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drawing settings dialog box civil 3d

Dorsum

Using Templates and Drawing Settings for Civil 3D Implementation

Introduction

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® is circuitous software with many different and connecting parts working together to provide solutions to civil design projects. In this commodity we are going to explore how to use template files to capture feature and object settings that you can use to outset your new drawing or reference into an existing drawing. For a successful implementation, the CAD manager or designer tin can create, update, and distribute template files to all users to ensure a standard and compatible arroyo to design piece of work.

Templates

Any new drawing in Civil 3D starts with a default drawing template or a custom template you can create. Drawing template files are drawings that store styles, settings, layers, and layouts in a drawing including title blocks.

Standard Template Procedure

When y'all create a new cartoon based on a drawing template, the new cartoon gets a copy of the styles in the template, only it is a 1-fourth dimension re-create. The connection is not maintained; therefore, if you update the template information technology will not update your drawing file. For example, if you lot update the surface styles in your template and you wanted your drawings to go those same updates, you needed to manually copy or import those changed styles into your drawings.  You lot can do this by dragging and dropping or selecting the import tab on the Ribbon as shown in Effigy 1.

Figure 1: Import styles

Templates are also listed under the Cartoon Templates collection in the Prospector tree Master View as shown in Figure two.  Notice the two Civil 3D templates supplied from Autodesk.

Effigy 2:  Templates under the Master View in Prospector

Two templates are provided when you install Civil 3D.  The path for these templates tin be plant within the options dialog box under the Files > Templates folder.  We are going to open up the _Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt and save this to C3D_Standard.dwt. The two AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing templates are based on the United States National CAD Standard®.

  • _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Majestic) NCS
  • _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS

These templates contain an extended set of styles and settings. When you start a new drawing with the New command on the Awarding menu, you can choose which template you desire to employ.

The QNEW command, which is available on the Quick Access toolbar, automatically uses the template specified in the AutoCAD Options dialog box.

Figure 3: The main templates provided

Nosotros are now going to modify the settings of our template file (Figure 4). Open the template file you created named C3D_Standard.dwt on the Abode tab of the Ribbon > Palettes panel > Open Toolspace.

  1. On the palette, move to the Settings tab.
  2. Make sure yous are in the Active Cartoon Settings View and right-click C3D Standard equally shown.
  3. Select Edit Drawing Settings.

Annotation: If you move up and downward on this palette at that place are hundreds of different settings that tin be applied to all types of Civil 3D object data.

Effigy iv: Cartoon settings

C3D Drawing Settings

Settings in Civil 3D control many preset values, such as drawing units, calibration, and coordinate system. Civil 3D has drawing, feature, and command settings. All 3 levels of settings in AutoCAD Civil 3D are saved with the drawing, and they can be saved to a drawing template.

  1. Cartoon settings: Establish values for the whole drawing.
  2. Feature settings: Control behavior for a characteristic, such as Surfaces or Parcels.
  3. Command settings: Utilise to private commands within a characteristic, such as the AddParcelAreaLabel command within the Parcels feature.

You lot modify each level of settings at a different location in the Settings tree, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure v: Setting tree

Permit's focus on the main drawing Drawing-Level Settings and Feature Level Settings. To access drawing-level settings, right-click the drawing name C3D_Standard in the settings tree and click Edit Drawing Settings as shown in Effigy 6.

Figure 6:  Edit Cartoon settings

At the cartoon level, the Edit Settings dialog box contains general tabs for the drawing (or template) equally shown in Figure 7.  We do not desire to alter any of these settings except for the Object Layers. Ambience Settings can be altered, only will exist overridden by the drawing and feature settings.

Figure 7: Drawing settings

To illustrate how this works, we will edit one of these settings in the Object Layers section.  Move to the Object Layers tab on the dialog box and scroll down to Tin can Surface as shown in Figure 8. We are going to add a suffix to the default label using a wildcard to ensure that our surface is always on the C-Topo- layer with a suffix of the surface name (i.e., C-Topo-EG).

Figure 8: Object layers

  1. Move to the C-TOPO layer.
  2. Change the value to Suffix.
  3. Add a -* to the value field.  The hyphen volition be added to C-TOPO and the surface name will be appended to the end of the layer (i.e., C-TOPO-EG).

Y'all have now created a standard for Can Surface layers in Civil 3D and can implement this process. Explore other options at the drawing settings level to ensure your template is ready to go.

Effigy 9: Object Layer modifications

Feature-Level Settings

Use the object collection level in the Settings tree to control all settings that pertain to the object type. Access the object or feature-level settings by right-clicking the object collection in the Settings tree and clicking Edit Feature Settings.  For this case, we are going to select the Point Collection.

Figure ten: Point Characteristic settings

At the object level, this dialog box also contains object-specific settings, such as default betoken styles. In this section nosotros tin control how our point label styles are in our drawing every bit default. If nosotros want all the points to be brought in every bit a particular style or maker, nosotros can edit these values as our default within our template file. Figure 11 shows the Point Label Style and the dialog box to change the value inside the object feature settings.

Effigy 11: Edit Feature settings

Command-Level Settings

Use the Commands drove level in the Settings tree to override both the object-level settings and cartoon ambience settings on a command-by-command ground. You tin can also specify command-specific settings. Access the control-level settings by expanding the Commands collection for an object type in the Settings tree, right-clicking the command, and clicking Edit Command Settings. Figure 12 shows us editing the command level settings for a surface.

Figure 12: Command-level setting

Layer Standards in Templates

Maintaining a standard for the utilise of layers in your drawing is easier if y'all take a drawing template with predefined layers, and styles that reference those layers when objects are created.

For consistency, salve your template equally an AutoCAD® standards file (.dws format). And so, in the template, enter the STANDARDS control and in the Configure Standards dialog box, link the standards file to the template. If you want to enforce the standards, you can click the Settings push button and actuate notifications of standards violations or override such violations. For additional information on the CAD Standards Manager see CSI: CAD Standards Implementation at Autodesk University 2017. https://autode.sk/2T0ozBa

The layers created in the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 templates follow the National CAD Standard (NCS) rules. For more information nigh the National CAD Standard layering settings, encounter http://www.nationalcadstandard.org.

At present that you have many of your standards in place for your template, nosotros need to ensure that the template is used on new drawings.  From the application menu, select New and your open up dialog box will exist displayed as shown (Figure 13). Select the C3D_Standard.dwt and all your settings will be inside the new cartoon.

Figure thirteen: New template

Note: To control the location of template files and QNEW, review the options under the FILES menu > template settings.

Reference Templates

New to Civil 3D 2022 is a process called reference templates. The command can be found on the Manage tab of the Ribbon > Styles palette > Reference, every bit shown in Figure 14

Effigy fourteen: Import styles

When you lot attach a reference template to a drawing, the AutoCAD Civil 3D styles that are in that reference template are copied into the drawing, and the connexion between the drawing and the reference templates is maintained. Drawings can be updated on an ongoing basis either automatically or manually with changes to the styles in the templates.  We are going to add together a reference to our current drawing file (Effigy 15).

Figure 15: Attach Reference Template

As we work on our projection, changes to the reference templates are pushed to the drawing and so information technology is kept upwardly to engagement:

  • New or changed styles in reference templates are copied to the drawing.
  • Styles that are deleted from reference templates are removed from the cartoon if the styles are non in apply. If a fashion is in use, a local re-create of the style is made in the drawing.

Select the update push for the template to exist added to the drawing. In the Toolspace Settings tree, styles that have been referenced into the drawing are marked with a paper clip icon equally shown in Figure 16.  Notice how the surface styles are at present being controlled by the reference template and not the drawing settings.

Figure xvi: The Paper Clip

As yous continue to update and/or add new styles to the project standards template, those changes are pushed to the drawings that reference that template.

The following AutoCAD Civil 3D components tin exist imported and referenced by a reference template.

  • AutoCAD Layers
  • AutoCAD blocks, text styles, and linetypes
  • Settings
  • Cartoon Settings
  • Abbreviations
  • Ambience Settings
  • Object Layers
  • Feature Settings
  • Label Mode Defaults
  • Styles
  • Label Styles
  • Object Styles
  • Tabular array Styles
  • Pipe and Structure Rules
  • Pressure level Network Parts lists
  • Quantity Takeoff Criteria

If you try to edit a surface style (i.east., rename a layer color) y'all will get the following error indicating that your style is existence controlled by a referenced template or a company standard. Yous do take options to override the setting as shown in Figure 17, only this is a good reminder to all of us while nosotros work on drawings and maintain our visitor standards.

Effigy 17: The warning

Decision

In a perfect globe, your drawing templates and settings will accept the perfect set of styles for your projects. This typically takes fourth dimension to grow and tin be considered a living template. Consider designing styles to reflect the information requirements at dissimilar times in the project.  The templates are there as a guide to provide you with the basic data needed to begin your blueprint project efficiently. You can create styles and templates for many different disciplines and still follow your company standard. Keep the implementation process going and create your template to help guide your users and your company to a better, more standard approach to design work.

Sam Lucido is a CAD Services Manager with Haley & Aldrich, Inc. He has more than than 25 years of experience involving design, user support, and customization. Sam is an Autodesk certified professional and an Expert Aristocracy Member. He uses his vast noesis about AutoCAD and Ceremonious 3D to help provide support to engineering and design teams by belongings hands on workshops and online grooming. Sam is a top-rated Autodesk University and Midwest University Speaker every bit well as being an AUGI Board Member. You can attain Sam at CADProTips.com or by email
at lucido1373@gmail.com.

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