Adding Scale and other Fields to Title Block

Been updating the old title block to be a bit more automatic to save sometime I insert fields into the block attributes to give me the data I wanted as follows

Insert Copyright Year

Insert Drawing Name 

Inserting blanks as per link

Inserted Drawing Scale as per this video

Updated the scale bar values to update based on the scale as well

 

I did look at using a diesel expression first for the scale calculation but this did not work as the object ID is turned to a number straight away and the link to the viewport is broken here are some links on diesel for future reference anyway

http://civil3d.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/quick-to-the-diesel/

http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2010/ENU/AutoCAD%202010%20User%20Documentation/index.html?url=WS73099cc142f4875513fb5cd10c4aa30d6b-7b3c.htm,topicNumber=d0e393837

http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/qaID.asp?tip=3676

Using Parcel’s to calculate Open Channel Flow

A couple of years ago I developed a number of parcel styles and labels to calculate the capacity of basic open channels when you have limited data to do a full model.

Yesterday I had to use the styles again for the first time in a while and it took me a while to remember want to do, so I have made a quick screen capture of the process for future reference and others to review.

The label styles make use of expressions and user defined properties in the parcels. The process is not fully automatic but you can slide the parcel line representing the water level up and down to adjust the calculations and manually update the water surface length to get the correct wetted perimeter. Someone out there may have a clever idea on how this could be automated.

Also the Slide Direction tool does not seem to hold the bearing when moving from one segment of the road frontage (aka stream bed) to the next unless this is by design.

There is a link to the full screen movie here seeing the image below is a bit small.

Creating Surfaces from LINZ NZTopo50 maps

In rural New Zealand there is generally a lack of Lidar information to build 3d surfaces within Civil3d. However Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) have made available on their website shp file versions of their NZTopo50 series maps that contains contour information at 20m intervals. You can use these contours to create surfaces and define catchments automatically in Civil3d.

To build a surface is Civil3d:-
1. Goto the LINZ website and choose a map of your area of interest
http://www.linz.govt.nz/topography/topo-maps/map-chooser
at the bottom of the particular map you will see the shp file download option. Download and unzip the shp files.

2.  Now you have to import the shp data into a new drawing using MAP and assign the object data elevation to the Z value of the polylines that represent the contour lines. There are a couple of tutorials on the web how to do this already here and here.
Note the shp files downloaded are in NZTM co-ordinate system so you may have to do a co-ordinate transformation on import as well.

3. Now that you have the contours with the correct elevation you can build a surface in Civil 3d in the normal way and define catchments and flow paths using the built in Civil3d’s tools.

Mapping Pipe XYZ now as easy as ABC

I have been doing a bit of research recently into the technologies available for the as built mapping of recently built and historic underground services. In relation particularly to Low Pressure and Small Diameter Gravity Sewers (design examples)laid to the ground surface contour by mole plough or similar techniques.
I come across this good presentation on the different types of mapping systems
http://www.geoplace.com/Media/MediaManager/GhassemiMike.pdf
and with a little more research found a specific system specification for a product out of Belgium which looks promising for the application I have in mind.
http://www.reduct.net/nl/index.php?n=9
http://www.reduct.net/content/files/ArticulatedMicroRange.pdf 

Only problem Civil3d pipes does not deal with pipes as a 3D string format , polyline format. I have commented on this before and Autodesk should be addressing it sooner rather than later. Currently the piping tools of Civil3d cannot deal with modern construction materials and techniques.
In the near future I foresee modern technology removing the need to run pipes in straight lines between  structures as long as all segments of length dx within a pipe of length x achieve the minimum hydraulic requirements water will in fact flow down hill and achieve the required result at a cheaper cost.
See you in the future Mcfly.

Model that SSA

Calculating New Zealand IDF data for Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

The main source of rainfall design for areas in New Zealand is the NIWA Hirds website . However the first thing you will notice on getting data from the Hirds website is that the you do not get the rainfall intensity data for the 5 and 15 minute duration storm and the 1,2,3 and 25 ARI event that SSA asks for.

Figure 1.0 Raw Hirds Data

Figure 2.0 Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis IDF input screen

Thanks to the help of Graeme Mackay at NIWA who explained the equations behind the Hirds data. Detailed on pages 19 and 20 of the Hirds method help file available for download at the bottom of this page.

I have developed the attached spreadsheet to calculate the alternative duration rainfall data.

Here is a short video of the process you need to go though with the spreadsheet and SSA to get up and running

Update thanks to Matt Anderson

SSA allows editing of the Storm Duration and the Return Period. Note the 10 and 20 minute Duration added below.

When you right-click on the durations, you get:

c

No spreadsheet is needed.

Had to have a Monday morning Rant

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Can-we-just-get-the-dam-Pipe-Band-Labelling-fixed/td-p/3193402

Please add a comment of support for these changes to the Autodesk forum. We have only been waiting 5 years for updates in these areas.

Strange Pipe Style Behaviour

Just a reminder to myself when you have the current layer set to some thing other than 0 and use the pipe style with a line thickness set to 2.0mm
the colour of the line changes to what ever the color of the current layer not that in the style every strange.

Civil3d Pipe Style with thick dashed line

Trying to find a tutorial that i think Matt ? or someone did on making a pipe style with a thick dashed line
no luck. I did find this one but http://advsurveying.com/blog/?p=303
Still would like to find the other tutorial have you seen it on the net if so please paste the link in the comments below.

Civil3d Quick Pipe Edit

Coming up on almost 2 years ago Christopher at Civil3dReminders wrote some code to have the start, end and slope information of pipes displayed within Civil3d using the TransientGraphicsAPI.
I have extended Christopher’s code below in order to create a Quick Pipe Edit (QPE) command along the lines of the built in featureline Quick Elevation Edit command available in Civil3d.   
To use the code download the compiled dll from here https://sites.google.com/site/c3dxtreme/home/PipeSample.dll?attredirects=0&d=1
or source code from here and compile it
https://sites.google.com/site/c3dxtreme/home/Pipeedit-V1.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

1. Type Netload at the commandline browse to and load the download project .dll
2. Type QPE at the command line.
Note: Using this command may trigger event viewer to stop the event viewer displaying see the post have http://caddmando.blogspot.com/2008/12/turn-off-event-viewer-in-civil-3d.html
3. Hover the cursor near the start, end or centre of the pipe you want to edit.
4. Information on the specified location is displayed.
5. DoubleClick the mouse button to edit the displayed pipe information.
Note: The slope is always back calculated from the start invert and the end invert adjusted accordingly.
6. Once you have finished type QPEE to end the command and remove the events handlers
The code works as demonstrated in the following screen capture.

Being version 1 of the code  it has limited error trapping and it works for me but is not perfect so use it at your own risk. 
My ultimate goal was the mimic the behaviour of the featureline Quick Elevation Edit command. However I have fallen short in a number of areas.
1. To edit the pipe information a doubleclick is required instead of a single click.
I have not been able to find out now to capturer the event when the user just clicks the left mouse button once. According to the online help there is no leftclick event exposed
http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2010/ENU/AutoCAD%20.NET%20Developer%27s%20Guide/index.html

I have in the past used an operating system hook to capture the Mouse Click Event similar to the process documented here
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=358556
but there must be a simpler way with .net now.
2. The pipe information is displayed as text in the drawing and not next to the cursor.
I found a code example here how to do it in C# with and undocumented API call and managed to get it up and running but it needs more work and I would like to convert all the code to vb.net instead of having to reference a separate C# .dll with the code
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/NET/Dynamic-Input/td-p/1339772
While researching this issue I initially thought I had to display the information in the tooltip. But a tooltip only displays the information temporarily. Here are some links I found on adding information to the tool tip for reference anyway.
http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2009/07/providing-information-on-autocad-objects-in-a-tooltip-using-net.html
VB.net version
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/NET/Pointmonitor-for-VB-net/m-p/2891662/highlight/true#M22368

3. You have to end the command by firing another command to remove the event handlers in use.
The initial command sets up a number of event handlers these need to be removed with you are finished with the code. You should be able to use another event like endcommand or esc key press to target a rountine to close the event handlers automatically but I do not know how to implement this at this stage.

Any feedback/comments on how I could implement these changes would be appreciated.

Civil3d 2012 Pipe Inverts at Structure walls Part 3

Well I have download Civil3d 2012 and loaded it and looked into this new pipe rule and the verdict for me is not good.Sure it stops the pipe short in plan view and has the grips there but the grips are not at the edge of the structure in ProfileView as I hoped.

Also the alignment from network parts command does not work correctly now and the alignment places the IP not at the centre of the structure but jumps to the end of the next pipe this error is most likely dependant on the angle of deflection between the incoming and out going pipes.

Peter Thomson’s comments on the subject

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/C3D-2012-Pipe-and-Structure-Band-labels/m-p/2992024#M150345

 

Civil3d 2012 Pipe Inverts at Structure walls Part 2

From the 2012 Installation Readme file
Pipes
Set Pipe End Location
This rule allows the user to set the location of the pipe ends at an offset relative to the structure's wall.
When AutoCAD Civil 3D pipes connect to structures they connect at the center of the structure. This is typically not an accurate representation of the real-world connection or pipe length. Traditionally, the connection issue is solved graphically by using part masking in the structure style, but this is not available when displaying a structure in profile as a solid. Also, the pipe slopes are currently calculated using the center to center length as opposed to the actual length of pipe.
When using this rule the user may specify the start and end locations of the pipes to be located at the structure center or at a specified offset relative to the structures inner or outer wall. The ends of pipes will be shown in plan and profile at these specified locations. Grips for the pipes will also appear at these locations. Slope values will be calculated based on the actual length of the pipes.
Note: When structures are moved, AutoCAD Civil 3D behavior is to reconnect attached pipes to the structures. The pipes will still default to the structure center and the user will have to Apply Rules in order to re-set the pipe end locations.
Parameters
The following parameters govern the behavior of the pipe Set Pipe End Location rule.

• End Location. Specifies that the end of the pipe be located relative to the Structure Center, Structure Inner Wall, or Structure Outer Wall. Without the rule pipe ends will be located at the Structure Center.
  
• Start Location. Specifies that the start of the pipe be located relative to the Structure Center, Structure Inner Wall, or Structure Outer Wall. Without the rule pipe starting ends will be located at the Structure Center.
  
• End Offset. Specifies an offset distance from the specified End Location toward the center of the ending structure. This offset is not applied when the End Location specified is to the Structure Center. Negative values and values that would extend the pipe further than the structure center are ignored.
  
• Start Offset. Specifies an offset distance from the specified Start Location toward the center of the starting structure. This offset is not applied when the Start Location specified is to the Structure Center. Negative values and values that would extend the pipe further than the structure center are ignored.

Known Issues
The following issue is a known behavior of the pipe Set Pipe End Location rule.

• Length - Center to Center. By default the actual pipe length is to the center, however, with the new "Set Pipe End Location" pipe rule the user can easily set the actual pipe length relative to the inside or outside edge of structures. The 2D Center to Center Length and 3D Center to Center Length values are actually the true lengths of the pipes in 2D and 3D respectively from start to end.

Civil3d 2012 Pipe Invert Levels at Structure Walls

Rick Graham recently commented on his blog Simply Civil3d about the new pipe options that are going to be available in 2012 to layout pipes from structure to structure by

• Center to Center (as it has been before)
  
• Inside wall of structure
  
• Outside wall of structure

Now Peter Thompson and myself have been have been pretty vocal about the lack of ability in Civil3d to accurately model pipe networks and lack of access to pipe network data in the pipe bands over the years (since way back in 2007) for a number of reason but one in particular crops up more often than others. The transition from minimum sloped pipes to steep sloped pipes where the drop across the structure at the centreline can end up being positive and not negative.


Now I have not seen this new feature in action but do hope against hope that it will reduce the number of work arounds we have had to use to employ the pipe functionality in Civil3d.
In my opinion the pipe drafting and layout features in Civil3d still require a  considerable amount of work to improve there efficiency, but updates to this area of the program seem to always remain second fiddle to improvement in the roading and corridor section. Take for example watermains to model these correctly from an engineering perspective a true 3d pipe extruded along a 3d polyline/featureline path will have to be introduced as a base object into the program. To account for total pipe length and therefore pipe friction in head loss calculations.
Otherwise unnecessary pipe network complexity is required to model a flexible MDPE water pipe that typical changes in the horizontal and vertical position between gate values and hydrants. Currently to model this situation the only option is to introduce pointless null structures into the network at changes in pipe direction and elevation.

Opening and running the shipped Civil3d 2011 VB.net samples with VB Express 2008

There are a number of vb.net samples shipped and installed with Civil3d 2011 in the following directory.

<installation-directory>\Sample\Civil 3D API\DotNet\VB.NET\

These samples are a good place to start to see:-
1. How a vb.net project is written.
2. What happens when you build a project.
3. Practice stepping thru code watching what is happening and debugging it.

If you are using VB Express version like me then there are a number of things you have to do to get the shipped samples up and running.

Here is what I had to do to get the pipe sample up and running with VB Express 2008 and Civil3d 2011.

1. Copy the whole pipe sample file from
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011\Sample\Civil 3D API\DotNet\VB.NET\PipeSample

to a new location to work with that you have full read and write access too.

2. Open VBExpress 2008 and goto File->Open Project Open browser to the sample file location and select the PipeSample.vbproj file.
3. On opening the file you will see alot of errors this is because the references need updated to you local ones.

Goto references by selecting the project name right click and select properties and then the references tab. You will see the references the program can not find highlighted in yellow below.



All of these references files are in the the program install directory click add goto the browser tab and browse to the program install directory and find them again. Make sure copy local is set to false.

4. Now if you insert a break point and press the green play button. You get an error

Tip turn on the line numbering in VB Express so that you can quickly find the lines with errors and easily communicate with other people which line of code you are talking about.
This error in fact

5. This error is generated because you can not set the default program to be associated with the VBexpress .dll you have created with VB express to be launched and used during debugging.
6.To get around this issue you have to add a couple of lines to the PipeSample.vbproj file to allow VB Express to launch Civil3d during debugging so you can step thru the .dll file to see what is going on. Open the file and find the line highlighted in blue and add the lines highlighted in yellow.

For a more complete explanation of the process please refer to the DevTV video VBA_migration at the 28 minute mark onwards. 

7. Now go back to VB Express and press the green play button. The .dll file should build and Civil3d 2011 should be launched.
8. Once Civil3d has finished loading type the “netload” command and browse to the complied .dll file usually found in the following location

<ProjectFile>/bin/Debug/<Programfile>.dll

9. Now the .dll file is loaded into memory you have access to all the custom commands in the .dll file such as the command “Pipesample”.
10. Type the command “Pipesample”  and the custom command will start and immediately jump into the code in the .dll file at the position you inserted a break point at in step 4.
11. Now you can step thru the lines of the code in the .dll file by pressing the F8 button and you will be able to see what the code is doing. If you want to see what data is stored in a particular variable hold the mouse over the name of the variable and a pop box will come up displaying its current value.
Good luck with your coding.