Alternative options for Image and Contour Data

As many of you may know, Google Earth options no longer exist in Civil 3d 2013.  This has been a source of imagery and contour data, especially for preliminary site design.  As an alternative, I will talk about USGS Nation Map Viewer.  As  you can see from the capture below, you simply need to select the click here to open viewer.

After selecting this option, you will be present with an image of the United States.

It is merely a matter of the user zooming into the location of the subject property.

It is important to note the download options box in the screen capture below.  By simply picking the click here to download by current map extent, this will select the area we are currently zoomed into.

The next box will allow the user to select the data available to download.

The following box gives more specific options to select depending on the data chosen.

After selecting the appropriate files, you will get an option to checkout.

After selecting the checkout option, you simply need to provide an email address.  A link to download the selected files will be sent to you.

After selecting place order, you will receive an email similar to the one below.

Finally, it is just a matter of selecting the link an saving the file to a location on your computer, and bring in the data through the mapimport command, or preferably with data connect.

Productivity Tools for Civil 3D 2013 - Cartogramma Utility

On Wednesday of  this week, Autodesk released productivity tools for Civil 3D 2013 for subscription clients.  The enhancements includes a Borehole Utility, Cartogramma Utility, Corridor Solids Extraction, Curb Gutter Roadway Subassemblies, Extension for Civil View, GENIO Import/Export, 12D Data Extension, PISTE Translator, and Clip/STRAM Translator.  Note some of those utilities are for certain languages only.

The tool with in the extension that I will be looking at it the Cartogramma Utility.  It is used to give a graphical representation of earth works in designed area.  Once the utility has been installed, it should reside in the Toolbox, as seen in the capture below.

By simply executing the create cartogramma command, you should see the following pop up box:

The draw cartogramma box allows the user to select the two surfaces to compute against.  It also allows one to select the boundary and origin point to where the display should begin.  Finally, the settings options determine the hatch patterns for cut and fill, along with the grid lengths of the squares.  The following capture shows what should display.

In the capture below, I have zoomed into a small area to show with more detail what data will be displayed.  The three numbers at the corner of each grid represent the existing and design grade, along with the difference between the two.  The plus or minus number in the region represents the volume of cut or fill within the region.

Lastly, at the bottom of the visualization, there is a table that sums the cut and fill for each column as seen below.

At the end of the table, you can see that the table sums the rows of cut and fill for the region selected.