About the Authors

Louisa “Lou” Holland is a LEED-accredited civil engineer currently living in San Francisco, California. She has trained users on Eagle Point Software and AutoCAD® since 2001 and on AutoCAD Civil 3D since 2006. She has worked extensively with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, CalTrans, and various consultants on AutoCAD Civil 3D implementations. Louisa is an Autodesk Approved Instructor (AAI), an AutoCAD Civil 3D Certified Professional, and a regular speaker at Autodesk University, Autodesk User Group International, and other industry events. In her next life, Louisa would like to be reincarnated as an Orange County housewife.

Cyndy Davenport has been working in the land development industry for 27 years in the capacity of design, technology management, implementation, training, and support. She’s earned repeated Civil 3D certifications in implementation, support, and training over the years. Cyndy is a regular speaker at Autodesk University and occasionally contributes workflow solutions on her blog to the Civil 3D community (c3dcougar.typepad.com).

Eric Chappell, a recognized expert in the world of AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software, has been working, teaching, writing, and consulting in the world of civil engineering software for over 20 years. He has written training materials and performed training for end users, trainers, and Autodesk employees around the globe and worked with Autodesk in authoring and developing two Autodesk certification exams. He is the design systems manager for Timmons Group, a civil engineering and surveying firm. Eric is also a highly rated instructor at Autodesk University. Eric lives in the Richmond, Virginia, area.

Introduction

The AutoCAD® Civil 3D® program was introduced in 2004 as a trial product. Over the past few years, the AutoCAD Civil 3D series have evolved from the wobbly baby introduced on those first trial discs to a mature platform used worldwide to handle the most complex dynamic engineering designs. With this change, many engineers still struggle with how to make the transition. The civil engineering industry as a whole is an old dog learning new tricks.

We hope this book will help you in this journey. As the user base grows and users get beyond the absolute basics, more materials are needed, offering a multitude of learning opportunities. While this book is starting to move away from the basics and truly become a Mastering book, we hope that we are headed in that direction with the general readership. We know we cannot please everyone, but we do listen to your comments—all toward the betterment of this book.

Designed to help you get past the steepest part of the learning curve and teach you some guru-level tricks along the way, Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014 is the ideal addition to any AutoCAD Civil 3D user’s bookshelf.

Who Should Read This Book

The Mastering book series is designed with specific users in mind. In the case of Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014, we expect you’ll have a solid knowledge of AutoCAD in general and some basic engineering knowledge as well. A basic understanding of AutoCAD Civil 3D will be helpful, although there are explanations and examples to cover many needs and experience levels. We expect this book will appeal to a large number of AutoCAD Civil 3D users, but we envision a few primary users:

This book can be used front to back as a self-teaching or instructor-based instruction manual. Each chapter has a number of exercises and most (but not all) build on the previous exercise. You can also skip to almost any exercise in any chapter and jump right in. We’ve created a large number of drawing files that you can download from www.sybex.com/go/masteringcivil3d2014 to make choosing your exercises a simple task.

What You Will Learn

This book isn’t a replacement for training. There are too many design options and parameters to make any book a good replacement for training from a professional. This book teaches you to use the tools, explores a large number of the options, and leaves you with an idea of how to use each tool. At the end of the book, you should be able to look at any design task you run across, consider a number of ways to approach it, and have some idea of how to accomplish the task. To use one of our common analogies, reading this book is like walking around your local home-improvement warehouse. You see a lot of tools and use some of them, but that doesn’t mean you’re ready to build a house.

What You Need

Before you begin learning AutoCAD Civil 3D, you should make sure your hardware is up to snuff. Visit the Autodesk website, www.autodesk.com, and review graphic requirements, memory requirements, and so on. One of the most frustrating things that can happen is to be ready to learn only to be stymied by hardware-related crashes. AutoCAD Civil 3D is a hardware-intensive program, testing the limits of every computer on which it runs. You’ll also want to download any service packs available.

We also strongly recommend using either a wide format or dual-monitor setup. The number of dialogs, palettes, and so on make AutoCAD Civil 3D a real estate hog. By having the extra space to spread out, you’ll be able to see more of your design along with the feedback provided by the program itself.

You need to visit www.sybex.com/go/masteringcivil3d2014 to download all of the data and sample files. We recommend that you save these files locally on your computer in C:/Mastering unless told otherwise.

The Mastering Series

The Mastering series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers with intermediate and advanced skills in the form of top-notch training and development for those already working in their field and clear, serious education for those aspiring to become pros. Every Mastering book includes the following features:

• Real-world scenarios ranging from case studies to interviews that show how the tool, technique, or knowledge presented is applied in actual practice
• Skill-based instruction, with chapters organized around real tasks rather than abstract concepts or subjects
• A self-review section called The Bottom Line, so you can be certain you’re equipped to do the job right

What Is Covered in This Book

This book contains 19 chapters and two appendices:

• Chapter 1, “The Basics,” introduces you to the interface and many of the common dialogs in AutoCAD Civil 3D. This chapter discusses navigating the interface and customizing your drawing’s settings. You will also explore various tools for creating linework.
• Chapter 2, “Survey,” examines the Survey tab of Toolspace and the unique toolset it contains for handling field surveying and for field book data handling. You will also look at various surface and surveying relationships.
• Chapter 3, “Points,” introduces AutoCAD Civil 3D points and the various methods of creating them. You will also spend some time exploring the control of AutoCAD Civil 3D points with description keys and groups.
• Chapter 4, “Surfaces,” introduces the various methods of creating surfaces, using free and low-cost data to perform preliminary surface creation. Then you will investigate the various surface editing and analysis methods. The chapter also discusses point clouds and their use.
• Chapter 5, “Parcels,” examines the best practices for keeping your parcel topology tight and your labeling neat. It examines the various editing methods for achieving the desired results for the most complicated plats.
• Chapter 6, “Alignments,” introduces the basic horizontal layout element. This chapter also examines using layout tools that maintain the relationships between the tangents, curves, and spiral elements that create alignments.
• Chapter 7, “Profiles and Profile Views,” examines the vertical aspect of road design from the establishment of the existing profile to the design and editing of the proposed profile. In addition, you will explore how profile views can be customized to meet the required format for your design and plans.
• Chapter 8, “Assemblies and Subassemblies,” introduces the building blocks of AutoCAD Civil 3D cross-sectional design. You will look at the many subassemblies available in the tool palettes and look at how to build full design sections for use in any design environment.
• Chapter 9, “Basic Corridors,” introduces the basics of corridors—building full designs from horizontal, vertical, and cross-sectional design elements. You will look at the various components to understand how corridors work before moving to a more complex design set.
• Chapter 10, “Advanced Corridors, Intersections, and Roundabouts,” further examines using corridors in more complex situations. You will learn about building surfaces, intersections, and other areas of corridors that make them powerful in any design situation.
• Chapter 11, “Superelevation,” takes a close look at the tools used to add superelevation to roadways and railways. This functionality has changed greatly in the last few years, and you will have a chance to use the axis of Rotation (AOR) subassemblies that can pivot from several design points.
• Chapter 12, “Cross Sections and Mass Haul,” looks at slicing sections from surfaces, corridors, and pipe networks using alignments and the mysterious sample line group. Working with the wizards and tools, you will see how to make your sections to order. You will explore mass haul functionality to demonstrate the power of AutoCAD Civil 3D for creation of the mass haul diagrams.
• Chapter 13, “Pipe Networks,” gets into the building blocks of the pipe network tools. You will look at modifying an existing part to add new sizes and then building parts lists for various design situations. You will then work with the creation tools for creating pipe networks and plan and profile views to get your plans looking like they should.
• Chapter 14, “Grading,” examines both feature lines and grading objects. You will look at creating feature lines to describe critical areas and then using grading objects to describe mass grading.
• Chapter 15, “Plan Production,” walks you through the basics of creating view frame groups, sheets, and templates used to automate the plan and profile drawing sheet process. In addition, you will look at creating section views and section sheets.
• Chapter 16, “Advanced Workflows,” looks at the various ways of sharing and receiving data. We describe the data-shortcut mechanism for sharing data between AutoCAD Civil 3D users. We also consider other methods of importing and exporting, such as XML.
• Chapter 17, “Quantity Takeoff,” shows you the ins and outs of assigning pay items to corridor codes, blocks, areas, and pipes. You learn how to set up new pay items and generate quantity takeoff reports.
• Chapter 18, “Label Styles,” is devoted to editing and creating label styles. You learn to navigate the Text Component Editor and how to master label style conundrums you may come across.
• Chapter 19, “Object Styles,” examines editing and creating object styles. You will learn how to create styles for surfaces, profile views, and other objects to match your company standards.
• Appendix A, “The Bottom Line,” gathers together all the Master It problems from the chapters and provides a solution for each.
• Appendix B, “AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Certification,” points you to the chapters in this book that will help you master the objectives for the Certified Professional Exam.

How to Contact the Authors

We welcome feedback from you about this book and/or about books you’d like to see from us in the future. Feel free to connect with us on LinkedIn:

• www.linkedin.com/in/louisaholland
• http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cyndy-davenport/13/61b/1a9

You can also keep up with Cyndy Davenport on Twitter (C3DCougar) and email Eric Chappell at civilessentials@gmail.com.

Sybex strives to keep you supplied with the latest tools and information you need for your work. Please check their website at www.sybex.com/go/masteringcivil3d2014, where we’ll post additional content and updates that supplement this book if the need arises.

Thanks for purchasing Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014. We appreciate it and look forward to exploring AutoCAD Civil 3D with you!

Chapter 1

The Basics

It takes patience and time to truly become a “master” of the AutoCAD® Civil 3D® program, and your first step will be to understand the basics. There are numerous dialogs, ribbons, menus, and icons to pore over. They might seem daunting at first glance, but as you use them, you will gain familiarity with their location and use. In this chapter, you will explore the interface and learn terminology that will be used throughout this book.

In addition, we will introduce the Lines and Curves commands, which offer loads of options for drawing lines and curves accurately.

In this chapter, you will learn to:

• Find any Civil 3D object with just a few clicks
• Modify the drawing scale and default object layers
• Navigate the ribbon’s contextual tabs
• Create a curve tangent to the end of a line
• Label lines and curves

The Interface

If you are new to Civil 3D or are coming from Civil 3D 2009 or prior, this part of the chapter is especially for you. If you have used newer versions of Civil 3D, this section will help you understand the terminology used throughout this book. Civil 3D uses a ribbon-based interface, which is where you will access many of the tools. The ribbon consists of tabs and panels that organize tools into logical groups. When working in Civil 3D 2014, you will spend the majority of your time on the Home tab, shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 The Home tab of the ribbon runs horizontally across the top of your screen and is your first stop for creating new objects.

When you click on a Civil 3D object, you will see a context-specific contextual tab appear in the ribbon. Figure 1-2 shows the Civil 3D palette sets along with the AutoCAD tool palettes and ribbon displayed in a typical environment.

Figure 1-2 Overview of the Civil 3D environment. Toolspace is docked to the left, and tool palettes float over the drawing window. The ribbon is at the top of the workspace.

Panels are subgroups within each tab of the ribbon that further organize your tools. For example, the Palettes panel on the Home tab (shown in Figure 1-3) is where you can toggle on or off the elements you are about to examine. These icons will become highlighted in blue when the palette is visible.

Figure 1-3 Palettes panel of the Home tab. Icons will be blue when the palette is displayed.

Toolspace

Toolspace is a set of palettes that is specific to Civil 3D. You will want to have the palette visible anytime you are working in Civil 3D. If you do not see it, click the Toolspace button on the Palettes panel of the Home tab.

Toolspace has four tabs to manage user data, as follows:

• Prospector
• Settings
• Survey
• Toolbox

The tabs can be turned on or off by toggling the display on the Palettes panel, but it is perfectly fine to have them all up all the time.

Each tab has a unique role to play in working with Civil 3D. Prospector and Settings will be your most frequently visited tabs. Survey and Toolbox are used for special tasks that you will examine in the following sections.

Prospector

Prospector’s job is to show you information about specific Civil 3D objects. In the top portion of Prospector, you will find drawing-specific information. Civil 3D objects are listed in workflow order, starting at the top of the listing. From the Data Shortcuts listing down, the information you see is a listing of data available to you regardless of the drawing it is in (you will learn how to work with data shortcuts in Chapter 16, “Advanced Workflows”). Each main grouping under the drawing name is referred to as a collection. If you expand a collection by clicking the plus sign next to the name, you will see the contents of that group.

Because all Civil 3D data is dynamically linked, you will see object dependencies as well. You can learn details about an individual object by expanding the tree and selecting an object (Figure 1-4).

Figure 1-4 A look at the Alignment branch of the Prospector tab. Profiles are linked to alignments; therefore, they appear under alignments.

Right-clicking the collection name allows you to select various commands that apply to all the members of that collection. For example, right-clicking the Point Groups collection brings up the menu shown in Figure 1-5 (left).

In addition, right-clicking the individual object in the list view offers many commands unique to Civil 3D, such as Zoom To and Pan To, shown in Figure 1-5 (right). By using these commands, you can find any parcel, point, cross section, or other Civil 3D object in your drawing almost instantly.

Figure 1-5 Context-sensitive menus in Prospector for creating new elements (left) and zooming to a specific object (right)

For example, if you are interested in locating a parcel named ACQUISITION 7 using the Zoom To command, locate the Sites collection on the Prospector tab of Toolspace. Expand Proposed Site and highlight Parcels. At the bottom of Prospector, you will see the parcel listing. To locate ACQUISITION 7 graphically, right-click it and select Zoom To.

Near the top of the Toolspace you will see a pull-down giving you the options Active Drawing view and Master view.

Active Drawing view will show you the following items:

• The current drawing
• Data shortcuts

Master view will show you these items:

• Open drawings
• Data shortcuts
• Drawing templates
• Refresh icon

Master view will list every drawing you have open as well as its contents and templates. If you use Master view, the name of the drawing you are working with appears at the top of the list in bold. To make a drawing current, right-click its name in Prospector and select Switch To.

Many users prefer to use the Active Drawing view. You can have more than one drawing open, but Prospector displays only one set of Civil 3D data at a time. Active Drawing view will change to reflect whichever drawing is current.

In addition to the branches, Prospector has a series of icons across the top that toggle various settings on and off. Let’s take a closer look at those icons:

As you navigate the tabs of Toolspace, you will encounter many symbols to help you along the way. Table 1-1 shows you a few that you should familiarize yourself with.

Table 1-1: Common Toolspace symbols and meanings

Symbol	Meaning
	The object or style is in use. Also appears when there is a dependency to the object or if the style has child styles. For example, you will see this icon on a surface when a profile has been created from it.
	Clicking this will expand the branch of Toolspace.
	Clicking this will collapse the branch of Toolspace.
	Data resides in this branch and more information can be found at the bottom of Toolspace.
	Object needs to be rebuilt or updated. Can also indicate broken data reference.
	Civil 3D may still be processing the object or the branch of Prospector needs to be refreshed.
	This symbol represents a data reference in a drawing, and it’s shown next to the data shortcuts section of the Prospector tab.

Hit the Road Running: Quick Start Project

Most new users are eager to get started on their first project before reading the entirety of this book. Author Louisa Holland says that if she had her druthers, she’d sequester every new Civil 3D user until they’ve had a chance to work through every exercise in this book, cover to cover. Alas, time, money, and several abduction laws prevent this dream from becoming a reality.

This exercise will give you a chance to work through a basic project. Unless otherwise specified, don’t change the dialog box default options. After each relevant step, you will see where to go for in-depth explanation.

1. Open the drawing 0101_QuickStart.dwg (0101_QuickStart_METRIC.dwg).You can download this and all other files related to this book from this book’s web page, www.sybex.com/go/masteringcivil3d2014.

See the section “Civil 3D Templates” in this chapter to read about the importance of styles, settings, and starting with a Civil 3D drawing template.

This drawing contains an assembly, which you will learn to create in Chapter 8, “Assemblies and Subassemblies.”

2. From the Home tab of the ribbon, open the Create Ground Data panel and click Import Survey Data.

See Chapter 2, “Survey,” to learn more about importing survey data.

3. Click Create New Survey Database.

4. In the New Local Survey Database dialog, name the new database QuickStart and click OK.

5. Click Next.

Where is this survey data stored? Find out in Chapter 2 in the section “The Main Event: Your Project’s Survey Database.”

6. In the Import Survey Data – Specify Data Source dialog, follow these steps:

a. Set Data Source Type to Point File.

b. Click the plus sign to the right of the selected files box.

c. Set your Files of Type option to Text/Template/Extract File (*.txt) and browse for 0101_QuickStart.txt (0101_QuickStart_METRIC.txt) and click OK.

d. Set Specify Point File Format to PNEZD (Comma Delimited).

e. Click Next.

7. Click Create New Network.

8. Name the new network QuickStart Network and click OK.

9. Highlight QuickStart Network and click Next.

10. In the Import Survey Data – Import Options dialog, follow these steps:

a. Place a check mark across from Process Linework During Import.

b. Place a check mark across from Insert Figure Objects.

c. Place a check mark across from Insert Survey Points.

d. Leave all other options at the default settings and click Finish.

See the sections “The Figure Prefix Database” and “The Linework Code Set Database” in Chapter 2 for more information on creating figures on importing survey data.

Did you notice that shots with the description TOPO look different from other survey points in the drawing? Find out why in Chapter 2 in the section “Description Keys: Field to Civil 3D.”

11. From the Home tab of the ribbon, open the Create Ground Data panel and click Surfaces ⇒ Create Surface.

12. In the Create Surface dialog, change the name to Existing.

13. Click OK.

14. In the Prospector tab of Toolspace, expand Surfaces ⇒ Existing ⇒ Definition.

Chapter 4, “Surfaces,” contains the section “Creating Surfaces,” which describes the different types of data that can be used to define elevation in a surface model.

15. Right-click Point Groups and select Add.

For an in-depth look at the importance of Point Groups, be sure to read the section “Point Groups: Don’t Skip this Section!” in Chapter 3, “Points.”

16. Select _All Points and click OK.

At this point you should see contours and the surface border. See Chapter 4 for more information on creating, editing and displaying surfaces.

17. On the Survey tab of Toolspace, right-click Figures and select Create Breaklines.

18. In the Create Breaklines dialog, note that you are adding breaklines to the surface you created earlier. Click the Check-All option and click OK.

19. In the Add Breaklines dialog, click OK.

See the section in Chapter 4 called “Adding Breakline Information” for a detailed explanation.

20. Click Save.

21. In the Prospector tab of Toolspace, right-click Point Groups and select Update.

A list of Toolspace symbols and their meanings can be found in Table1.1.

22. From the Home tab of the ribbon, open the Create Design panel and click Alignment ⇒ Create Best Fit Alignment.

The many methods for creating and editing alignments are found in Chapter 6, “Alignments.”

23. In the Create Best Fit Alignment dialog, do the following:

a. Change the input type to COGO Points.

b. Change Path 1 Point Group to CENTERLINE.

c. Change the alignment name to QuickStart CL.

d. Clear the check box for Show Report.

e. Click OK.

24. Select the new alignment (the green line).

Want to know why the alignment appears green? See the section “Linear Object Styles” in Chapter 19, “Object Styles,” for more information.

25. From the Alignment contextual tab ⇒ Launch Pad panel, click Surface Profile.

26. In the Create Profile From Surface dialog, click Add.

27. Click Draw In Profile View.

28. In the Create Profile View – General dialog, click Create Profile View.

29. Click anywhere to the north of the site, outside of the surface area.

30. Save the drawing.

You should now see the profile in the profile view. Chapter 7, “Profiles and Profile Views,” will take you through the details of these objects.

31. From the Home tab of the ribbon, open the Create Design panel, click Profile ⇒ Create Best Fit Profile.

32. When prompted to select a profile view, click the grid of the profile view you created in the previous steps.

33. In the Create Best Fit Profile dialog, follow these steps:

a. Set the input type to Surface Profile (the surface profile will automatically go to Existing – Surface (4)).

b. Change the profile name to QuickStart Profile.

c. Change the profile style to Design Profile.

d. Clear the check box for Show Report.

e. Click OK.

34. From the Home tab of the ribbon, open the Create Design panel and click Corridor.

35. In the Create Corridor dialog, do the following:

a. Set the name of the corridor to QuickStart Corridor.

b. Verify that the alignment is set to QuickStart CL.

c. Set Profile to QuickStart Profile.

d. Set Assembly to Shoulder Widening.

e. Set Target Surface to Existing.

f. Clear the check box for Set Baseline And Region Parameters.

g. Click OK.

36. If you receive any Event Viewer warnings, dismiss the Panorama window by clicking the green check mark.

You will learn all about Corridor creation and the meanings of various warnings in Chapter 9, “Basic Corridors.”

Now that you’ve had your first taste of the power behind Civil 3D, you are ready to buckle down and get more in depth with the details. This is just a sampling of the functionality of Civil 3D. You may want to learn about pipe networks (Chapter 13), plan production (Chapter 15), or grading (Chapter 14).

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Settings

The Settings tab of Toolspace controls all things aesthetic and the default behavior of the commands. Text placed by Civil 3D is controlled by label styles. Object styles control the look of design elements such as surface contours or pipes. These settings and styles should be set in your template drawing. Every time you start a project with your company’s Civil 3D–specific template, items such as an alignment’s color and linetype will already be set. Chapter 18, “Label Styles,” and Chapter 19, “Object Styles,” are dedicated to building these styles. Later on in this chapter you will learn more about templates.

Drawing Settings

At the top of the Settings tab you will see the name of the drawing. There are some important settings you should verify before proceeding with a project. Right-click on the name of the drawing and click Edit Drawing Settings, as shown in Figure 1-6, to access the Drawing Settings dialog.

Figure 1-6 Accessing the Drawing Settings dialog

Each tab in this dialog controls a different aspect of the drawing. Most of the time, you’ll pick up the settings on the Object Layers, Abbreviations, and Ambient Settings tabs from a company-wide template. However, the drawing scale and coordinate information change for every job, so you’ll visit the Units And Zone and Transformation tabs frequently.

The Units And Zone Tab

On the Units And Zone tab, you specify metric or Imperial units for your drawing as well as set an appropriate coordinate system for the file. You’ll notice that when a coordinate zone is selected from the Zone portion of the dialog, the Imperial To Metric Conversion option becomes grayed out. This is because the drawing coordinate system will take care of any conversion for you. Note that by default, this setting is international feet rather than survey feet.

This tab also includes the options Scale Objects Inserted From Other Drawings and Set AutoCAD Variables To Match. The Set AutoCAD Variables To Match option sets the base AutoCAD angular units, linear units, block insertion units, hatch pattern, and linetype units to match the values placed in this dialog. As shown in Figure 1-7, you do want these options selected.

Figure 1-7 Before placing any project-specific information in a drawing, set the coordinate system in the Units And Zone tab of the Drawing Settings dialog.

The scale that you see on the right side of the Units And Zone tab is the same as your annotation scale. You can change it here, but it is much easier to select your annotation scale from the bottom of the drawing window.

If you choose to work in assumed coordinates, you can leave Zone set to No Datum, No Projection. To set the coordinate system for your locale, first set the category from the long list of possibilities. Civil 3D is used worldwide; therefore, most recognized surveying coordinate systems (including obsolete ones) can be found in the Units And Zone tab of the Drawing Settings dialog.

Try the following quick exercise to practice setting a drawing coordinate system:

Notice that once you have set the coordinate system, the geographic marker symbol becomes visible (if you don’t see it, zoom to the extents of the drawing). This is a graphic indication that a coordinate system is set. It will not plot, and its size is always a fixed percentage of your screen size.

If you wish to hide the geometric marker, you can click the red pin icon at the bottom of the screen. Clicking this icon toggles the GEOMARKERVISIBILTY variable on or off.

You will also see the active coordinate system displayed at the bottom of the screen. The pin and coordinate system display are new features in Civil 3D 2014.

The Transformation Tab

Most survey-grade GPS equipment takes care of the transformation to local grid coordinates for you. In the United States, state plane coordinate systems already have regional projections taken into account. In the rare case that surveyors need to manually transform local observations from geoid to ellipsoid and ellipsoid to grid, the Transformation tab enables access to enter transformation factors.

With a base coordinate system selected, you can do any further refinement you’d like using the Transformation tab, shown in Figure 1-8. The coordinate systems on the Units And Zone tab can be refined to meet local ordinances, tie in with historical data, complete a grid-to-ground transformation, or account for minor changes in coordinate system methodology. These changes can be made with the following options:

Figure 1-8 The Transformation tab

It should be noted that this is not the place to transform assumed coordinates to a predefined coordinate system. See Chapter 2 to learn how to translate a survey.

The Object Layers Tab

Civil 3D and AutoCAD layers have a love-hate relationship with each other. Civil 3D is built on top of AutoCAD; therefore, all the objects do reside on layers. However, Civil 3D is not traditional CAD. Your surfaces, corridors, points, profiles, and everything else generated by Civil 3D are dynamic objects rather than simple lines, arcs, or circles.

When you create an alignment in Chapter 6, for example, you will not have to think about the current layer. This is because Civil 3D styles “push” objects and labels to the correct layer as part of their intelligence.