Learn how to take a pipe network and place it into a profile view using Civil 3D. This involves a comprehensive guide on creating an alignment and subsequently generating a profile view for it.
Key Insights:
- The process begins by creating an alignment from network parts on the home tab of Civil 3D. The first connected network part to be selected is the longest portion of the drainage network.
- After creating the alignment, a profile and profile view are created. The profile is created from the surface terrain over a pipe, indicating how the pipe looks through development and existing terrain surfaces.
- Once the pipe network is inside a profile, grip edits can be used to make changes. This includes moving pipes up and down, expanding pipe dimensions, and adjusting the heights of structures within the profile view.
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Now that we've got our pipe network set up, we're going to go ahead and show how to take a pipe network and place it into a profile view. So to do that, we're going to have to create an alignment, and then we can create a profile view for it.
So to do that, we're going to go ahead and go up to our home tab, we're going to go to our alignment drop down in the ribbon bar, and we're going to go down to a option of create alignment from network parts. So from here, we're going to go ahead and select that option. Civil 3D is going to prompt us to select the first connected network part.
I'm going to go ahead and select the longest portion of my drainage network. So I'm going to go ahead and pick this structure here. And then Civil 3D asks me to select my next network part or, and then it says undo.
I don't want to undo, but I do know that inside of Civil 3D, I don't actually have to click the next immediate part that's in the list. I just have to pick the last part of the network list that I want to create an alignment from. So I'm picking this first structure, and I'm going to go ahead and go down to my headwall down to this last structure.
I'm going to go ahead and select this headwall. And then when I select that headwall, it highlights all of the pieces between that first structure and that last structure. So I'm going to go ahead and hit ENTER to select that.
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And from here, now we have the options for if we want to place that site. So this is the same as any other alignment creation method. So I don't want this alignment to interact with my grading.
I don't want it to interact with any other objects inside of Civil 3D. So I'm going to go ahead and leave it on a none site. I am going to change this to my dev branch storm.
And I'm going to call it longest. Not a great naming convention, but it'll work for us. I'm going to go ahead and drop this down.
It doesn't fall under any of these, maybe center line, but I'm going to go ahead and leave it as a miscellaneous type. From here, my starting station, I'm okay with it being zero there. I'm going to go ahead and go with an alignment style of proposed.
I'm going to go ahead and do no labels for my alignment because I don't want to clutter my drawing. I'm going to go ahead and leave a create profile and profile view checked so that we can open up additional windows that will help us immediately create this profile view. So I'm going to go ahead and click okay.
Civil 3D automatically brings up my create profile from surface so that I can create a surface terrain profile over the top of my pipe. So it chooses the dev branch storm longest as my alignment automatically, because it knows that I'm trying to create this profile view for that new alignment that I just created. I'm going to go ahead and go to selecting my surface.
I'm going to pick my finished construction surface so that I can see how the pipe looks through my development surfaces and the existing terrain surfaces. So I'm going to go ahead and click add to add that surface into my profile as a surface terrain profile. And then I'm going to go ahead and click draw in profile view.
Now I know that we can change any of the options inside of my profile view window. So I'm going to go ahead and not change any of this information. And I'm just going to go ahead and click on the create profile view button right here.
So I'm going to click it. I know that civil 3D is asking me to pick the origin for my profile view. So I'm going to pick the bottom left corner, which is where I know civil 3D is going to be placing this profile view.
I'm going to pick off somewhere off to the right hand side of my surface. And then when civil 3D builds this, now I can see inside of this profile view, I can see the red terrain profile, and I can also see all of my pipe structures. I see my catch basins, I see my pipes, and then I can go all the way down to my headwall.
And you can see that edit that we made where this pipe is coming out, in fact, at the termination of my surface. Now that we've created this profile, you do have some options for edits. Once you have a pipe network inside of a profile, you can do grip edits.
So I can take this pipe. I can move it up and down using these grip edits. I can expand out the pipe dimensions.
I can raise and lower the end points. I can take a structure. I can raise up the rim.
I can lower the sump. So these are edits that you can make inside of a profile view once you have a network in that profile view. So I'm going to go ahead and save this drawing, and then I'll meet you in the next video.
C3D203—46—Pipe Network in Profile View
Now that we've got our pipe network set up, we're going to go ahead and show how to take a pipe network and place it into a profile view. So to do that, we're going to have to create an alignment, and then we can create a profile view for it.
So to do that, we're going to go ahead and go up to our home tab, we're going to go to our alignment drop down in the ribbon bar, and we're going to go down to a option of create alignment from network parts. So from here, we're going to go ahead and select that option. Civil 3D is going to prompt us to select the first connected network part.
I'm going to go ahead and select the longest portion of my drainage network. So I'm going to go ahead and pick this structure here. And then Civil 3D asks me to select my next network part or, and then it says undo.
I don't want to undo, but I do know that inside of Civil 3D, I don't actually have to click the next immediate part that's in the list. I just have to pick the last part of the network list that I want to create an alignment from. So I'm picking this first structure, and I'm going to go ahead and go down to my headwall down to this last structure.
I'm going to go ahead and select this headwall. And then when I select that headwall, it highlights all of the pieces between that first structure and that last structure. So I'm going to go ahead and hit ENTER to select that.
And from here, now we have the options for if we want to place that site. So this is the same as any other alignment creation method. So I don't want this alignment to interact with my grading.
I don't want it to interact with any other objects inside of Civil 3D. So I'm going to go ahead and leave it on a none site. I am going to change this to my dev branch storm.
And I'm going to call it longest. Not a great naming convention, but it'll work for us. I'm going to go ahead and drop this down.
It doesn't fall under any of these, maybe center line, but I'm going to go ahead and leave it as a miscellaneous type. From here, my starting station, I'm okay with it being zero there. I'm going to go ahead and go with an alignment style of proposed.
I'm going to go ahead and do no labels for my alignment because I don't want to clutter my drawing. I'm going to go ahead and leave a create profile and profile view checked so that we can open up additional windows that will help us immediately create this profile view. So I'm going to go ahead and click okay.
Civil 3D automatically brings up my create profile from surface so that I can create a surface terrain profile over the top of my pipe. So it chooses the dev branch storm longest as my alignment automatically, because it knows that I'm trying to create this profile view for that new alignment that I just created. I'm going to go ahead and go to selecting my surface.
I'm going to pick my finished construction surface so that I can see how the pipe looks through my development surfaces and the existing terrain surfaces. So I'm going to go ahead and click add to add that surface into my profile as a surface terrain profile. And then I'm going to go ahead and click draw in profile view.
Now I know that we can change any of the options inside of my profile view window. So I'm going to go ahead and not change any of this information. And I'm just going to go ahead and click on the create profile view button right here.
So I'm going to click it. I know that civil 3D is asking me to pick the origin for my profile view. So I'm going to pick the bottom left corner, which is where I know civil 3D is going to be placing this profile view.
I'm going to pick off somewhere off to the right hand side of my surface. And then when civil 3D builds this, now I can see inside of this profile view, I can see the red terrain profile, and I can also see all of my pipe structures. I see my catch basins, I see my pipes, and then I can go all the way down to my headwall.
And you can see that edit that we made where this pipe is coming out, in fact, at the termination of my surface. Now that we've created this profile, you do have some options for edits. Once you have a pipe network inside of a profile, you can do grip edits.
So I can take this pipe. I can move it up and down using these grip edits. I can expand out the pipe dimensions.
I can raise and lower the end points. I can take a structure. I can raise up the rim.
I can lower the sump. So these are edits that you can make inside of a profile view once you have a network in that profile view. So I'm going to go ahead and save this drawing, and then I'll meet you in the next video.
