Introduction and Welcome

This is the first course in our learning path How to Set Up a Civil 3D Project for AEC. Data management in Civil 3D is very important, particularly for large, complex projects, to enable drawing performance, dynamic design, and collaboration among team members. Using the proper data management practices in Civil 3D enables you to have a single source for your design. Data can be managed using external files references (XREFs), data shortcuts (DREFs), and data management applications. In this course, you will learn how to set up a Civil 3D project using these data management options. 

Using XREFs allows you to reference AutoCAD drawings into your working drawings for sharing graphics information. With XREFs, you can also add Civil 3D labels without the need to reference the Civil 3D data. Data shortcuts are used in a similar way to reference Civil 3D data within a project. This enables you to split your design data so multiple team members are able to work on different parts of the project at the same time. 

This course takes approximately 45 minutes to complete. By the end of the course, you should be able to:  

• • Manage Civil 3D data inside Civil 3D 
• • Use external references (XREFs) in Civil 3D 

• • Use data shortcuts (DREFs) in Civil 3D 
• • Use the Reference Manager and Data Shortcuts Manager tools 
• • Understand the available data management applications that work with Civil 3D 

Course pre-requisites 

This course requires user-level knowledge of Civil 3D and is focused on best practices and its industry applications. If you don't have experiences with this product, we recommend you take foundational training using one of the resources below: 

• • Built-in tutorials, available via in-product Help 
• • eLearning Partners 
• • Authorized Training Centers 

About the author 

This course was created by Raphael Kuntz, Designated Support Specialist. The Try Its, Read Me files and Knowledge Checks were created by ASCENT. 

Before you start 

• • Please make sure you have the Civil 3D software loaded.  
• • If you have technical difficulties, please reach out to product support.