Improving Civil 3D performance with Stored Reference Settings

10-06-2022

32 sec read

There are hundreds of variables that control how Civil 3D performs. Data Shortcuts (drefs) are a very important part of our design process. Having the ability to have the design data referenced in our drawing is efficient and productive. Did you know that the default is to store the surfaces in the drawing? I went through this before my class at Autodesk University 2022 and wanted to share the tip.

Starting with Civil 3D 2017 in the template file a Civil 3D default setting is to save the references within the drawing file. This setting can significantly increase file size as well as the speed of working within the drawings using Civil 3D.

You can edit your existing drawing file(s) or edit the standard civil3d.dwt template file and the setting will stick. To change this setting follow these 5 steps.