Changing Your View in 2012

One of the first things you will notice when you start Civil 3D 2012, is the new view options you will see in the top left of model space as seen in the screen capture below.

The first option we will look at is [-] or the viewport option.  As seen in the capture below, this option allows us to control the number of viewports being displayed and there configuration.  It also allows for the display of the tools such as the viewcube and navigation bar.

The second option we will look at is view.  This gives us the option of setting the perspective of the current view.  In the example below, the current view is set to top.

The third option we will look at is view style.  This gives us the option of setting what visual styles we are currently displaying.  Notice that along with the visual styles, the manager is available to make modifications to the styles on the fly.

Finally, if you choose to get to these options through more traditional ways, such as the view menu or ribbon, you can turn off the viewport control options on the 3D modeling tab as seen below.

The use of this new tool should allow for time savings when switching between various views styles and perspectives all from a single location.

Google Earth and Civil 3D

This is a topic that has been covered numerous times, but I have been asked several times in the past two weeks.  It seems that a few of you are having issues bringing in a surface from Google Earth.  As many of you have seen in the past when bringing in Google Earth surface, it tends to get stuck importing around 49 or 50%.  In newer builds of Google Earth, the amount of points that could be imported as gone from 10,000 down to 5,000.  In order to remedy the situation, we need to look at the two command settings of ImportGEdata and ImportGEsurface under surfaces.

Upon editing each of the commands, you will see Google Earth rows and columns.  As the screen capture below depicts below, we need to change both values to 70.  The value of 70 is arrived at because 70 times 70 is 4900, and 5000 point are allowed.

By making the row and column change in both command settings, the GE surface should import into our drawings as expected.

Controlling the Contour Label Line

During a Civil 3D essentials class this week, a CAD manager asked what was the best way to control the label line that is attached to the contour label themselves. 

As seen in the screen capture above, the line is useful when trying to decide where to put the labels themselves, but obviously we don't want to show the line when we are ready to plot are sheets.  In order to control the label line, we ultimately have two options.  The first option I will discuss is using the properties box.

Notice in the capture above, the second option that says display contour label line.  By selecting false, this will turn the line off.  Also, don't forget to use the select similar option, this will minimize having  to do this process more than once or twice.  The second option, which I prefer is to set the template to have them turned off prior to labeling the contours.

As the capture above shows, by selecting the surface feature settings, you can control the whether or not the line is ever going to be displayed in the drawing before a label is even placed.