Civil3D to InfraWorks exporting questions

[karl1112]

We are trying to use InfraWorks to "generate" 3D Models for use in renderings (exporting to FBX). I have some alignments and profiles created in Civil3D (2014) (very very basic, no surfaces or regions or profiles - just lalignments and profiles) and am trying to bring these alignments and corresponding profiles into InfraWorks to generate the street geometry.

I am an absolute beginner in Civil3D - learned from youtube and a couple of books for older versions we had around the office.

The problem I'm encountering (outside Civil3D crashing 80% of the time I hit the "Export IMX" button) is that not all the profiles get exported ... I get all the alignments without problem but only 2 profiles (out of the 4 that exist so far). Does anyone know if there is some "magic" I did with the 2 profiles that work?

On a related note... is there anyway to provide some data to an alignment in Civil 3D that can be used for picking the "Rule Style" in Infraworks, everything comes in as the generic road and needs to be manually re-applied in Infraworks.

I'm not at a place in my knowledge to create full feature corridors and intersections in Civil and honestly don't have the time for this project - nor am I a Civil Engineer to do it authoritatively - we are really just doing this to export from Infraworks since its model generation for roads is good enough for presentation material...

I welcome any advice or suggestions....

Thanks

[ToddRogers-WPM]

How do you have profiles without a surface?  Infraworks is not going to read profiles.  You need a surface.  If you are trying to generate roads from your alignments, you are going to have to export those alignments out to a .shp file, then attach the .shp file in Infraworks.  You will probably have to convert these alignments to polylines in Civil 3D first.

[LeafRiders]

On this topic if I'd like to import a 3D polyline from Civil 3D to represent my Road C/L and apply a road style to it, what would be the best way to do that?

[ToddRogers-WPM]

Export to a .shp file.

[Miguel_Sepulveda]

then the command "_IMX_EXPORT", when do I use it? 

[tcorey]

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@miguel.sepulveda wrote:

then the command "_IMX_EXPORT", when do I use it? 

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I try not to.

SHP or SDF export lets you attach any data you want, so you can apply rule styles automatically. Exporting a surface using IMX gives you a very generalized surface, where using Export to DEM and picking GeoTIFF gives you a nice, well-defined, sharp-edged surface in InfraWorks.

Tim