Welcome to the “What’s New in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013” presentation. This new release can help civil engineers, especially transportation professionals who work on roads and highway projects, perform their jobs more effectively.
Key points to review with the audience: The 2013 release focuses on a number of key areas that enable you to get more from your survey data, streamline transportation design, and model pressure pipe networks. Throughout this presentation and demonstration, we will discuss these new features and improved functionality in detail.
First, let’s look at the enhancements that enable you to get more from your survey data.
Points and Figures: There can be thousands of items in a survey database that need to be sorted, viewed, and edited. The improved query functionality helps you filter the data in order to find those points, figures, and data properties faster. Additionally, now you can add the search results to your surfaces and utilize dynamic updating when new survey data is collected. Example: You can do a query for figures that contain the name “EP” (edge of pavement). You will see the “EP” or the Edge of Pavement figures highlighted. You have several hundred EP lines that you need to group together. Any new “EP” figures that you add to the drawing will automatically be added to the query. Dynamic Surface Creation Figures: Before Civil 3D 2013, a lot of manual data sorting could be required in order to create a surface containing only the information you need. Now, by adding query to surface, creation is much faster and maintains a dynamic link to the survey database. Example: When you create a surface or terrain model, you can add data that is the result of a query to the surface. For example, you could make a query that contained the figures for road centerlines, edge of pavements, curbs, etc. then add this to a surface you call “Existing Road.” When the crew goes out and collects more data the surface will be updated dynamically once you import that data. The query, being still active, adds all of the centerlines, edges of pavements, curbs, etc. figures to the surface.
Surveyors in the field often gather additional attribute information or details about existing infrastructure. These details are useful for creating richer and more intelligent BIM models. Prior to Civil 3D 2013 the additional data was stored, but not readily available for presentation or query in a drawing. With Civil 3D 2013, surveyors can more readily use this attribute information and create more detailed basemaps and utility plans from their field collected data. No need to manually re-enter information Create more detailed and intelligent designs with additional field information Define queries based in user defined data Example: Let’s say your surveyors collect figures marking the location of a natural gas line. In the field, they add additional information about the line, such as the utility that maintains the line, the pipe material and diameter. Back in the office, you can now use those user defined properties for labeling the figures (i.e. PVC 10” diameter) and build queries, such as a query that grabs all of the 10” diameter gas lines and group them together. Business benefit: Take better advantage of the data you gather in the field; more quickly prepare survey documents.
Next, let’s look at the enhancements for transportation design.
In previous releases, there were no explicit tools for the railway designer. While all civil engineers could benefit from the power of Civil 3D objects such as surfaces and corridor models, the geometric design requirements of a railway alignment couldn’t be defined. Civil 3D 2013 introduces a new alignment type that includes special features for rail, like chord-based alignment design and labeling. The alignment also helps provide the necessary information for modeling cant, which we will talk about in detail next. Business benefit: Railway designers can now more fully benefit from a BIM process.
Railways require special superelevation, or cant, application. Cant is a critical component for railway modeling, and without the ability to define the unique cant requirements, railway designers were unable to take full advantage of the BIM solution AutoCAD Civil 3D offers roadway designers. The new cant wizard for Civil 3D 2013 leads you through the process of applying cant to your railway alignment. Customizable options allow you to choose a pivot method, design criteria and other parameters needed to help meet local specifications. The result is an intelligent rail alignment that can be used to build 3D corridor models, create the necessary construction documentation, and perform earthwork volume calculations and quantity takeoffs. Civil 3D 2013 includes a customizable rail subassembly and new tools within the Subassembly Composer to help create a more accurate model, regardless of the unique requirements. Business benefit: Railway designers can now take advantage of the power of Civil 3D to evaluate more alternatives with model-based design and to produce more consistent documentation and construction models. Smarter tools for railway design mean you can more easily take advantage of the dynamic modeling capabilities and be more confident that your design will meet local standards.
The Autodesk® Subassembly Composer for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2013 software provides a powerful, yet easy-to-use interface to visually modify or create complex subassemblies without the need for programming. • The flowchart provides a more intuitive view of the subassembly logic and is easily modified using drag and drop functionality. • The graphical preview displays the subassembly geometry and can be used to help simulate how the subassembly can behave with different target values. • Selection in the flowchart and preview are synchronized making it easier to find and edit the properties of a subassembly component. • Subassembly Composer works directly with PKT files that can be imported into AutoCAD Civil 3D
Additional general improvements to Civil 3D 2013 help to improve your overall design productivity and provide features to: Help best define construction staging based on material movement requirements. Help determine optimal borrow pit locations. Explore the model in 3D to help uncover potential problems and locations needing additional design consideration. Improve the way surface boundaries are defined in order to create more accurate terrain models.
Finally, let’s see what is new with pressure networks.
Many types of Civil Infrastructure projects require pressure networks for both water and sanitary sewer design. Designers who wanted to use model-based design for pressure networks were lacking purpose built pressure network tools, which prevented them from taking full advantage of a BIM process. Civil 3D 2013 introduces pressure networks, including a large, out of the box, catalog of pipes, appurtenances and fittings in a variety of materials and sizes. These intelligent 3D objects help enable you to create and document detailed pressure network models. Business Benefit: Tools built specially for pressure networks design enable you to use the power of Civil 3D with your water network and forcemain projects. A large catalog of common pressure network parts means that you can spend your time optimizing the design of the system instead of building custom parts.
When a civil engineer or designer creates a pressure network, they must follow guidelines for minimum cover, joint deflection and other constraints. In the past, this process has required tedious layout and time-consuming manual validation against standards. The new pressure network tools help streamline the design process. You can create your pressure network in either plan or profile and take advantage of content driven layout tools that understand how a pressure network fits together. A visual compass helps you find just the right bend, while the Follow Surface tool helps to place the pressure network at an optimal depth underground. Built-in design checks help you meet the manufacturer and local standards for deflection, diameter, connectivity and radius of curvature. Business Benefit: Smarter design of pressure networks in Civil 3D 2013 means less time spent on mundane tasks, more time spent checking the design against your objectives, and a water system or forcemain that better meets the needs of the client.
Delivering construction documentation for pressure network projects has traditionally been a time-consuming, error-prone task. A change to just one pipe or fitting could lead to hours of checking, editing, and recreating labels and linework. The pressure network features, new for Civil 3D 2013, include a complete set of tools for labeling and annotation. Create alignments that are linked to pressure network parts, and dynamically label your pressure network in plan and profile. You can edit your network with more confidence knowing that the labels will stay in sync with your intelligent model. Business Benefit: With Civil 3D 2013, construction documentation for pressure networks is a byproduct of the design, and design changes can ripple through related design elements into the construction documentation, minimizing the need for manual updating.