AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

Since references sometimes change and there's no way to change the pointer
easily, it would be nice if we could pick a surface, and then sample
profiles for all alignments, or have a checkbox list that would let us
sample them all.

We're working on a storm plan, and when the paving corridor changes, that
means my FG surface changes. At that point, I kill the reference in my Storm
Sewer plan, and create a new one. With a small site like we're on, I have 21
alignments that I then have to resample.

It's not the end of the world, but it would be a nice efficiency change.

Maybe something to hack out in VBA real quickly?

James Wedding, P.E.
Jones & Boyd, Inc.

[#2]

I'm wondering. If you specify the profiles to update dynamically with the
surfaces, why would you need to resample them when the surface changes?

Matt Kolberg


; "P.E." wrote in
message news:4828630@discussion.autodesk.com...
Since references sometimes change and there's no way to change the pointer
easily, it would be nice if we could pick a surface, and then sample
profiles for all alignments, or have a checkbox list that would let us
sample them all.

We're working on a storm plan, and when the paving corridor changes, that
means my FG surface changes. At that point, I kill the reference in my Storm
Sewer plan, and create a new one. With a small site like we're on, I have 21
alignments that I then have to resample.

It's not the end of the world, but it would be a nice efficiency change.

Maybe something to hack out in VBA real quickly?

James Wedding, P.E.
Jones & Boyd, Inc.

[#3]

Because we're using reference surfaces. In this case, a reference to a
Proposed Grade surface that was built from a Corridor, Points, and
Breaklines.

Since C3D surfaces cannot directly reference Corridors surfaces, you have to
export that surface. This data is added by adding points to a new surface.
When you do that, it breaks the link between profiles and the surface. We
then add points and breaklines to define typical lot grading. We make a
Shortcut to this surface. If (when) the paving profiles change, that means
the underlying corridor to my PG surf is incorrect, and the surface is wrong
in my shortcuts.

In our search, we found no way to remove the data from the 1st Corridor
iteration from the PG surface, so we have to create a new surface, then add
points and pads again. This new surface is then added to the shortcut menu.

The problem with this approach is that other dwgs that use the shortcut to
generate profile information are now linked to a bad surface. There's no
easy way to repath the XML shortcuts to the new surface, so we just erase
the Reference surface, and create a new one from the new surface. This
requires resampling.

Easy, right? I've gotten the VBA together to sample all the alignments in a
site to a selected surface, so it's not the end of the world, but it would
be nice if it was built in.

JW

[#4]

Shoot! That IS a bit of a pain. Good luck

Matt Kolberg


; "P.E." wrote in
message news:4829430@discussion.autodesk.com...
Because we're using reference surfaces. In this case, a reference to a
Proposed Grade surface that was built from a Corridor, Points, and
Breaklines.

Since C3D surfaces cannot directly reference Corridors surfaces, you have to
export that surface. This data is added by adding points to a new surface.
When you do that, it breaks the link between profiles and the surface. We
then add points and breaklines to define typical lot grading. We make a
Shortcut to this surface. If (when) the paving profiles change, that means
the underlying corridor to my PG surf is incorrect, and the surface is wrong
in my shortcuts.

In our search, we found no way to remove the data from the 1st Corridor
iteration from the PG surface, so we have to create a new surface, then add
points and pads again. This new surface is then added to the shortcut menu.

The problem with this approach is that other dwgs that use the shortcut to
generate profile information are now linked to a bad surface. There's no
easy way to repath the XML shortcuts to the new surface, so we just erase
the Reference surface, and create a new one from the new surface. This
requires resampling.

Easy, right? I've gotten the VBA together to sample all the alignments in a
site to a selected surface, so it's not the end of the world, but it would
be nice if it was built in.

JW

[#5]

I'm just getting started in C3D, so forgive me if my question is too simplistic, but do the shortcuts point to a specific surface (i.e. object ID) or to a specific surface name? If it's the name, could you just update the names so your revised surface is named what the old one was and the shortcuts point to that now?

[#6]

It's both actually IIRC.

I'll let one of the 'deskers answer it. You might be right about the
renaming thing...

JW
wrote in message news:4830297@discussion.autodesk.com...
I'm just getting started in C3D, so forgive me if my question is too
simplistic, but do the shortcuts point to a specific surface (i.e. object
ID) or to a specific surface name? If it's the name, could you just update
the names so your revised surface is named what the old one was and the
shortcuts point to that now?