ViewCube Not Aligned with Crosshairs

While on support recently I received a drawing where the cross hairs looked fine, along with the USC icon, but the ViewCube is slightly rotated like the following:

After spending an hour searching system variables and other commands such as plan, I finally came across the GEOGRAPHICLOCATION command.  Upon typing the command, you get an option to edit the location.    The important variable to check is the angle under the North Direction.  This should be set to zero.  This variable may have changed because the drawing may have been started with Land Desktop where we were allowed to change the north rotation of the drawing.

Printing the Design Criteria Symbol

You have probably seen the triangle with an exclamation point for either alignments or profiles when you are using Design Criteria.  The symbol is designed to let you know that a violation of criteria hasn’t been met and that it needs to be resolved. 

The ability exists within Civil 3D to print this as part of plans, especially for use when we are doing our preliminary design.  By simply typing options and going to the AEC Editor tab, we can check on plotting/publishing option under solution tips.  Now the warning symbol will plot along with the rest of our cad elements.

Pipe Network Layers

I got an email from a client a few weeks ago asking how they could have the pipe network layers conform to the specific type of pipe network they were creating without having to go into the network dialogue box and change them manual each time.  For example, if I want to create a sanitary pipe network, I would like the network layers to match like the picture below:

Rather than having to set the layers depending on the pipe type, why don’t we create a few pipe networks in our template that already have the appropriate layers associated with them like the following.  Note, these networks will not contain any pipe or structures, but will contain the layers we want them to be designed on.

Now, rather than starting a new network from scratch, just edit one of the blank networks, depending on the pipe type and start laying out your pipe networks.  Just remember, you will probably want to change the name of the network to something more appropriate than blank sanitary for example.

New Subassembly Composer

For those who have not seen this yet….

The Autodesk Subassembly Composer Technology Preview for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 is a standalone application that is intended to provide an interface for creating custom subassemblies.

 Subassembly Composer requires the following components be installed:

1.  Microsoft .NET Framework 4

2.  Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2

3. If AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 is installed then Update 1 must be installed.

Note: Please do not install this version of Subassembly Composer if you have AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 and Autodesk Vault installed. After the install Civil 3D may fail to communicate with Vault, and a reinstall of Civil 3D may be required. We are currently looking for a resolution and hope to have a fix soon.

Adding an FDO Provider

While on support yesterday, a client asked how he could add a different source of map data that wasn’t currently available.  Civil 3D or Map 3D makes it possible to add any of the FDO providers that are available.  Here are the following steps to add a provider:

1.       Determine the provider you will need.  In my client’s case, he needed OGR.

2.       Download the provider FDO Provider  I downloaded version 3.5.0.

3.       Be sure to download the correct version (32/64 bit). 

4.       The formats of the provider files have an extension of .tar and .gz.  You may need to download a utility to extract the .dll file from the file.

5.       Upon, extracting the .dll file, you will need to paste it in the following location:  C:\Program File\Autodesk\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011\FDO\BIN

6.       Also in this file location, you will find a providers.xml file.  You will need to add the following

text string to the end of the file:

<FeatureProvider>

  <Name>OSGeo.OGR.3.5</Name>

  <DisplayName>OSGeo FDO Provider for OGR </DisplayName>

  <Description>OGR Provider</Description>

  <IsManaged>False</IsManaged>

  <Version>3.5.0.0</Version>

  <FeatureDataObjectsVersion>3.5.0.0</FeatureDataObjectsVersion>

  <LibraryPath>OGRProvider.dll</LibraryPath>

</FeatureProvider>

7.       Save the edited version.  Note, it is not a bad idea to make a copy of the original providers.xml file in case an error is made.

8.       Open up Civil 3D, and go to Data Connect, you should see OGR like the image below:

9.       Finally, put in the full path to your file, including the file name under Data Source, and connect to your data.

Update 1 and Advantage Pack for Civil 3D 2011

Autodesk has released AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Update 1, which includes all previous Hotfixes for Civil 3D 2011, and addresses over 40 Civil 3D specific issues.

Click Here – AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011  Update 1

Also, Autodesk has released a Subscription Advantage Pack for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011.  Production Enhancements include the following:

·         Copy Style Utility – Manage styles and standards by copying Civil 3D styles and settings from an existing drawing to your current drawing.

·         Point Import Wizard – More Easily select and view point files to determine the parsing method for importing points.

·         Superelevation Copy Command – Copying superelevation parameters from one lane to another.

·         COGO Editor – Input geometry and create a traverse for output.

Click Here –  Subscription Advantage Pack for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011