AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

Hey Forum,

I'm trying to generate volumes for a road that's 300m long.  It took me a while to figure out that I needed to have a surface generated for each of the surfaces for the road corridor (ex. top of finished grade, top of pave 1, top of base surface, top of sub base surface, and bottom of sub base + daylights).  Obviously if I use the "Average End Area" method to calculate the total earthworks (cut and fill between OG and the bottom of sub base + daylight surfaces), the volume will be more accurate the denser the sample line group interval is between stations.  Normally I use 20m, but I would like the Total Volume Table to generate values every 100m.  The Total Volume Table is generating volumes every 20m like I have the sample line group set to sample every 20m.  Is there anyway to get the Total Volume Table or some other tool to output the total earthworks every 100m rather than at whatever interval the sample line group is set to?

I realize that I can get Civil 3d to do what I want by changing the sample group interval to 100m, but this would obviously make the earthworks very inaccurate compared to ever 10 or 20m.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Forum

[#2]

You cannot do much with the table inside Civil3d, but what you can do is export a Volume Report then cut and paste the data into Excel.  Once you've done that you can edit and format as needed.

[#3]

Thanks Steve,

I did think of this, but I thinking that since AutoCAD Civil 3D is supposed to be such a sophisticated engineering software that this simple task should be theoretically possible.  For the lengths of road that I usually work with it would be a pain to have to update an exported volume table every time I make a design change to the road corridor.

Are there no other more automated tools that civil 3d comes equipped with designed to output volumes at a variable station interval?  I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t.

Any one else have any suggestions?

[#4]

Hey Forum,

Just in case anyone has trouble getting a picture of what I’m talking about, I’ve attached the training DWG file for everyone’s convenience.

Again, thanks for assistance.  It’s greatly appreciated.

[#5]

Can't you just create a new sample line group? Perhaps in a new file with the alignment and surfaces DRef'ed in.

[#6]

no because if i made a new sample line group for every 100m then the volumes (with the use of 'end average area' methodology) would generate extreamly inaccurate volumes and would be virtually useless if there was a mountain inbetween that needed to be removed but wouldn't be accounted for because the sample interval would be too wide.  Thanks for the suggestion though.

[#7]

If you need to weed it out I don't see any other method than Steve's suggestion of exporting or exploding the 20' table and editing the resulting linework and text.

[#8]

That's fine if that's the only solution.  I was just thinking that civil could do something that our old obsolete dinosaur of an drafting program could easily do 8 years ago.   It just seams strange that such a sophisticated drafting engine could be so debilitated in such a critical aspect of road design.

[#9]

Believe me - there are lot's of other "blind spots", where the assumptions by programmers about what we need do not match reality.

Having said that there may be a solution for this problem.  If you look at the help files for sectional volume calculation methods here

http://docs.autodesk.com/CIV3D/2012/ENU/filesCUG/GUID-FEAF421B-0D37-487F-893F-55612F4A6CC-1621.htm

there is an option to use the composite method.  This always appeared to me to be a silly option, since composite volumes are calculated in plan while section volumes are not, but in fact what they're doing would likely work very well for your situation.