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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Design a rail assembly and use the sub-assembly composer in Civil 3D.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
13 min.
Transcript
00:00
In this video, we will create cross sections and use those sections to evaluate material quantities.
00:10
We'll also create plan and profile sheets and add labels to our rail alignments.
00:16
To create cross sections in Civil 3D, we have to create sample lines first.
00:20
So, we'll pick the alignment that we want those lines based on, and in our case it's the center line alignment.
00:26
We can determine the data sources included in the sections.
00:31
We can either create individual pattern lines or create several lines based on a station range.
00:37
That's what we'll do in this case.
00:39
We can determine the beginning and end stations and the size and spacing of our lines.
00:45
Once we select OK, we'll see the pattern lines appear.
00:50
Now we can create sections by selecting the Section View in the Home Ribbon.
00:55
And we will create multiple views, and this will be based on the lines that we just created.
01:01
In the view styles, we can set up the appearance of the cross sections.
01:05
Things like vertical exaggeration, we'll keep that at one.
01:09
And the grid layout, we don't want to clip our grid in either direction.
01:14
We'll also minimize the spacing above and below the sections, and we can control the labels and grid patterns.
01:21
We want to control the display of most of the section elements.
01:27
We can also edit this information later if we need to.
01:30
We can determine the layout and choose from the out-of-the-box settings, or we can include our own custom settings if we have them.
01:38
So, we'll choose 500 scale, and we'll stay with many of the default settings.
01:43
We can edit the display styles for our corridor and our existing ground.
01:48
We’ll make the existing topo green, and we will shut off the band display.
01:55
We don't need that in section view.
01:57
We can pick the location in plan view where we want our sections to be drawn.
02:03
As we inspect the sections, we're looking for any issues that need attention.
02:08
So, the sections are dynamic.
02:09
If we revise our corridor, the sections will update automatically.
02:14
When we select any section and then right-click on the section, we can edit the display styles.
02:21
So here, we'll adjust the minor ticks and our grid lines, and we'll go to the display and turn those lines on.
02:29
And now it looks like we're set.
02:31
If we need to adjust the spacing, we can pick the border, then right-click and edit the group plot style.
02:38
And in this area, we can adjust the spacing of our sections and the print area.
02:43
Once our sections are set up and ready, we can create the section sheets.
02:48
So, under the output tab, we can pick Create Section Sheets.
02:52
We’ll use the alignment, the pattern lines, and the sections that we just made as our basis.
02:58
When we select OK, it will ask us to save the drawing.
03:01
So, we'll pick OK to continue.
03:04
Now we will see the Sheet Set Manager dialog come up.
03:08
Here, we can name our sections, and we can give them a description and pick a template.
03:14
We will use civil metric.
03:17
This gives us control to populate the data for our border sheets and for our sheet information.
03:23
Once we pick OK, we will see the sections that we just made in the sheet list,
03:29
and we can inspect those sheets and the sections to make sure everything displays correctly.
03:35
We can also double-click on the sheet information to update and populate the fields.
03:42
If we ever need to adjust the scale of our sections, we can pick the viewport window,
03:48
then choose the updated scale from the arrow down and reposition the view window.
03:55
Now let's get into the volume calculations.
03:58
We need to create two surfaces; one based on the top of our finished grade and the other based on the bottom of our section.
04:06
So, let's pick our corridor and select corridor surfaces.
04:11
In this window, we need to pick a new surface.
04:14
We’ll call that top finished.
04:16
In the overhang correction column, we will pick top links for this surface.
04:23
Then, we will add all our different elements from our corridor.
04:27
Now we'll set the ballast and the wall as brake lines.
04:32
Now, we need to set the boundary.
04:33
So, under the boundary tab, we will right-click on our surface and select Corridor extents as outer boundary.
04:40
This will eliminate any unnecessary triangulation around the edges.
04:45
We'll do the same thing for the lower surface.
04:47
Here, we'll pick bottom links, we'll add the codes that we need.
04:53
Then, we'll add the boundary to the surface, and we'll build the surfaces.
04:58
Now in plan view, we can inspect the results based on our contours.
05:03
But to really evaluate this, we need to see these in section view.
05:07
So, to add these surfaces, we will select any section and then pick sample more sources.
05:14
And here we can add the surfaces we just created and define the view styles.
05:19
So, the finished surface will be finished grade.
05:22
Let’s create a new style for the lower surface so that it stands out.
05:26
So, we'll copy the current style, rename this Bottom Topo, and we'll make this one red.
05:33
Then we hit Apply and we can inspect the results.
05:36
So, we can select the new surface, and we can see how they look.
05:39
In this section, it looks okay.
05:41
But if there are any sections that are incorrect, we can redefine those codes and regenerate those surfaces.
05:47
Now, we'll compute the volumes.
05:49
So, let's pick a section and select Compute Materials.
05:53
So, we can define the criteria.
05:55
Let's pick Cut and Fill.
05:58
For this existing ground, we'll choose our existing surface, and for the datum, we'll pick the lower surface.
06:05
When we select OK, we should see our cut and fill shapes in section view.
06:11
If we want to add the materials like ballast or subgrade, we can pick the section and go back to compute materials.
06:18
We can either add these materials to our list or choose Import another criteria to create a new list.
06:25
So, we'll just add these new materials here.
06:27
And here, we want to define these as structures, and we'll pick the shape.
06:31
And in this case, we'll pick ballast as the style, and we'll define the data type from the corridor shape.
06:39
And so, we'll pick our ballast.
06:42
And we can do this for any of the other materials that we need to quantify.
06:47
And then the section view, we can see the shading for these different materials.
06:53
Once the areas have been defined, we can pick the section again and choose Generate Volume Report.
06:59
For this, we can keep the default cut and fill style and generate the report.
07:04
And this will provide details of each section with a cumulative value.
07:08
We can copy this information or save it in another format, if we need to.
07:12
We can run the same report, but this time, we'll change the style to select materials.
07:18
This will give us a breakdown of each element by section.
07:23
We can also create a material volume table.
07:26
Another way that we can create earthwork volumes is under the Analysis tab, under the Volumes dashboard.
07:32
Here, we'll select a new surface.
07:35
We can identify the base surface, in this case, our existing ground, and the comparison surface, or the bottom of our corridor.
07:42
Once we select OK, it will provide a summary in this window.
07:47
Last thing, for volumes, we want to display the areas by station.
07:52
So, we'll pick a section, and we'll choose View Group properties.
07:56
If we pick the change volume tables, we can set a table of quantities that will display the section view.
08:05
We'll create a new style. We'll call that Calculate Cut Fill.
08:09
We'll set that text size and the display styles.
08:14
Let's turn off the fill and set the color for the text and for the borderlines, and we'll pick our materials.
08:23
For now, we'll just use the cut and fill materials.
08:26
Then, we can set the position of our table and then say OK.
08:30
The material table will display in your section.
08:34
Now, if we need to see the other materials, we could use the other criteria material list and show the other structure elements.
08:42
One final note on sections, the pattern lines are dynamic.
08:46
So, if we change the length or the angle using the grips, the sections will automatically update with them.
08:55
Now let's set up the plan sheets.
08:58
We'll go to the Output tab and pick Create View Frames.
09:01
Let's make these based on our eastbound track, and we can choose from different scales.
09:07
We'll stay with 500 scale for now, and we will stay with the default orientation.
09:12
We can set the layer and style for the view frames and the match lines in this dialog.
09:18
So, let's add a profile band in this step for the rail cant.
09:25
Here, we can set up our display in the compose label dialog.
09:29
Now, let's set the applied cant with the left and right label.
09:37
And once that's good, we can create the view frames.
09:40
In model space, we can get a feel for the layout.
09:44
If needed, we can adjust match line labels, and we can do that using the grips.
09:50
Now, let's pick Create Sheets.
09:53
Here, we can control the setup in the layout, and we'll make these sheets part of the CAD file.
10:00
We'll give that a name and we can set where the content is stored.
10:04
This will be in our ACC project directory.
10:08
In the profile display option, we can control the label styles, and in the data bands, we can set the elevation based on our surface profile.
10:22
All the other items will stay with the default settings.
10:25
We'll pick OK, and then we'll need to save the drawing.
10:30
Then, we can pick where we want the profiles to display, and the sheets will start to generate.
10:35
We’ll see the sheet set manager come up again, and we'll set those key items that we want similar to our previous step,
10:41
and we can view the results both in model space and in paper space with the sheets.
10:51
If any of the profiles did not display the way that we need, we can select the profile to modify the labels or the layout.
10:59
Here, we'll add the labels for the slope and for the Crest and Sag Curves.
11:04
Finally, let's add some labels and some linework to the plan sheets.
11:08
So, under the Annotate tab, we'll go to Add Labels.
11:12
Now, there are a lot of annotation styles that we can choose from, but here we just want to add elements to our alignment.
11:19
So, we'll pick alignment as our feature and select multiple segments as our label type.
11:25
With this setup, we can determine our tangents with the bearing and distance, our curves that will include the delta and spirals.
11:34
For any of these segments, we can revise the styles.
11:38
So, we'll pick that for the spirals, and we will shorten the label to LS.
11:45
We don't need any of the spiral PI stations here.
11:48
And so, we can remove that element.
11:52
And once the labels are placed, we can slide them along the alignment or reposition them using the grips.
11:59
We need to create labels for the eastbound track, but we want to change the layout for the spiral just slightly.
12:05
So, let's create a new style based on our previous style.
12:09
We'll move the attachment points, and we'll set that offset to work with the eastbound line.
12:18
And again, we can make revisions as needed and clean up any sort of conflicts.
12:25
Now, let's pick the corridor and choose feature lines from corridor.
12:30
In the command line, we will pick All.
12:32
Here, we can choose from the features that are displayed within our corridor, and we can choose how we want those to display.
12:39
We can also set the style and the layer.
12:43
And if we turn our corridor off, we can see those lines show up in our plan view.
12:48
This helps us to add some essential elements based on our design model to the plan sheets.
12:55
These controls and tools allow us to create a complete design package.
Video transcript
00:00
In this video, we will create cross sections and use those sections to evaluate material quantities.
00:10
We'll also create plan and profile sheets and add labels to our rail alignments.
00:16
To create cross sections in Civil 3D, we have to create sample lines first.
00:20
So, we'll pick the alignment that we want those lines based on, and in our case it's the center line alignment.
00:26
We can determine the data sources included in the sections.
00:31
We can either create individual pattern lines or create several lines based on a station range.
00:37
That's what we'll do in this case.
00:39
We can determine the beginning and end stations and the size and spacing of our lines.
00:45
Once we select OK, we'll see the pattern lines appear.
00:50
Now we can create sections by selecting the Section View in the Home Ribbon.
00:55
And we will create multiple views, and this will be based on the lines that we just created.
01:01
In the view styles, we can set up the appearance of the cross sections.
01:05
Things like vertical exaggeration, we'll keep that at one.
01:09
And the grid layout, we don't want to clip our grid in either direction.
01:14
We'll also minimize the spacing above and below the sections, and we can control the labels and grid patterns.
01:21
We want to control the display of most of the section elements.
01:27
We can also edit this information later if we need to.
01:30
We can determine the layout and choose from the out-of-the-box settings, or we can include our own custom settings if we have them.
01:38
So, we'll choose 500 scale, and we'll stay with many of the default settings.
01:43
We can edit the display styles for our corridor and our existing ground.
01:48
We’ll make the existing topo green, and we will shut off the band display.
01:55
We don't need that in section view.
01:57
We can pick the location in plan view where we want our sections to be drawn.
02:03
As we inspect the sections, we're looking for any issues that need attention.
02:08
So, the sections are dynamic.
02:09
If we revise our corridor, the sections will update automatically.
02:14
When we select any section and then right-click on the section, we can edit the display styles.
02:21
So here, we'll adjust the minor ticks and our grid lines, and we'll go to the display and turn those lines on.
02:29
And now it looks like we're set.
02:31
If we need to adjust the spacing, we can pick the border, then right-click and edit the group plot style.
02:38
And in this area, we can adjust the spacing of our sections and the print area.
02:43
Once our sections are set up and ready, we can create the section sheets.
02:48
So, under the output tab, we can pick Create Section Sheets.
02:52
We’ll use the alignment, the pattern lines, and the sections that we just made as our basis.
02:58
When we select OK, it will ask us to save the drawing.
03:01
So, we'll pick OK to continue.
03:04
Now we will see the Sheet Set Manager dialog come up.
03:08
Here, we can name our sections, and we can give them a description and pick a template.
03:14
We will use civil metric.
03:17
This gives us control to populate the data for our border sheets and for our sheet information.
03:23
Once we pick OK, we will see the sections that we just made in the sheet list,
03:29
and we can inspect those sheets and the sections to make sure everything displays correctly.
03:35
We can also double-click on the sheet information to update and populate the fields.
03:42
If we ever need to adjust the scale of our sections, we can pick the viewport window,
03:48
then choose the updated scale from the arrow down and reposition the view window.
03:55
Now let's get into the volume calculations.
03:58
We need to create two surfaces; one based on the top of our finished grade and the other based on the bottom of our section.
04:06
So, let's pick our corridor and select corridor surfaces.
04:11
In this window, we need to pick a new surface.
04:14
We’ll call that top finished.
04:16
In the overhang correction column, we will pick top links for this surface.
04:23
Then, we will add all our different elements from our corridor.
04:27
Now we'll set the ballast and the wall as brake lines.
04:32
Now, we need to set the boundary.
04:33
So, under the boundary tab, we will right-click on our surface and select Corridor extents as outer boundary.
04:40
This will eliminate any unnecessary triangulation around the edges.
04:45
We'll do the same thing for the lower surface.
04:47
Here, we'll pick bottom links, we'll add the codes that we need.
04:53
Then, we'll add the boundary to the surface, and we'll build the surfaces.
04:58
Now in plan view, we can inspect the results based on our contours.
05:03
But to really evaluate this, we need to see these in section view.
05:07
So, to add these surfaces, we will select any section and then pick sample more sources.
05:14
And here we can add the surfaces we just created and define the view styles.
05:19
So, the finished surface will be finished grade.
05:22
Let’s create a new style for the lower surface so that it stands out.
05:26
So, we'll copy the current style, rename this Bottom Topo, and we'll make this one red.
05:33
Then we hit Apply and we can inspect the results.
05:36
So, we can select the new surface, and we can see how they look.
05:39
In this section, it looks okay.
05:41
But if there are any sections that are incorrect, we can redefine those codes and regenerate those surfaces.
05:47
Now, we'll compute the volumes.
05:49
So, let's pick a section and select Compute Materials.
05:53
So, we can define the criteria.
05:55
Let's pick Cut and Fill.
05:58
For this existing ground, we'll choose our existing surface, and for the datum, we'll pick the lower surface.
06:05
When we select OK, we should see our cut and fill shapes in section view.
06:11
If we want to add the materials like ballast or subgrade, we can pick the section and go back to compute materials.
06:18
We can either add these materials to our list or choose Import another criteria to create a new list.
06:25
So, we'll just add these new materials here.
06:27
And here, we want to define these as structures, and we'll pick the shape.
06:31
And in this case, we'll pick ballast as the style, and we'll define the data type from the corridor shape.
06:39
And so, we'll pick our ballast.
06:42
And we can do this for any of the other materials that we need to quantify.
06:47
And then the section view, we can see the shading for these different materials.
06:53
Once the areas have been defined, we can pick the section again and choose Generate Volume Report.
06:59
For this, we can keep the default cut and fill style and generate the report.
07:04
And this will provide details of each section with a cumulative value.
07:08
We can copy this information or save it in another format, if we need to.
07:12
We can run the same report, but this time, we'll change the style to select materials.
07:18
This will give us a breakdown of each element by section.
07:23
We can also create a material volume table.
07:26
Another way that we can create earthwork volumes is under the Analysis tab, under the Volumes dashboard.
07:32
Here, we'll select a new surface.
07:35
We can identify the base surface, in this case, our existing ground, and the comparison surface, or the bottom of our corridor.
07:42
Once we select OK, it will provide a summary in this window.
07:47
Last thing, for volumes, we want to display the areas by station.
07:52
So, we'll pick a section, and we'll choose View Group properties.
07:56
If we pick the change volume tables, we can set a table of quantities that will display the section view.
08:05
We'll create a new style. We'll call that Calculate Cut Fill.
08:09
We'll set that text size and the display styles.
08:14
Let's turn off the fill and set the color for the text and for the borderlines, and we'll pick our materials.
08:23
For now, we'll just use the cut and fill materials.
08:26
Then, we can set the position of our table and then say OK.
08:30
The material table will display in your section.
08:34
Now, if we need to see the other materials, we could use the other criteria material list and show the other structure elements.
08:42
One final note on sections, the pattern lines are dynamic.
08:46
So, if we change the length or the angle using the grips, the sections will automatically update with them.
08:55
Now let's set up the plan sheets.
08:58
We'll go to the Output tab and pick Create View Frames.
09:01
Let's make these based on our eastbound track, and we can choose from different scales.
09:07
We'll stay with 500 scale for now, and we will stay with the default orientation.
09:12
We can set the layer and style for the view frames and the match lines in this dialog.
09:18
So, let's add a profile band in this step for the rail cant.
09:25
Here, we can set up our display in the compose label dialog.
09:29
Now, let's set the applied cant with the left and right label.
09:37
And once that's good, we can create the view frames.
09:40
In model space, we can get a feel for the layout.
09:44
If needed, we can adjust match line labels, and we can do that using the grips.
09:50
Now, let's pick Create Sheets.
09:53
Here, we can control the setup in the layout, and we'll make these sheets part of the CAD file.
10:00
We'll give that a name and we can set where the content is stored.
10:04
This will be in our ACC project directory.
10:08
In the profile display option, we can control the label styles, and in the data bands, we can set the elevation based on our surface profile.
10:22
All the other items will stay with the default settings.
10:25
We'll pick OK, and then we'll need to save the drawing.
10:30
Then, we can pick where we want the profiles to display, and the sheets will start to generate.
10:35
We’ll see the sheet set manager come up again, and we'll set those key items that we want similar to our previous step,
10:41
and we can view the results both in model space and in paper space with the sheets.
10:51
If any of the profiles did not display the way that we need, we can select the profile to modify the labels or the layout.
10:59
Here, we'll add the labels for the slope and for the Crest and Sag Curves.
11:04
Finally, let's add some labels and some linework to the plan sheets.
11:08
So, under the Annotate tab, we'll go to Add Labels.
11:12
Now, there are a lot of annotation styles that we can choose from, but here we just want to add elements to our alignment.
11:19
So, we'll pick alignment as our feature and select multiple segments as our label type.
11:25
With this setup, we can determine our tangents with the bearing and distance, our curves that will include the delta and spirals.
11:34
For any of these segments, we can revise the styles.
11:38
So, we'll pick that for the spirals, and we will shorten the label to LS.
11:45
We don't need any of the spiral PI stations here.
11:48
And so, we can remove that element.
11:52
And once the labels are placed, we can slide them along the alignment or reposition them using the grips.
11:59
We need to create labels for the eastbound track, but we want to change the layout for the spiral just slightly.
12:05
So, let's create a new style based on our previous style.
12:09
We'll move the attachment points, and we'll set that offset to work with the eastbound line.
12:18
And again, we can make revisions as needed and clean up any sort of conflicts.
12:25
Now, let's pick the corridor and choose feature lines from corridor.
12:30
In the command line, we will pick All.
12:32
Here, we can choose from the features that are displayed within our corridor, and we can choose how we want those to display.
12:39
We can also set the style and the layer.
12:43
And if we turn our corridor off, we can see those lines show up in our plan view.
12:48
This helps us to add some essential elements based on our design model to the plan sheets.
12:55
These controls and tools allow us to create a complete design package.
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