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Import ASCII File With Figure Commands
A simple text file (e.g. PNEZD comma delimited) can now be modified to contain figure commands, and imported to the survey database. In the past, we called this special file a “User-Defined ASCII file” and we converted it to an “Autodesk-Softdesk FBK with Linework” using Survey Link. This is no longer necessary, you can directly import the text file.

One Point, Two Descriptions
A single point can have two descriptions, such as the case when a power pole meets with an overhead electric line, or the back of curb meets the edge of a sidewalk.

Two Different Descriptions, Create Figure Between
A single point can be connected to any other point – even if the descriptions don’t match:

10,5390.9371,5248.2997,0.00,CL1 (start a line CL1)
11,5374.9371,5248.2997,0.00,BOC2 BC (any shot taken from anyplace)
12,5390.9371,5284.2997,0.00,CL1 B CL2 CPN10 (continue the line along CL1 and begin CL2. Connect this point to point number 10 with a figure)

Points Don’t Need To Be Collected In Numerical Order
Points can now be collected out of order, so to speak, and a line can be properly drawn. For example, on a combination of shots that includes a PC, a POC, and a PT, the POC can actually be shot first:

15,5374.9371,5320.2997,0.00,BOC3 / (take the shot at a POC and escape)
16,5374.9371,5368.6031,0.00,BOC3 RPN15 BC (shoot PC and begin curve, recall point 15 as a POC)
17,5390.9371,5368.6031,0.00,CL1
18,5406.9371,5368.6031,0.00,BOC1
19,5369.0793,5262.4419,0.00,BOC2
20,5369.0793,5306.1576,0.00,BOC3 (PT of curve)
21,5354.9371,5300.2997,0.00,BOC3 (end of figure tangent to curve)

B or BEG Not Necessary To Begin Linework
Either as part of a description (the SDR33 method), or part of a note (the TDS method) – you do NOT need to begin a line with a B or BEG. Simply create a figure prefix in the figure prefix database (e.g. CL or BC, etc.) and Civil 3D will automatically draw a figure for you. As shown below, power poles are not part of a figure, but overhead electric lines are. Therefore, create a OE figure prefix, but don’t create a PP prefix, Civil 3D will handle it properly (notice two descriptions for the same point):

35,5361.1258,5085.0737,-99999,PP OE
36,5361.1258,5153.3914,-99999,OE
37,5361.1258,5221.7092,-99999,OE
38,5361.1258,5290.0269,-99999,OE
39,5361.1258,5358.3447,-99999,OE
40,5361.1258,5426.6624,-99999,PP OE

Again, you can still use the commands you’re used to, you just no longer need to.

Create Offset Figures
Horizontal and vertical offsets can be created in the field:

15,5374.9371,5320.2997,0.00,BOC3 / (midpoint of curve shot first – escape, don’t start a line yet)
16,5374.9371,5368.6031,0.00,BOC3 H0.5 H2 RPN15 BC (shoot PC, Civil 3D sees the second BOC3 code and starts the figure here instead of point 15- offsetting the figure 0.5′ and again at 2 feet as it is created, the BC command denotes the figure will be a 3 point curve)
17,5390.9371,5368.6031,0.00,CL1
18,5406.9371,5368.6031,0.00,BOC1
19,5369.0793,5262.4419,0.00,BOC2
20,5369.0793,5306.1576,0.00,BOC3 (last point, or PT of the curve)
21,5354.9371,5300.2997,0.00,BOC3 (creates a line tangent to the curve)

Use Description Keys To Filter Out Commands
Description keys can be used to filter long descriptions, i.e. enter a code of BOC* with a format of BOC (the raw description), and for each BOC shot, regardless of the complexity of the figure commands, the full description will be denoted in the drawing.

Not Necessary To Shoot Each Corner Of A Building
Draw the entire outline of a building with 2 shots and a tape measure:

33,5354.5468,5196.9490,0.00,BLDG
34,5354.5468,5246.9490,0.00,BLDG RT 25 25 -30 25 (RT for right turn, the minus sign is a minus right turn – which is effectively a left turn)

And maybe I’ve saved the best for last: The figure commands I’ve shown above? Those are the defaults. You can create your own commands by modifying the Linework Code Sets Database. And as a reminder, these commands can be used in a description – so whether the resultant file is a text file exported from a data collector, a LandXML file exported from a data collector, or a fieldbook created in any number of ways, is of no consequence.

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Using the B to begin a line
NE SS 4276 6904280.11220 2306994.27780 831.29000 “B TOB17″
NE SS 4277 6904267.55420 2307022.60730 831.11500 “TOB17″
NE SS 4278 6904268.17500 2307035.78000 833.12000 “TOB17″
NE SS 4279 6904280.01510 2307039.82900 831.64700 “TOB17″
NE SS 4280 6904288.30240 2307035.86590 832.97800 “TOB17″
NE SS 4281 6904290.19000 2307023.48410 830.86700 “TOB17″
NE SS 4282 6904298.96990 2306994.13550 830.36800 “TOB17″

Using a note to begin a line
BEG TOB17
NE SS 4276 6904280.11220 2306994.27780 831.29000 “TOB17″
NE SS 4277 6904267.55420 2307022.60730 831.11500 “TOB17″
NE SS 4278 6904268.17500 2307035.78000 833.12000 “TOB17″
NE SS 4279 6904280.01510 2307039.82900 831.64700 “TOB17″
NE SS 4280 6904288.30240 2307035.86590 832.97800 “TOB17″
NE SS 4281 6904290.19000 2307023.48410 830.86700 “TOB17″
NE SS 4282 6904298.96990 2306994.13550 830.36800 “TOB17″
END

But for the first time, and this is an incredible leap forward, you can create your own commands to do just about anything. Civil 3D 2010 has a new database type, the Linework Code Set database:

Linework Code Set Database

The codes are fully configurable as shown below:

Linework Code Set Database

In the example above, notice I have replaced what would normally have been the “B” to begin a line in the Special Codes section of the dialog with a . (period), but the result is the same – the period will begin a line.

This advancement in coding is a great leap forward for Civil 3D, and the levels of complexity are honestly amazing. For example, the following code will result in a closed figure:

FC1 VA 313 279.571080 61.851 89.414283 “BLDG9 B”
FC1 VA 314 228.405718 51.821 89.381046 “BLDG9 RT 100 50 25 -25 50 25 CLS”

Using out of the box Civil 3D coding methodology and the out of the box linework code set, shot 313, the first shot above will begin the side of a building. Notice in this case the B is allowed after the description for the first time. The next shot on point 314 continues the first side, and then turns right, continues 100 feet, turns another right and continues for a distance of 50 feet, and then right again for a distance of 25 feet. The minus sign is the designator for a negative right turn, but for all practical purposes, signifies a left turn for a distance of 25 feet. This is followed by distances of 50 right, 25 foot right, and finally the CLS code closes the figure. In effect, this is an 8 sided figure completed with 2 shots in the field, saving the field crew 6 shots.

Linework Code Set Database

For a more in-depth look at figure commands, click here.

Why am I excited about this? Same reason you will be if you do what are typically referred to as Mortgage Surveys, Spot Surveys, Title Surveys, etc. – those surveys completed in states where an inspection of a parcel must be completed by a land surveyor and offered to a mortgage company as a means of showing it is clear of easement encroachments. Typically a crew can do several in a morning, and the survey is usually accompanied by a drawing with building dimensions – but this is old school. Firms that have embraced technology and take shots on building corners for location can now take just 2 shots, locate a couple monuments to tie the building down, and move on to the next job. They’ll still enjoy a cup of warm coffee when they return to the truck.

We still find firms that don’t complete linework in the field, but those firms are finding it increasingly more difficult to compete. If you’re not embracing this functionality, or you’ve embraced a single software from past generations because of its coding methodologies, you need to take a more serious look at Civil 3D 2010.

You can’t have a discussion about this functionality without thanking people like Tommie (a Registered Professional Land Surveyor in Texas) at Baker-Aicklen and Rob Todd (a Licensed Professional Land Surveyor in New Hampshire) with Autodesk for having the forethought to advance the technology, and the patience to work together and make a difference. And I’ll say it again, Civil 3D 2010 is not “just another release,” it raises the bar for competing products on many levels. We now see hydrology and hydraulics, site design, transportation, infrastructure, land surveying, and a strong GIS presence in a single package. I challenge you to find a single piece of software that wide, and that deep. And keep in mind – I don’t sell the the software – this isn’t a sales pitch, it’s a wake-up call.

Civil 3D Library
Looking for Survey tutorials? Check out The COGO Branch in the Library. These downloads aren’t software demonstrations. They were created for clients using AutoCAD Civil 3D in the real world. Registration is required.

©2010 Paving the Way. All Rights Reserved.

If you’ve used the 2008 or 2009 edition, we’d appreciate your feedback TODAY as we’ve already started. Drop a comment here, or at scott.mceachron@121pcs.net.

Scott McEachron
www.121pcs.net

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The earth is round (if it were only that simple).  NAD 27, NAD 83, WGS 84 – they are all mathematical models of the earth that attempt to describe the shape of the earth.  When you hear a term like “horizontal datum,” that’s what we are referring to – the 3D mathematical model of the earth.  The NAD 27 model has an origin based in Kansas, while the NAD 83 and WGS 84 models have an origin at the center of the earth.  So imagine if you will, in each model, the origin is a bit different, and the model of the earth is… well… tipped a different direction (we call this a datum shift).

The basic idea is this:  If you measure the corner of a building from a fence post, you’ll get one set of coordinates, if you measure from your neighbors house, you’ll get a different set (thanks Dave Karoly, PLS).

So in steps the State Plane and the UTM – both planar systems meaning essentially, we model the earth using one type of horizontal datum (NAD 83 or NAD 27), we cut the datum, lay it on a flat piece of paper, and come up with a flat coordinate system typically referred to as “the grid.”

But the ground – the physical place we survey, has an entirely different shape, obviously.  So when a survey is conducted using GPS, or a planar system, the coordinates must be “reduced” to values that more accurately describe conditions on the ground – or visa versa.  And does it matter?  That depends upon the project, i.e. with a 7-11 on a small site with a small change in elevation the answer is probably not. But with a 20 mile highway project, or a large subdivision, absolutely.

And think about the mess created if part of a project is grid based, part of a project is ground based, and the Engineer doesn’t know the difference (wasn’t made aware).  A design could work perfectly on paper, but be WAY off on the job-site, and this is NOT uncommon.  This is why it’s so important to specify how a survey is to be conducted – many require state plane (if you’ve ever worked in a state like this, you’ll wish every state did).

Can Civil 3D or Land Desktop do a grid to ground transformation?  Absolutely – but do you need them to?  Programs like Trimble Geomatics Office (TGO) are made for land surveyors using specific equipment for a specific job, in a specific location.  Data from the field is dumped into these programs, weeded, reduced, and the resulting coordinates shipped off to the engineer… right tools for the right job.  Lidar data, scanner data – same principal.  There is software made for each type of device used to collect the data, so if you’re an engineer, or a technician, and you’re receiving raw Lidar data or a point cloud – you already have a problem in terms of the size of the dataset you’ve received.  Is it fair to ask Civil 3D to do the job of reducing the data?  Not as far as I’m concerned – send it back for reduction. Will we see Civil 3D handle this better in the future? Perhaps – read this.

For more information on grid to ground transformations, check out the following:

LDT Grid to Ground
Discussion

If you search Civil 3D help for “Transformation,” you’ll find more help as well.

Civil 3D Library
Looking for Survey tutorials? Check out The COGO Branch in the Library. These downloads aren’t software demonstrations. They were created for clients using AutoCAD Civil 3D in the real world. Registration is required.

©2010 Paving the Way. All Rights Reserved.

Civil 3D Library
Looking for Survey tutorials? Check out The COGO Branch in the Library. These downloads aren’t software demonstrations. They were created for clients using AutoCAD Civil 3D in the real world. Registration is required.

©2010 Paving the Way. All Rights Reserved.

Exceptionally common, makes sense.

One problem, how do you set up Civil 3D to make this happen? You know – like you’re used to? I’ll leave it to you to weed through the plethora of documentation on why this works, but you want to do the following:

Make a layer for points, I’ve called mine DC-PNTS. Change your command settings to use this as the default layer for point creation as shown below:

Set up default styles as well. Notice object styles and label styles carry the same name for simplicity – your end users will thank you.

Your object style components should reside on layer 0 as shown below:

Your label layer needs to be the same as your object layer, and I know it sounds odd:

Points created with these settings in place can be isolated by layer, the colors of the object layers can be changed, the labels can be turned off via the object style component, and most importantly, the label can be gripped, and its location – relative to the marker – can be modified. In a nut-shell, you’ll be able to work like you have in the past, isolating, modifying, making notes, unisolating, and moving on.

Let’s say you have a layer for control points called DC-PNTS-CONTROL, and you want to use description keys. Make a “Control Points” style, but set the marker and label components to layer 0. Make a label style (Control Points), but set the label layer to DC-PNTS-CONTROL. Turn on the layer control as part of the desrciption key, and select the same layer (as shown below):

If you work in this fashion, any points set manually will reside on the layer you choose, you can easily make a layer filter for points (using DC-PNTS* as your filter definition, for example). You can freeze and thaw all your points via the layer dialog. You can turn off the label and leave the marker on; you can turn off the marker and leave the label on; you’ll be able to harness the power of the old _LAYISO command you’ve been using since about AutoCAD 13.

That should cover about every option you’ll need. Nice.

Civil 3D Library
Looking for Survey tutorials? Check out The COGO Branch in the Library. These downloads aren’t software demonstrations. They were created for clients using AutoCAD Civil 3D in the real world. Registration is required.

©2010 Paving the Way. All Rights Reserved.

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

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
Looking for Survey tutorials? Check out The COGO Branch in the Library. These downloads aren’t software demonstrations. They were created for clients using AutoCAD Civil 3D in the real world. Registration is required.

©2010 Paving the Way. All Rights Reserved.

· Type .g (dot g) to select a point by clicking on it.
· Type .p (dot p) to select a point by typing the point number.
· Type .n (dot n) to select a point by typing its northing and easting coordinates.

For example, if you start the Line command from the Lines/Curves menu, and then type “.p” (without the quotes), Land Desktop will prompt you for the Point Number you wish to start the line from – great if you’re re-creating linework from field notes, but have 1000 points displayed on the screen and have no silly idea where to start!

A point filter remains active until you turn it off by entering either the point filter (e.g. “.p”) again or another point filter.

But were you aware Civil 3D uses these filters as well! Use Civil point filters when you are prompted for a point location within a transparent command (i.e. using the Transparent Commands toolbar).

For more information on using transparent commands, see my posting on 9/15/2005.

Oh ya, before I forget:
e.g. = Latin. “exempli gratia” (for example)
i.e. = Latin. “id est” (that is)

Cheers!

Cheers!

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