You can report problems in Jump Platform products by emailing us

support@cadpilot.com

Please include a description of the problem and screen capture(s).

You can employ the FREE AutoCAD WS service to share drawings, plots (DWF and PDF), and markups.

Use of AutoCAD WS significantly reduces email back and forth traffic and YOU are completely in control of ALL file and content security.
Create an AutoCAD WS account upload and Share you issues to the support email address above.

The 2010 release of AutoCAD Civil 3D introduced Country Kits to the installation package for the first time. This is of real benefit to users of AutoCAD Civil 3D, but as is true with the first time for anything not everything came across as planned and intended. The US California Country Kit (USCA) provides substantially more integration than other the Autodesk Country Kit products. This Integration adds substantially more benefit but some increase in complexity to the install. Not everything was possible “out of the box” given all the other release considerations. Therefore, you have some minor fixes and clean-up tasks to perform to get things working as advertized. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Downloads with complete installation instructions are supplied on this page.

What is Installed Properly

    o    Working or Model Templates

    o    Plan Production Tool Template

    o    Sheet Set Manager Template

    o    Assemblies and Assembly Sets for Intersections

    o    Key Layer Standards files are installed but not in a useful location

    o    Key Plot Style resource files are NOT installed in a functional location

 

What Must be Fixed

    o    Key Plot Style resource files are NOT installed to functional locations

    o    The Project Data Set is buried away

    o    The Windows Desktop shortcut is only partially set up

    o    The USCA Tool Palette Catalog is not installed. It is supplied with the zip file available below

    o    The Civil 3D Project Template may not be installed at all and is supplied below

    o    The working project data set should be moved and configured

The Autodesk USCA Country Kits are a generalized collections of templates designed to help Civil 3D using organizations of any size adopt and employ the software with less work and expense. The are a collection of resource files for Civil 3D. The current shipping versions of the Country Kits (2010) include no code.
The USCA for 2010 was produced and are maitained by MoreCompetency, Inc. under contract with Autodesk, Inc.

Technical Support for the Autodesk US California Country Kit for 2010 is provided by Autodesk via Subscription Site

Support from MoreCompetency, Inc. is available for all Jump Template Solution products only by upgrading to the Jump Start Services product.

The Autodesk USCA Country Kit for 2010 
     o  Is and end-to-end solution containing
                 o Multiple Working Templates (containing 2000+ Styles)
                 o Sheet/Layout Templates
                 o Sheet Set Manager Template
                 o Civil 3D Project Template 
     o  Is designed to be customized therefore requires minumal but important configuration to put to use in production
     o  Contains a complete working project dataset to help you explore and learn to use it - 
                   requires miniumal setup and configuration
     o  Users are strongly encouraged to purchase Jump Collection Video Training
                  this inexpensive set of updating videos walk you through the essentials
     o  Uses Imperial units only
     o  Employs by default Windows True Type fonts
     o  Employs Style Based Plotting (STB)

More Question and Answers

 

We strongly recommend you initially configure the USCA Country Kit to run in a "Project" environment
while you evaluate and perform basic customization of the Jump Template Collection.

Why?
        o Its is easier to keep straight the locations of the key resource files
        o Allows you to more easily employ the included project dataset and examples
        o Allows you to Actively participate in free webinar training that's regularly offered
            without changing things around
        o From a maintenance standpoint this Project setup allows you to have a known place to start
             and it makes is easier to back-up and move around your customizations
        o You may find in the end it is easier to manage Civil 3D projects and templates this way all the time
        o If you later move up to employing Vault to manage your projects, this method is easy to move 

Instructions on How to Set up the USCA to run as a demo Project are included in the zip file available on this page. 

The Country Kits were added to the Civil 3D disks and installation for the first time in 2010.

They appear on a new screen in the install wizard behind Configure button

On the Configure Content Packs screen

SCROLL DOWN to the bottom
Check the US California Content
Pick Yes to configure a Desktop Shortcut
This will get you a default template from the USCA Content

The final Install Ready screen should show the USCA configured

 

There is a download list a the bottom of this page.

Read the readme and use the Download link to get the file

Complete Installation Instructions are included in the zip file. 

The default Plot Styles folder location was moved between 2009 and 2010. The documentation does not include the additional \Plotters folder in the paths.

Paths in Vista for the copying of STB files should end in \Plotters\Plot Styles NOT just \Plot Styles.

How you install AutoCAD Civil 3D makes all the difference.

One of the common install disasters is missing Tool Palettes that are pretty necessary.

Here's the Tool Palette Fix

Unfortunately this implies that you had to use a deployment to have the problem.

The 10_Design (Imperial)-STM_US template does not contain Surface Feature Styles and Label Styles.

The Surface Styles and Label Styles are the same in all the templates. All you need to do is copy them into the template.

Open the 10_Design (Imperial)-STM_US template for editing from the Prospector

Open 10_Design Simple (Imperial)-STM_US for editing

In the Toolspace set the View to Master View
This allows you to see the Style Collections of both drawings

Make the 10_Design (Imperial)-STM_US the current drawing in the Toolspace

In the Settings tab

Expand the Simple template's Surfaces branch completely

Begin at the botton of the Label Styles at the deepest level of the completely expanded tree

Select the styles at each location EXCEPT for the Standard styles and drag and drop the Styles from the Toolspace into the CURRENT drawing.

You can Skip overwrites

The installation instructions included with downloads may include incorrect paths to Vista locations.

Vista and Windows 7 both "virualize" XP based folders and make them shortcuts. You can use the shortvuts to access the actual folders but cannot navigate to the virtualize folders in Explorer by coying the link to the Address bar.

Vista path errors

The first instance of "Autodesk" in the path should be <Installing User Name>.

The Update 3.1 update for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 may cause Civil 3D to lose the ability to restack DKS priority. This behavior is also untermittent. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Once is occurs in a drawing the condition appears to be a permenent condition.

You must Check the Description Key Set priority each time BEFORE you Apply Description Keys.

Currently the only way to change the Description Key Priority is to remove all the DKSs and add them back into the drawing in the order you desire.

The update also changed how the Drawing Scale checkbox in a Decription Key affects Point Styles already set to always relate to Drawing Scale.

The Update actually fixed a previouis but long-term incorrect behavior. In other words, now Keys work correctly, but the tresults are different from prior Releases and previous 2010 updates.

Sets and Keys that are not edited appear to function as they did before. Sets and Keys that are edited after Update 3.1 installation typically require that you reset Drawing Scale properties in Point Styles to conform to the new behavior. This means you will have to update all Point Styles to new Drawing Scale values and Overwrite Point Styles to get the cirrect scale result.

Topics:

Make Jump Start Run 
    Our Goals and/or Your Goals - get the templates working
Why and How the NCS Standards make your life easier 
    Why the NCS and UDS make you productive 
Do Layers Really Matter? 
     How to more easily manage the layer properties 
    How and Why - Layers are Styles

Those Pesky AutoCAD Details 
    Textstyles to Annotate or Not 
        Quick Change to AutoCAD Styles and for Fast Money 
    Where and How to plug in your Linetypes - Use Design Center 
    Where and How to plug in your Blocks - USe Design Center and Rename
Why Jump Start is STB based 
    How STB works differently than CTB 
    How to get over it and get to work

Sanity in the Civil 3D Toolspace 
    Style, Set & Setting Essentials 
    Basic JS Naming Conventions (Label Styles come later…) 
    Do you start at the top? The Top of What? 
    Drawing Settings
The Hierarchy Rules
The Simple Style Rules

 Topics:
Point Styles & Point Label Styles 
        Symbols/Markers in Point Styles 
        Point Label Styles 
        Description Key Sets
The unique Surface Feature Styles 
    The critical Display tab 
    Counting the other tabs

The Update Styles Process 
    Open the template or drawing file with the styles you need 
    Open the drawing you want to update 
    Delete the old styles STARTING with SETS 
    Make sure the drawing to update is the CURRENT drawing 
        Tiled drawing Windows help 
    Settings Tab 
        Expand the Features tree for the Feature and Label Styles you need 
        Select Styles at the lowest level in the tree and work uphill through the feature 
        – Do SETS last 
    Drag and Drop into the CURRENT Drawing 
    Always Overwrite – you know these are RIGHT

Basic Alignment, Profile, and Section Features 
    The Linear Features 
        Group Labels and basic labels
 
The Basics of Label Sets 
        What Sets collect 
            Styles 
            Properties

Those Beastly Profile and Section Views 
    Review of the View Features properties interface 
    Own the Sets 
    And maybe the Styles in them 
    For Updates – Clear the Sets and Feature Settings FIRST

 

Topics:
The Collector Features in C3D 
        Sites 
        Point Groups 
        Surfaces 
        Grading Groups 
        Parcels 
        Corridors 
        Assemblies 
        Sample Line Groups 
        Pipe Network Features 
        More….
Profile Views 
    The publishing engine for profiles and pipe networks 
    Label Sets make the annotation easier 
    Labels anchor to the Feature or the View 
    Labels have Extensions anchors
Section Views 
    The publishing engine for Sections 
    Powered by a Sample Line Group collector 
    Site Section and Road Sections are the same 
    Sections employ multiple Styles and multiple Label Styles 
    The General Multipurpose Styles drive the results

How the General Multipurpose Styles connect to some Collectors 
        Markers 
        Feature Lines 
        Links 
        Shapes 
        Code Sets
Style collections for Corridors and Cross Sections 
    What about Sites? 
    Connect Feature Lines, Alignments, Parcels, Gradings and more… 
    Control interactivity

What to Do with Label Styles
    SAVE! SAVE! SAVE! 
    Plan before you Play 
        Playing with Label Styles eats man-hours 
        Draw out what you want – Do a markup of a plan set 
        Review the available Feature Data before you start 
    Create healthy parent styles 
        Decide on the components you need and make them 
        Name the components appropriately 
        Reduce the number of Text components to the minimum number you need 
        The default “new” label style components names are NOT what you want 
        Get the parent to work and do what you planned and STOP 
    Resist Label Style Lust the urge to keep trying to do MORE

What Not to Do with Label Styles
    Don’t add components to a child label style 
    Add it to the parent FIRST and make it invisible 
    Create new Parents to handle big differences 
    Use parent names to organize purpose and use 
    Try not to change the ORDER of how components are connected in a child style 
        You may get away with this, but only if 
        you obey the DO NOT ADD Rule 
        you don’t change to parent 
    Do not experiment with child styles under a working parent 
        Make a copy of the parent and a new child and play there

 Topics:
Drawings in Civil 3D
     Drawings Start as Model drawings
     They become Data or Xrefs for other Model or Model (design) drawings
     Publish drawings are mostly references

Drawing Types
  Model Drawings
     Need Styles at least based on Task and Features
  Xdata Drawings
     No Styles except perhaps to update
     Purge Styles and Layers Ruthlessly
  Xref Drawings – used to display and annotate the model
     Need Styles at least to Display Feature Content
     Purge before archiving
  Publish Drawings
     No Styles

Code Set Styles
  What they do for Corridors
     Generate the Feature Line line work
     Corridor output can be used for more design
     Generate the Shape fills in Plan
  What they do for Sections
     Generate the cross section view line work and fills for subassemblies
     Generate the labels for the subassembly Shapes and Points

Get Jump Start Working 
  Evaluate and KISS
     Use the demo drawings to explore Styles for Key Features
     Do work with your data and unchanged styles
     The less you tweak the less work you have to do

How to Rip and Tear 
  Remove it if you don’t need it now
  It may exist for a good reason…but you can get it back
Key Issues
  Colors to make IMPORTANT things familiar
  Linetypes to get your look at feel
  Create external Layer States files to restore your layer changes to
  supplied updates and project data drawings
  Edit and OWN the ONLY the Sets and most used Styles

Feature Styles 
    Graphically simple – most changes are to Layers

Label Styles & Label Sets 
    Fonts & Font Size 
    Edit and OWN the most useful Label Sets 
    Reduce the number of Label Styles in YOUR templates

The Maintenance Plan Checklist
    Remember to PDCA (Plan Do Check Analyze) 
    You must have a time frame or everything becomes an emergency and a crisis
    Don’t Fight fires Prevent fires 
        It will never ALL get done at once 
    Do a pass and STOP for a set period of time 
    Document in writing what you changed 
    Create one template that ONLY has your changes 
    Do Work 
    Document in writing what you think must change 
        Updates are going to happen so how do you handle that? 
    Remember – You choose

The Style Update Process
    Make sure you have backups 
       The update process will fail because of ID10T errors – we mess up 
    Make the drawing to update “Current” 
    Use Settings>>Master View 
        The Labels Only view may help but don’t forget it does not show everything you may need to update 
    Update from the other drawing 
    Copy and/or Update Styles from the lowest level and branch in the Toolspace 
    Parent Label Styles come over this way 
    Do the Label Sets Last 
    Be Bored and Systematic 
    When in doubt OVERWRITE

Make Template Updates Easier
    Start with the right ACAD template – stb 
        We supply a NO STYLES template on the Updates page on cadpilot.com 
    Purge the easy to identify “C” and “V” blocks 
    Load the linetypes, hatch patterns, textstyles with Design Center from a 
        copy of your good template after it is updated with changes 
    Load YOUR blocks with Design Center 
        Blocks should use NAMES in the Jump Start template OR
            be completely YOUR OWN – easiest to maintain. 
        Don’t mix and try to match 
    Layer State files make Layer updates easy 
        Make sure they are EXTERNAL and read only 
    Insert Exploded the new update template 
        This will NOT overwrite YOUR changes
    Purge the Layers you KNOW you don’t want 
        Purge ALL works as a Quick Fix 
        All the layers are still in the Update template 
    Tweak New Style Referenced layers and update your external Layer States files 
    Update your OWN Styles & Sets into the drawing 
    Evaluate the new styles that may help your OWN Sets and Styles and own and update them 
    Rip and Tear 
    Go back to work 

Data drawings are different from the drawings used to publish the model 
    Data drawings have almost NO STYLES – Delete Styles
    Data drawings end up as references in Publish drawings

Tell us what you Need
    Email us Style requests in writing
    Your Purpose and the Why are important information 
        Please do not assume we understand 
        It may already be in there but you may have missed it 
    The kind of work you are doing is IMPORTANT too 
    Show a picture of what you want if possible 
If it is Broken, please tell us 
    If we don’t know, we may not fix it.

The Power of Names

If you have used any AutoCAD based application for even a short time you are probably very aware of how reliant the software is on the NAMES you supply.

Layers are a simple Style

The best examples of the “Power of Names” in AutoCAD are Layers.
In AutoCAD or Land Desktop the only thing that makes a sewer line different from a water line is the layer it resides on. So, if your good buddy in the cube next door goes into your drawing and moves the sewer linework to a water layer or renames the sewer layer to a water layer name, you have a PROBLEM.

Civil 3D does use layers, BUT Civil 3D when used effectively almost doesn’t use layers at all from a user’s working perspective.
In fact, in our CAD Pilot courses, users learn and use Civil 3D and almost NEVER visit the Layer Manager to do ANYTHING. Somehow they even manage to plot a project!

Feature and Label Styles Do the Work

When used to its best potential AutoCAD Civil 3D does NOT rely on user manual control of AutoCAD layers and their properties.
This is probably the most difficult thing for new users migrating from older Autodesk software to get their head around.

How is that even possible? The Power of Names.

The Display Tab

If you root around in any Civil 3D Feature Style you will find the Display tab. This looks remarkably like the Layer Manager, but in C3D this box controls the display properties of feature Components not Layers. Every Civil 3D Feature has different Components.

In our templates we made things easy. Mostly, but NOT always, the Components are mapped to a ByLayer property. Since Color doesn’t matter (we use the STB plotting method), we do force Component Color properties occasionally to make things easier to visualize feature Component differences better. This is done so you can visualize, analyze, and decide faster. Therefore, you can also design faster in Civil 3D.

If Layer names mattered to you in AutoCAD. Style names matter even more in Civil 3D. Style names themselves are used to link lots of things together inside the software.

You know what a nested layer can do in a block? Recognize that Civil 3D uses a similar concept of nested Styles to do almost all of the annotation of the model.

Layers are important to your output in AutoCAD. Styles are more important in Civil 3D.

Style names are used to determine how the output of almost everything in the model looks and how it is labeled.

Civil 3D Name mapping speeds up complex tasks

Styles with the same name but referring to another Feature altogether can speed up and simplify some complex tasks like Corridor creation in C3D.

Sets of Named Styles help keep it simple

Collections of Styles called SETS often make all the difference between being productive and being frustrated with the software.

Sets allow you to remember just one name instead of five names and a bunch of other related detailed information.

Hint: If the task appears complex and detailed, there is probably a Set and/or a wizard that uses the Sets available to make it easier.

Never take what you Name in C3D lightly

You may have to live with the name longer than you expected.

You must Name every Civil 3D Feature as well. This is different from Style Names.

Name Templates in Civil 3D Features help you standardize Feature Names.

Always use the Description box

Document what you’ve done because you will obviously Name a lot more things in Civil 3D than in AutoCAD or Land Desktop

The Description fields in Features, Feature Styles, and Feature Label Styles are there to help you.
If you don’t use them you will waste time and work a lot harder. Your work will also be much harder for others (and you) to follow.
You will forget why you did it. So document:
    Why you made it? 
    What did you make it for? 
    How did you make it?
    What makes it different?

Style Naming Conventions

We know that Names are really important in Civil 3D, it stands to reason that we need some rules about how to name things – a naming convention.

Civil 3D contains a large number of Features and many Features have a potential host of related Label Styles that are used to annotate the civil engineering model.

The goal - KISS!

Over the last seven+ years we have attempted a number of naming schemes to address the complexity problem that all Civil 3D users face.

The Jump Platform naming conventions are the result of our long term effort to discover something that works but is not too complex or difficult to learn. The template(s) and included Styles are themselves a continuous work in progress - we are always searching for a better, cleaner, and easier way to get it done.

We employ a planned way of naming everything in the Jump Platform product template(s).
This cannot be an absolute LAW with just one set of basic rules.
Civil 3D’s power, functionality, and variety of solution paths appear to make that impossible unless you want to have long and overly complex names.

Here are the basic rules about styles you should respect to successfully use AutoCAD Civil 3D.

The Simple Style Rules

1. Never edit a Style in a production drawing.

This creates chaos and inconsistency in your production drawings and projects.

You will be tempted to break Rule #1.
You will do it. You will probably regret it later.

You are much more likely to lose data and/or corrupt styles and related features when you edit styles that are In Use in a drawing.

2. Always use Copy and/or New to create a different named version of the style if you must make a change in a production drawing.

Rename the new style in some way to tell the edited version apart from the original

Employ the Apply button when changing tabs and before using OK

Save frequently when editing styles

If you do not like things and want to change them, do so at the highest level possible.

3.  Always test your results with a standard test drawing that includes both Civil 3D Features (data) and typical production Layouts that actually plot on your hardware and that you understand thoroughly.

In Civil 3D you create new Styles and Label Styles. What is not obvious is that this almost unlimited customization power can get you into trouble. You can create things that the software developers never expected. You can connect things together in ways no one could ever predict. You can also create styles that appear to work but are not exactly healthy.

Usually these problems come up in the Label Style collections because you are actually making new objects in Civil 3D when you add a named components in a Label Style.

All the branches in the Setting tree are all collections. Each of the collections has Hierarchy - what is called Parent/Child relationship. 

The Drawing>>Feature>>Type>>Parent>>Child Hierarchy is built-in to Civil 3D to help things more consistent and easier to maintain.
Label Style Defaults (LSD) are both powerful and useful. 
However, LSD has a hidden death trap or two that can trip you.

It is all too easy to edit a specific Child style and make it conflict in some way with the uphill Parent style. Often you can get away with this now and then.
This is particularly true for simple Label Styles. Label Styles for more complex Features have more potential components and more potential Feature data sources.
If you create major differences between Child Styles and Parents too often, you can make your drawings unstable and cause the software to crash more often.

Therefore, add new components FIRST to the uphill Parent or a copy of the Parent Label Style.

Civil 3D is designed to run with tested and stable Feature and Label Styles that work and are not being changed on the fly. When you are creating or making lots of edits to styles, Civil 3D will be more unstable than when you use it with the finished and tested products.

Since you have to build styles right away to get the software to a working condition, this can lead you to believe the software is unstable and that it does not work. Not true.

Remember creating and editing Label Styles in particular is more like programming than anything else. In fact, some structured programming is exactly what you are doing. They just didn't tell you that when you create a new named components that is what you are doing. 

Recognize that all Programmers expect things to crash. That's why it's critical to test. Save often and expect to things to go bad at unexpected times. They will.

The Jump Platform has thousands of styles...how many times do you think we crashed?