I work as a Mechanical Engineering Designer for a Consulting Engineering Company. We do a lot of work in infrastructure projects such as Water/ Wastewater Treatment Plants and Geothermal Steam Field Piping. In both of these kinds of projects there is quite a lot of overlap with Civil Engineering applications. I have used Civil3d in a more limited manner as a design tool for those occasions where the engineering overlaps occur. I have found it to be very useful in creating Longsections (Profile Views) along steamfield pipe runs to show both existing and proposed grounds works. This information is very useful to our Piping Engineers as it helps to determine the most efficient pathway for our above ground piping runs. It is also very helpful to our Structural Engineers as it helps them to determine to most appropriate support structures for our pipework as they are often subject to very high stress loads due to thermal expansion. Also, with regard to thermal expansion, these pipe runs are designed to have expansion loops at periodic locations along the run. These loops can run horizontally or vertically depending on the situation. The case of Water/Wastewater treatment plants. Most often we are upgrading existing plants. It is not uncommon for us to run pressure network water pipes underground that need to allow for other existing underground services. We have in New Zealand statute requirements for when water pipes cross the path of (or run alongside) other underground services such as wastewater or electrical cabling. There is often the need to dip above or below other services in these kinds of projects. For both steamfield and water/wastewater applications it would be most helpful to have greater flexibility with regard to Pressure Pipe Network design. At the moment a pressure network can be created from a 2d polyline. After which some additional modifications can be made to the network to make it more accurately resemble the design pipeline supplied to us by the Piping Designers.
Taking the "create from polyline" approach is most useful to us as this is most often how the information is given to us. Albeit that we are most often supplied with 3d polylines. To use this information efficiently the 3d polylines need to be converted to 2d polylines before using them to create pipe networks. It would be incredibly more useful to us to have the ability within Civil3d to create pressure networks directly from 3d polylines. Also, in addition to this, it would also be more useful to have the ability to choose what part of the pipe the pipe profile will follow. At the moment, when a pressure network is created using a polyline. The pipe profile only runs along the crown of the pipe. In our situation this is not the most useful profile for us to use. In the case of steamfield projects the centerline of the pipe would be more useful. And in the case of water/wastewater projects the bottom (invert) of the pipe would work better. The ability to choose or add additional profiles to a network that remain dynamically linked to the pipe is at the heart of my request. As well the capability of creating pressure networks directly from a 3d polyline
