Washing Sketchup 3D models

Ron Couillard over at CADsoft Consulting has 2 great posts here and here on doing laundry.  I mean using Civil 3D as a way to wash the 3D models in the Trimble 3D warehouse (previously known as the sketchup warehouse) so they can be used in Infrastructure Modeler. Pick you favorite model and drop it in AIM, or whatever we’re calling it now.  :)

Or I should say Infraworks for the 2014 version. Man, can somebody just buy everything once so I can keep track of all these things? I’m not getting any younger….  :)

Fully Cooked Project Template in Civil 3D

We’ve all seen project templates in Civil 3D that come pre-installed. There are a few folders to help organize drawings. Typically, you would create a new DWG, save it into one of those folders and start adding content.  Maybe you then have to make a data shortcut. No create another file, make more content, and maybe add the data shortcut. Continue this until you have the full set of construction documents. Just this process of building a new set of project files can take at least a few days to complete.

But.  What if you had a template based on a specific project type where most, if not all of the drawings, data shortcuts and xref’s were already established? Can’t be done you say? Read on doubter of efficiency…

AutoCAD Fundamentals for Civil Engineers – Part 325

As Civil Engineers, we often dive pretty heavy into the tools we use. For me, one of those tools is Civil 3D of course. What, with all of its styles and settings, tabs, external databases and such, sometimes I forget about the underlying nuances of both AutoCAD and Map that live within Civil 3D. That brings us to our next AutoCAD tidbit.

Of note today is something I noticed probably 3 releases ago but quickly pushed it to the side; coordinate entry troubles. For whatever reason, entering coordinates with DYNAMIC INPUT toggled on would give me incorrect results. While I would get the right answer with it toggled off. So, given the finicky nature of Dynamic Input with Civil 3D functions, that was a no brainer to toggle off.

I figured I wasn’t reading the prompts correctly. I certainly wasn’t being patient enough to find out what was happening. Until now….

PASDA GIS Data Reminder

As the Oil and Gas boom has hit Pennsylvania, GIS data is a prime commodity in obtaining permits and generating needed concept plans. A major source is the Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA) clearinghouse. And I quote:

Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA) is the official public access geospatial information clearinghouse for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and has served for fifteen years as Pennsylvania’s node on the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, Geospatial One-Stop, and the National Biological Information Infrastructure.
PASDA was developed by the Pennsylvania State University as a service to the citizens, governments, and businesses of the Commonwealth. PASDA is a cooperative project of the Governor’s Office of Administration, Office for Information Technology, Geospatial Technologies Office and the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment of the Pennsylvania State University. Funding and support is provided by the Pennsylvania Office for Information Technology,Geospatial Technologies Office. In addition, PASDA also receives substantial support from the Pennsylvania State University.

So there are tons of great data types to choose from, depending on your needs. But there is one question I often get asked and rarely remember the answer. For some reason, some data is formatted to be in the coordinate zone Antarctic98.LL, which refers to the Lat Long grid for the Australian Antarctic 1998 datum. Of course, this is not correct. So the first place to research is the metadata.

Parcel Ownership for Oil & Gas Pipelines, Part 2

To pickup where we left off, let’s review what we have in the drawing.

The missing part is the parcel information in the data band between the “property lines.”

To do this, we have two options, one would be to just create hard text that would require re-positioning whenever the alignment moved or use a pipe connected to the structures, allowing the pipe information to adjust as the alignment adjusted. But how do we use the pipe to use the parcel information?

Parcel Ownership for Oil & Gas Pipelines, Part 1

Living in Pennsylvania, the Marcellus Shale has had a positive business impact on firms in and around the area. With that, the Oil & Gas industry has brought a new way of creating design documentation than we have been accustomed to doing in the past. For instance, the pipeline will stretch many miles and cross many properties. And as is often the case, easements will have to be obtained. So along the pipeline concept plan will have to be some documentation of property impact.

Along comes the idea that in the profile, we add a band indicating the station at which a parcel line crosses the alignment. And, in between those “crossings,” we indicate who owns that parcel.

Snapshot Courtesy of Entech Engineering, Reading, PA.

So, how do we do that?