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AutoCAD Civil 3D for Land Surveyors Coordinate Systems Refresher Video

April 23, 2012 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Land Surveying Videos, Members, Professional Land Surveyor Practice, Surveying Software, Technology Videos, Videos

AutoCAD Civil 3D for Land Surveyors-Coordinate Systems

AutoCAD Civil 3D for Land Surveyors-Coordinate Systems

In this oldie but goodie video, I show you how to set up coordinate systems in AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings & Survey Databases.

If you’re new to AutoCAD Civil 3D, properly setting up your Drawing and Survey Databases is the most important thing you need to do.

While this video shows you how to set up coordinate systems in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Drawings & Survey Databases, the concepts remain the same for older releases and newer releases, like; AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012, and AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013.

Watch the AutoCAD Civil 3D for Land Surveyors Coordinate Systems Refresher Video

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks-How to Rotate Model Space

July 18, 2011 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will show How to Rotate Model Space.

This technique can help you to speed up your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing by aligning your model space other than having north straight up.

The Problem:

By default, AutoCAD Civil 3D drawings are oriented with north pointing up. This sometimes is inconvenient when you are trying to create your drawings in Model Space, especially when the property you are surveying, or the site you are designing, is not suited to drawing with north facing up.

What we’re trying to accomplish:

  1. Work faster by orienting the real world to the Model Space/your computer screen.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks-Importing AutoCAD Civil 3D Styles

February 2, 2011 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will show Importing AutoCAD Civil 3D Styles.

This is another technique that helps you to speed up the creation of AutoCAD Civil 3D Styles by using already created Styles from your other AutoCAD Civil 3D drawings and templates.

You can also read AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Using Layer Source From Other DWGs When Creating Styles for tips on how to transfer AutoCAD Civil 3D Layers between drawings and drawing templates.

The Problem:

You have existing AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing and template files with existing Styles setup that you would like to insert into a new AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing and/or template.

Short of manually recreating each individual Style, what can be done so as not to have to reinvent the wheel?

Two things we’re trying to accomplish are:

  1. Work faster by selecting existing Styles from one AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template and import those Styles into a new AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template.
  2. Maintain Style consistency and drawing standards across projects and project files.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Using Layer Source From Other DWGs When Creating Styles

August 12, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D With Two Drawings Open

AutoCAD Civil 3D With Two Drawings Open

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will show Using Layer Source From Other DWGs When Creating Styles. This technique helps you speed up the creation of AutoCAD Civil 3D Styles by using already created layers from your other AutoCAD Civil 3D drawings and templates.

The Problem:

You are creating new styles in an AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template and in doing so you want to speed up the process of assigning Layers to the new point style; let’s say for display, for example. If the layer is not already in your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template you have to create that layer (and its settings), which is either cumbersome through the Style Editor, or you need to exit the Style Editor to do it using the Layer Manager.

Either way, it requires a certain amount of manual input and risks inconsistencies between drawings and templates.

Two things we’re trying to accomplish are:

  1. Work faster by select an existing Layer from another AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template to use in creating Styles.
  2. Maintain Layer consistency.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: How To Setup and Use Surface Styles To Edit Surfaces Efficiently

June 22, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

Surface Banded

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: How To Setup and Use Surface Styles To Edit Surfaces Efficiently

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will show you How To Setup and Use Surface Styles To Edit Surfaces Efficiently. This technique increases your CAD drafting and AutoCAD Civil 3D Surface creation and editing productivity by employing proper template setup and reducing switching between Toolspace Tabs and drilling down through what can be a rabbit-hole of options and settings AutoCAD Civil 3D uses to do the voodoo that it do.

This really leads to an important note: The overall techniques and processes that I’m showing you here are specific to setting up Surface Styles in your AutoCAD Civil 3D Templates so that you can Edit Surfaces Efficiently, but if you concentrate on the bigger picture, that of setting up your AutoCAD Civil 3D Templates with preset Styles to increase your productivity, then this is really what this post (and more to come) is all about. In fact, using the techniques that I describe below is really just one small part of a mindset and process which will allow you to take many small efficiencies and accumulate them into big increases in productivity, efficiency, and profit.

Two things we’re trying to accomplish are:

  1. Have a preset Surface Style setup for editing AutoCAD Civil 3D Surfaces in your Template Drawing so that you only have to do this step once, saving you time from this point out.
  2. Speed up the AutoCAD Civil 3D Surface editing process, reducing the need to switch back and forth between Prospector Tabs, find an appropriate Surface Style, and then drill down to switch on the Surface Style Components you’d use for surface edits, like Points, Triangles, and Border, for instance.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Drawing Scale Settings

May 13, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings

This is the fifth AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The fifth of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Drawing Scale Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

To be specific, this AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks shows you how to set the Model Space Drawing Scale. While easy to do, more than a few AutoCAD Civil 3D users, particularly if they’re new to AutoCAD or the newer interfaces, have asked me in frustration where one does this – I’ll show you two simple ways to set the Model Space Drawing Scale. Of course, you need to set the scale in Paper Space, too, but we’ll leave that for another day.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Angle Format Settings

April 13, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D Angle Format Settings

AutoCAD Civil 3D Angle Format Settings

This is the fourth of five AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The fourth of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Angle Format Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: LandXML Data Imperial Units Settings

March 30, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

Select Edit LandXML Settings

Select Edit LandXML Settings

This is the third of five AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The third of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “LandXML Data Imperial Units Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Survey Database Units and Zone Settings

March 22, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

Select Edit Survey Database Settings

Select Edit Survey Database Settings

This is the second of five AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The second of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Survey Database Units and Zone Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Setting Units and Zone In AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings

March 15, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings

Last week I wrote an article outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

Because these are important settings I’ll write an AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks article weekly about each of those five settings.

The first of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Units and Zone AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar

February 12, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

Quick Access Toolbar

Quick Access Toolbar

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I’m going to show you how to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar.

This technique is very useful when you want to have easy access to a favorite AutoCAD Civil 3D menu item but don’t want the hassle of switching Ribbon Panels (particularly if you use that menu item often but don’t use or have its Ribbon Panel open for much else).

I must have discovered before how to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar and forgot about it, because I apparently did this to place Copy With Base Point on my Quick Access Toolbar sometime in the past. However, I “rediscovered” how to do this recently from another CAD blog. Unfortunately I don’t remember which one. I thought I had bookmarked the site, or added it to my Twitter Favorites, but when I started to put this Quick Tips and Tricks post together I couldn’t find or remember the source.

So, if it was you who recently blogged about the Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar, where I got the inspiration for this post, please let us know in the comments or contact me so I can give you the credit you deserve!

Now on to the AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks to Add Ribbon Menu Items To The Quick Access Toolbar: Read the rest of this entry →

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Create A Surface From A Point Group

January 21, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I’ll will show you how to Create a Surface From a Point Group. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to how to create a Surface in AutoCAD Civil 3D which is a task you will no doubt use often in your professional land surveying practice.

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There are many methods and types of surface data you could use to create a surface in AutoCAD Civil 3D. In this AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will concentrate on what I think can become your most used workflow in creating surfaces, and in the next AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I’ll give you a few extra tips and tricks to automate surface creation, save time, and get your project out the door more quickly.

In general, what we will be doing is: Read the rest of this entry →

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Finding the Description Key Sets

September 10, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I’m going to show you how to find the Description Key Sets. Yesterday this issue came up as a few of you were busily learning to use, or just trying to use, AutoCAD Civil 3D and couldn’t find the old Description Key Sets file.

Unlike in older versions of AutoCAD, where the Description Key Sets file where stored in a file, you now find the Description Key Sets file within your AutoCAD Civil 3D DWG (and DWT) drawing file. Read the rest of this entry →

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Apply Description Keys

August 21, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I’m going to show you how to apply Description Key codes to a point. This may be necessary in the following situations.

  1. You created a point in your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing and inadvertently entered an incorrect description. Now you want to correct the description to match your description keys and update the point in your drawing.
  2. The point’s description, while accurate in the past, may require an updated point description. Why you ask? Well let’s say that you created a point at a lot corner, and you called it “LOT”. Then, as part of your professional land surveying practice you go out to the field and set a monument at this corner, perhaps an iron rod. So the description in your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing now needs to be revised from “LOT” to “IRS”, as an example.

The real issue isn’t really with the description itself, which can be easily edited in your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing, but with the control and standardization Description Key Sets and coding achieve in layer placement, Point Label Styles and Point Styles – Particularly the placement of the right Marker at the point node. With that said, it is important that the new description is first coded in your Description Key Sets file.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Menu Bar

August 6, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Menu Bar

If you’ve upgraded from previous versions of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 one of the first things you’ll notice is the Ribbon interface. The Ribbon interface of process-oriented grouped commands and functions may take some getting used to at first, but once you start using it I think many of you will like the Ribbon.

For those who just plain dislike (nicer than saying hate) the Ribbon and those of you, like myself, who would like to get the old Menu Bar back, if for no other reason than for expediency in your work, here are two Quick tips. Learning new and sometimes better ways of doing things is great, but at the end of the day we all have to make a profit, don’t we (are you listening Autodesk?).

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Image Edit and Frames

July 29, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

More AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Help!

I get more questions about AutoCAD Civil 3D than I do on any other subject. The complexity of the program coupled with the myriad of settings required to make it a useful piece of surveying and design software results in it being very tricky to set up and use.

I’ve begun preparing training and educational videos, with my first video being “AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Video for Land Surveyors: Coordinate Systems” which I recently posted on YouTube and on this site. The post has a little written background, too, that you might find an interesting read. While videos and post allow for some in-depth exploration of any subject, I thought that a weekly feature with Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks about using AutoCAD Civil 3D would be useful, too. So here we go!

AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks

Last week I was working on updating a project drawing, using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010, and I needed to move an image in my drawing. Simple enough, right? Well wait a minute, the image frames where turned off so there was nothing to select. What to do?

I knew how to turn back on the image frames in prior AutoCAD Civil 3D releases, but I’m still getting used to the new menus (or lack thereof-which may be next weeks tip), workspaces and, of course, the ribbon. I did find the image settings and turned the image frames on by:

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