create sheet set for civil 3d and revit drawings

Getting Productive with Plan Production Tools in Civil 3D

Past Sam Lucido for Autodesk Academy

Image courtesy of Dawn Digital.

Pattern projects can go challenging when working with large sites which include lengthy roadways and site features that are needed to be displayed on multiple sheets for production. With the plan production tools in AutoCAD Civil 3D you tin automate the process of creating program and profile sheets quickly. We volition explore how to use these tools to create multiple plan and profile sheets, sections on multiple layouts, and tie information technology all together in a sheet prepare ready for publishing your deliverable. Let's get productive and learn how to optimize the product of final plans and contour drawings.

Introduction

How do you efficiently create your final plans chop-chop and easily for printing in AutoCAD Civil 3D? The program and product tools volition help y'all quickly create sheets that automatically display station ranges of alignments and profiles in your plans. These wizards will besides Create View Frames, Programme and Contour Sheets, and Section Sheets, all of which will automatically brandish segments of alignments, profiles, sections, and plan sheets in your pattern set. The figure below shows the Program Product Tools located on the Output tab of the Ribbon.

You lot have been working on your design project for weeks and running prints for review supplying to the technology team to check scale and the project details. We take now done the planning and it is time to produce our sheets at a scale for a deliverable. Before you start generating all sorts of sheets you must address a few concepts and prerequisites. The Plan Production features draw on several Civil 3D components to create a plan ready.

We will brainstorm with the drawing templates. Programme production tools create new layouts for each sheet in a program set up at a scale. Therefore, y'all have to prepare upwardly templates with named viewports at each calibration telling Ceremonious 3D what you lot would like to produce. Well-nigh features in Civil 3D have styles which we will define those within our template.

Steps to follow while referencing this cloth:

• Create the templates (y'all can start with the templates provided from Autodesk)
• Use these as a guide to develop your ain templates with your visitor title block
• Select the Create View Frames (shown in the figure above)
• Choose your canvass type and the template with the appropriate scale
• Choose View Frame Groups and Match Line Styles
• Change those (and add additional after selecting)
• If you lot chose a contour y'all will have to select the Contour and Band Styles (as with View Frames, you can change these later)
• Profile Views can play an important part in "white space" around your contour
• Select the Create Sheets (shown in the figure above)
• Ascertain your Sheet Fix (new or existing; utilise Sheet Sets to your reward)
• Add any Data References (only if you are creating a new drawing file)
• Select Create Sheets and the process will begin to create your new layouts

Related: Managing Your Sheets with the Canvass Set Manager with Sam Lucido

Overview

Instead of manually creating many viewports on layouts to evidence segments of alignments, you can create view frames that automatically capture predefined areas along an alignment. View frames are rectangular areas forth an alignment that stand for what is displayed in the associated viewports on the layouts (sheets) to be created. This automation saves you from making many manual changes when your design information changes. Remember the days when you created view frames to match the scale of your blueprint?

The image to a higher place shows an alignment of a long route with curves. The red boxes are the view frames that we are requested to testify the road on Plan sheets with or without a profile.

By setting upwardly the North Arrow and Scale on your templates yous also take the ability to have that North Pointer linked to the viewport giving it the ability to rotate to "true North" when the view changes throughout your sheets.

Templates

Several predefined template (.dwt) files are provided with Civil 3D 2018. You must accept templates created to follow the four scenarios every bit shown below. For this demonstration we have templates created for each instance equally shown.

Plan(s) Only

The current cartoon must contain an alignment.
You must be able to access a template that contains a viewport with a Viewport Type defined as Program, such as the Civil 3D (Purple) Program Just.dwt or the Ceremonious 3D (Regal) Plan over Programme.dwt template located in the Template\Plan Production binder.

Contour(due south) Only

The electric current cartoon must incorporate an alignment and a contour.
You must be able to admission a template that contains a viewport with a Viewport Type defined as Contour, such as the Civil 3D (Imperial) Profile Just.dwt or the Civil 3D (Imperial) Profile over Contour.dwt template located in the Template\Plan Product folder.

Program and Contour

The current drawing must incorporate an alignment and a profile.
You lot must exist able to access a template that contains a viewport with a Viewport Type defined equally Plan, and a viewport with a Viewport Blazon defined equally Profile, such equally the Civil 3D (Imperial) Plan and Profile.dwt template located in the Template\Plan Product binder.

Section

The current drawing must contain an alignment, sample lines, and cross sections. Y'all must be able to admission a template that contains a viewport with a Viewport Type defined as Section, such as the Civil 3D (Imperial) Section.dwt template located in the Template\Plan Production folder.

Templates and Viewports

We get-go will create our template file using specific Plan and Production Viewports. Open up a title block drawing that you employ for your visitor standard. The file you should be using will be in paperspace on a layout tab. This is the file where you define your sheet gear up backdrop which comprise projection-specific data that will be carried throughout the projection.

Nosotros will now create the viewports. On the Contextual Ribbon Layout Tools Tab select Named under the viewports panel as shown. Observe how my layer is also fix to my viewport layer. When you are drawing the viewports, they volition be placed on the correct layer.

In this example, we will create ii horizontal viewports for a plan and profile scenario. Nosotros will select two horizontal viewports with a spacing of 0.25 between them. If I was to create a Programme only, I would select one viewport.

Later placing the viewports in your drawing, you must set the Viewport blazon. Open up your backdrop palette (CTRL+i) to encounter the backdrop of the viewport. Select the viewport and move to the viewport type and designate the appropriate viewport that y'all need for the template. Y'all tin modify the properties of the viewport within the template file to ensure that y'all have the proper settings for your standards.

Once you accept your layout type correct, you will need to make sure the scale is correct on the viewports and name a canvas (layout tab) to reference the correct scale and blazon as shown.

The concluding footstep of completing the template is to brand sure you accept a North arrow and calibration bar added to your sheets. You lot volition have the options to select the N pointer block when creating the sheets in the programme and production tools to ensure the alignment is right.

Program Production Commands

You lot can admission the plan product commands from the Output tab and Plan Product contextual tab on the ribbon as shown higher up. The Plan Production contextual tab is displayed when you select a view frame or a lucifer line in the cartoon.

The following definitions are taken directly from the Autodesk Knowledge Network and give a practiced clarification of the general commands.

Create View Frames Wizard — Commencement the process of using the plan production tools by using this wizard to ascertain a group of view frames forth an alignment.

View Frame Group — The view frame group object helps you manage a single grouping of view frames that are displaying consecutive station ranges forth the same alignment. You can set up many options at the view frame group level, such as styles and labeling. View frame group objects are displayed in the Prospector tree, and you can control their default control settings in the Settings tree.

View Frames — View frames are rectangular-shaped regions along an alignment that ascertain an area that will be displayed in a sail. The view frame size, shape, and scale come from a designated viewport that exists on the layout tab of a specified template. After view frames are created, the properties of the view frame objects are saved in the currently open cartoon. The view frame objects are displayed in the drawing and in the Prospector tree, and y'all tin control their default style and labeling in the Settings tree.

Match Lines — In the Civil 3D programme production features, a lucifer line is a directly line that indicate locations in a view frame group where one view frame intersects or matches upwards with another view frame. Match lines are only displayed in paper infinite and only in plan view. They are designed to visually indicate the locations (beginning and cease stations) along an alignment where each view frame begins and ends. Match lines take their own object style and they typically include labels that can identify both the previous and next sheet (view frame) along an alignment. You have the option to include a left side match line characterization, a right-side match line label, both, or none, and you can choose where along the match line y'all want the label to be displayed (pinnacle, middle, terminate of lucifer line). Like view frame objects, lucifer line objects are also displayed in the Prospector tree, and you tin control their default way and labeling in the Settings tree.

Create Sheets Wizard — Later y'all have used the Create View Frames wizard, the next step is to use the Create Sheets wizard to quickly create your sheets. Subsequently y'all have created view frames and sheets for publishing in the sail set manager.

The table below is from the Autodesk Noesis Network and lists the plan production tool AutoCAD Civil 3D commands and briefly describes their functionality. You can type in the command at the command line to commencement the function in Civil 3D.

Create View Frames

Using the View Frames Wizard, view frames are created automatically. View frames are ever associated with a parent view frame group.

View frames are created based on an alignment in the drawing, and on a designated program view or profile view viewport in a template. In one case the View Frames are created they volition be automatically associated with a View Frame Group. and are displayed in the cartoon equally well equally in the Prospector tree. When you chose to insert match lines, the match line objects are likewise displayed in the drawing and in the Prospector tree.

Most of the view frame object information is derived from the viewport information specified in the template. For case, the view frames y'all create go their size and scale from the viewport in the template. Similarly, the sail layout is besides derived from the referenced template. Viewports in the referenced template must accept the Viewport Blazon holding specified, depending on the type of data you want that viewport to display. Although you can motility or rotate view frames, you lot cannot change the size of a view frame. This is because the view frame's size is based on the size of the viewport information technology references in the associated template.

Before you create view frames, the desired alignment must already exist in your drawing. Depending on the type of sheets you want to produce (program and profile or profile only), you may also demand to have a profile already created. On the Output Tab of the Ribbon under the Plan Production Console Select Create View Frames or correct click view Frame Groups under prospector as shown in the figures beneath.

Note: Make sure you set the annotation scale to lucifer the scale you will be creating for your viewports. Best practice is to fix the scale prior to creating the view frames.

Want more? Download the full class handout to continue step by footstep: choose an alignment, create sheets and profiles, and much more.

Sam is a CAD services manager and senior civil designer with Haley & Aldrich, Inc . Within these roles he presents workshops on CAD standards, tools, and productivity techniques to managers and users in both corporate and classroom settings. He provides support on a wide variety of architectural, civil, mechanical, and structural pattern projects. Sam has over 25 years of experience involving product design and drafting, user support, and standards coordination. He continues to be very cocky-motivated and enjoys working in a team environment to reach projection objectives on time and with high quality. Sam shares his cognition through the AKN (Autodesk Knowledge Network) and has authored 12 articles in AUGIWorld from 2011 to 2018. Sam is the owner and operator of CADproTips.com and is professionally certified in AutoCAD.

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