Tutorial: Using GENIO Data with AutoCAD Civil 3D Data Shortcuts

Autodesk Support

Aug 24, 2017

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Autodesk® Import-Export Extension for GENIO to bring model data from Bentley® MXROAD® into Autodesk® AutoCAD® Civil 3D®.

You will use data shortcuts to create a project structure in which GENIO (general import/output) data can be shared in multiple drawings. This workflow demonstrates how to use GENIO data as a foundation for elements of your AutoCAD Civil 3D project and maintain a dynamic relationship between these data as the design updates.

Engineering data created in the Bentley MX format can be exported to a GENIO file, and then imported to AutoCAD Civil 3D. The Autodesk Import-Export Extension for GENIO is available from Autodesk® Account. For more information, visit https://accounts.autodesk.com.

This tutorial covers the following topics:

  • Importing data from a GENIO file
  • Creating a data shortcuts project to share the imported objects
  • Using the Data Shortcuts Editor to configure the data shortcuts for easier update with new GENIO data
  • Updating the project data with a revised GENIO file

Installing the Tutorial Files

For best results, save the files that are included with this tutorial to the following folder, creating the GENIO folder and a folder for tutorial data.

Folder path:
C:\Users\<user name>\My Documents\Autodesk\My Civil Tutorial Data\GENIO

Please use these files for this tutorial.

Importing Data

In the following steps, you will import objects from a GENIO file into a drawing.

Import MX data into an AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing

  1. Click ➤ New ➤ Drawing ➤ _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS.dwt to create a new blank drawing.
  2. In Toolspace, verify that the Toolbox tab is displayed. If it is not, enter Toolbox on the command line to display it.
  3. On the Toolbox tab, in the Subscription Extension Manager collection, expand the Autodesk Import-Export Extension for GENIO collection, and double-click Import from GENIO.
  1. In the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box, on the GENIO Import Selection tab, in the upper left corner, click Open.
  2. In the Select GENIO File to Import dialog box, navigate to the file C:\Users\<user name>\My Documents\Autodesk\My Civil Tutorial Data\GENIO\GENIO_Data_1.TXT, select it, and then click Open.
    The contents of the file are displayed in the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box.
  3. On the right side of the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box, select the following features to import: GC01, GC30, and GR05. Feel free to select any others you are interested in.

Note: On the GENIO Import Options tab, you can specify the AutoCAD Civil 3D styles to apply to the imported objects.

  1. Click Import and then close the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box.

You should see the imported alignments and their profiles. If not, on the Toolspace Prospector tab, expand the Sites ➤ GENIO [ALIGNMENT PROFILE SAMPLE] ➤ Alignments ➤ Centerline Alignments collection, then right-click an alignment ➤ Zoom To.

Example:

Creating a Data Shortcuts Project

A data shortcuts project provides an effective structure for sharing the imported GENIO data with other drawings and processing data updates efficiently.

The following steps instruct you to create a new GENIO project folder in the default working folder for data shortcut projects, C:\Civil 3D Projects.

Note: If you want to create this project folder in another location, on the Prospector tab in the Toolspace, right-click Data Shortcuts ➤ Set Working Folder, and specify the desired parent folder.

After creating the project folder, you will save the current drawing to the project, and create data shortcuts so that other drawings can share the project alignments and profiles.

Create a GENIO project

  1. On the Toolspace Prospector tab, right-click Data Shortcuts ➤ New Data Shortcuts Folder.
  2. In the New Data Shortcut Folder dialog box, enter GENIO for the Name, select the Use Project Template option, and then click OK.
    The standard folders for project GENIO are created in your working folder, which is typically C:\Civil 3D Projects; project GENIO also becomes the active project on the Data Shortcuts node.
  3. Save the current drawing as GENIO_Alignments.dwg in the following folder: C:\Civil 3D Projects\GENIO\Source Drawings\Alignments.

Create data shortcuts for the imported objects

  1. On the Toolspace Prospector tab, right-click Data Shortcuts ➤ Create Data Shortcuts.
  2. In the Create Data Shortcuts dialog box, click the objects that you want to share within the project and then click OK.

Tip: If you click the top Alignments box, all alignment and profile objects are selected.

Creating Data References from Data Shortcuts

In the following steps, you will use the data shortcuts to create reference copies of the GENIO objects in another drawing in the project.

Create reference objects

  1. Click ➤ New ➤ Drawing ➤ _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS.dwt to create a new blank drawing.
  2. Save the current drawing as GENIO_Design.dwg in the following folder: C:\Civil 3D Projects\GENIO\Production Drawings.
  3. On the Toolspace Prospector tab, Data Shortcuts node, expand the Alignments collection, then right-click each alignment shortcut ➤ Create Reference.
    Note: You can also multi-select the alignments and create references to multiple alignments in one operation. If you do this, the Create Alignment Reference dialog box is not shown—the defaults are used instead.

  1. In the Create Alignment Reference dialog box, click OK.
  2. Optionally, expand the node for each alignment data shortcut and create references for each profile.
    The reference objects are created in the current drawing.

In the next few steps you will examine the geometry of one of the alignments.

  1. Save the drawing to retain the data references.
  2. On the Toolspace Prospector tab, expand the Alignments ➤ Centerline Alignments collection, then right-click alignment GC01 ➤ Zoom To.
  3. In the drawing, click the longest alignment, GC01.
  4. On the Ribbon, click Alignment tab ➤ Geometry Editor.
  5. On the Alignment Layout Tools toolbar, click Alignment Grid View.

  1. In Panorama, in the Alignment Entities vista, note that entity 8 is a curve with a radius of 13. Later in this tutorial you will see this radius value updated.

Configuring Data Shortcuts for Update

In the following steps, you will edit the data shortcuts so that reference objects can be more easily updated when you import new versions of the source objects from another GENIO file.

Data shortcuts can be configured to identify a reference object by its name or its handle (a unique identifier of the software object). To understand the difference, consider a reference object that uses the handle to identify a source object, alignment GC01. You can rename GC01 to anything, and the reference alignment will preserve the link, receiving any updates made to the source object. However, if the reference alignment uses the name to identify its source object, you can delete or rename the original GC01, apply that name to a different alignment in the source drawing, and the reference alignment will pull in the geometry of the new alignment named GC01.

Linking a reference object to a handle is useful when you want it to follow the same source object through any possible changes, including name changes. Conversely, linking a reference object to a name is useful when you want to replace one source object with another and avoid the need to rebuild data shortcuts.

To configure data shortcuts to identify source objects by name, you will use the Data Shortcuts Editor, a stand-alone application that is installed with AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Configure the data shortcuts for update

  1. Click Start ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ AutoCAD Civil 3D <version> ➤ Data Shortcuts Editor.
  2. In the Data Shortcuts Editor, click File menu ➤ Open Data Shortcuts Folder, navigate to and select the _Shortcuts folder inside the GENIO project folder, and then click OK. The data shortcuts are displayed in a table in the Data Shortcuts Editor.

In the Type column, you can see that the alignment data shortcuts are type AeccDbAlignment while the profile data shortcuts are AeccDbVAlignment.
In the Use to Match column, each shortcut is set to use Handle or Name to identify the source object. In the next step, you will change this setting to Name Only.

  1. In the Use To Match column, click a cell that contains “Handle or name”, click Edit menu ➤ Find and Replace, and replace “Handle or name” with “Name only”.
    This action configures the data shortcuts to point to new copies of the source objects if they have the same names as the original versions.
  2. In the Data Shortcuts Editor, click File ➤ Save and then File ➤ Exit.

Importing Updated GENIO Data

In the following steps, you will replicate the process of applying design changes to the project from new GENIO data. You will delete the original alignments and profiles, then import updated copies to the source drawing, GENIO_Alignments.dwg. As a result, the reference objects will be updated in the other drawing, GENIO_Design.dwg.

Delete objects and import updated versions

  1. In GENIO_Alignments.dwg, select the alignments GC01, GC30, and GR05 and press Delete. The related profiles are also deleted.
    Note: If you import updated versions of the objects before deleting the originals, the updated objects are given different names, such as “GC01 (1)” for the new version of GC01.
  1. On the Toolspace Toolbox tab, expand the Autodesk Import-Export Extension for GENIO collection, and double-click Import from GENIO.
  2. In the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box, on the GENIO Import Selection tab, in the upper left corner, click Open.
  3. In the Select GENIO File to Import dialog box, navigate to the file C:\Users\<user name>\My Documents\Autodesk\My Civil Tutorial Data\GENIO\GENIO_Data_2.TXT, select it, and then click Open. The contents of the file are displayed in the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box.
  4. On the right side of the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box, select the features GC01, GC30, and GR05. Feel free to select any others you are interested in.
  5. Click Import, and then close the Import Extension for GENIO dialog box.
    The updated alignments and profiles are imported into the drawing. If you want to see them on the Toolspace Prospector tab, expand the collection Sites ➤ GENIO [ALIGNMENT PROFILE SAMPLE] ➤ Alignments ➤ Centerline Alignments.
    Because you changed the data shortcuts to identify their source objects by name, the reference objects in GENIO_Design.dwg should point to the alignments that you just imported, and should reflect the changes in these alignments.
  1. Save the current drawing, GENIO_Alignments.dwg, and optionally close it.

Update and check data references

  1. Make GENIO_Design.dwg the active drawing.
    On the status bar, you are notified that reference objects may have changed.

  1. Pan or zoom so that you can see the alignments clearly, and then click Synchronize. The alignments are updated from their source objects, and the Event Viewer reports the results.

You may have noticed some changes to the geometry. In the next few steps, you can see the change to a curve radius in alignment GC01.

  1. In the drawing, click the longest alignment, GC01.
  2. On the Ribbon, click Alignment tab ➤ Geometry Editor.
  3. On the Alignment Layout Tools toolbar, click Alignment Grid View.
  4. In Panorama, in the Alignment Entities vista, note that for entity 8 the curve radius has changed from 13 to 15.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have created a project structure in which design data from Bentley MXROAD can be imported on a regular basis and automatically shared in multiple drawings.

The work required to create and configure the data shortcuts is done only once.

Each time a new GENIO file is available, you:

  1. Delete the existing source objects.
  2. Import the new versions.
  3. Synchronize the references in other drawings.

Updates to the data will be propagated to the dependent objects.


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