Working With GIS Data (12:38 min)

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In this lesson, we're gonna look specifically at GIS files and we're gonna prepare some files for import into Revit using Civil 3D.

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So, here's the scenario we're working with.

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We have a client who is considering two sites for their project,

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and they want to see a conceptual site plan for each site so they can determine which site is better suited for the project.

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Now, we have GIS files for each site, and we're gonna review them using Civil 3D.

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Then inside of Civil 3D, we're gonna export a DWG that we're gonna use in Revit for the site plans.

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Now I'm gonna walk you through the process of preparing one of the sites.

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Then I want you to follow the workflow and prepare the file for the second site.

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Sound good? Let's get started.

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So, here I am in Civil 3D. And I'm going to start a new drawing.

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And I'm gonna use the imperial template because my project site is here in the United States.

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Now it's gonna open as a blank file. I'm just gonna do a real quick check of the unit, so I'm gonna type "Units".

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And I just want to verify that my units are set correctly.

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So, our length is set to decimal and our insertion scale is set to feet, so that's correct.

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Now I'm going to click "OK".

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To import my GIS files, my Shapefiles, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use the MAPIMPORT command.

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I'm gonna type "MAPIMPORT", and then I'm gonna browse to the folder containing my Shapefiles.

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So, I want to bring in the boundary, which is gonna be the boundary for the entire municipality.

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So, I'm gonna select that Shapefile and click "OK". And I'm gonna get this Import dialog box.

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Now if I had a really complex Shapefile, I could filter it to get just special or certain elements in the file.

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If there were numerous layers too, I could choose which layer I wanted to bring in.

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This file itself is fairly simple, so there's just one input layer.

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And I can also choose the drawing layer.

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So, I want group all of my Shapefile layers together. So I'm just gonna add an underscore before it and everything else looks okay.

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Now, one thing that I do want to do is check this box Import Polygons as closed Polylines.

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And typically, when you bring in Shapefiles,

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they will come in as an MPolygon object which, unfortunately, doesn't translate over into Revit.

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So, I want to make sure that I check this box. That way the shapes will be imported as Polylines.

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So, now I'm gonna click "OK". And it's gonna process the object.

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I don't see anything, so I'm gonna type ZE for Zoom Extents and here I can see my Polyline boundary.

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Another thing I want to do is I want to actually check my layer setting. So, here is my boundary layer.

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And I'm just gonna change the color on it just to give it a little bit more definition.

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So, I'm gonna change it to a green and click "OK".

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Now, next I'm gonna type MAPIMPORT again, and I'm gonna do this same process for all of my Shapefiles.

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So, I'm gonna select Buildings. Click "OK", and I'm gonna change the drawing layer.

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I'm gonna add an underscore before it.

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I'm going to check the Import Polygons as closed Polylines and then I click "OK".

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So this will take a little bit longer because there's more information than just one single boundary.

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But now I can see all of the buildings as they're defined in the Shapefile.

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Our project site is this area right here, so I can start to see a little bit more definition.

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Now, one thing you may want to do is well when you're bringing in Shapefiles is just take a look at them in 3D.

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Sometimes these shapes will come in at a different Z elevation.

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So, I'm just going to click on the ViewCube and just take a quick look at this in axonometric and it actually looks pretty good.

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If I go to a front view, I can see that everything is for the most part flat.

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So, everything looks good here. Go back to my Plan View and let me rotate that around.

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There we go. That looks better. And I'm just gonna keep importing all of my Shapefile.

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So, again, I type MAPIMPORT. I'm going to choose Driveways. I will bring them in.

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I'm gonna change my drawing layer, and I'm gonna check import closed Polylines and click "OK".

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And we'll do it again.

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So, I'm gonna choose Sidewalks. We'll change our -- there we go, right there.

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And here's our sidewalk information.

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Now, when you bring some items in, actually, in this case and you can tell when you didn't set that changed Polyline option,

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that closed Polyline option, I can see that I have a fill in here on these objects.

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So, if I click on this element here and I go to my Properties window, I could tell that this came in as an Mpolygon.

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And again, that means that I didn't choose the option to translate the Polygons to closed Polylines.

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These elements here would give me some trouble in Revit and they probably wouldn't import.

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So, what I'm gonna do is undo this and I'm going to re-import it.

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So, let's go back to MAPIMPORT and I'm gonna choose our Sidewalks again, go through the same process, they're underscore,

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and then I do want to check that import polygons as closed Polylines option.

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Click "OK", now it comes in and I don't see that solid fill.

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So we'll do it one last time. We'll bring in our zoning layer just for fun.

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And this is going to show me all of the zones in the municipality. And there they are, right there.

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Right now for my building site, I actually have a pretty well defined base plan,

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and this will be a great starting point for my conceptual site plan.

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Now, just a couple of things to finish up with.

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I'm gonna go back to our Layer dialogue,

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and I'm just gonna add some layer colors here just again,

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to further delineate the elements in our site plan.

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And we're gonna set our sidewalks and driveways to a light gray,

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and let's set our buildings to be cyan, and we'll do our zones as red.

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Okay, now I'm gonna type ZE, Zoom Extents.

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So, now I'm seeing the entirety of my base plan here.

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And there's a lot of information here, probably a lot more than I need,

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because my site that I'm looking at is just this small area right here.

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I'm gonna zoom in a little bit and I'm gonna draw a rectangle around the area that I really want to focus on.

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So, let's draw a rectangle right about here. Now I'm going to use the Map Trim command.

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And what this is going to do is it will trim everything either outside or inside of a boundary.

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So, I don't necessarily need all the information outside of that boundary.

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What I really want is the information inside of that.

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So, I'm going to select the boundary, which is the rectangle I just drew. I'm gonna click on that boundary.

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And then the objects to trim, I want them to select automatically and then I want to trim everything that's outside of the boundary.

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And objects that can't be trimmed, I'm going to say that we ignore them.

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So I click “OK”, and the tool's gonna go through and it's going to trim everything outside of my boundary.

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Now, this is a fairly large base plan, so it may take a few moments to go through that.

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Here we go. So, my site plan again is a lot more compact. I still have a lot of information here that's useful.

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So, I still have my driveways, my buildings, I can still see the boundaries and I have the zoning information.

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So, as a last step, what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna do Save As, so I'm gonna type Save As.

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I'm gonna browse to my Project folder and I'm going to select the file to save.

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So at this point, I've brought the GIS information in, I've converted it into AutoCAD Polylines and then I saved it out as a DWG.

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So, it's all ready to import or link into Revit to use for my conceptual site plan. Okay, so I created the base plan for Site 1.

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I want you to go ahead and create the base plan for Site 2.

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So, go ahead and download the sample Shapefiles for this class. Then open Civil 3D and create a new file.

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Use the MAPIMPORT Command to import the Shapefiles.

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And remember, you can change the layers as needed. So, set the FILLLMODE to 0 to turn off the solid fill.

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And remember too, that you'll need to explode the MPolygons to Polylines in order for the shapes to appear in Revit.

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Also remember to put the Polylines on the correct layer.

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When you explode the MPolygons, they'll revert to layer zero, and you want to put them on a layer that's a little more meaningful.

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Next, use the MAPTRIM command to trim the GIS data to something that's a little bit more manageable.

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And then lastly, use the Save As command to save the DWG so that you can link it into Revit.

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Okay, makes sense. Go to it.