Last post we splashed down and around the term Bucket to make Civil 3D Features a bit easier to get our heads around. There’s What, How, When, and Model buckets to AutoCAD Civil 3D Features. For all that strange stuff we have really only one chore.

Ripples in the Bucket

Each and every single Feature MUST have a unique name. This is an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) thing. The Dynamic Model in Civil 3D is based upon and works because of this primary principal.
Our Names connect the moving parts.
The lack of or creation of the Managed Dynamic Model order is up to you.

“Man gave name to the animals
in the beginning
long time ago”
                                             Bob Dylan

Often in the beginning a new user thinks the Name templates boxes found in every Create Feature dialog box is maybe a waste of time, something to ignore, or confused geek stuff.

“Why do I have to do that?”

Here’s an all too common scenario – a What not to do in Civil 3D.

A User manually inputs “Main Road” into the Create Alignment box. The OK button instantly makes an Alignment with nothing in it. The user then bails or quits out of the Alignment Layout tools box without adding a single segment to the alignment, The user built a valid Alignment bucket. “Main Road” is just an empty Alignment bucket.

Now the user wants to fix the empty “Main Road” alignment. The user hits the Home Ribbon and Create Alignment tool again – That appears to be the obvious thing to do. The Create Alignment box shows you the same “Main Road” name (Civil 3D remembers your last Name preference). You think you are adding to and editing “Main Road” when the Alignment Layout tools open. You aren’t.  You are now working on a new alignment named “Main Road (1)”.

Nothing visible on the screen does not mean something doesn’t exist. Inside Civil 3D we have to remember to Cycle our Focus - more key user issues can be found here.

There’s the “Main Road” alignment over in the Toolspace>>Prospector>>Alignments>>Centerlines collection. (Yes, I’m simplifying.) Select that in the branch and now pick Geometry Edit from the Ribbon. Huh?

CAD Dementia

The Civil 3D interface behavior is not intuitive if you focus on the screen as the only reality you have to deal with.
Manage the Features (data buckets) from the Toolspace. That’s what it’s there for.

Come on…you did this (or a variation of it) yourself in the beginning.
It didn’t work out very well.
You do something else now.

Name Templates

Every Civil 3D Feature has a Name template to make the naming process easier on the User. There is always a “counter” there. Civil 3D is going to do that to avoid duplicates anyway.

The default Name templates are By Intent generic to make them more flexible and adaptable to many civil engineering design tasks. You might as well employ a counter (or other unique difference) that makes sense to you in the Feature’s Name template. It helps more to have a Plan.

Feature Name Standards

You can automate a Feature Naming Standard based on simple rules built into the Feature Name templates in your production templates.  If you don’t have Feature Name Standards, it is something you need to work on if you really want a more managed Structure and better Managed Dynamic Models.

The Name Structure Projects Itself

Reference Surface, Alignment, and all other data shortcut Features are real in drawing data buckets too. You create a new bucket and pour in the contents from somewhere else.  Here the Model data is simply “over there” where the published data shortcut points.

Here’s a not so silly question about project data,

“Can you share an empty Feature?”

Now that would be confusing if you didn’t expect it.

Many of the wizard interfaces that now appear in Civil 3D (Corridor, Intersection, and Offset Alignment create tools for example) employ generic Name templates to make the dynamic model construction hook ups (by name) easier. The Name templates tend to be hidden away in the wizards. It’s an interface thing I suppose. I’d prefer a wizard pane where they are all set up, but that’s not how she works today.

Civil 3D She’s a Diva

She’ll mostly do what you want, but you must know how to tell her.

Think before you except the default Name templates in any wizard. Small changes to the current Name templates can make the difference between a Plan you understand and Way Too Much Chaos.

Template within Templates

I’ve pointed out in a few other posts here that for certain types of work, it’s really handy to have an arrangement of pre-made empty Features that Users can just fill up with the specifics.

What’s a Placeholder?

The concept of employing “Placeholders” is a powerful< and all too often overlooked, benefit of model-based software. Animators have no problem with this idea – they must do it in their typical workflow. CAD people seem to struggle more with it – most rarely employ a Placeholder in their traditional workflow. That workflow is linear for the most part. Things change.

What to the Names Do?

Sooner or later you might discover this is one of the cooler and more productive purposes for a Civil 3D “template”.

Can a Feature Placeholder template be upside down and backwards?

A template with lots of pre-built Features with hardy any preloaded and therefore preordained Styles doesn’t make sense until we understand at a practical level what Style does in model-based software. Style is always temporary in Civil 3D.

Maybe this template appears to be the opposite of what you initially learned about what is important in a drawing template for Civil 3D.

For some tasks the Structure may be More Important to User productivity than other things.
Civil 3D is all about the data.
For us it’s about us managing data.

Civil 3D Hands It Out in Buckets

Whew! I had to take a break from Parcels in AutoCAD Civil 3D. To do an in depth series of posts on the Site Parcel is in a good and useful thing. I learned a lot. I trust your eyes maybe open wider. The practical daily reality of Civil 3D’s interconnected Dynamic Model is powerful.

I always seek to find new and better ways to try and…

Tell the Story of How AutoCAD Civil 3D Works

Long time CAD users are faced with a daunting new reality when they hit model-based software. The simple world of basic CAD primitives is replaced by things that appear to look like primitives, but functionally dance together to different rhythms. When I train people in AutoCAD Civil 3D, I’m constantly faced with the stumbling blocks this presents to trainees.

Features

In the posts found here I constantly refer to Civil 3D things often found in the Toolspace>>Propector and Settings tabs as “Features”. A “Feature” is a technical programming term that refers to a collection of OOP objects that communicate with one another. In some places Civil 3D internally refers to its Features that way. In places in the interface and Help files it does not. The words “entity”, “primitive”, “object”, “component” and “feature” get mixed up when we attempt to simplify and/or generalize about the specific too much.

Collections

I also often refer to many Features also as “collectors”. Truthfully, all Civil 3D things are technically collections and almost all are really collections of collections. Oh My!  Again it’s an OOP (object oriented programming) thing. Big Whoopi.

To be too technical about such things can and often does get in the way or the more important points of human understanding and practical application. Inside Civil 3D…

If you Name it, it’s a Bucket.

The buckets (that are Features) almost all gather specific kinds of data into smaller mini buckets.  There are “What” input buckets; “How” buckets; “When” (order) buckets; and a currently resolved “Model” bucket. The Model gets a Feature Style assigned to it. Sometimes the contents of other buckets may have Style too.

Features Collect Data

Well Duh! This makes more sense when we talk about Surface Features. Most civil engineering and survey folks are familiar with the concept of multiple forms of potential data input (points, contours, breaklines, etc.) because of how classic DTM software approaches the problem of surface model construction. The Civil 3D Surface Feature is purposefully made to appear to be familiar - like the classic LDT surface model software. Is it? Not really.

Buckets on the Surface

The Civil 3D Toolspace>> Prospector>>Surfaces>>Named Surface>>Definition branch has these input mini-buckets neatly displayed for us – the What. The properties and current conditions that are applied to the surface model are really another separate mini-bucket – the How. There is a Edit stack bucket that allows us to add a When order to the What. Why? - Because a What bucket order matters. The current surface Model is the resolved results or output bucket.

We may perceive that we Name the output bucket because that is what we do all the work to get. The Model is what gets shared in a data shortcut. That reinforces the perception. The same Name for a Surface Model is a convenient after-effect. Both Grading Groups and Corridor Features produce surface Models with discrete output surface Names we do control.

We do not get to name many internal buckets of Surface Features, but notice you can and must name the specific What inputs. For many Civil 3D Features we must Name the specific What buckets or Civil 3D will do it automatically for you.

Do other Features have similar mini-buckets?

We could talk about the Alignment Feature (which has grown to be a more complex Feature than a Surface) in exactly the same way – by What, How, When, and Model buckets. Lately, I talked about the Site Parcel’s many buckets in a long series of posts. I did not use the word “Bucket”. I mostly used the “collector’ word.

The primary benefit to us of the Types Buckets in Buckets approach is a better and more formal Structure to the data and therefore a better potential QAQC process, if we care to play along.

The scary things is you can almost ignore the whole idea and muddle on through with your work as though almost none of this exists. However, not matter what, we must deal with the What, How, When, and Model buckets in the Features. We gotta name them.

What can the Civil 3D Name templates do to you and for you next time.

PS         The absence of pictures in these two posts is intentional.

We been discussing the Most Important Fact that How you use the Civil 3D interface in the manual manipulation of Parcel Segments matters. There is really a lot to keep track of and these skills obviously apply to more than just Parcels inside of AutoCAD Civil 3D. The key User interface use issues remain clear:

• Cycle Your Focus
• Selection Create and Edit Skills
• What You See is What You WantIt’s not about What You See is What You Get

The Parcel Posts - a study guide to Read and Test in AutoCAD Civil 3D
Site Parcel Essentials – Part 1 | It’s Not Yo’ Daddy’s Parcel – Part 2 | To Edit Parcels is to Create? – Part 3 | Parcels Have Priorities - Part 4 | A Strange Universe of Parcel Inverses and Mapchecks – Part 5 | Dances with Parcels – Part 6 | Pack Dances with Parcels – Part 7 | Cycle Manipulations of Segments – Part 8 | Select Manipulations of Segments – Part 9 | Visual Manipulations and Many Segments – Part 10 | Site Parcel Alignment – Part 11

It was once a significant CAD software feature to have What You See is What You Get. We moved on.
In Civil 3D we get something else…

What You See is What You Want

In previous Parcel posts we talked a lot about Parcel Segment Style and Area Labels and about the detailed reasons why segment labels produce different results.

Civil 3D Annotation is an Edit and QAQC Tool

You can employ multiple Parcel Labels as a tool in Parcel creation and editing. They provide handy instant feedback as you make small to large adjustments.
Perhaps you might employ tweaked QAQC Label Styles with more precision than you might eventually publish. Small unseen values tend to pile up at times into unexpected results.

There is a balance to this. The Site Parcel model spares us the task of being perfectly precise and accurate. It allows us to produce Suitable results in less time. Read this important post.

As we said before The General Line & Curve Label work on different geometry than Parcel Labels.

• The Generals Labels recognize the underlying geometry of the segment
• Parcel Labels recognize the resolved Site Parcel model

If you want Start and End “Z” labels or segment Slope data for grade and elevation work, you must employ a General Line and Curve Labels.

Sorry. The internal resolved node elevations (that might be potentially available by interaction with the entire Site Parcel model) are not currently exposed in any Feature’s Label Styles.

Many times it pays to employ both kinds of Parcel Segment Labels when editing. Unfortunately these days you cannot have more than one Multiple Label Style assigned to Parcel Segments on any linear Features for that matter.
This was possible back in the day, but either object model “clean ups” or people’s wish lists (focused on annotation) complained this useful functionality away. Stacked multiple labels were useful. Boo who -Change can be annoying.

A visible Add Labels box becomes pretty important. Thankfully this box is modal. It can hang around and wait for your time and need. In 2011-13 you’ll also get mad that the Generals section of Add Labels cannot replace Multiples. Get used to manual deletes (Select Similar) and relabel from the Add Labels box.

More and More Labels

Alignments actively may participate in Site Parcels. They remain a separate Feature. They have their own independent set of Line and Curve Labels. Yep. The can use the General Line & Curve Labels too. The numerous and potentially very detailed Alignment Group labels can also produce useful information on screen to help aid you in your Parcel construction and editing.

Currently, the only ways to snap a Parcel segment end to an Alignment/Profile pair elevation is to employ a Feature Line that references such a pair. There are a couple of ways to do that as we discovered in a previous post. It pays to keep these “reference” Feature Lines is a separate Site.  We’ll talk more on Site Parcels and Alignments next time.

Figures in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 now have their own independent Line & Curve labels as well. Figures can also be labeled with General Line & Curve Labels like Parcel Segments. What data do you need data from the Figure?

If it sounds to you like General Line & Curve Labels are the simple best choice to use for everything, you may have missed the point. Read the previous posts…maybe read them again with Civil 3D running.

Quick Select is Needed

When you have to work with Parcel Segments, ACAD selection skills matter a lot. Typically, you may have Parcel Segments from more than one Site Parcel in your drawing. The Quick Select tool which is available in both the screen Right click menu and the Properties palette is a lifesaver. Sweet!

Not So Sweet

Unfortunately the Select Similar command (also in the right click menu) is grossly insensitive to Site and to Parcel Label type – This is both Good news and Bad news. Custom settings for the Select Similar command is another thing Autodesk could tweak.

The Quick Select tool is the only easy way to select Parcel Segments that are currently unresolved and that may be displayed as an Invisible Parcel Style. Quick Select in the fast way to collect Parcel Segments en mass and change their available Properties.  Yes you can Right click and Move or Copy the selected Parcel Segments to another Site. You search for Parcel Segments in Quick Select with a “Site” by name match.

By the way, when you search for the resolved Parcels within a Site with Quick Select you must search for “Parcel Site Name” not by “Site”. Is this another case of “indecent” exposure in Civil 3D or not?

Display Resolution

The Parcel Segments themselves derive their Style by a process of Style “resolution” that is managed by a Priority.
Remember that a Parcel Segment may be shared by two (or more) different Parcels . The adjoining Parcels may have different Parcel Styles. The Parcels collection has a Display Order Priority that is controllable in the Composition Tab of the Parcels collection in every named Site Parcel.

Remember the outer boundary of the Parcels collection is always also a Parcel. It also shares control of the properties of the outer boundary Parcel Segments of all the Parcels it collects.
That other Parcels duality can make things confusing when you are work out on the edge.

AutoCAD Display Order

How does the AutoCAD Display Order affect the displayed and published results?  This depends on exactly what you are attempting to order.
Remember you have the Parcels (this includes the separate outer boundary Parcel) and the Parcel Segments to deal with and manage.

It is also easy to forget that you cannot actually change the AutoCAD Display Order of a resolved Parcel. The Civil 3D Site Parcel Priority controls that.  See above.
You can change the AutoCAD Display Order of a selection of Parcel segments, but you have to select that input data to do that. Quick Select makes that possible.

There’s More to Style than Looks

Display order and the related Feature selection issues get more dicey when you have multiple Site Parcels at work in a drawing. As I said in many a previous posts, QAQC type Parcel Styles and Parcel Area Styles can help reduce the visibility issues and therefore the access to the most productive Civil 3D edit interface significantly better and faster.

Our latest products have these creative Style tool goodies all built-in By Design. InstantOn Basic has some. The Jump Kit has more depth and variations for all the many related Civil 3D Features that can contribute to a Site Parcel.

Which Properties Matter When?

In the Toolspace selecting either the Parcels collection or the Named Site above it gets you to SAME Auto CAD properties box.  Don’t be fooled. To Civil 3D these are not the same thing.

The Civil 3D Toolspace always has a hierarchy. Where you select and pick ALWAYS matters.

The Civil 3D properties of the higher level Named Site and its included Parcels collection are definitely NOT the same.

The Civil 3D Properties

Named Site manages properties of all the collected stuff. Aside from setting the Parcel numbering counters in Numbering, the 3D Geometry tab properties control the 3D elevation display of the resolved Site Parcel model in views other than Plan. The 3D Geometry tab properties also manage the default layers for Construction segments.

Construction segments are segments that do not currently resolve. A setting of Layer 0 means the unresolved segments “float” to the Style assigned layer. You can force unresolved tangent, arc, and (in the future) spiral segments to display on different layers.

The Parcels collection manages the resolved outer boundary Parcel Styles, the Parcel Style Display Order, and the assignment of UDP (User Defined Properties) for resolved Parcels in the Composition Tab. In the example above the outer boundary Style has Display Order Priority in the Site.

The Parcel Feature has default properties of Parcel Number, Parcel Address and Parcel Tax ID that are assigned to every resolved Parcel. UDP properties allow you to assign additional properties.
The default Parcel data properties can be managed in the AutoCAD properties box for the individual Parcel. The Parcels Ribbon has tools to allow you to change Parcel Number and Name properties en mass.

Speaking of Parcel names - using Parcel Style names in the Parcel naming template allows Civil 3D to manage and group your resolved Parcels automatically. How to employ that interactive functionality is worthy of a post someday, but not today.

The Feature Line collection in a Site Parcels employs similar Toolspace mechanics to Parcel Segments. The Feature Line Site Properties box:
The Statistics tab reports on the total collection of Feature Line in the Site.
The Grouped Statistics tab allows you to see the Feature Line Grouped By Style and By Layer. This is really handy quick check of Feature Line Style and Layer assignment errors, omissions, etc.
The Options tab helps you manage the Style based weighting of Feature Line Priority within the Site. This is called Split point crossing resolution. Simply put (if there is such a thing) when Feature Lines cross which elevation is employed at the resolved intersection node location. That resolved elevation value gets processed out of the Site Parcel into one of a number of potential linear Surface Definitions (e.g. Breaklines, Boundaries, etc.).

In the example above roadway (Corridor) Feature Lines matter more except when you choose to do it differently. The Corridor based Feature Line Styles (CR) are “favored” over Site Styles (GR) in this Site Parcel. How you name Styles matters in subtle ways inside AutoCAD Civil 3D. The Feature Styles here come from our InstantOn Basic template’s Styles collection.

Next time let’s talk about Alignments and their ever growing influence and power inside the Site Parcel.