles, but it kind of shows the thought process I'm using. "Are you working with display by style, or display bylayer? All of this is my opinion and experience, but I've been playing with C3D for almost 2 years now, so it might be worth something.There's a couple of different mindsets on the subject: 1. Everything is controlled by the style. That means color, linetype, etc. All entities in the object are put on the parent's layer to make simple on/off available via layer, but no fine level control is there. This approach works well for small firms where XREF between C3D drawings will be at an absolute minimum, for reasons I'll cover in a second. The advantage is that you can set up a myriad of styles, and they will be consistent across your firm. Background Topo will look like Background Topo in every plan, in every project. Proposed Points will look the same every time. GREAT for controlling standards. The main problem with using Styles to lock the display of everything occurs when you use the information in Xrefs. There is no way currently to change the style of a C3D object when it's been Xrefed. That means that if you want the contours in one drawing and the triangles in another, you have to either have two copies of the surface (not a good idea!) or you have to insert the surface in every drawing, bypassing the whole XREF procedure. This is ripe with possibilities for data being out of sync. Some project management exists in C3D, but I don't feel it's strong enough. 2. Everything is controlled by layers, with the parent being on some Object layer, and all components being on their own layers internally, much like a nested blocks. This can lead to some SERIOUS headaches in terms of layer management, but it avoids the Xref display issues as above. In this scenario, you still set up your styles for various display scenarios, but by using the distinct layers and color bylayer, you can control the display in other drawings without having to change styles. In my view, this is currently the only workable solution." So far, I'm more inclined to have a Parent style based on WHAT is being labeled, and let the children handle HOW it's being labeled. i.e. I have a ROW style for Parcel Lines. I then have a ROW-B-D and a ROW-B over D and a ROW-D Only style. These three are children to that a change at the top rolls down. Hope this helps somewhat! I'm doing a full 90 minute lab on Styles at AU this year, and I'm sure I'll get with the Dave and Dan show about maybe doing it online after the fact. -- James Wedding, P.E. IT Manager Jones & Boyd, Inc. Dallas, TX XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G LDT2005+C3D http://au.autodesk.com Sign up now for AU2004!

[#6]

James: Thanks for you response. From what I seem to find out, it appears that these files can use some computer horsepower. I did not load Civil3D beta on my 3 GHz machine because of the "uninstalling all AutoCad products situation". I am testing on a 1 GHz "puter" and it gets bogged down somewhat. Any comments on this. Will try to look you up at AU. Bill Berry

[#7]

The more you can throw at it, the better. I'm using a P4 3.4 with 1G/ATi 9700 video card in a laptop. Smoking machine, but I can still bog down C3D pretty regularly with complex surfaces. The interactive nature of all this information costs. See you in Vegas. -- James Wedding, P.E. IT Manager Jones & Boyd, Inc. Dallas, TX XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G LDT2005+C3D http://au.autodesk.com Sign up now for AU2004!

[#8]

I knew I could get the good Doctor to chime in. He even makes House Calls. So Dr. Wedding, will the Shrink-Wrap for the C3D disks include a disclaimer regarding not being responsible for use on antiquated machines? Please use the link below for the probable Proper hardware for C3D. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3118_7-5143923-1.html -- Don Reichle Hacker Engineering, Inc. "King of Work-Arounds" LDT & CD 2004 On HP Pavilion a367c 2.80 Ghz/512MB RAM XP PRO - SP2 "James Wedding" wrote in message news:417d20f2$1_2@newsprd01... > The more you can throw at it, the better. > > I'm using a P4 3.4 with 1G/ATi 9700 video card in a laptop. Smoking > machine, but I can still bog down C3D pretty regularly with complex > surfaces. The interactive nature of all this information costs. > > See you in Vegas. > > -- > James Wedding, P.E. > IT Manager > Jones & Boyd, Inc. > Dallas, TX > XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G > LDT2005+C3D > http://au.autodesk.com > Sign up now for AU2004! >