Delve into the world of Civil 3D as we discuss the elements of the survey tab in the tool space, starting with linework code sets. Discover how to set working folders, create and modify equipment and figure prefix databases, and how to generate linework code sets in Civil 3D.
Key Insights
- When setting the user settings in Civil 3D, the system automatically creates an equipment database and a figure prefix database. These databases are saved in the selected path and can be modified or replaced with new ones created within the same folder.
- The linework code set in Civil 3D can also be created and saved within the working folder. The creation process involves naming the new linework code set and filling in the 'edit linework code set' window with relevant information such as the coding methods and special codes.
- Surveyors can use special codes in the field to indicate specific points and shapes when importing into Civil 3D. These can include codes for beginning, continuing, ending, or closing a figure, as well as codes for offsets and line segment codes for creating, connecting, and extending points.
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In this video we're going to start talking about the items inside of the survey tab in the tool space. So the first item we're going to talk about is the linework code sets.
When we set our working folder, our user settings, and we set it to our path for our civil 3D files, what you'll notice happened is that there were two things that were automatically created, an equipment database and a figure prefix database, both set to sample. Now if I open the folder that I have my class files saved to, you'll notice that I have inside of that folder now there are items for sample.edb, that is our equipment database, and then our sample.fdb, which is our figure prefix database. So these items are saved here and we can modify them or we can create new ones, and if we create new ones they're going to show up inside of this folder.
Same thing with our linework code set, if we create a linework code set it will show up inside of this file. Now with the linework code sets we're going to go ahead and start creating one. We're going to go to linework code sets, we're going to right click on linework code sets, and we're going to select new.
When we select new civil 3D now asks us for a new linework code set. I am going to call this linework code set civ 201 for the class that we're in right now. So I'm going to go ahead and click ok, and when I select that a new window pops up.
The window is the edit linework code set window. When this window pops up it has information about certain types of survey codes that are inside of the survey database or the survey information that we have in the class file. If I go ahead and I open up that txt file that we've looked at a couple of times, what you're going to see here is that we have our information for what type of points we have, and then we have descriptions for what we're going to be doing with those objects when we actually do a survey import.
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So what we're looking at here is that we have information, so what is the name of the linework codes that we're working in, and what's the description of that linework code set. Then we have information for coding methods. So features slash coding delimiter, so what tells civil 3D what is a new code or what is a different code, and so we have space.
If you look at that text file civil 3D notices that there is a space between these different parameters inside of our survey database or our csv file. So what we have here is we have tc which is the description, and then we have b which is a code that we're going to be working with. So space delimiter is okay.
You have options for other code delimiters, but space is a very common one that's used in the civil engineering field. Then you have a field code escape. This basically escapes you out of the field command and ignores what comes after it.
We're going to go ahead and leave this a slash even though we don't have any field code escape commands inside of our current survey file. Then we have a start in comment mode. No.
So that would be basically if you wanted to be in comment mode when you start out doing your import, but we don't want that. We want to be using the the data that is being given to us in that text file. We don't want to start with slash.
We want to start with reading what this is which is tc or top of curb. Moving on from there, we have the automatic begin on figure prefix match. So yes, you want to automatically begin when a figure prefix matches something that's in your database.
We're going to go ahead and move on from there. Now we have the special codes. We have b for begin, c for continue, e for end.
So these are codes for beginning a certain figure, continuing a certain figure, ending a certain figure. So you can have items for say you have a shed and you have the code is sh and then you have a sh b for beginning of that figure for the for the shed. And then you can have sh c for continue or sh e for end of that figure.
And then we have cls is close. So close would make a closed shape out of those figures that we're going to be importing into civil 3D. We're going to be basically drawing polylines and rectangles and and figures inside of our drawing using these special codes.
So you can horizontally offset a point based on whatever this code is. So you can see h and then give a number associated with that horizontal offset. You can give v for a vertical offset and then a certain number.
And then you can stop your offsets by doing so. So these are codes that your surveyors are going to use in the field to signify where this point is. Say you had a point that was next to a wall and you wanted to have that point prodded into the wall, then you would go ahead and use a horizontal offset.
Or if you had a point next to a wall but you couldn't get on top of that wall, you knew the wall was five feet high, you could do a vertical offset of five feet by using the v code in the field and then giving a elevation of plus five to bring that upwards by five feet. The next lines that we have are the line segment codes. We have points that we can create to recall to, we can connect to certain points, we can create rectangles from a point, you can do a right turn from a specific point, or you can extend out past a certain point.
So these codes, we don't have any in our current survey code set. So I'm not going to change any of these. Our code set actually uses all of the default values from civil 3D when you do an edit linework code set window.
We're not going to end up having to change any of these, but we're walking through them to describe what they are. Now you have your curve settings. So you can have a begin curve BC, you can have an end curve EC, you can have a circle creation with CIR, and you can have a point on curve with OC.
So I'm going to go ahead and click okay. And what you'll see now is that inside of linework code sets, we have Civ 201. We're going to go ahead and look at our folder now.
And if we look inside of our folder for our class, you should now see a Civ 201 F2F and that means field to finish. So Civ 201 field to finish XDEF. So these are your definitions for field to finish based on your linework code sets.
So in the next video, we're going to go ahead and start creating our figure prefix databases.
