Creating a Major Parcel with Manual Creation Methods in Civil 3D: A Step-by-Step Guide

In this video we're going to create a major parcel using the manual creation methods. In order to do that, we're first going to initiate the Parcel Creation toolbar by navigating up to the Parcel dropdown in the ribbon bar and selecting the Parcel Creation Tools.

So I'm going to select that option, and the Parcel Layout Tools window opens. So from here, we have a lot of different button options. We're going to deal with the first three buttons here, which are the Parcel Creation, Line, and Arc options.

When you're working inside of Civil 3D and you want to start working on a new parcel, in the Parcel Layout Tools window, the first thing you're going to do is click on the Create Parcel button. So from here, we're going to specify the options or entities inside our parcel that we're going to create. So what site it’s going to be part of, what parcel style it’s going to have, what layers it’s going to be on, and what label styles we want to apply to it.

We don't have the option for Erase Existing Entity like we did in the automatic creation method using existing entities inside Civil 3D, because we are going to do a manual creation method and there's nothing we're basing it off of that needs to be deleted. So from here, we're going to leave it as Development, leave it as Property, leave the Layers, and we're going to leave the Area Label Style and not add our Line and Curve Segment Label Styles. So I'm going to click OK, and from here Civil 3D is going to ask me to select from the layout tools.

So I'm going to go ahead and start with a line. I'm going to add a fixed line with two points. I'm going to click.

I'm going to shift-right-click and select a node. I'm going to pick the node down here in the bottom right quarter. Then I'm going to do shift-right-click node and pick the bottom left quarter.

So Civil 3D is going to create that line using two points and draw it between the two nodes that I specified. Now I'm going to do an arc. So the arc options you have are a curve with three points or two points and radius.

Since I only have two points, the beginning and end, and I don't have a third point on curve, I'm going to go ahead and go with the two points and radius. I'm going to select it. I'm going to specify my start point, which is the end of the first segment that I drew.

I'm going to type in a radius, which from the previous parcel we know is 15. So I'm going to type 15 and hit ENTER. Then I'm going to specify the curve direction.

In this instance, we are going around the boundary in a clockwise direction. So I'm going to specify the curve direction as Clockwise. Then I'm going to specify the endpoint by shift-right-click, selecting node, picking on the node that I want to end on.

And then Civil 3D is going to ask me to specify a start point. So I could either continue on with my curves, but I'm going to go to a line. So I'm going to select a line, but Civil 3D asks me to specify the start point for my line.

I'm going to shift-right-click. I'm going to select node. I could have selected the endpoint of the curve, but I'm going to do this node here, shift-right-click.

I'm going to select node again and select this node. Then I'm going to select an arc and continue on with the two-point radius. I'm going to go from the endpoint of that line.

I'm going to type in 15 for my radius, and then I'm going to specify clockwise. I'm going to shift-right-click, select node, and select the node for the endpoint of my curve. Then I'm going to select a line.

I'm going to specify my endpoint. I'm going to specify my next node as the endpoint for the end of this line, which is this point here. Then I'm going to go back into my curve and select two points and radius.

I'm going to specify my start point. I'm going to type in my radius. I'm going to specify clockwise.

I'm going to shift-right-click, select node, and select the node here. I'm going to jump back into line again. I'm going to click on the curve.

I'm going to shift-right-click, select node, navigate down, find my point, click. Then I'm going to do my last entity, which is a curve again, two points and radius. I'm going to snap to the endpoint of this line, type in a radius of 15.

Then I'm going to do clockwise. Then I'm going to shift-right-click node, and I'm going to select this node here.

Now what you'll notice is once I've done that, I could continue with commands. But what Civil 3D is going to do is I have closed this boundary now and Civil 3D has automatically created Property 2 here. If I was to continue on, it would continue from this endpoint and create entities moving on, or technically, I guess it wouldn't continue from this endpoint.

I could select anywhere, but it would be part of this outer boundary entity. So to leave this command, I hit ENTER, and then I click Exit. So I exit out of the parcel creation for my single large parcel here.

So that's something to keep in mind whenever you're doing a manual creation method, that once you've created the parcel or the parcel segment that you want to create, you have to exit that command. Otherwise, you'll start creating entities that are not associated, or they're still associated with the parcel that you were originally creating, but they could be off in space somewhere else. So to kind of illustrate this for you, I'm going to go ahead and jump down into Parcel Creation Tools again.

I'm going to initiate another parcel, and I'm going to leave everything as is. I'm going to click OK. I'm going to select line, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to shift-right-click, select midpoint.

I'm going to select the midpoint of this segment. I'm going to come across and shift-right-click, and I'm going to go to the midpoint of this segment. So what Civil 3D does is it says, okay, you've dropped a line for a new parcel that you wanted to create, which is now bisecting the original parcel there on the same site, because when I created the new parcel, I had it on the Development site, and it now splits Parcel 2 into Parcel 2 and Parcel 3, or Property 2 and Property 3.

So I'm not going to exit my creation method for this parcel, and I'm going to go ahead and draw in another segment. What you'll see happen is that this Property 1 will not split in half because this segment is still associated with the original segment that I drew. So I'm going to go ahead and shift-right-click, select midpoint, click on the midpoint, and you'll notice that when I'm doing this, you'll see on the left-hand side over here that this line is highlighted in white, which signifies that I'm still working with that original segment. So I'm going to go ahead and shift-right-click.

I'm going to select midpoint, and I'm going to click on this midpoint on the right-hand side. What you'll see inside here is that if I hit ENTER, and if I hit Escape, what Civil 3D has done is it has a segment here, but it is linked to the other segment, and it is not splitting this parcel in half because it's trying to do something between this parcel, these two parcels, and this parcel over here, and it's just not working out correctly. So you always want to create a segment. If you're going to create a subdivided segment, you want to create one segment and then move on, start a new command line, or make sure you exit out every time.

We're going to go ahead, and in our case here, I'm going to select this line, delete. I'm going to go back into my parcel creation method, Parcel Creation Tools. I'm going to select a new parcel.

I'm making sure I'm in the Development site because I have my two parcels in the Development site, and I want this new segment to interact. So I'm going to click OK. I'm going to click line.

I'm going to shift-right-click. I'm going to select midpoint. I'm going to do the midpoint of this line.

I'm going to shift-right-click. I'm going to go midpoint of this line. Civil 3D automatically splits them.

I'm going to go ahead and hit ENTER and exit, and I'm going to drop back into Parcel Creation Tools. Now, you don't have to always click on this Parcel Creation Tools. I do it because it's a good habit to get into, but you could just click line, and what Civil 3D is going to know, it's going to say you haven't initiated that you want to be working in a specific parcel yet, so let's go through your Parcel Creation Layout window, and we're going to choose your site, your styles, your layers, and your label styles.

So I'm going to leave it all as is. I'm going to click OK, and I'm going to shift-right-click. I'm going to choose midpoint again.

I'm going to do the midpoint of here. I'm going to shift-right-click. I'm going to do the midpoint of here, and then I am going to select this line over here, and Civil 3D will split it.

Now, I'm going to do something different this time. Instead of hitting Enter, I'm going to hit Escape. If I hit Escape, the same thing happens as it says press ENTER to start a new lot line or select from the layout tools or exit.

Now, if I hit Exit, it will close the window again. Now, if I hit ENTER, what Civil 3D has done is it hasn't closed this window, but it has asked me to start doing a new layout. So I could now specify a new parcel and then start laying out again.

So this is, just keep this in mind, in that if you want to continue working with the Parcel Layout Tools bar here, that you don't always have to close the bar, open it back up, and start in a new parcel. You can just do Escape, Enter, and then click on the parcel button here to start working with another new parcel. So moving on from there, we're going to end this video, and then I will meet you in the next video, and we'll start talking about some more automatic subdivision creation methods.