Topic: CIVIL 3D GRADE WITH CURBS

[MSTG007]

Does anyone know how to grade a site with curbs and create them?

and do you mainly use feature lines or points or both....


thxs

[Dent Cermak]

EARTHWORKS....GRADING......3DPOLY
Create a 3d poly using the points for the curb line........CREATE BY ELEVATION......set your selection method to ".G" so you can select each point block, then  start at one end and create a 3DPOLY the length of the curb (This should be your top back of curb shots). Once you have drawn all of the 3DPOLYs.........GRADING........3DPOLY........CREATE A CURB .......select one of the 3dpolys.....offset towrds the middle of the street...... (for a standard 2' curb and gutter) offset distance 0.5.......elevation offset DIFFERANCE...-0.5 click. Do this for each 3dpoly. Now you have a 6" wide  curb that drops 6" to the gutter. Use these 3d polylines a "contour" break lines when you build your surface to generate the contours.
Have I succeeded in confusing you enough?

[MSTG007]

Ill give it a try! You just like confusing me . . .  we will see how  far i get.

thxs

[Dent Cermak]

I'm just tickled to see that someone else knows that curbs play havoc wuth contour lines and just letting the contours cross the curb as they may is not correct. I get SO MANY drawings like that!!
That little deal and proper symbology for depression contours are my 2 pet peeves. Most "experts" don't even know what a depression contour is, much less the symbology and how to automate it. Shoot, Intergraph will automatically find the depression countours and add the symbols in one move. AutoDesk doesn't even recognize its existance.

[Dinosaur]

Have you started using Civil 3D yet Dent?

[Dent Cermak]

No, and what I've seen so far I don't want too. The grading routine is the only part of the Civil pack that I use now. I have heard that it's also in the LDD pack, but so far I have loaded the full set instead of stopping to see what loads when. But then I heard Civil 3D will replace LDD. CRAP!! I don't do anything in 3D so Civil 3D is no treat. I do strictly boundaries and topos, NOTHING else. I am a cartographer not a civil tech. Don't know a bridge beam from a fog line.

[Dinosaur]

I saw a post you made when you first got it and was just wondering if you had broken the seal yet.  You heard right about the LDD retirement and yes, C3D IS a pain in the keester.  Surprisingly though, the best thing it does is a boundary survey (if you use the transparent COGO commands) and it will give you a better surface than LDD ever will.  The grading works the same as you are used to but they of course changed all of the terminology and scrambled the menu so they don't appear in a logical order.
Are you using 2005 or 2006?  I hear 2006 is giving some serious headaches to us civil types who use xrefs of pre 2006 drawings and old blocks and symbols created in inch units.  There are unpleasent surprises for those who load an old drawing and plot it from 2006 without checking.

[Dent Cermak]

I just loaded up and got some training on 2005 with the LDD package. We are on the subscription program so I have ALL the new stuff. I learned a long time ago NEVER LOAD AUTOCAD AS SOON AS YOU GET A NEW RELEASE. Wait. Read. Learn about the bugs and how to fix  them before you load a new version for the first time. I hate being the one to discover a major bug. And with the reports about the way 2006 handles legacy blocks, I doubt if I will load that piece of junk for awhile yet. I am a heavy user of blocks and descriptor keys. If AutoCad moves my stuff, I can get sued. I carry liabilities that most of the people here don't. If your widget design doesn't close, the guys in the shop can fix it. If my boundaries don't close, the lawyers can fix it in court. OUCH!!

[sourdough]

When I have to deal with curb returns, surveys will typically never pickup more than the pc or pt of a curve.  My answer was to make a 3d poly by picking pc and pt in a straight 2pt line giving the elev to each end to represent the desired slope. Then, with Toolpac they have a 3d poly routine that allows you to insert vertices. I do that then drag the new vertice grip to a 2d polyline curve without the osnaps on and make the tangents as small as you want to impress your boss. It is best to start adding vertices from the mid point then drag to the best guess of the mid point of 2d polyline curve. The slope will be maintained, not perfect, but looks good when you 3d orbit it. This can also be accomplished with the Terrain Explorer and 3d poly and add vertices and do the same with the grips to a 2d polyline without the osnaps on. Reason, with osnaps on it will add zero elevation to the 3d polyline. I hope this might help. Setting the slope is should be given by the engineer, but the principle to get a 3d poly to do a curve is the same. Now with that in tow. I saw someone demo civil3d show us that you can make a 3dpoly curve now in 2006. Someone might have to confirm that. But the post here has been a sure way to do curb returns.

[Dinosaur]

I doubt that we will ever deploy 2006 ANYthing now with the block insert problems showing up.  There is a long convoluted workaround that must be constantly repeated because the program will dump the fix with each insert.  The only other solution is to rebuild every block in your library.  There is some nice eye candy in 2006 but nothing that would really help us out enough to make up for all of the problems being reported.

[Dent Cermak]

DUDE!! I just had to load LDD 2006 because a client has sent us some dwg's in 2006 format. Now mine came right on in with the command line turned on, so I missed that problem. BUT where are the menu pallets? You know, like Survey,LDD, Civil and all of that? and the toolbar pull down just brain locks me. i can see the need for another trainning class. i believe I will stick with 2005 for awhile. Maybe they will decide 2006 is the new R13 and put everything back in the next version. I see a bunch of change just for the sake of change here. no other rhyme nor reason for some of this mess.

[Dinosaur]

There is no 2006 drawing format; you could load and work with those drawings with 2004 or 2005.   The menu problem is caused by the new "CUI".  There are some discussions around on how to deal with them and get your menus to display, but they are basically a pain in the kester to work with.  Since the drawing format hasn't changed, we decided to just shelve the turkey.

[Dent Cermak]

ME TOO!!

[Dinosaur]

Does anyone know how to grade a site with curbs and create them?

and do you mainly use feature lines or points or both....


thxs

I just installed a 30 day trial of Civil 3D 2006 and discovered some new sub-assemblies that appear to do just this.  There are various island and parking stall layouts available.  I don't know yet exactly how they are used, but they look promising.
One further not, I installed SP! and ran it the first time and was pleasantly surprised at the improved performance and stability over 2005.  It seems like the service pack has addressed many of the 2006 shortcomings that were being reported.