opening civil 3d 2009 drawing

Back

June tenth, 2019

Using Templates and Drawing Settings for Civil 3D Implementation

Introduction

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® is circuitous software with many different and connecting parts working together to provide solutions to civil design projects. In this article we are going to explore how to utilize template files to capture characteristic and object settings that you lot can use to get-go your new cartoon or reference into an existing drawing. For a successful implementation, the CAD manager or designer can create, update, and distribute template files to all users to ensure a standard and uniform arroyo to design work.

Templates

Any new drawing in Civil 3D starts with a default drawing template or a custom template you can create. Drawing template files are drawings that store styles, settings, layers, and layouts in a drawing including title blocks.

Standard Template Procedure

When you lot create a new cartoon based on a drawing template, the new drawing gets a re-create of the styles in the template, simply information technology is a ane-fourth dimension copy. The connection is non maintained; therefore, if y'all update the template it will non update your drawing file. For instance, if you update the surface styles in your template and you wanted your drawings to get those same updates, you needed to manually copy or import those inverse styles into your drawings.  You tin can do this by dragging and dropping or selecting the import tab on the Ribbon as shown in Effigy 1.

Figure 1: Import styles

Templates are also listed under the Drawing Templates collection in the Prospector tree Master View as shown in Figure 2.  Notice the two Ceremonious 3D templates supplied from Autodesk.

Effigy 2:  Templates nether the Master View in Prospector

Two templates are provided when y'all install Civil 3D.  The path for these templates can be institute within the options dialog box under the Files > Templates binder.  Nosotros are going to open the _Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt and relieve this to C3D_Standard.dwt. The two AutoCAD Civil 3D cartoon templates are based on the United States National CAD Standard®.

• _AutoCAD Ceremonious 3D (Majestic) NCS
• _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS

These templates contain an extended prepare of styles and settings. When you lot showtime a new cartoon with the New control on the Application menu, yous tin cull which template you desire to use.

The QNEW command, which is available on the Quick Access toolbar, automatically uses the template specified in the AutoCAD Options dialog box.

Effigy 3: The master templates provided

Nosotros are at present going to change the settings of our template file (Figure 4). Open the template file you created named C3D_Standard.dwt on the Home tab of the Ribbon > Palettes panel > Open Toolspace.

1. On the palette, motion to the Settings tab.
2. Make sure you lot are in the Agile Cartoon Settings View and correct-click C3D Standard every bit shown.
3. Select Edit Cartoon Settings.

Note: If you motility upwards and down on this palette at that place are hundreds of different settings that can be practical to all types of Civil 3D object data.

Figure 4: Cartoon settings

C3D Drawing Settings

Settings in Civil 3D control many preset values, such every bit drawing units, scale, and coordinate system. Civil 3D has drawing, feature, and control settings. All three levels of settings in AutoCAD Civil 3D are saved with the cartoon, and they can exist saved to a drawing template.

1. Drawing settings: Constitute values for the whole drawing.
2. Feature settings: Command behavior for a feature, such equally Surfaces or Parcels.
3. Command settings: Employ to private commands within a feature, such as the AddParcelAreaLabel control within the Parcels feature.

You modify each level of settings at a unlike location in the Settings tree, as shown in Effigy 5.

Effigy v: Setting tree

Let's focus on the main drawing Cartoon-Level Settings and Feature Level Settings. To access drawing-level settings, right-click the cartoon proper noun C3D_Standard in the settings tree and click Edit Drawing Settings as shown in Figure 6.

Figure six:  Edit Drawing settings

At the drawing level, the Edit Settings dialog box contains full general tabs for the drawing (or template) as shown in Effigy 7.  We do not want to alter any of these settings except for the Object Layers. Ambience Settings can be altered, but will be overridden by the drawing and feature settings.

Figure 7: Drawing settings

To illustrate how this works, we will edit one of these settings in the Object Layers section.  Movement to the Object Layers tab on the dialog box and coil down to Can Surface as shown in Figure 8. We are going to add a suffix to the default label using a wildcard to ensure that our surface is e'er on the C-Topo- layer with a suffix of the surface proper noun (i.e., C-Topo-EG).

Figure eight: Object layers

1. Motion to the C-TOPO layer.
2. Alter the value to Suffix.
3. Add a -* to the value field.  The hyphen volition be added to C-TOPO and the surface name will be appended to the stop of the layer (i.due east., C-TOPO-EG).

You have at present created a standard for Tin Surface layers in Civil 3D and can implement this process. Explore other options at the drawing settings level to ensure your template is ready to become.

Figure 9: Object Layer modifications

Feature-Level Settings

Use the object collection level in the Settings tree to control all settings that pertain to the object blazon. Access the object or feature-level settings by right-clicking the object collection in the Settings tree and clicking Edit Feature Settings.  For this example, we are going to select the Signal Collection.

Figure 10: Indicate Feature settings

At the object level, this dialog box likewise contains object-specific settings, such as default point styles. In this department nosotros can control how our point label styles are in our cartoon as default. If we want all the points to be brought in equally a item fashion or maker, we tin can edit these values as our default within our template file. Figure 11 shows the Bespeak Label Manner and the dialog box to modify the value within the object feature settings.

Figure 11: Edit Feature settings

Command-Level Settings

Use the Commands collection level in the Settings tree to override both the object-level settings and drawing ambience settings on a control-past-control basis. You can also specify command-specific settings. Access the command-level settings by expanding the Commands collection for an object blazon in the Settings tree, right-clicking the command, and clicking Edit Command Settings. Effigy 12 shows us editing the command level settings for a surface.

Figure 12: Control-level setting

Layer Standards in Templates

Maintaining a standard for the utilize of layers in your drawing is easier if yous have a drawing template with predefined layers, and styles that reference those layers when objects are created.

For consistency, save your template as an AutoCAD® standards file (.dws format). And then, in the template, enter the STANDARDS command and in the Configure Standards dialog box, link the standards file to the template. If you lot want to enforce the standards, you can click the Settings button and activate notifications of standards violations or override such violations. For additional information on the CAD Standards Manager see CSI: CAD Standards Implementation at Autodesk University 2017. https://autode.sk/2T0ozBa

The layers created in the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 templates follow the National CAD Standard (NCS) rules. For more data nearly the National CAD Standard layering settings, encounter http://world wide web.nationalcadstandard.org.

Now that you lot have many of your standards in place for your template, we demand to ensure that the template is used on new drawings.  From the application menu, select New and your open up dialog box will be displayed as shown (Figure 13). Select the C3D_Standard.dwt and all your settings will be within the new drawing.

Effigy 13: New template

Note: To control the location of template files and QNEW, review the options under the FILES menu > template settings.

Reference Templates

New to Civil 3D 2022 is a procedure chosen reference templates. The control can be constitute on the Manage tab of the Ribbon > Styles palette > Reference, as shown in Figure 14

Figure 14: Import styles

When you attach a reference template to a drawing, the AutoCAD Ceremonious 3D styles that are in that reference template are copied into the drawing, and the connection between the drawing and the reference templates is maintained. Drawings can exist updated on an ongoing basis either automatically or manually with changes to the styles in the templates.  We are going to add a reference to our current drawing file (Figure 15).

Effigy 15: Adhere Reference Template

As we piece of work on our project, changes to the reference templates are pushed to the drawing so it is kept up to date:

• New or changed styles in reference templates are copied to the cartoon.
• Styles that are deleted from reference templates are removed from the cartoon if the styles are not in use. If a style is in employ, a local re-create of the fashion is fabricated in the drawing.

Select the update button for the template to be added to the drawing. In the Toolspace Settings tree, styles that have been referenced into the drawing are marked with a newspaper clip icon equally shown in Figure 16.  Notice how the surface styles are now existence controlled past the reference template and not the drawing settings.

Figure 16: The Paper Clip

As you lot proceed to update and/or add together new styles to the project standards template, those changes are pushed to the drawings that reference that template.

The following AutoCAD Civil 3D components can be imported and referenced past a reference template.

• AutoCAD Layers
• AutoCAD blocks, text styles, and linetypes
• Settings
• Drawing Settings
• Abbreviations
• Ambience Settings
• Object Layers
• Feature Settings
• Label Style Defaults
• Styles
• Characterization Styles
• Object Styles
• Tabular array Styles
• Pipe and Construction Rules
• Pressure Network Parts lists
• Quantity Takeoff Criteria

If y'all try to edit a surface mode (i.e., rename a layer color) y'all will go the following fault indicating that your manner is being controlled by a referenced template or a company standard. You do have options to override the setting as shown in Figure 17, but this is a skillful reminder to all of us while we work on drawings and maintain our company standards.

Figure 17: The warning

Conclusion

In a perfect earth, your drawing templates and settings will have the perfect set of styles for your projects. This typically takes fourth dimension to grow and can exist considered a living template. Consider designing styles to reflect the information requirements at different times in the project.  The templates are there as a guide to provide you lot with the basic information needed to begin your design projection efficiently. You can create styles and templates for many different disciplines and still follow your company standard. Keep the implementation process going and create your template to assistance guide your users and your company to a improve, more standard arroyo to pattern work.

Sam Lucido is a CAD Services Managing director with Haley & Aldrich, Inc. He has more than than 25 years of experience involving blueprint, user support, and customization. Sam is an Autodesk certified professional and an Expert Aristocracy Fellow member. He uses his vast knowledge about AutoCAD and Civil 3D to help provide support to engineering and design teams by property hands on workshops and online training. Sam is a pinnacle-rated Autodesk University and Midwest University Speaker besides every bit being an AUGI Board Fellow member. You can reach Sam at CADProTips.com or by email
at lucido1373@gmail.com.

charlesinceiren.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.augi.com/articles/detail/using-templates-and-drawing-settings-for-civil-3d-implementation

Share this post