Figures, language.ref, and a soap box

So I’m buried in work, and have been for a couple months. I’ve been working with several Survey firms in an effort to begin rolling Civil 3D into production.

If you work for a survey firm and your field crews are not generating linework in the field, no worries, you’re only ABOUT 20 years behind (no, I’m not kidding).

B BC

A “B” to begin a line, and a space before the back of curb code “BC” – it’s that simple (depending upon the collection software, a note works as well). Sure, there are commands for 2 point curves, 3 point curves, multi-point curves – you can generate all kinds of sweet linework in the field – but just give me the “B” so I can see the line, and I’ll take care of the rest (including the curves) in Civil 3D (just as we did in Land Desktop, Softdesk, and DCA).

There seem to be so many questions surrounding so many survey related functions. For example, balancing a traverse. Here’s a thought – do it on the data collector, most of them have the capability… I see so many firms using TSC1′s or 2′s, etc, dumping into TGO, and creating an ASCII file of points for import into Civil 3D (and of course you won’t get any linework this way, that’s be a few extra steps).

Here’s a thought – Trimble Link for Civil 3D. Do linework in the field, balance a traverse, plug the TSCx into your computer, and pull the files across. Civil 3D may not have all the functions you think you need, but the rest of the industry hasn’t rolled over and stopped growing. I remember working with guys on a TSC1 almost 10 years ago running a cross section template down a profile along a horizontal alignment and generating slope stakes – ON THE DATA COLLECTOR.

Wow – another soap box…

And about hydrology – geez – so Civil 3D doesn’t have hydrology. Apparently you haven’t seen StormCAD V8 XM Edition running on Civil 3D 2008, your competitors are using it.

I guess my point is this: It’s all about having the right tools for the right jobs, and knowing the capabilities of the tools you have. There isn’t a single magic software that’ll design your subdivision, automatically calc and grade your ponds, complete your airport or rail yard, and fold your laundry.

Laundry? How did I get from figures to laundry? Oh ya, something I read smelled fishy to me, that’s the reason I started writing…

A “language.ref” ships with Civil 3D (and LDT, Softdesk, DCA). It contains synonyms for use by Survey functions in Civil 3D – but it’s been in existence for years.

I found the following while browsing a blog one day:

“…we can use different commands for start, end, curves, offset for your surveyed line work. Language.ref (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\C3D 2007\enu\Survey) gives you a very good impression what commands you can use. By default to start line work we can use

13,BEG,BEGIN,BEGINS

if you want to use your own command…. Like Chris to start your linework….. ad ,Chris just after BEGINS in the language.ref… save the file and restart civil3d.
so it is possible to ad your own coding list to Civil3D survey.

True, but, while I’m sure it was unintentional, it’s misleading.

The language.ref has no bearing on the fieldbook conversion process, and only works during the import of the fieldbook itself, or on the survey command line. Given the above example, if I’m doing survey work in the field, and I want to start a line, no – I could not type “CHRIS BC” to begin a line on the back of curb. Just as I couldn’t use a “/” or a “..” and expect Civil 3D to be able to translate.

Some data collectors (or collection software) require a figure entered as a note (TDS), some require a figure entered as part of a description (Sokkia), some can emulate either (Trimble). The RAW data on any collector, regardless of the format, is somehow translated to a fieldbook. So if your translation software doesn’t know “CHRIS” is the command to begin a line (and why would it), then the use of the term will result in a fieldbook that contains erroneous data. You could modify the fieldbook to correct the bad data, but by the time you’re finished, we could have looked at the instruction manual for the data collector, and coded the linework properly in the first place.

Are there exceptions to the rule? Sure – some CAD software has a proprietary method for coding linework, and it’s only understood only by that particular software. No worries, but if that’s the method you’ve always known (dots, colons, slashes, etc), just realize your coding won’t be understood by any other software, and adding dots, colons and slashes to the language.ref file won’t do you any good.

So why is the language.ref file important? History. Many of us have actually retyped data entered into a real fieldbook using a real pencil onto the Survey Command line (thus creating the batch.txt file) so we could watch the survey take place on the computer monitor (including figures – yes, 15-20 years ago, data collectors could do linework in the field). DCA (our COGO software of choice) understood the commands, and breaklines for a TIN were just a few clicks away.

If you’re still not sure why generating figures, and thus breaklines for a TIN, in the field is so important, we really need to talk – no disrespect intended, but you truly are almost 2 decades behind.

Cheers!

Civil 3D Library
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