What’s the Byline of Civil 3D 2009 – Part 1

OK, I have to put on display some good news. After so many support calls, my previous post had to be about a way to contribute positively to the conversation. With that out of the way, what have the developers given us in Civil 3D 2009? To know where we are, let’s review a bit shall we?

Civil 3D 2005 – Initial Release, base functionality

Civil 3D 2006 – Introduced Pipe Networks & Project Data Sharing

Civil 3D 2007 – Introduced Vault, Survey

Civil 3D 2008 – Introduced Stability and Speed

Civil 3D 2009 – Introduced….

 

For Part 1 – we’ll focus on Transportation highlights. 

Typical Cross Section Library – Develop a DWG that contains assemblies of typical cross sections which can the be dragged onto a custom tool palette shared across your internal network. AND, the ability to use Mirror, Copy and Move on subassemblies! As a matter of fact, Autodesk even included a stock Assembly tool palette just to get you started!

 

Criteria Based Design – For those working in Land Desktop, this will remind you the Vertical Alignment Editor. Only the CBD checks both vertical AND horizontal design constraints. The criteria included out of the box are the AASHTO 2001 guidelines.

Editing Corridor Sections – We now have a Station Tracker line in plan and profile views. Set up your views so that you have 3 , one for plan, profile and section. When choosing to View/Edit corridor sections, this line will appear in those views at the corresponding location.  In the toolbar that appears, there are several new settings that allow you to specify grid spacing, grid color, station tracker toggle.  Also, for a given section view, you can zoom to a specific subassembly so you can focus without being overwhelmed by the entire section.

Alignments – Best Fit for fixed or floating tangents and for fixed, floating or free curves.  This is great for those existing condition plans. You can adjust the regression analysis in case certain points need to be weighted differently (or excluded) than others.

Next time – we’ll shed some light on General design improvements – Parking Lots, Corridor / Grading interaction and Storm sewer design.