Discover how to navigate and utilize data bands associated with profile view windows in Civil 3D. This article explains the process of setting up band sets, editing band details, and adding useful data to these bands for more comprehensive profile views.
Key Insights
- The article provides a detailed walkthrough of setting up band sets in Civil 3D, from minimizing label sets to expanding profile views and band styles.
- Band sets contain information for profile data, vertical geometry, and horizontal geometry. How to add specific data, such as cut data, into bands is explained, along with how to modify the data's display and summary options.
- The article highlights the importance of setting up these data bands before creating profile views, as it allows the data to appear instantly in the window, eliminating the need for later application.
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So in this video, we’re going to discuss data bands that are associated with our profile view windows. To do that, I’m going to go to the Settings tab in the Toolspace.
I’m going to minimize the Label Sets, Label Styles, and Profiles drop-downs. Then, I’ll expand Profile View, Band Styles, and Band Sets. Inside here are all the different types of Band Sets we can select.
We have Cut and Fill, EG/FG Elevations, and others—all of which are already selected in the profile views shown here. I’m going to go with the EG/FG Elevations and Stations Band Set. I’ll right-click and select Edit.
Inside the Band Sets window, we have the Information tab, which displays the name and description of the Band Set. Below that, we have the bands themselves.
Within these data Band Sets, we have information for profile data, vertical geometry, horizontal geometry, superelevation section data, pipe data, and pressure data. We are not going to cover superelevation section data, pipe data, or pressure data in this class. For now, we’ll focus on profile data, vertical geometry, and horizontal geometry.
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If I select Profile Data, I see styles for different kinds of bands. Band Sets can be applied to a profile view window. However, you do not have to apply a Band Set—you can apply an individual band directly to the view window.
We saw this earlier when creating profile view windows. If you’re not using a set, you can place a single band manually. So, let’s look at what these band styles look like.
For Profile Data, we have information for existing Cut Data, Elevations and Stations, Empty Bands, and Fill Data. I’m going to select Cut Data and edit the current selection to see what this band style includes.
A Profile Data band has an Information tab showing its name, description, and creator. Then we have the Band Details, which include text, title text, and layout—height, width, offset, and text box position.
This section is important because it controls label placement within the band—for Major Stations, Minor Stations, Horizontal Geometry Points, Vertical Geometry Points, Station Equations, and Incremental Distances. For example, Major Stations allow us to set tick styles, tick size and location, and the label itself.
What I’m going to do now is go into Compose Label to view the available text options. Inside the Label Style Composer, because this is an individual Label Style, we do not have the Information tab with name and creator, but we do have the:
– General tab, which controls label behavior and plan readability – Layout tab – Drag State tab
In the Layout tab—as I’ve mentioned in other videos—the important part is the Contents field, because that’s the data that will appear in your drawing. I’m going to click the ellipsis for Contents.
In the Band Sets for Profile Data, the available values we can return include station values, raw stations, station equation IDs, and profile elevations. As mentioned before, within the profile window, you can have Profile 1 and Profile 2, and perform calculations based on those—such as Profile 1 minus Profile 2 or vice versa—to return Cut and Fill data.
I’m going to click Cancel three times. Now, I’m going to insert the Cut Data band here. Civil 3D will prompt me to specify the alignment points and profile points to associate. I’ll leave all items checked and click OK.
Now you can see that I’ve added the Profile Data – Cut Data band, with gap and geometry information. I can adjust the geometry settings if needed. You’ll also see fields for Label Start Station, Label End Station, Weeding, and Staggering. You can choose to display bands at the top or bottom of the profile view.
In this case, I only have data bands at the bottom.
Moving on, I’ll review Vertical Geometry to see the available options. We have the Information tab and Band Details. I didn’t previously review the Display and Summary tabs, but they’re mainly used to control display settings and to summarize content from earlier tabs.
Under Band Details, we again see text, title, and layout fields, plus information placement controls. Vertical Geometry band styles offer options for Uphill Tangents, Downhill Tangents, Crest Curves, and Sag Curves. We can also define anchor points and label content.
Opening the Contents reveals label components specific to vertical geometry, including Horizontal Tangent Lengths, Tangent Slopes, Tangent Slope Lengths, Extended Tangent Grades, Tangent Start Stations, Start/End Elevations, and Elevation Changes. Each data type corresponds to a specific need.
Next, I’ll exit the Vertical Geometry tab and go to Horizontal Geometry. As expected, when I edit the selection and view the Band Details tab, the available labels and tick options are different.
Here we have Tangents, Curves, Spirals, and Points of Intersection, along with their display settings. The data components include Lengths, Tangent Direction, Start Station, Start Easting, Start Northing, End Station, End Easting, and End Northing.
These data points can be displayed in bands below the profile view windows. It’s a good practice to configure your bands before creating your profile views so that the data appears automatically. I’m going to click Cancel.
I’ll exit this section since we’re not discussing superelevation, section data, pipe data, or pressure data at this time. We don’t yet have that information available in Civil 3D. I’ll click Cancel again, save the drawing, and I’ll meet you in the next video.
