Civil 3D: Fierce Solutions

AU 2011: When CAD Management and Information Technology Grow Apart – Class Summary

At Autodesk University, a parallel event was held called the Leadership Forum. This took place on Monday, November 28, and my contribution was facilitating a round table discussion on the successful marriage of IT and BIM. Below are the class discussion points with a summary of the ideas exchanged.

 1.  Do you see your CAD and IT Management efforts growing apart? What is driving this separation?

As technology evolves, so is the role of the CAD and IT Manager. Whether or not they coexist in the same department or different departments, details and issues of the adjacent technologies are multiplying. The roles of each involve the management of technology collections. The growth is positive since it offers improvements to existing business processes and new areas of business development. The negative side of this is could be that priorities of each are no longer aligned and communication suffers. Company size, size of support staff, and company culture can impact the negative as well as the positive.

2.  What differentiates CAD Management from Information Technology Management? What is driving the evolution of CAD Management to BIM Management?

Basically, CAD Management deals with the support of operations centered about application processes; IT Management deals with the support of technology infrastructure. There is some overlap i.e. data collector, GPS, and laser scanner support; troubleshooting application crashes and malfunctions. CAD Management involves the processes involved in putting black lines to white paper; BIM Management involves the integration of multiple technologies to facilitate the qualification, quantification, and optimization of a design model.

3.  How should the collaboration of BIM & IT in your organization keep you competitive?

 BIM and IT need to partner with leadership to align priorities with optimization of operational processes to guarantee expeditious uptime and expand business development opportunities.

   

4.  What should or shouldn't be the expectations of BIM Management according to Leadership? How might IT hinder or encourage the development of BIM in the organization?

Leadership expects BIM Management to ensure that the company's software investment pays off. Leadership also expects to stay informed of the progress. The language used in this conversation must center around ROI. Often times it is difficult to measure ROI. However, speaking in terms of "what it would cost us if we weren't using this technology" often helps to illustrate a clear picture of a company's application of BIM processes. IT can assist with this by collaborating with BIM on hardware requirements and upgrades. If IT can understand overall cost savings in setting up a successful BIM implementation, both can work together to clear obstacles.

  5.  What does being on the cutting edge of technology mean to you? What are your thoughts & concerns about placing your firm on the cutting edge of technology? Obstacles?

There are three schools of technology thinkers: leading, cutting, and bleeding edge. The bleeding edge which involves the use of very new technology integrated with a lot of unknowns is where present companies did not want to be. Technology implemented after six months of circulation in the industry was considered cutting edge. Staying on the cutting edge is a desirable place to be since cutting edge processes can be researched and prepared for before implementation. Staying on the leading edge gives a little more of a comfort margin between release and implementation of new technology. Implementing technology after being released for a year was an equally desirable place to be.

6.  How and where do BIM & IT overlap?

Overlap can differ from one company to the next depending on size and culture. Typically the overlap occurs in supporting infrastructure technology that is highly applications dependent. Workstations, plotters, 3D printers, data collectors, GPS units, and laser scanners all lend to the overlap. Having one single support submittal process that notifies appropriate staff is less confusing for the end users and expedites response time. This means that even if BIM and IT are in separate departments, they must still work and communicate as one team.

7.  What does it take for communication between Leadership & Technology Leads to be effective?

Technology must be able to communicate on leadership's level to facilitate an understanding between the two. Leadership doesn't want to hear complaints about fatal errors, layer standards, RAM amounts, sluggish network or internet access, server crashes, etc. The mission of a technology lead is to minimize and eliminate the day to day issues that impact operations. However, if there are costly issues that can be eliminated with new technology solutions (hardware or software), communicating these in terms of long-run cost savings will hold leadership's attention. Be prepared to counter the question "what will it cost us" with "what it will cost of if we don't", not only in terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of business development opportunities as well. Leadership expects IT and BIM to bridge their own gaps, communicate, and work together for the prosperity of the company. 8.  What drives BIM, IT, & Leadership into successful ventures?

When the arms of technology are successfully communicating, collaborating, and assisting each other, this positively influences production which is a story leadership wants to hear. Leadership also wants to be educated, not on the details but on the overall picture. Asking the question "what makes this improvement or process meaningful to leadership" and being able to communicate this will promote valuable two way conversation and collaboration with leadership.

9.  Where is the evolution of Technology taking us? What should our objectives be in utilizing this evolution?

It's difficult to predict exactly where the evolution of technology is taking us. We can define where it is we want it to take us. Together, IT, BIM, and leadership can do this so that goals can be defined and set. And if the technology being sought doesn't exist, defining the need helps to formulate objectives. Setting objectives involves asking the question with regard to infrastructure and operations, "How do we want to be positioned six months from now or this time next year?" With the evolution of technology must come the evolution of intellect within an organization; therefore, it is very important that goals be set accordingly.

 

Do You Really Want to Do This??

Although this is a known issue that has been around for ages, I still find people who are experiencing this. Therefore, I'm posting the solution here.

This is actually an odd issue caused by creating associative hatch patterns that use the linework in external references as part of the boundary definition. To get rid of this annoying issue, you must do the following:

• Delete the hatch pattern(s).
• Create the boundary linework in the current drawing.
• Unload the external reference.
• Recreate the hatch pattern.
• Reload the external reference

The Complete Buffoon’s Guide to Getting Along with Grading Groups

Grading groups are a quick and easy way of placing sloped surfaces in your terrain model. Unfortunately, there are people out there who believe that they are the work of the devil. The purpose of this post is to provide you with a few best practices when working with these tools. The proper use of these tools will enable you to create high quality terrain models for your projects.

Should I or Shouldn't I?

Grading groups should be used when consistent slopes need to be projected from a graded feature line. Grading groups enable us to keep a site feature with slopes modeled according to criteria when the graded feature line is modified. Grading groups can be used to define graded site features such as basins, berms, swales and ditches, curb and gutter in parking lots, daylighting, and building pads.

Sometimes When We Touch

Consider a drawing containing the three grading groups below. These three groups are in the same site. The groups are generating individual surfaces. The intent was to keep them self-contained for volume analysis; however when we applied the "grade to surface" criteria around the perimeter, the grading groups touch.

Even though the grading criteria's instruction was to grade to a specific surface, when the gradings began to intersect, they stopped at that intersection. The resulting feature lines created at the daylight line clean up at the intersection and, like feature lines are supposed to do, share the same elevations at the intersection:

If these features were located this close together on a site and the proposed slope grading overlapped, having it clean up like this is helpful. However, if we were analyzing two different building location scenarios, having an overlap in the same site could adversely affect our volume calculations; in this case, we should place them in separate sites.

We should avoid overlapping grading groups in the same site unless we know the grading will be constructible. The old adage "Garbage in, garbage out" applies here. When grading groups are not cooperating, they will break.

Keep Your TIN Lines to Yourself

When grading group surfaces are created, the outermost feature forms a type of boundary. When multiple grading groups are pasted into a surface, TIN lines will not be generated from one grading group to another.

However, as we place data into the surface between the grading groups, TIN lines will generate from the edge of the grading groups to this data. So, feature lines and/or points could be used to define transitions between grading groups.

Partners in Crime

Grading groups can be influenced by feature lines.  If there is a feature line that crosses a grading group and is in the same site, the grading group will project to meet the elevation of the feature line and adversely affect your grading group surface.  Sites are a great way to break up the partnership.

Saying Good-Bye

We use the Delete Grading command because that's what it's there for. Selecting any part of the grading will activate the contextual ribbon and expose the Delete Grading button. Using that button ensures that all of the grading components in that grading object will be eliminated. Using AutoCAD erase sometimes leaves pieces behind.

All the King's Horses & All the King's Men

One great thing about Civil 3D is that UNDO works… on most occasions. UNDO is an AutoCAD command and AutoCAD doesn't necessarily understand how to put Civil 3D objects back together. So if we accidently delete a grading object and use UNDO to bring it back, we may not get all of it back.

Who Makes the Rules?

Moving or rotating a grading group is best done by moving the matriarch, the original feature line. Grading groups and surfaces will follow.

Be Specific

We should save criteria often used in our templates. Recreating criteria over and over sucks. Editing generic criteria like Grade to Distance will generate that change to any grading groups in the drawing with that criterion applied.

In the Interim

I love creating interim surfaces with grading groups when I need to derive elevations for parking islands. The purpose of an interim surface isn't necessary to become part of a bigger surface but to provide elevations for feature lines. So if I wanted to apply a 2% slope across this parking lot, I could create a grading group surface graded out to a distance of 200' at a 2% slope. Then I could apply the elevations from this interim surface to the feature line parking islands.

Memory Overload

If you are working on that 120 acre site, with those twelve massive building footprints, each with their own parking lot configuration, and a network of roads rolling over the rolling terrain, be very memory conscious. Unless you have an UBER-workstation, model your roads in a roadway source file and model your building sites in individual source files. When there are lots of things talking to each other in one file, that's when things start breaking. This is not because the program is buggy, it's because the workstation is buggy. It becomes buggy when you give it too much to do. The 32-bit workstation running the 3GB switch will need to have data spooned-fed to it in small doses. The 64-bit workstation with 16GB of RAM will want to swallow it whole.

AU 2011: When CAD Management & IT Grow Apart

If you are a CAD Manager, your goals and objectives have drastically changed from what they would have been in the past. Ten or so years ago, the CAD Manager:

• Might have doubled as the IT Manager
• Might have worked for the IT Manager
• Might have worked simultaneously in production
• Might have assigned work
• Was the go-to person for CAD support & mentoring
• Developed company CAD standards
• Configured and organized the shared CAD resources
• Oversaw upgrades
• Managed licenses

I became a CAD Manager because there was a need for my company to have a CAD go-to person. This was in the early days of CAD when there were only workstations with just AutoCAD installed. There was no server, internet, or email so needing a dedicated IT person never crossed anyone's mind. Then after costly mistakes were made due to our faulty sneakernet, in came the file server.

The file server required some attention. Backups, account creation, and organization were basically all that was required. So that's when I became the IT person. I did it all: production, IT and CAD Management. As the years went by, everybody in the organization required a computer, an Office Suite, internet access, email, VPN, remote desktop access, CD/DVD burners, scanners, and antivirus software. Servers required RAID, SQL, IIS, and management of group and folder permissions. Networks required fiber, routers, switches, WAN accelerators, and fire walls. Then in came the phone systems. With the great evolution of IT occurring, CAD Management became a very small task.

Meanwhile in CAD, vertical products started developing. Remember the Desktops: Land Development Desktop, Architectural Desktop, and Mechanical Desktop to name a few. The desktops required some attention, but many people used out of the box configuration. Who can forget the old Softdesk layers that made their way into Land Development Desktop: SRFVIEW, SRFBDR, STAPTS, and STALBLS? In my recent years working for a reseller, I found that there were many companies still using these layers as their company standard.

CAD technology began its evolution. Unbeknownst to many CAD users, BIM was born. At first as Civil 3D and the Revits were developing, they were looked upon as "those other programs". There was plenty of user skepticism, but the BIM train gradually gained its momentum and left the station.

Currently if you are not moving toward a BIM solution, you cannot be competitive. Adopting new technology brings new business opportunities to your company. Point cloud deliverables, 3D visualization, construction simulation, GIS solutions, as well as a quantifiable, consistent construction models are cutting edge services that are being sought. This brings a whole new bundle of technology that must be managed, integrated, supported, and mentored. With the implementation of BIM solutions, the CAD Manager becomes the BIM Manager.

At the Autodesk University 2011 Leadership forum, I will be conducting a round table discussion on this topic with my IT Director, Jason Bjornsen. Some of the talking points will be:

• What has motivated your embrace of BIM in your industry?
• What are your thoughts/concerns about placing your firm on the cutting edge of technology?
• How much do you need to know about the BIM process?
• What should and shouldn't a BIM Manager being doing?
• How might IT hinder/encourage BIM operations?
• What do you as a business developer need from BIM?
• What do you as a business developer need from IT?
• How could BIM and IT jointly assist in successful business development ventures?
• What are reasonable budgetary expectations when you are implementing a BIM solution?
• How can you best support your BIM Manager during an implementation?

Any thoughts on this? If so, please post a reply.

Cloud-based Training

In recent years, the cloud has become a preferred venue for training. The benefits are:

• No travel
• Flexible schedule
• No software required
• Only one workstation spec requirement - Internet

Cloud-based training has you log into a training portal and either interact live with an instructor or watch training video.

With live training, you access the desktop of a training computer based in the cloud. You can see the instructor's desktop as he walks you through demonstrations. The instructor can see your training desktop as you are working exercises. The biggest benefit of instructor led training vs recorded training is pace. The instructor can increase or decrease the pace of the training based on your capabilities. Your questions will be answered on the spot. I recommend instructor led training for fundamental learning. Pre-recorded works well for refresher training or for those who need to train in a self-paced environment.

For instructor led cloud-based training, check out http://www.cadtrainingonline.com/.

For recorded cloud-based training, check out http://www.cadlearning.com/.

Both companies have a great track record. Both companies are focused solely on providing training. Both companies use instructors at the top of their game.

Grip-Editing Contours in Civil 3D

One Land Desktop convenience missed by my users is the ability to grip-edit contours for minor cosmetic edits. What I'm about to post isn't a new or original concept. It's a trick us veteran Civil 3D-ers have been using for a while. For some reason, I can't find anyone who has blogged about it so here it is.

1. Select your surface. Using the contextual ribbon, click on Extract Objects on the Surface Tools panel.

   

2. In the Extract Objects from Surface dialog box, clear all check boxes except for Major Contours and Minor Contours. Click OK.

   
   
   

3. Click on a polyline representing your major and another representing your minor contours. Right click and click on Select Similar.

   

4. Add the polyline contours to your surface.

   

5. Grip edit. If you are set to Rebuild – Automatic, you'll see your TIN lines update as well as your contours. Again, this trick should only be used for minor cosmetic edits.

   
   

Traversing Traverse Analysis in Civil 3D

I was recently contacted about an issue involving the execution of a Traverse Analysis. The gentleman was experiencing fatal errors while trying to set it up. His surveyor provided him field book notes. Here is the traverse:

BS	OC	FS	ANGLE	DISTANCE
100	241	154	89.3337	298.800
241	154	155	71.1542	230.260
154	155	156	191.3921	94.235
155	156	100	150.1738	348.510
156	100	241	37.1308	590.700

In a traverse, the first setup is defined with known points. Since no coordinates were provided for points 241 and 100, we will create control points using assumed coordinates:

Point Number	Easting	Northing
241	5000	5000
100	5000	5100

Also, notice that point 100 is being referenced on the final setup. Because we established an assumed location for point 100, we will rename the occupied point in the final setup to 242.

Here are the steps for running this traverse:

1. Create control points for 241 and 100 in the survey database using the above coordinates. Create these before defining the traverse. Civil 3D tends to crash when you try to define a traverse based on control points that do not exist, even though it offers to create them for you.
2. Create your traverse:

   

3. Edit the traverse by entering your foresight point numbers, angles, and distances at the correct setup.  Save the contents of the Traverse Editor.

   

4. Run the Traverse Analysis.  Make necessary changes in the Traverse Analysis dialog box. Do consult with your surveyor for acceptable closure limits and angle error. This particular analysis yielded results that didn't meet the closure limits below.

   

5. You will be presented with three reports. Carefully review these before applying the Traverse Analysis to the survey database:

 

Heads Up Grading for Parking Lots

In the good ol' days, before data collectors were in wide spread use, we used to get our existing topo on paper. We'd have to throw it over a big ol' digitizing board and trace it with a puck. This was referred to as digitizing which was a very time consuming task. Later, we were able to have the paper scanned, insert the image into AutoCAD, scale it up, and trace it on screen. This was referred to as "heads up digitizing" which was a lot more efficient and faster.

I've coined this term "heads up grading" for those who give up the paper, scale, and calculator way of grading to use the grading tools in Civil 3D instead. The example presented in this post will show how quickly and efficiently one can arrive at a grading solution using this method.  If there are any fundamental concepts in this post that you do not understand, please refer to Mastering Civil 3D by Richard Graham & Louisa Holland.

The illustration below shows a parking lot. The purpose of this exercise is to grade the parking lot which feeds onto a proposed road. The linework for the parking lot is being represented by a feature line in a site named "Parking". There are no elevations applied. The proposed road is represented by a corridor.

Create Grading Setup

1. Add the back of curb feature line as a break line to a proposed surface named "Parking Temp". Associate a surface style that shows contours. Configure a mid-ordinate distance of 1 (don't argue with me).  
2. Add surface spot elevation labels. As you grade the parking lot, these will automatically update.
3. Extract the back of curb feature line from the corridor and apply a style with the highest priority for split point resolution; maintain its dynamic link with the corridor. Since the parking lot back of curb feature line meets this corridor back of curb feature line, the match grade elevations will always be maintained even after the corridor is updated.

   

4. Plan your overall grading scheme. For this scenario, we'll divert the flow northwest to a detention pond.

Result:

Grade from Corridor

Obviously the grade has already been set at the road. Using Elevation Editor, we'll grade from the road to the end of the east curb return using a 6% grade. For the west curb return, use a grade of 4.5%. You can try different values. The surface, contours and labels automatically update as you enter the values into the elevation editor. Or you can manually enter an elevation for that point.

Focusing on the east (high) side of the parking lot, we'll grade the next three segments on the feature line.

1. Grade down at 2% to the beginning of the curb return.
2. Grade up at 1% for the next two segments until the southeast corner of the parking lot is reached.

This is the elevation we will hold for this parking lot corner.

In the Interim

Let's try out the scenario of sheet flowing at 2% diagonally across the entire parking lot. This will require a feature line intersecting this corner of the parking lot and positioned to project a grading object across the parking lot.

Position this feature line to be perpendicular to a line drawn from this point of the parking lot to the opposite point which will be the low point. Place the feature line in a site named "Interim" and set its elevation to 98.99.

To project a -2% slope in the northeast direction from this feature line, open up the Grading Creation Tools and configure a grading group:

1. Set the site to "Interim".
2. Create a grading group named "Interim".
3. Turn on the Automatic Surface feature & configure a no display style.

Using a "by distance" grading criteria, we can create a grading object that projects for a distance of 300' and a grade of -2%.

Next we'll use the "Interim" surface to assign elevations to the back of curb feature line.

Results:

At the north turn out, the back of curb will be wrapped up by raising the northwest elevation to 95.35.

What's Happening Inside?

To model the inside of the parking lot, a grading group will be applied.  Open the Grading Creation Tools:

1. Set the site to "Parking".
2. Create a grading group called "Parking Final".
3. Configure grading group to generate a surface using a contour style.
4. Set the style for the "Parking Temp" surface to a no display style.

Three types of criteria will be generated to model the top, face, and gutter pan.

The beauty of using grading groups is that if you regrade the top of curb, each grading object is regenerated using its criteria based on the top of curb feature line elevations. If the gutter criterion is only required on one side of the parking lot, you can supply a start and end point for it. The pavement can be filled in with an infill.

Results:

Finito!

This took minutes. The contours are generated and the grading annotation is done. Perhaps a minute or two could be taken to arrange the spot elevation labels. But if the grading needs to be revised, once the feature line is edited, all the grading, surfaces, and annotation will update. And, incidentally, the curb in the corridor at the entrance can be wiped down by adding sections at the entrance and decreasing the curb height dimension in Section Editor.

Parking lot grading can get a lot more complicated than this. Combinations of these grading tools can be used to arrive at a solution. Just formulate a plan of action before you start. Just remember as you are heads up grading:

• Keep your interim grading groups in separate sites.
• Give your sites, grading groups, & surfaces relevant names.
• Use spot elevation labels; these will update instantly and it's easier to identify elevations than using the elevation editor.
• Use grading groups for curb & gutter. Feature lines created by stepped offset do not automatically update.
• Be aware of your feature line style priority for split point resolution.
• Remember, corridors can work with site grading too! Extract feature lines for site grading reference and define those entrances.

Book Review: Mastering Civil 3D 2012

I've been reading the Mastering Civil 3D 2012 book by Richard Graham & Louisa Holland. Although I haven't read it from cover to cover, I started from the beginning, skimmed through to specific sections within each chapter, and read those sections then skimmed again; I even tried out some exercises. The purpose of this indulgence is to determine if I would recommend this book as a learning tool in your Civil 3D arsenal.

First of all, I would like to say that this book is an excellent read. The language is friendly. The flow of subject matter is easy and logical. The content is thorough. It's obvious that the authors have had real-world experience with the software. Plus, there is humor! Now I wouldn't recommend it for poolside reading, but it would be an excellent reference to keep next to your computer at work.

The chapters are geared towards building insight. For example, you will have great insight regarding the functionality of parcels and where parcels can be applied in a Civil 3D project process instead of just learning how to create parcels. Also, the book is very well organized so that each chapter is purposed and focused. For instance, Superelevation could be addressed in several chapters: Alignments, Profiles & Profile Views, Assemblies & Subassemblies, and Corridors. Instead of spreading that information out over four chapters, there is one chapter dedicated to Superelevation.

Throughout sections of the book, there are tips and tricks which will help advance your developing skill with the software. There are also exercises spread throughout the chapters designed to fortify your learning. There are "Master It" tasks at the end of the chapters that will help drive certain concepts home. Then there are certification objectives flagged throughout the book that will help prepare you for the Autodesk Civil 3D certification exams.

I recommend this book if you are just starting with Civil 3D or have been working with Civil 3D and would like to fill in the blanks. I send my congratulations out to Rick and Lou for putting together an excellent Civil 3D manual.

One Label – Two Point Elevations

Quite often when surveyors collect points, two shots are collected at a vertical face to describe the top and bottom elevations. One way to deal is to take the two point labels, grip them, and move them in place one on top of the other. Another way to do it is to create a single label style that allows you to pick the two cogo/survey points and store their elevations in a single label.

1. Create a surface label.
2. Clear out all components.
3. Create two reference text components – Select Type: Cogo Point

Use Add Labels, pick the location for the leader and select the two cogo/survey points. Drag it to desired drag state location.