Cooke - AutoCAD Civil 3D Core Concepts

AutoCAD Civil 3D –
Core Skills for
Surveyors
John Cooke
CivilTraining, LLC
a division of Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Core Concepts - Working with Points
Working with Points

Any discussion of points in Civil 3D must begin with a working definition of points ‐ within our context
points are simply stored coordinates.
Points in Civil 3D are stored coordinates to which point numbers are assigned. The point numbers are an
absolute index on the stored points; a point number cannot be duplicated in a Civil 3D drawing. In
addition to stored northing, easting and point number, a point in Civil 3D may also have an elevation and
a description. As Civil 3D stores these data there may also be additional information stored, including
latitude and longitude, grid coordinates, short and long descriptions and more, but the basic stored
information consists of point number, northing, easting, optional elevation and optional description.
The means by which points are "stored" is unique in Civil 3D, and quite different from other civil
products. While programs like Land Desktop or Carlson store their points in external data files, Civil 3D
stores its points within the drawing, displayed and listed in the Prospector. There are exceptions to this
statement, and under some circumstances points in Civil 3D do behave exactly like those from Land
Desktop, displayed in a drawing from an external database, but certain conditions in Civil 3D must be
met to enable this ‐ so the basic statement made is true: Civil 3D "stores" its points within the drawing.
Points can serve many roles in the Civil 3D drawing, some obvious, many overlooked. Most operators
are familiar with points as the primary interface for bringing field information in from a survey, and this
certainly accounts for the majority of point data seen in Civil 3D. Points are an extremely powerful tool
for grading however, and there are excellent point‐based grading tools that most operators overlook.
The data management applications for points are also powerful yet untapped, and the crossover line
into what would traditionally be viewed as GIS can become very blurry indeed.
Points, Objects and Styles
Points in Civil 3D represent an evolution in the complexity of Civil 3D data management as compared
with the surfaces discussed in previous chapters. Points in Civil 3D continue to be objects, with display
and editing behavior unlike those of basic AutoCAD objects. The display of points in Civil 3D involves the
interaction of two styles, while surfaces required only one: a Point Object Style which controls the
display of the point "symbol" itself, and a Point Label Style which configures the fields of stored data
labeled on each visible point in the drawing. Point display management is actually contingent on other
optional tools, including the use of Description Keys and default point Feature Settings, so the topic
ratchets up the complexity somewhat over the refreshingly simply surfaces already examined…

01/06/2016 1.05 © Copyright (2011) Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. Do not reproduce without permission. 1211‐1

Exploring Points in Civil 3D
The best way to begin an examination of points in Civil 3D will be to create a point and look at its
characteristics, rather than talking about points in the abstract.
The drawing being used is the Existing Base drawing in which the surface was produced in the

preceding chapter. The surface is set to a _No Display style, and the contours seen are actually the
original aerial contours from which the surface was produced. A new layer has been set current, V-
MISC-P, following the layers standards in use in the drawing (the V prefix indicating Survey information,
and the P suffix indicating that the layer contains points as opposed to lines or text on L or T layers
respectively) .
There is a concrete monument that forms the primary control point for all of the survey work in the
Chestnut Ridge Estates project. The control is a NY DOT monument with known northing, easting and
elevation. The monument falls at the intersection of the east‐west county road (Weybridge Road) and
the north‐south town road (Chestnut Ridge Road), in an area as shown in figure 1211.01. A photo of the
monument itself is seen in Figure 1211.02.
Figure 1211.01 - Intersection Where Monument is Located Figure 1211.02 - Concrete Monument
Tools in Map can be used to link the photo to the point created in Civil 3D, so that clicking on the
point will display the photo.
The coordinate data for the monument can be found in the \Received\From Surveyor folder in the
project, in a text file named Concrete Monument Weybridge at Chestnut Ridge. The full information
on the monument is as follows:
Northing = 1044008.2320
Easting = 668237.1924
Elevation = 229.8
Latitude: N 41° 41' 51.28"
Longitude: W 73° 51' 18.29"


To set the point in the Existing Base drawing a command will be used from the Home tab of the
Civil 3D ribbon. On the Create Ground Data panel, opening the Points dropdown opens a
menu, from which Create Points - Miscellaneous  Northing/Easting is selected.
Figure 1211.03 - Create Points by Northing/Easting
The command prompts:
>>>>Enter northing <0.00>: 1044008.232 type northing value, press Enter.
>>>>Enter easting <0.00>: 668237.1924 type easting value, press Enter.
Enter a point description <.>: MON type desired point description, press Enter.
Specify a point elevation <.>: 229.8 type elevation value, press Enter.
The point is placed in the drawing, the coordinate echoed back to the screen in the current decimal
precision of the drawing, and the command prompts for the next coordinate value:
N: 1044008.2320' E: 668237.1924'
Please specify a location for the new point:
>>>>Enter northing <1044008.23>: Press Escape at this prompt to end the Northing/Easting
mode.
Please specify a location for the new point: Press Enter to end the command.
A dialog is left on the screen as the command ends, as seen in Figure 1211.04 on the next page. Close
the dialog box for now with the in its upper right corner.
We'll talk more about that dialog bar in a little while. There's actually quite a bit we're not
discussing yet, including the description typed and why we recommended terminating a command with
Escape - usually a no-no. Trust us - we just need to get the horse before the cart here.


Figure 1211.04 - Create Points Interface and Monument Point in Drawing
The point has appeared in the drawing as seen in
Figure 1211.04. Looking in the Prospector,
and clicking on the Points collection, point
information is displayed in the bottom pane of the
Prospector. The information displayed in the
Prospector is effectively the point database; at the
moment the point can be edited by changing the
information displayed there. If the point is erased
from the drawing with an AutoCAD erase command
it disappears from the Prospector as well. Figure 1211.05 - Point display in Prospector
Focusing on the object in the drawing, the Properties Palette reveals more information about what is
present and how it is being displayed. Properties lists the object as a Cogo Point; its Style is listed
as SV_MON, and its Point Label Style as EX L80 Description. Together, these three pieces of
information explain much of what is in the drawing.

Figure 1211.06 - Point Display and Information in Properties

The Cogo Point is a custom Civil 3D object, not unlike the surface. This is a unique entity created by Civil
3D to represent civil engineering and surveying data: the point, as generically defined above.
To get more specific, the point in the drawing at the moment is a Civil 3D Point, also referred to as a
Drawing Point. This is contrasted with something we'll show later: a Survey Point. A Civil 3D Point or
Drawing Point exists only in the current drawing. It may or may not be visible in the drawing based on
settings we'll explore, but a Civil 3D Point or Drawing Point exists within the Prospector of the drawing in
which it is placed ‐ the Prospector serves as the "database" once again. Civil 3D Points or Drawing Points
exist only in a single drawing; if the same point is needed in another drawing it must be created in that
drawing, as there is no way to expose Civil 3D Points or Drawing Points from drawing to drawing.
Throughout this manual we'll use the terms Civil 3D Points or Drawing Points interchangeably from here.
The Survey Point is something entirely different. A Survey Point is actually a record in a point database
external to the Civil 3D drawing, very similar to the point database in Land Desktop or Carlson. Survey
Points may be inserted into a drawing, and they are represented in that drawing by Civil 3D Points,
albeit with special locking and editing characteristics as we'll see. The same Survey Points can be
inserted in any number of drawings within the Civil 3D project, much like in Land Desktop. We'll
examine Survey Points to some extent in this chapter, and in much more detail in chapters that follow.
The use of the Survey Point Database as the central location for all point data is very desirable,
even when not using traditional "Survey" functionality. Using the Survey Point Database adds
tremendous security to point data, and simplifies the sharing of points between drawings.
Returning to the information displayed in the Properties Palette, the Cogo Point was displayed using a
Point Object Style, SV_MON, and a Point Label Style, EX L80 Description. The Point Object Style
selection configures the display of the point as the monument symbol, and the Point Label Style
selection configures the display of the labeled information as an existing label (slanted text), Leroy 80
size (0.08" plotted height) and Description field only. These settings were totally dependent on the
operator (or more likely the CAD Manager), and were settings created in the drawing and passed on
through Point Feature settings. All of these will be examined here in due course.
Looking a little further in the drawing, the point created sits on the layer V-BOUNDARY-P, in spite of
the current layer being set to V-MISC-P. The layer on which the point is inserted is under the control of
another tool in Civil 3D, Description Keys. Description Keys also stepped in to assign the Point Object
Style and Point Label Style if needed, and they are part of a hierarchy of control of point display that
we'll examine, involving Layers, Point Object Styles, Point Label Styles and Point Groups. This will all
seem very complicated at first glance, but the point display management in Civil 3D is incredibly
powerful once one gets used to its nuances; it is actually much more flexible than point display control
in Land Desktop or even Carlson.
The point display strategy which is presented here is admittedly only one of several that could be
used in Civil 3D. Relying primarily on control by Point Groups, this strategy has the advantage of very
fluid control over point display. While one could elect to use a point display scenario based more
traditionally on layers, we feel that this strategy offers significant benefits in drawing size and
performance, as well as operational advantages.


Point Feature Settings
As we've already discussed, each Feature in Civil 3D has its own settings which control the display of its
objects, as well as other settings that fine‐tune the way the program operates. There are a number of
Point Feature Settings which can be important. While some of these should at least be checked before
working with points, many of the settings can be adjusted on the fly, often in the Create Points dialog
which we'll examine.
Point Feature Settings are again controlled from the Toolspace's Settings tab, at the parent
level of the collection (Point), and the Commands level for the operation to be used (CreatePoints).
Feature Settings
To begin examining Point Feature Settings, Right-Click on Point on the Settings tab, and pick
Edit Feature Settings.
Once again, our focus here will be to discuss only the settings that are really important for each
operation we'll perform. While there are three levels of Point Feature Settings in the Edit Feature
Settings ‐ Point dialog as evidenced by the glyphs, only one is really important at this time: Default
Styles. Expanding the Default Styles level in the dialog, notice the selections made in this
drawing: <none>.
Figure 1211.07 - Point Default Styles
The selection of default a Point Object Style and Point Label Style of <none> may seem strange, and
could lead one to believe that the point would be neither visible nor labeled in the drawing based on
this selection. In fact, however, this setting means that the assigned Point Object Style and Point Label
Style are not fixed by this setting, but instead are variable, and under the control of another element
downstream in the process ‐ Point Groups. This setting, strange though it seems, is a critical component
of the point display strategy supported by Civil 3D, which passes primary control of point display to Point
Groups.
Leaving the Point Object Style and Point Label Style setting as <none>, press OK to exit the Edit Feature
Settings ‐ Point dialog.

Command Settings
There are several individual levels of Command Settings that influence point creation. Many of these
directly resemble the point settings in Land desktop, and most can be adjusted on the fly later. To
access the settings, Right-click on CreatePoints under Commands below the Point
collection on the Settings tab, and pick Edit Command Settings. The new settings levels
should be announced by the new glyph at this level, but one new level has inherited the glyph
from the parent Feature Settings level.
Can you say "Overly complicated user interface?"

Default Layer Settings
The first of three levels of important Point Command Settings are found by expanding the Default
Layer level in the Edit Command Settings ‐ CreatePoints dialog.
Figure 1211.08 ‐ Default Layer Command Settings
The Default Layer for the placement of a point is set to <use current>; clearly the monument

point placed earlier did not go to the current layer, so something else was in play.


Points Creation Settings
The second level of important Point Command Settings is found by expanding the Points Creation
level in the Edit Command Settings ‐ CreatePoints dialog.

Figure 1211.09 - Points Creation Command Settings
Several of these settings control the prompting for default values on point placement: Prompt for
Elevations, Prompt for Descriptions and Prompt for Point Names; the selection
for each can be Manual, Automatic or None.
As in Land Desktop, Point Names are alphanumeric point numbers, actually aliases for integer
point numbers.
The Default Elevation, Default Description and Default Point Name entries

supply the command line default when each corresponding attribute is set to Manual, or the attribute
placed when Automatic is enabled.
The Disable Description Keys setting seems somewhat strange. When this setting is False,

the use of Description Keys is On. This seems like a double negative, but the way the interface works.
Description Keys are being used in this example, so the value is set to false.
The Match on Description Parameter ($1, $2, etc.) setting allows the use of

replaceable parameters in point descriptions, separated by spaces. More information of the use of
multiple attributes on points follows in later chapters on survey Field to Finish techniques.

Point Identity Settings
The other level in the Edit Command Settings ‐ CreatePoints dialog which is important is Point Identity.
Click to expand the Point Identity level.

Figure 1211.10 - Point Identity Command Settings
The Next Point Number setting establishes the current point number; Use Sequential

Numbering can then be turned off or on as desired.
Most of the remaining settings affect the processing of point numbers when points are imported from
external files. The difference between Point Number Offset and Sequence Point
Numbers From can be confusing; Point Number Offset can be used to "bump" point numbers by
adding an offset value such as 10000 to numbers already on points, whereas Sequence Point Numbers
From always renumbers imported points.
Most of the Point Identity settings will need to be adjusted on the fly, so we'll return to these settings
later when cross section points for the two roads in the example project need to be imported.
Press OK to close the Edit Command Settings ‐ CreatePoints dialog.


Point Description Keys
Description Keys are an optional tool in managing point display in Civil 3D, but really should be
considered an essential tool. Description Keys automate the control of Point Object Styles and Point
Label Styles as points are placed, by matching point descriptions entered and assigning styles
accordingly. Description Keys also handle the layer management of points, which really is of less
importance than it was in Land Desktop due to the use of Point Groups.
Point Description Keys are also found on the Toolspaces's Settings tab. Expand the Description
Key Sets level under the Point collection, and two Description Key sets are found, inherited from
the CivilTraining dwt template file.
The CivilTraining Alpha description key set is intended for
use with alpha point descriptions, typical of most field work.
The CivilTraining Alpha description key set worked in the
example thus far, found, and matched on the typed
description MON as will be seen momentarily.
The CivilTraining Numeric description key set is intended
for use with numeric point descriptions, less common in
field work. The CivilTraining Numeric description key in
this example would have expected a description of 85 for
the monument, and would have found and matched on that
typed description. Either set could be used, and one set
deleted from the prototype if desired. Multiple Description
Key sets can be used in a drawing, but any in the drawing are
active; they cannot be selectively turned on and off.
To examine the Description Keys in use in this example Figure 1211.11 Description Key Sets

Right-click on the CivilTraining Alpha description key set
and pick Edit Keys from the menu.


The Description Key set opens in the DescKey Editor, which is a tab in the Panorama.

Figure 1211.12 - CivilTraining Alpha Description Key Set in DescKey Editor
The Code column in each Description Key specifies the point description entry that will be matched;
the use of the " * " wildcard permits matching on a string that begins with the desired characters but
continues with other values.
The Style column assigns a particular Point Object Style to be used when a match is found. There are
a number of different styles in the drawing, and more information on these styles follows later in this
chapter.
The Point Label Style column assigns a particular label style when a match is found; different

label composition can be used for different points as seen in the dialog. Again, more information on the
Point Label Styles will follow shortly.
The Format column handles the processing of point descriptions entered, and configures the amount
and content of the data that will show up in a point label. Point descriptions in Civil 3D can consist of up
to ten (10) attributes, separated by spaces. The first attribute is the one on which the description key
itself is matched; the program assigns this attribute the number $Ø. Each succeeding attribute,
separated again by a space, is assigned a number: $1, $2, $3, etc. The use of $1 $2 in the description
key formats shown above are placeholders. If a point has a value in the $1 or $2 attribute that attribute
label will show up in the point label. The point set earlier had a description typed of MON; had it been
typed as MON NY DOT it would have been labeled as such: NY would have been in the $1 variable,
DOT in the $2 variable, and the MON* description key shown in the dialog box is set to label the point
as MON $1 $2. Had the point been entered as MON NY DOT CONC it still would have labeled as MON

NY DOT, because the format column does not include $3. The full MON NY DOT CONC description
would still display in the Point List in the Prospector, however.
The use of the value $* in the Format column means that the full description as entered will be used
in the point label, without any restrictions.
The Layer column assigns the layer on which the point itself will reside; this setting overrides the
Default Layer point command setting when a match is found.
The remaining columns affect the scaling and rotation of Point Objects; much more detail on these
settings can be found in the survey Field to Finish chapters later in this manual.
The DescKey Editor can be closed by clicking on the button in the Panorama.

For sake of comparison, Right-click on the CivilTraining Numeric Description Key set under the
Description Key Sets collection on the Settings tab, and pick Edit Keys from the menu.

Figure 1211.13 - CivilTraining Numeric Description Key Set in DescKey Editor
The format of the CivilTraining Numeric Description Key set is slightly different, but the operation is the
same. No entries in the Format column are set to $* in this Description Key set; instead, each
numeric description is replaced with a different alpha value. $1 $2 continues to be used in some
descriptions, and a mix of numeric and alpha entry is actually employed in the field with this particular
set.
Again, close the DescKey Editor by clicking on the button in the Panorama.


Description Key Set Search Order
When more than one Description Key set is present in the drawing as is the case here, the order in
which they are to be evaluated for matches is specified through a Search Order function.
To set the Search Order, Right-click on Description Key Sets on the Settings tab, and

click Properties from the menu.

Figure 1211.15 - Search Order Dialog

Figure 1211.14 - Description Key Set Properties
The order in which matches are processed from the multiple Description Key Sets is established by their
relative position in the Description Key Sets Search Order dialog. The program will look for matches in
the first Description Key Set found in the dialog. If a match is not found, the program moves down
through the list through any additional files. The search order is set in the dialog box by
highlighting a Description Key Set and moving it up or down in the list with the or buttons.
Curiously, there is no function to turn off the processing of a Description Key Set. The only way to
accomplish this is to delete the set from the drawing. If the same Description Key Set is in another
drawing this is safe. A Description Key Set can be dragged and dropped from one drawing to another. A
set can be dragged into another drawing temporarily, and then deleted in the current drawing. When
needed back in the current drawing it can be dragged back, accomplishing the same function as turning it
off.

Point Groups
Point Groups are a critical component of Civil 3D, and an essential tool in point display management.
Point Groups reside on the Prospector; clicking back to the Prospector tab and expanding the Point
groups level reveals a number of Point groups already in this drawing, and a potential surprise.
The glyph in front of the _No Display point group indicates that the group may not be up to date,

and needs to be updated. This situation results whenever a point group is in place in the drawing before
points are added to the drawing, and indicates that the new points may not be correctly reflected in the
point groups without an update.
To update the point groups Right-click on Point Groups in the Prospector, and click Update

from the menu.
Figure 1211.15 - Update Warning Glyph Figure 1211.16 - Point Group Update on Menu Figure 1211.17 - Point groups After Update
Most of the point groups shown in the example are in the template drawing at the discretion of the
operator; one shown is always present, and one should always be present.
The _All Points point group is always present in Civil 3D, and, by default, every point placed in a Civil 3D
drawing is a member of this group. Although Civil 3D establishes no clear direction as to how this group
should be used, it should serve one purpose: the _All Points point group should be used to provide the
default appearance of points with respect to their Point Object Style and Point Label Style, either by
specifying the two styles explicitly or by enabling the display as configured by Description Keys.
The _No Display point group is not always present in Civil 3D, but it should be. Like the _All Points

group, every point placed in a Civil 3D drawing is a member of this group (the mechanics of this follow).
This group likewise has one purpose: the _No Display point group should be used to suppress the
appearance of points by overriding their Point Object Style and Point Label Style with a selection of
<none>, regardless of whether the point acquired its Point Object Style and Point Label Style from
another group or from Description Keys.
If this these two groups are created and used as described, and if all other display management of points
is likewise handled by point groups, the display management of points in Civil 3D is very easy and very
efficient.


Using Point Groups to Manage Point Display
With display management configured through point groups, controlling point display in Civil 3D becomes
easy and reliable: point display is controlled by a Display Order function built into Point Group
Properties.
Using the _No Display Group
The purpose of the _No Display point group is to suppress the display of points within it.
Right-click on Point Groups on the Prospector, and click Properties from the menu.
In the Point Groups dialog, highlight the _No Display group and shift it to the top of the list, above all
other groups, using the button. The list in the Point Groups dialog establishes a display order for
the group contents. If a point is a member of one or more point groups it will be displayed using the
properties of the topmost group of which it is a member in the dialog. Since all points are members of
the _No Display group, and this group suppresses the Point Object Style and Point Label Style of all of
its member points with a selection of <none>, points will disappear or vanish from the drawing when
this group is at the top of the list.
Figure 1211.18 - Point Group Properties on Menu Figure 1211.19 - Point Groups Dialog and Display Order
Pressing OK and checking the drawing,
the monument point has disappeared, as
seen in Figure 1211.20.
If the point does not immediately

disappear, regen the drawing. Trust us, it
was there….
Figure 1211.20 - Drawing with _No Display Group at Top of Display Order


Mechanics of the _No Display Group
Some explanation of exactly how the _No Display group
works will be helpful, and will expand our exploration of
point management.
In the Prospector, right-click on the _No
Display group and click Properties from the menu.
Figure 1211.21 - Point Group Properties on Menu
Point Group Properties is a tabbed dialog, and three of the tabs are important here. Begin by clicking to
the Information tab.
On the Information tab the Point Style and Point Label style are both set to <none>. This means that a
point displayed through the configuration established here would not be visible. This setting alone
would be enough to control the display of a point if it did not match a Description Key or if no
Description Key Set were in use. There's a display hierarchy for points, and Description Keys trump
point groups.
Figure 1211.22 - Point Group Properties - Information Tab


Click next to the second important tab in Point Group Properties, the Include tab.
The Include tab specifies what points will be members of the point group. In this case the option used is
Include all points. It should be mentioned that using this option is dangerous in most other
cases, as every point placed in the drawing will be included in this group. Usually group membership is
better specified using the other options in the dialog, but this is one of the rare cases where every point
should be part of this group.
 Do not use Include all points when creating point groups for building surfaces, as all
points ever added to the drawing will be added to the surface.

Figure 1211.23 - Point Group Properties - Include Tab


The last of the three important tabs in the Point Group Properties is the Overrides tab.
As stated above, the styles configured on the Information tab cannot affect a point that has different
styles assigned through description keys, based on a hierarchy of display settings. The top of this
hierarchy, and the setting that can trump a Description Key, is a Point Group Override.
Clicking on the Style override and the Point Label Style Override means that their two styles

as configured on the Information tab will Override any style assigned by a Description Key. In a conflict
between a Point Group and a Description Key, having an override means the point group wins.

Figure 1211.24 - Point Group Properties - Overrides Tab
Press OK to close the Point Group Properties dialog.


Using the _All Points Group
To return the display of points to their configuration as set by description keys, the _All Points group is
moved to the top of the Point Group Display Order. If a point does not match a description key, or if
description keys are not in use, the Point Style and Point Label Style specified in the _All Points group
directly controls the point display parameters.
Right-click on Point Groups on the
Prospector, and click Properties from the menu.
In the Point Groups dialog, highlight the _All Points group
and shift it to the top of the list, above all other groups,
using the button. Press OK to close the dialog.
The original point display mode is restored, seen in Figure
1211.26.
If the point does not immediately disappear, regen Figure 1211.25 - Point Groups Dialog and Display Order
the drawing.
Figure 1211.26 - Drawing with _All Points Group at Top of Display Order


Mechanics of the _All Points Group
Again, a spin through the three pertinent tabs of Point Group Properties for the _All Points group will
help to explain exactly what is happening and why.
In the Prospector, right-click on the _All Points group and click Properties from the
menu.
The Information tab for the _All Points group specifies a Point Style of 0.10 X 3D. This will

set the point style to an X shaped marker, 0.10" in size, displayed in 3D, if no match is made to a
Description Key. More information on the Point Styles in a little while.
The Point Label Style is set to EX L80 Elevation-Description; based on the settings in the

drawing this will label the point with both its elevation and description using slanted text, 0.08" in size,
if no match is made to a Description Key. More information on the Point Label Styles also in a little
while.


The Include tab for the _All Points group has no surprises; like the _No Display group, all points
added to the drawing will end up in this group. The one difference, however, is that this option cannot
be changed, as the _All Points group is automatically created by Civil 3D.
There is a difference on the Overrides tab for the _All Points group; no overrides are turned on.
This setting means that the _All Points group enables the display of points as specified in Description
Keys when the group is at the top of display order, or specifies the Point Style and Point Label Style to
use if no match to Description Keys is found.

Creating a New Group to Alter Display
The effect of point groups on display management becomes more apparent as more groups are added
to the mix. Here a new Control group will be created with different display parameters. The effect of
this group will be apparent now, with a single point in the drawing, and more so later, as other points
are imported.
To create a new point group, Right-click on Point
Groups in the Prospector and click New from
the menu.
Figure 1211.30 - New Point Group in Menu
Click to the Information tab in the Point Group Properties dialog.
Supply a Name, Control in this case, and a Description.
Select a desired Point Style. Remember that this style will be applied if a point does not match a
Description Key, and only as an Override if a point does match a description key.
Select a desired Point Label Style. Again, remember that this label style will be applied if a point

does not match a Description Key, and only as an Override if a point does match a Description Key. The
style selected will label five attributes on a point, including its latitude and longitude.

Click to the Include tab in the Point Group Properties dialog.
The strategy used to specify the points to include in the Control group built here is based on the overall
point number management in use in the project. In this project, point numbers 1-100 are reserved for
control. Traverse points begin at number 101, and other fixed ranges are specified for different
functions. Accordingly, the entry in Include tab is with numbers matching, and the range 1-100 is
entered in the field as shown.
The concept of overall project-wide point number management hopefully is not new. Managing
point numbers for different functions is essential in any software package, and will be even more
important as points are shared between drawings from the Survey Database in Civil 3D.



Click to the Overrides tab in the Point Group Properties dialog.
In this case, only an Override for the Point Label Style is clicked On. This setting means that

the display of a point through this point group will not override the Point Style as specified by
Description Keys; the Point Style set in description keys will still be used. If no match to a Description
Key is found then the Point Style specified in this group will be used. The Point Label Style will always be
displayed as specified by this group, however, regardless of what might be assigned by a Description
Key.

Press OK to close the Point Group Properties dialog. The newly created point group shuffles to the top
of the Point Group Display Order automatically, and point number 1 in the drawing takes on the new
appearance.
If the point does not immediately disappear, regen the drawing.

Figure 1211.34 - Drawing with Newly Created Control Group at Top of Display Order


With the various point groups created in Civil 3D, controlling the desired display is easy:
 To restore the default point display, as set in Description Keys or the _All Points point group,
shift the _All Points group to the top of the display order list in Point Group Properties, or
above any other group that would otherwise control the desired points.
 To set different point display options for points, create new groups as required assigning new
Point Styles and/or Point Label Styles. Remember to turn on Point Group Overrides for the
Point Styles and/or Point Label Styles if they are to override Description Keys. Shift the new
group(s) to the top of the display order list in Point Group Properties, or above any other
group that would otherwise control the desired points.
 To suppress the display of points, seemingly "removing them" from the drawing, use a _No
Display group, and shift the _No Display group to the top of the display order list in Point
Group Properties, or above any other group that would otherwise control the desired points.
It is important to understand the impact of using a _No Display group as specified here versus freezing
point layers. The use of Description Keys does an excellent job of routing points to different layers in the
drawing; why not simply control point display by freezing layers. The answer lies in the overhead of
points in the drawing.
Each point in the drawing has the rough overhead of a block with multiple attributes. Since attributes
are effectively text, keeping a lot of points on frozen layers will increase the drawing size substantially.
Setting the points to a _No Display style on the other hand means their overhead is nil ‐ they're not
there from a drawing overhead standpoint. A drawing saved with point set to _No Display will be
considerably smaller than one where the points are frozen.
It’s still desirable to have points on a number of different layers, however, and the layers can be turned
off temporarily to make working with some point data easier. When done with points, however, don’t
freeze their layers ‐ use a _No Display group as described here. It takes some getting used to, but this
point display scheme in Civil 3D works very well.


The Point Display Hierarchy
Using the point display management scheme described here, all point display control is governed by
Point Groups. Setting the display management in this manner makes it consistent, and easy to use.
Summarizing, certain critical settings were made:
 The default Point Style and Point Label Style set in Point Feature Settings was <none>. This
allows a downstream feature, point groups, to exercise control.
 The _All Points group, built into Civil 3D by default, is setup with a desired Point Style and Point
Label Style, but without any point Overrides. This group therefore enables the Point Style and Point
Label Style in Description Keys when a point matches a key, or specifies the styles to use when
description keys are not in use or a point does not match a Description Key.
 Point group Overrides are used to set any display modes other than those established by
Description Keys or the _All Points group. This includes suppressing the display of points with the _No
Display group, where Point Style and Point Label Style Overrides of <none> are used.
These three rules really are the key to point display management in Civil 3D.
Point Creation Tools
It will be helpful at this stage to bring some additional points into the Existing Base drawing. Doing so
will allow examination of some of the point creation commands, show further interaction with point
groups and display management, and additional points in the project will be required for later
processing of surfaces from field work and some outbound parcel information. The \Received\From
Surveyor\From Field
Crews\Alpha folder in the project
contains six ASCII files of point data
that will need to be imported; the
Parcel 1-3 Outbound.txt file
contains an outbound survey of
the three parcels comprising the
Chestnut Ridge Estates property,
while the remaining five are cross
sections shot along Chestnut Ridge
Road and Weybridge Road for
more surface preparation. Not all
of these files are optimal for use in
Civil 3D, as will be seen shortly.
Figure 1211.35 - Text Files with Project Point Data
The files in the \Numeric folder have the same point data, with descriptions that will work with the
Numeric Description Key Set.

Point creation in Civil 3D, and the use of the Point Creation Tools, can be triggered from the Home tab
of the Civil 3D ribbon, Create Ground Data panel, opening the Points dropdown as
described earlier; the Point Creation Tools selection from the top of the menu opens the basic
dialog.
Optionally, the process of point creation can be invoked by Right-clicking on Points in the
Prospector, and clicking Create from the menu.
Either operation will display the Create Points dialog, seen in Figure 1211.36. The Create Points dialog is
an example of an unusual dialog type in AutoCAD, but a dialog type used extensively in Civil 3D: a Dialog
Bar. Dialog Bar is actually a term that was introduced in Land Desktop, then seems to have been
forgotten moving forward, but we've resurrected the term in this manual. There was one dialog bar in
Land Desktop, though most seasoned LDT operators would be hard pressed to tell you where it was. A
dialog bar is a unique combination of a dialog box and toolbar, usually with its own combination of
dropdown menus and/or tabs. The Create Points dialog bar has several dropdown menus, plus another
unique setting that affects its visibility.
Figure 1211.36 - Create Points Dialog Bar
Located in the upper right corner of the Create Points dialog bar is a small or pushpin glyph. Since
the Create Points dialog bar is technically a modeless dialog in AutoCAD it can remain on‐screen, even
after the command(s) that invoked it are done. Pressing the glyph minimizes, or auto‐hides the
dialog bar when the cursor leaves it. Returning the cursor over the dialog bar expands it back to its
previous size. This behavior is shared by other dialog bars in Civil 3D, including those in the parcel,
alignment and profile parts of the program.

Figure 1211.37 - Create Points Dialog Bar Minimized
Clicking the pushpin glyph (which now looks like it has been "stuck" into something: ) again will
return the dialog bar to its original configuration.

Did you ever wonder who gets paid to come up with these glyphs? We want that job.

The individual dropdown menus in the Create Points dialog bar reveal the various point creation tools in
Civil 3D; some are obvious, some are obscure, and many are underutilized. Some of the better but less
well known point grading commands are shown in figure 1211.38.

Figure 1211.38 - Point Grading - Interpolate Commands in Create Points Dialog Bar
The other major feature in the Create Points dialog bar is revealed when the chevron glyph near its
right end is pressed. Pressing it opens a lower level in the dialog bar, consisting of Point Feature Settings
Overrides.

Figure 1211.39 - Point Feature Settings Overrides in Create Points Dialog Bar
The purpose of the Point Feature Settings Overrides is to allow manipulation of point settings on the fly,
while point commands from the dialog bar are in use. By default, settings changed here do not affect
the global Point Feature Settings described earlier on the Settings tab; they are simply temporary
overrides in place while the dialog bar is displayed. Closing the dialog bar, then redisplaying it for later
use, the Point Feature Settings would be as established on the Settings tab, not as overridden.
This behavior can be changed from a setting on the Ambient Settings tab of Drawing Settings on
the Settings tab.
One of the functions that can be accomplished through the Create Points dialog bar is importing ASCII
files of point data such as we have in this project. Before we do, however, it is always important to
examine the files, determining their organization and content, and determining if any point settings will
need to be changed as they are imported.


The first point file that will be imported is the outbound survey information for the three parcels, Parcel
1-3 Outbound.txt. Opening this file in a text editor to examine its contents, the file is basically ready to
use.
The file is comma delimited as seen in Figure
1211.40; the file consists of point numbers,
NYS East NAD 83 Northings, NYS East NAD
83 Eastings, elevation values of -99999, and
descriptions. The -99999 elevation values
are assigned by some survey programs when
elevations are not being run in the field, and
are not unusual. The field crew did a good
job of beginning the shots at point number
101, the start of the range assigned to
traverse work in the overall point
management scheme, and the numbers
jump to 201 and 301 at the beginning of the
second and third parcels respectively. This
files is ready, and easy, to use. Figure 1211.40 - Parcel 1-3 Outbound Point File
Some of the parcel 1 points are not shown in Figure 1211.40, but are present in the file.
With this good result for the first point file, continue to check the remaining five files. The other files
were cross sectional topo survey work of the two roads in the project, and were shot by a different
crew.
Looking at these five files, the viewer is struck by one fact: this crew used 101 as their starting point
number for each of the five days’ work! The crews did a (presumably) great job of running linework
codes, as evidenced by the CL1, GRVL1, GRVL2 and other descriptions, but there will be substantial
point number conflicts if these files are all imported without adjusting Point Feature Settings on the fly.
This is far more common than it should be in work coming in from the field. It's also not a big deal to
deal with on an ASCII import in Civil 3D, but don’t tell the field crews that.
It would be a big deal if the import method were Field Books rather than ASCII files.
Figure 1211.41 - Chestnut Ridge Road File Figure 1211.42 - Weybridge Road File

Since the ASCII files contain point numbers, and the point numbers in the Parcel 1-3 Outbound.txt file
can be used without modification, it is only necessary to check the setting that insures the point
numbers will be maintained on import. Under the Point Identity level in the bottom of the Create
Points dialog bar check the setting for If Point Numbers Are Supplied ‐ it should be Use as
seen in Figure 1211.43.

Figure 1211.43 - Point Identity Feature Settings Overrides
To begin the import, press the glyph in the top of the Create Points dialog bar.
In the Import Points dialog, select the Format
from the formats available in the dropdown list.
The format that corresponds to the files used in
this example is PNEZD (comma delimited): Point
Number, Northing, Easting, Elevation,
Description with a comma separator. If needed,
a new format can be created and added to the
list using the button to the right of the
dropdown.
For the Source File, use the button,

and browse to and select the Parcel 1-3
Outbound.txt file. Note that the Select Source
File dialog allows the selection of multiple ASCII
files; care must be taken when using the
selection of multiple files when their point
numbers are to be used, as will be described in a
moment.
Click on the Add Points to Point Group Figure 1211.44 - Import Points Dialog
option. Use the button to create a new point
group, supplying a new group name in the Point File Formats ‐ Create Group dialog that displays.
Always put imported points into a group as they are brought in - it makes dealing with them easier
later, especially if they need to be changed.
The Advanced options at the bottom of the Import Points dialog should remain off; these could

be used to do metric to imperial conversion within the import, but are not needed here. Press OK.

The imported points are displayed, and form the outbound perimeters of the three parcels. One of the
points sits right on top of the control point already in the drawing as seen in Figure 1211.45; we'll deal
with the duplication of labels in a moment.
Figure 1211.45 - Imported Parcel 1-3 Points
Before importing the remaining files it is necessary to deal with the duplicate point numbers.
Remember that each of the five ASCII files started at point number 101. One other important piece of
information about the files ‐ none of them contains 1000 points (no surprise there). Since each file
begins at 101 and contains less than 1000 points each can be renumbered on import by adding a point
number offset to each file. The first file will be renumbered by adding an offset of 1000, the second by
adding an offset of 2000, and so on. This method preserves the base point numbers of each original
file; if it is necessary to return to point number 231 of the fourth day's work its new number is known ‐
4231.
To enable the offset, use the Point Identity level in the bottom of the Create Points dialog bar.
Change the If Point Numbers Are Supplied setting to Add an Offset. Change the
Point Number Offset value to 1000 for the first file.

Figure 1211.46 - Point Identity Settings for First of Five Imports

To import the first of five road sections ASCII
files, use the glyph again from the top of
the Create Points dialog bar.
Although there are five files to be selected for
import, they must be processed one at a time.
The Point Number Offset value will
need to be changed for each import, so the
ability to select multiple files is not that useful
here. Select the first file by field work date,
Weybridge Rd 2009-09-16.txt.
Click on the Add Points to Point Group

Option, and again create a new group for these
points ‐ Weybridge Road Sections.
Press OK to import the first of five files.

Figure 1211.47 - Import Points Dialog for First Sections File
Before proceeding to the next file, return to the Point Identity level in the bottom of the Create
Points dialog bar. Change the Point Number Offset value to 2000 for the second file, then 3000
for the third, etc.

Figure 1211.48 - Point Identity Settings for Second of Five Imports
On import, the second and third files can be added to the Weybridge Road Sections point group,

clicking on the Add Points to Point Group option, and picking the group from the dropdown
list. Switching to the fourth file, use the button in the Import Points dialog again to create a new
point group for the other road ‐ Chestnut Ridge Road Sections, and place both of the Chestnut Ridge
Road files in that group.

When all five files have been imported, close the Create Points dialog bar with the in its corner.

With all of the points imported the drawing and Prospector appear as shown in Figure 1211.49. the
drawing is something of an illegible mess, and that's going to be improved by some point groups shortly.
Figure 1211.49 - Drawing and Prospector After Import
The Prospector displays a glyph in front of the _No Display point group again, indicating again that

the group is not be up to date, and needs to be updated. The situation again results because points
have been added to the drawing after the group was created, and indicates that the new points may not
be correctly reflected in the point groups without an update.
To update the point groups Right-click on Point Groups in the Prospector, and click Update

from the menu.
Save the drawing, as the points exist only in the drawing!


Adjusting the Points Displayed
To sort out the point display in the drawing, Point Groups, Point Group Overrides and the Point Group
Display Order are again employed. Now it is not just a matter of what group is topmost in the Point
Group Display Order that is important, but the relative position of each group in the list that matters.
Return to the Point Group Properties dialog again with a Right-click on Point Groups on the
Prospector, and click Properties from the menu. The dialog box as opened is shown in Figure
1211.50. At the moment, all of the meaningful point groups are above the _No display group in the list.
This means that all of the points in the drawing are being displayed.
Figure 1211.50 - Point Groups Dialog and Display Order
As we've already discussed, shuffling the _No display group to the top of the list would kill the display of
all of the points, but its relative position in the list determines which points will and will not be displayed
as well.
In the Point Groups dialog use the button to bring the _No display group to the top of the list, then

bring the Parcels 1-3 group to the top, above the _No display group as shown in figure 1211.51. The
_No display group acts as a barrier, nothing below it will display. Press OK, and the drawing should
look like figure 1211.52 on the next page.
If the point does not immediately disappear, regen the drawing. But you know that by now.

Figure 1211.52 - Drawing Point Display with Parcels 1-3 Group at Top of List
Return to the Point Group Properties dialog. Use the and buttons to bring the _No display

group above the Parcels 1-3 group, then the Chestnut Ridge Road Sections and Weybridge Road
Sections groups above the _No display group as seen in Figure 1211.53. Press OK, and the drawing
should look like figure 1211.54 on the next page.


Figure 1211.54 - Drawing Point Display and Prospector with Sections Groups at Top of List
In Figure 1211.55, note that the display of the Point Groups in the Prospector updates to match the
display order set in the Point Group Properties dialog. This is a new feature in Civil 3D 2010 and later
releases; 2009 and prior versions did not update automatically. You still cannot adjust the display order
by dragging groups in the Prospector, which everyone wants.
So, as seen, it is the relative position of points in the Point Group Display order that matters….
The points shown in Figure 1211.54 are still too difficult to read and use; we'll refine that display shortly
with some new groups. For the time being leave the group display as it is, and save the drawing.


The Point Object and Grip Behavior
Zoom in to any single isolated pointing the drawing, and click on it to display its grips. A point
object has an interesting assortment of grips as shown in Figure 1211.55, each with its own capabilities.

Figure 1211.55 - Point Object Grips
The grip on the point is a Rotate Point grip; it even has a tooltip to tell you so. Clicking on this

grip allows the point to be rotated about its coordinate value, helpful in orienting it for drawing display.
The same point shown above is displayed in Figure 1211.57, rotated.
Figure 1211.56 - Point Rotated with Rotate Point Grip
The point rotation can be reset to 0 in Properties.


The grip adjacent to the label is a Drag Label grip. Adjusting this grip enables the Dragged
State within the Point Label Style ‐ more on that later. Once dragged, the label can be reset to its
original location by Right-clicking on the point and selecting Reset Label from the context
menu.

Figure 1211.57 - Dragged State in Point Label Style
The grip adjacent to the label is a Toggle sub Item Grips grip. Clicking this grip enables the

display of additional grips on each of the point label attributes. With these grips the individual label
components can be repositioned. The repositioned attribute still work with a dragged state, and the
label can be reset to its original location by Right-clicking on the point and selecting Reset
Label from the context menu.

Figure 1211.58 - Label Sub Items Repositioned in Label

Thus far we've danced around the last grip ‐ the grip right on the point insertion itself. The tooltip
says this is a Drag Point grip; this is the dangerous one, so we've saved it for last.
In Figure 1211.59 the same point we've been playing with is positioned next to the Points display in the
bottom pane of the Prospector, enabled by clicking on the Points level in the Prospector. The
point number we're looking at is 2126; that information can be seen by clicking on the point and
checking in the Properties palette. The northing and easting for point number 2126 are
668556.2737 and 1044111.8782 respectively. That's where the point was shot in the field, and
remember that we've already said that the Prospector is effectively the point database.
Figure 1211.59 - Point in Drawing and Prospector as Shot
Now, click on the grip on point 2126 and move it in the drawing.
Hopefully the hairs are standing up on the back of your neck right now….
Look at the coordinates for point 2126 in the Prospector. The point has been moved. The coordinates
shot in the field are gone. There is no database to check the points against, as these are Civil 3D Points
or Drawing Points. The only ways to get the point back to its original location would be to Undo right
now, or edit the coordinates back to the values from the ASCII file if it were too late to undo. Undo
now.
Figure 1211.60 - Point in Drawing and Prospector After Move with Grip
This is clearly a huge problem, and is possible because, at the moment, the points are not locked. This
leads to one of the more important statements to be made in this chapter: Civil 3D Points or Drawing
Points must be locked in the drawing to prevent their being accidentally moved.


Locking Points
Civil 3D Points or Drawing Points must be locked to prevent their being accidentally moved. It is far too
easy to accidentally include points in a Pickfirst selection for a grip edit command on an adjacent line or
other AutoCAD entity. If this occurs, the point coordinates will be wiped out as shown above.
Points are easily locked in the bottom pane of the Prospector. To lock points, enable the display of
points in the bottom pane of the Prospector by clicking on the Points level in the Prospector.
Select the desired points from the point list in the bottom pane, using standard Windows selections.
With the points selected, Right-click, and click Lock Points from the context menu. The locked
points display the glyph before the point number.
Figure 1211.61 - Locked Points in Prospector and Drawing
The reference to "standard Windows selections" in the instructions above require some explanation:
after clicking on one line in the point display, additional lines can be added to the selection as follows:
 Holding down the Ctrl key and picking other lines in the list selects individual lines, or
deselects lines already picked.
 Holding down the Shift key and picking another line in the list selects all lines between the
first and second lines picked.
 Holding down Ctrl and clicking the A key on the keyboard selects all lines in the list.
Don’t try the Ctrl + A trick prior to Civil 3D 2009. You'll find the Fast-Exit-To-Windows command….
Once the points are locked, they no longer display the Drag Point grip as seen in Figure 1211.61. Locked
points cannot be edited until they are unlocked.
 Do not leave Civil 3D Points unlocked in the drawing when not in use.
The alternative way to protect Civil 3D points is to "sweep" them into a Survey Point Database, and we'll
touch on that briefly later in this chapter.


Using Styles and Overrides to Change Point Display
As we've left the drawing thus far, the road section points are displayed, but with far too much
information to be usable. To make the display of these more workable in preparing breaklines in the
next chapter we'll create some new point groups, assigning different Point Styles and Point Label Styles
with Overrides.
Zooming back in around the intersection of the two roads, there's clearly too much displayed to do any
linework connectivity between the shots.
Figure 1211.62 - Points in Intersection with Default Display
In the Prospector, start the creation of a new point group by right-clicking on Point groups
and clicking New from the menu.


In the Point Group Properties dialog, supply a Name for the first new point group ‐ Centerline. Also
add a Description.
Selecting Point Styles
The Point style, currently set to 0.10 X 3D in both the point group defaults and in the Description

Key for the centerline shots is simply too big. Select a different one which is smaller, 0.05 X 3D, from
the dropdown list.
Figure 1211.63 - Point Style Selection
To look at some of the parameters in this Point Style click the glyph adjacent to the Point Style
selection as shown, and click Edit Current Selection from the menu.
Figure 1211.64 - Edit Current Selection on Point Style

There are a lot of components to an object style in Civil 3D, and they will be covered in much more
detail in later chapters.
To look at the pertinent components of the Point Style, begin on the Marker tab.
The Marker selection in this style is a Custom Marker, X shaped, as opposed to an AutoCAD

block. This accounts for part of the style name, 0.05 X 3D. Many of the styles in use in the description
keys utilize blocks, rather than markers. To be used, the blocks must reside in the drawing, and cannot
be obtained from an outside location.
Land Desktop could pull in Description Key blocks from an external location, usually the Symbol
Manager files. Civil 3D cannot.
The Size option for this style is set to Use drawing scale, and the size is set to 0.05" plotted height.

The point styles have annotative behavior as the drawing scale is changed, so this establishes the size in
plotted units regardless of drawing scale. This also explains another part of the style name, 0.05 X
3D.

Figure 1211.65 - Point Style Dialog, Marker Tab
Click over to the 3D Geometry tab in the Point Style dialog.


On the 3D Geometry tab, the Point Display Mode is set to Use Point Elevation. This means that
the point will sit in the drawing in 3D, at an actual Z value corresponding to the elevation value on the
point. This means that any AutoCAD objects drawn by snapping to the points will be in 3D, essential for
breakline construction. This also explains the other element of the style name, 0.05 X 3D.
In some instances it is desirable to have points displayed in the drawing in 2D rather than 3D; an
example would be traverse points where a quick inverse is desired by snapping from point to point. For
an application such as this the Point Display Mode would be set to Flatten Points to Elevation,
and the Point Elevation value would be set to 0. The 0.05 X 2D and 0.10 X 2D styles behave this
way, as do a number of other styles in use with Description Keys.
We'll turn you lose to explore the styles used in the Description Keys shortly.

Figure 1211.66 - Point Style Dialog, 3D Geometry Tab
Press OK to exit the Point Style dialog, returning to the Point Group Properties dialog.
In editing styles from within settings dialogs in Civil 3D it's possible to get about six levels deep in
dialogs. If LISP stands for Lost In Stupid Parentheses, Civil 3D should be characterized by LIED - Lost In
Endless Dialogs.

Selecting Point Label Styles
The Point Label Style in use in the drawing is also too big. The style being used is not the PR L50
Point#-Elevation-Description style shown in the Point Group Properties dialog, but is an EX L80
Description style assigned by the Description Keys. It's too big, and it would be helpful to see the point
numbers for connectivity in drawing breaklines.
From the dropdown select a different Point label style, EX L50 Point#-Description.

Figure 1211.67 - Point Label Style Selection
As we did with the Point Style, examine some of the Point Label Style parameters by clicking the
glyph adjacent to the Point Label Style selection and clicking Edit Current Selection from the
menu.


Begin on the General tab in the Label Style Composer dialog. The Text Style used by this Label
Style is romansR__00; this is a variation of AutoCAD's RomanS, set with an obliquing angle for existing
conditions rather than vertical for proposed, and set with a 0 height in the AutoCAD style ‐ the height is
added by the Label Style definition. This explains the EX L50 Point#-Description component of the
label style name.
The Layer set is V-PNTS-TEXT, this is actually the Color Control Layer for the existing Point Label

Styles. We explored Color Control Layers somewhat in the first surfaces chapter, and we'll return to
them in more detail in later chapters, but changing the color of this layer in the drawing will change the
color of all existing points ‐ the proposed styles use a different Color Control Layer.

Figure 1211.68 - Point Label Style Dialog, General Tab
Click over to the Layout tab.


The Layout tab formats the text used in the label in its default position. There are three
Components in the Point Label style, but the Visibility setting is only set to True for two: Point
Number and Point Elevation. That explains a little more of the style naming convention, EX L50
Point#-Description.
For each of the two text components the Text Height is set to 0.05", Leroy 50, explaining the last part of
the name, EX L50 Point#-Description. There's a lot more happening on this tab but we're not going
to go there today ‐ that's for a later chapter.

Figure 1211.69 - Point Label Style Dialog, Layout Tab
Before leaving the Label Style Composer dialog click overt to the Dragged State tab.

The Dragged State tab configures the behavior of the label when dragged to a new location as seen back
in Figure 1211.57. The settings on this tab supplied the style, size and visibility of the arrow head and
leader, the size of the text when dragged, and the composition of the dragged label, all discussed in
more detail later.
It's important, and challenging, to match the display parameters of the Dragged States of Label
Styles to the Default appearance so that they behave as expected when dragged with grips.

Figure 1211.70 - Point Label Style Dialog, Dragged State Tab
Press OK to exit the Point Label Style dialog, returning to the Point Group Properties dialog.


To continue with the point group definition click to the Include tab in the Point Group Properties
dialog. The Raw, or field‐entered description for the centerline shots is known from the ASCII file, but it
could be exposed by clicking on one of the points and looking in the Properties Palette as well ‐ CL. Click
on the With raw descriptions matching option. Since linework numbers followed this
description on the points type CL* in the field, remembering that the entry is case sensitive.

Finally, click to the Overrides tab in the Point Group Properties dialog. Since this point group needs
to override both, click on the Point Style and Point Label Style Overrides.

Press OK to create the new point group.

Figure 1211.73 - Centerline Points Displayed through New Point Group
The centerline points immediately assume the new display characteristics, and are much easier to use.
To continue adjusting the display of the road points, and in support of some point management that will
be required for breaklines, additional point groups need to be created for the edge of pavement,
shoulder and bottom of bank shots. The groups can use these same entries as their names. Each should
be set with the same 0.05 X 3D Point Style and EX L50 Point#-Description Point Label Style. The raw
description entries for each are:
Edge of Pavement EP*
Shoulder GRVL*
Bottom of Bank BB*


With each of the new point groups built the drawing appearance changes:
Figure 1211.74 - Drawing display with New Road Groups Created with Overrides
Returning to Point Group Properties and shuffling the Point Group Display Order as shown in Figure
1211.75 should suppress the display of the shoulder and bottom of bank points, leaving the centerline
and edges of pavement displayed…

Figure 1211.75 - Point Group Display Order in Point Group Properties


…which works very nicely.
Figure 1211.76 - Drawing with only Centerline and Edge of Pavement Points Displayed
Save the drawing.

Style Applications in Description Keys
Having seen a little more of the nuances of Point Styles and Point Label Styles it is a good time to return
to Description Keys and examine what styles are being used.
Return to the Toolspace's Settings tab. Expand the Description Key Sets level under the

Point collection, Right-click on the CivilTraining Alpha description key set
and pick Edit Keys from the menu.
Explore the styles in use by clicking in the Style and Point Label Style columns. As the Point Style or Point
Label style dialogs appear, use the glyph adjacent to the style selections and click Edit Current
Selection from the menu.
In the Point Style or Point Label Style dialogs examine the different options in use.
Figure 1211.77 - Examining the Mailbox Description Key and Point Style
Remember that any blocks to be used with Point Styles must be in the drawing.
The configuration and creation of a complete Description Key set is quite a task, including the creation
of the symbols and their appropriate sizing, and the definition of each desired symbol as a Point Style.
A Description Key file from Land Desktop can be imported into Civil 3D using the Insert tab of the
Civil 3D ribbon, Import panel. In reality, only the raw description, description format and layer are
imported in a useful manner; everything else must be created from scratch.
Close the DescKey Editor when done by clicking on the button in the Panorama.

Listing and Editing Point Data
There is no List Points command in Civil 3D. Point information is always "listed" in the bottom pane of
the Prospector when the Points collection is selected, and information for a single point can be "listed"
in the AutoCAD Properties Palette, but to "list" a group of points the tool of choice is the Edit Points
command, making List and Edit basically the same function.
Selecting a number of points in the drawing right-click and pick Edit Points from the context

menu. The Panorama appears displaying the Point Editor as shown in figure 1211.78.
Figure 1211.78 - Points Listed in Point Editor
The points displayed at the moment are locked, so they cannot be edited. Were they not locked, points
could be edited in the bottom pane of the Prospector, individually in the AutoCAD Properties Palette, or
in the Point Editor in the Panorama.
What the Point Editor in the Panorama lacks from a list points perspective is the ability to print a point
list. A point list can be printed, but not from the Point Editor ‐ from the Civil 3D Reports Manager.
Close the Point Editor when done by clicking on the button in the Panorama.


Creating a Point Report
As a prerequisite for creating a point report, the points of interest must comprise their own point group.
It appears as you begin the report creation process that the command will allow selection of points in
the drawing, but it really will not; the entity in Civil 3D that the report creation works with is the point
group, not points themselves.
 Points to be included in a point report must be in their own unique point group.
To generate a report, the Toolbox tab must be displayed in the Toolspace. The Toolbox can be
displayed using the Civil 3D ribbon, View tab, Palettes panel, where the glyph can be
found.
Figure 1211.79 - Reports Manager on toolbox Tab, with Ribbon Panel to Display It
On the Toolbox tab, expand the Reports Manager, as well as its Points Level. Double

click on the Points_List report to Execute it.


The Export to XML Report dialog displays.
To speed the processing of the report, collapse each collection in the Export to XML Report dialog
and uncheck them all as shown in Figure 1211.80. Then expand the Point Groups collection
and select the desired Point Group as shown in Figure 1211.81. Press OK to continue.
Just ignore that very attractive Pick From Drawing button; it doesn't work here - trust us.

Figure 1211.80 - Collections Collapsed and Unchecked Figure 1211.81 - Point Group Selected
In the SaveAs dialog, browse to
the desired folder for the report, and
supply a report name. The report
generator defaults to a file type of
.html, but can be changed to .txt
files for point reports.
Press OK to create the report.

Figure 1211.82 - Report SaveAs Dialog, Set to TXT File

The report should open in the default program configured for text files, or can be opened manually
through Windows.
Figure 1211.83 - Point Report
The company information and other lines displayed at the top of the point report are part of the XML
Report Template in Civil 3D and can be edited. Changing this template is covered in a later chapter.

Snapping to Points in the Drawing
Snapping to a Civil 3D point in the drawing might seem to be a simple matter of snapping to node, but,
depending on the Point Style in use, there may be no node to snap to.
Restore the display of point number 1 in the drawing by moving the Control point group to the top of
the Point Group Display Order in Point Group Properties.
Seems like we talked about that days ago, doesn’t it?

Figure 1211.84 - Control Point Restored in Drawing
The SV_MON Point Style used for point number 1 does not have a node to which to snap. If a point
marker was used instead of an AutoCAD block a snap to node would work, but the block used here does
not include an AutoCAD point. Attempting to start a line from a node snap on the point object will
result in no node being found. While a node may be found on one of the fields of text in the applied
label style, it is not reliable (unless one knows how the label styles were created). This leads to the
question "How do you reliably snap to points like this in Civil 3D?" The answer, is "Transparent
Commands."
Transparent Commands is the name of one of the few toolbars included in Civil 3D; it is displayed by
default, and is shown in Figure 1211.85.

Figure 1211.85 - Transparent Commands Toolbar
Transparent Commands in Civil 3D are not really commands themselves, but command modifiers. Much
like typing the AutoCAD Point Filter .XY before picking a location at an AutoCAD pick point prompt,
Transparent Commands change the input of a location in AutoCAD to something else, Northing‐Easting,
Latitude‐Longitude, or selection of a Point Object. Clicking on the icon in the toolbar when any
AutoCAD or Civil 3D command prompts pick point will allow the point object to be "snapped to"
reliably.
The similarity to AutoCAD Point Filters extends even further; Civil 3D Transparent Commands
each have their own typed equivalents. Typing 'PO works just as well as clicking the toolbar icon.


Using Transparent Commands can be a little tricky, so we'll draw a line which "snaps" to the control
point in the example.
Start the Line command in AutoCAD by typing L at the command line and pressing Enter. The
command prompts:
LINE Specify first point: click on the icon in the Transparent Commands toolbar.
The prompt changes to
LINE Specify first point:'_PO
>>
Select point object:
At this point the cursor is a selection box (  ) rather than a crosshairs; pick the point object in the
drawing.
Picking the point object nothing seems to happen, and the selection box (  ) is still displayed. The first
instinct is to pick again ‐ Don't. The command is still in the transparent Point Object selection mode, so
the rubber band line usually displayed is not shown. It is necessary to break out of the transparent Point
Object selection mode to continue the line command.
The fact that a transparent mode is active in AutoCAD is evident to us old timers by the double
arrows on the command prompt >>, which indicate that a transparent command is active.
To break out of the transparent Point Object selection mode do something unusual ‐ press the Esc key.
Pressing Escape breaks the transparent Point Object selection mode, and returns to the underlying line
command. AutoCAD returns to a "normal" Specify next point or [Undo]: prompt, and the line
command can continue normally.
Pressing Escape is the normal method to terminate a Transparent Command Modifier in Civil 3D,
returning to the base command. Once in the base command, another Transparent Command could be
picked from the Transparent Commands toolbar. This is contrary to established practice taught in
AutoCAD for years, which is to end commands with Enter, not Escape.
This bothers us. A lot.

Figure 1211.86 - Transparent Command in Use

Sweeping Points into a Survey Point Database for Security and Sharing
As already described, a disadvantage of working with Drawing Points in Civil 3D is that they cannot be
shared between drawings. Additionally, they are susceptible to being screwed up by Joe Autocad if left
unlocked in the drawing.
Locking the points provides some security against Joe Autocad as described, but Joe always figures out
the stuff you don’t want him to like erase and laydel. It would be much better if the points in the
drawing were just representations of points in a database…
This can be accomplished, using the Survey Point Database, and converting the Civil 3D Points to Survey
Points.
What we're not going to do in this chapter is describe how to create and configure a Survey Database or
Survey Network; that's for a later chapter. In the interest of rounding out the discussion of point
security here we'll show how a Survey Database can be used, when one has been created.
As prerequisites to sweeping the Civil 3D the points need to be unlocked in the drawing. This can be
accomplished by reversing the procedures described on page 1211‐42 in the pane in the bottom of the
Prospector.
Switching to the Survey tab in the Toolspace (which would
have to already be displayed at this point to have created
and configured the Survey Database), Right-click on
Import Events and select Import Survey Data
from the menu.
Figure 1211.87 - Import Survey Data


As the Import Survey Data Wizard displays, select the project's Survey Database and click Next .
Figure 1211.88 - Specify Database Page in Import Survey Data Wizard
On the Specify Data Source page click the option for Points from Drawing. Press the Select

points in current drawing button. As the command line prompts Points
[All/Numbers/Group/Selection] <All>: type G for Group and press Enter. The Point Groups
dialog displays; select the _All Points group and press OK. As the Specify Data Source page returns
press Next.
Figure 1211.89 - Specify Data Source Page in Import Survey Data Wizard


On the Specify Network page select the network already created and press Next.
Figure 1211.90 - Specify Network Page in Import Survey Data Wizard
On the Import Options page make sure the Point Type is set to Non-control Point, and press

Finish. The points are imported into the Survey Point Database from the drawing.

Figure 1211.91 - Import Options Page in Import Survey Data Wizard


The one remaining step is to replace the Civil 3D Points already in the drawing with Survey Points.
Expand the tree in the Survey Tab as shown, below the Network configured to the Non‐control Points
level. Right-click on Non-control Points, and select Points  Insert into
Drawing from the menu.

Figure 1211.92 - Insert Into Drawing
The Duplicate Point Number dialog displays; set the
Resolution to Overwrite, and click on the option to
Apply to all duplicate point numbers.
Press OK.
All Civil 3D Points in the drawing are replaced with Survey
Points.

Figure 1211.93 - Duplicate Point Numbers Dialog
Return to the Prospector, click on the Points
collection, and look at the point display pane in the
bottom. All of the points now display a glyph
indicating that they are now Survey Points. As Survey
Points they are locked in the drawing and can only be
edited through commands on the Survey tab.

Figure 1211.93 - Survey Points in Prospector

Attaching a Photo to a Point in Civil 3D
We mentioned earlier in this chapter that it would be nice if the photo of the monument could be
attached to the corresponding point in the drawing. This is something that is often desirable with a
variety of types of point data, especially given that many field crews are carrying digital cameras. There
are a number of possible solutions, but one that has been around for a long time but is usually
overlooked is an ability in Map to associate any document file with an object in a drawing.
Map can use a concept called a Document View to associate any Windows based program with
information stored in a database. The database need not be an external file such as Access or Excel, but
a lightweight database built by Map within the drawing. When a particular file name, such as a jpeg file
name, is stored in that database and attached to an object in the drawing, the Document View can
trigger the associated program and open the file. This is somewhat like a hyperlink, but far more
flexible. While there's relatively little interface for the operation in Map, the whole process can be
automated with some programming in the Map API. That's way beyond where we'll go in this chapter,
and we'll provide only a cursory overview of the process ‐ much more information can be found in the
chapters on Map functionality.
Three steps are required to setup the Document View: two can be done in a template drawing and the
third adds the information to each entity in the drawing. Once created, the Document View and its
associated data remain with the drawing. The three steps are:
 Create an empty database, or Object Data Table in the drawing in Map to hold the file name
information.
 Define the Document View operation itself, specifying the program to invoke and where the
data files to open should be found.
 Add information for each file name to open as records in the Object Data Table, attaching each
record to an object in the drawing.
Once these setup steps are complete, running a Map command and selecting one of the objects in the
drawing launches the program and opens the associated file ‐ displaying the photo in this case.
While we're using the Document View commands here to view photos this same concept can be used
for a variety of applications. We've seen this used to link text reports, Word documents, spreadsheets,
even Windows movie files to objects in drawings in the same manner.


Creating the Object Data Table
The first step in setting up to attach a document is to create the
empty Object Data Table that will hold the information. An Object
Data Table again is a small‐scale database built by Map and
contained within the drawing. Building the table is an operation
found on the Tool‐based Geospatial Ribbon, so use the
Workspace Switching in the Application Status Bar to
change to the Tool-based Geospatial Workspace.

Figure 1211.94 - Tool-based Geospatial
Workspace Selected
Creating a new Object Data Table is found on the Map Setup tab, Attribute Data panel, as

Define Object Data. Click to start the creation of the table, running the Adedefdata
command.

Figure 1211.95 - Define Object Data
It's amusing to use that the Map commands still begin with "ADE." That was Autodesk Data
Extension, the forerunner of AutoCAD Map introduced in AutoCAD 12. Hats off to the guys in San Diego
who wrote it - we're still using it.
Chances are that the Define Object Data dialog box will be
empty when it first opens, but it might contain entries like
the ones shown in Figure 1211.96 if GIS data have been
brought into the current drawing. No worries if there's
something already there, as a drawing can contain any
number of tables.
Press the New Table button at the top of the dialog to
begin creating the table for our use.

Figure 1211.96 - Create Object Data Dialog

We're building this table to store image file names for
photos from survey. In the Table Name field enter
Survey_Photo (no spaces). In the Field Name field
enter Image (no spaces here either).
The data type should be set to Character.
A Description can be entered, but is optional
(spaces OK).
Leave the Default field blank.
Press the Add button to add the field to the table. If
you do not press Add before leaving the dialog the field
will not be created.
Press OK to create the table, and then press Close
from the Define Object Data Table dialog.
The empty table can be built in the Civil 3D template
drawing, and will then always be ready to use. Figure 1211.97 - Define New Object Data Table
Defining the Document View

The second step in the process is to define the Document View operation that will open the photo. Here
we tell Map what program to run, where the files will be found, and the expected file type.
While there are a lot of programs that can view jpeg files, and easy one to configure here is Microsoft
Internet Explorer. We usually use ACDSee, but IE is readily available and easy to configure for our
purposes here.
The photo we want to attach is sitting in the folder shown in Figure 1211.98, and is a jpg file. The path
to the photo contains spaces, and we'll have to deal with that in the Document View definition.

Figure 1211.98 - Photo Location and File Name

The command we're going to use here used to be on the Map pulldown, but has slipped off the ribbon
totally. This is not a very popular command in Map, and apparently a decision was made that this
command, as well as the one to view the file, didn’t warrant being on the ribbon. No worries, the
commands still work, and could still be added to the ribbon or a toolbar through the CUI.
Don't get us started….

At the command line type Adedefdocview to define the Document View.
In the Define Document View dialog begin
by typing a Document view Name of
Survey_Photo_Viewer (no spaces).
Enter a Description as desired.
The Expression sets the location where the
data containing the file name will be found.
This is Map‐speak, and somewhat foreign
until you get used to Map. Press the
Expression button.

Figure 1211.99 - Name and Description in Define Document View Dialog
In the Document View Expression dialog expand the
Object Data level. Find and expand the
Survey_Photo table, and click on the Image field.
Press OK to return to the Define Document View dialog.

Figure 1211.100 - Document View Expression Dialog


Returning to the Define Document View dialog the Directory field sets the location where the
photos will reside. Use the Browse button to the right of the field, and browse to the folder for the
photos, L:\Projects\2010\2010001 Chestnut Ridge Estates\Received\From Surveyor\Photos in this
case. Enter the file extension for the photos in the Ext field (ignoring the " . " before the extension in
the actual file name).
Now, here's an undocumented trick for use
in Map. The Document View won’t work if
there's a space in the path name, and we
have several spaces. To get around this
limitation in Map type a regular quotation
mark ( " ) before the start of the Directory
entry and after the file extension as shown
in Figure 1211.101. Map will concatenate
these strings with the file name, and will
build a quoted path that Windows will
accept. The Directory field in this example
contains "L:\Projects\2010\2010001
Chestnut Ridge Estates\Received\From
Surveyor\Photos in this example, and the
Ext field contains jpg".
The Command Line field contains the
path to the executable program to run. You Figure 1211.101 - Remaining Entries in Define Document View Dialog
don't have to type the path, it can be set with
the Browse button. Since we're using IE here Browse to the Internet Explorer folder under
Program Files and select IEXPLORE.EXE.
The Launch Method can be left as Default; this runs a Windows program rather than an
AutoCAD arx.
Press Add to add the Document View definition. You must press Add before leaving the dialog or
nothing will happen.
Ask us how we know…

Press OK to complete the Document View definition.
The Document View definition could also be added to the Civil 3D template. Since the Directory to the
photos would be different in each project where it would be later used, the Adedefdocview
command would need to be used to Update the Directory accordingly for each project.


Adding the File Names to the Object Data Table
The hard part is over; this starts the easy part, followed shortly by the fun part.
Since the object data table we created is a database, a record needs to be added to the database
holding the file name of each photo, and each record needs to be attached to each individual point in
the drawing.
From the Create tab of the ribbon go to the Drawing Object panel and pick

Attach/Detach Object Data.

Figure 1211.102 - Attach/Detach Object Data in Tool-based Geospatial Ribbon
In the Attach/Detach Object Data dialog click on the Image
File Name field in the top of the dialog.
In the Value field enter the first jpeg file name without
the file extension, DSCF0011 in this case.
Press Enter after typing to add the record to the
database. If you don’t press enter the record is not added
to the database and nothing happens.
Press the Attach to Objects button; at the Select
Objects: prompt pick the point in the drawing to which
to attach the data record, and press Enter.
The command closes after attaching the record; if you
have a number of these to attach immediately press
Enter to repeat the command and repeat the process as
needed.
Save the drawing. The Object Data table is saved in the Figure 1211.103 - Attach/Detach Object Data

drawing.


Viewing the Attached Photo
Finally, here's the big finish.
Type Adedocview at the command line. At the Select Objects: prompt pick the point in the

drawing to which data attachment was made.
Voila! The field crew's photo opens when the point is selected.
Interestingly, the Map data attachment remains, even if the visibility of the point is changed by point
groups. You can change the display of the point to another style through Group Overrides, suppress its
display with the _No Display group and then bring it back with the _All Points group ‐ the photo will still
display.
That surprises us.
Figure 1211.104 - Control Point Photo Attached to Point, Open in Internet Explorer

AutoCAD Civil 3D Core Concepts - Surface Modeling
Digital Terrain Modeling Concepts

Digital Terrain Modeling is a concept that underlies all calculations in Civil Engineering involving
elevation or slope ‐ profiles, cross sections, grading and volume calculations. The process of Digital
Terrain Modeling involves the creation of a data structure that the software can instantly "touch" to
retrieve elevations or slopes, representing either existing or proposed conditions.
The basic concept behind Digital
Terrain Modeling is an old one in
the Civil Engineering and Survey
industry ‐ interpolation.
Prior to Digital Terrain Modeling,
the processing of a network of
plotted spot elevations such as
those seen in Figure 1111.01
involved the interpolation of
intermediate elevations between
known values as shown. The
interpolation lines drawn in Figure
1111.01 were conveniently created
with the Divide command in
AutoCAD; prior to CAD, this was
often accomplished with a
graduated rubber band. With the
interpolation complete, any Figure 1111.01 - Interpolation Between Known Elevations
intermediate elevation could be
obtained, or contours drawn. The
process is effective, but time
consuming.
Digital Terrain Modeling
mathematically completes all
interpolation possible between the
data supplied, and stores the result
in a digital file for easy retrieval.
Figure 1111.02 shows the triangles
that result from Digital Terrain
Modeling in Civil 3D, and the Tooltip
that results when the cursor is
stationary over the digital surface;
Civil 3D retrieves the elevation value
from the digital surface and displays
it in the Tooltip, instantly, and
anywhere on the surface.
Figure 1111.02 - Digital Terrain Model Triangles and Tooltip

The Digital Terrain Models in Civil 3D
have the advantage of many display
options, through their Surface Styles.
Displayed as contours, Civil 3D
obligingly places a contour in the
same location as the interpolated
tick.

Figure 1111.03 - Contours Over Interpolated Ticks
This chapter serves two purposes. The first is to introduce the reader to Digital Terrain Modeling in Civil
3D, a fundamental concept for both existing and proposed as mentioned above. The second objective is
to serve as a detailed introduction into the operational aspects of Civil 3D, processing data and building
a Civil 3D Object. The Civil 3D Surface Object is in many ways the easiest object in the program to grasp
and to master, as it is readily created and displayed, and is managed by only a single Style in Civil 3D ‐ a
Surface Style. As an introduction in this fashion, the examination of surfaces in this chapter is limited to
the processing of Aerial or Photogrammetric data. Surfaces can certainly be produced from other data
types, including point data, but a discussion of Terrain Modeling from points necessitates familiarity
with Civil 3D point management, and is therefore deferred to a later chapter.
Aerial Drawing Types
Aerial or photogrammetric drawings fall into one of two categories, which might be classified as the
good and the ugly; the former would be the highly desirable but rarely obtained Mass Points and
Breaklines, or DTM drawing, and the latter the much more common Contour drawing. As the contour
drawing is the more common, we will look at that type first.


Contour Drawings
The content of a contour drawing from an aerial company is exactly what would be expected; the
primary display consists of contours, representations of constant elevation across the site, typically
drawn as AutoCAD polylines (more on that later). The drawings typically also show features such as
roads, streams, walls, swales, buildings etc., and may also include intermediate spot elevations between
contours or in relatively flat areas. Aerial contour drawings also typically show various planimetric site
features, and may indicate areas of dense tree cover or other features which obscure or diminish the
accuracy of the drawing. A typical aerial contour drawing of a site is shown in Figure 1111.04.
Figure 1111.04 - Aerial Contour Drawing
The aerial contour drawing is produced in the photogrammetric process by interpolating contour
locations from the Digital Terrain Model effectively produced from the original data. The interpolation
process proceeds basically as outlined above.
The aerial contour drawing is an important drawing for use in engineering and design, and is best used
as an existing conditions reference drawing in the background. It is important to request the aerial
contour drawing from an aerial company; the problem is that the contour drawing is usually the only
one requested from an aerial company, and it is not the best drawing to use in producing a Digital
Terrain Model.

Mass Points and Breakline Drawings
The Mass Points and Breakline, or DTM, drawing shows the actual grade changes along features as
produced in the photogrammetric process. The drawing represents the exact features and elevations
analyzed in the photogrammetric process, before any interpolation to produce contours takes place.
Effectively, the Mass Points and Breaklines drawing is a representation of the raw Digital Terrain Model,
or DTM. Producing a surface from this drawing in Civil 3D or any other engineering program builds the
same surface model as was produced by the aerial company. Building a surface from the contour
drawing will have less accuracy as the new DTM is built from data that have already been subjected to
interpolation.
This situation is not limited to working with aerial data. Many engineers receive data from
surveyors in the form of contour drawings. Often the surveyor is using the same software as the
engineer, sometimes in the same building. If the engineering DTM is built from the surveyor's contour
drawing there will be a loss in accuracy from working with interpolated data. The engineer should use the
same DTM as produced by the surveyor, either directly or through an XML file, or build a DTM from the
same data which the surveyor used.
Any aerial company that can produce a contour drawing can also produce a Mass Points and Breakline
drawing; obtaining it is often a simple process of asking for it. Often the drawing is actually supplied by
the aerial company, but many recipients do not know what to do with it.
A Mass Points and Breaklines drawing is shown in Figure 1111.05 for the same site and area shown as
contours in Figure 1111.04. The drawing consists of 3D polylines at the edge of a grade change along
Figure 1111.05 - Mass Points and Breaklines Drawing

each feature and spot elevations or points in flatter areas of intermediate elevation or grade.
The drawing that will be used in the example in this chapter will be a contour drawing, as that was the
actual drawing available for the real project. The processing of a Mass Points and Breaklines drawing
will also be addressed later in the chapter, however.
Data Types for Digital Terrain Modeling
There are certain data types that are universally applicable to any Digital Terrain Modeling effort in Civil
Engineering and Surveying. These data types are constant in any program: Civil 3D, Land Desktop,
InRoads, ArcGIS, etc. The three data types which can be used in constructing a DTM are Point Data,
Breakline Data, and Contour Data.
Point Data ‐ Point Data for Digital Terrain Modeling consist of individual discrete X, Y and Z locations,
without connecting features between them. Typically these will be spot elevations in a contour
drawing, or the mass points themselves in a Mass Points and Breaklines drawing. Critically, the
Point Data must have an elevation or Z component that can be processed in some fashion in
building the elevation model. In drawing form, Point Data may be Civil 3D points, AutoCAD points or
nodes, or block insertions, text or Mtext inserted into the drawing at true Z elevation. If Point Data
are obtained from GIS, they can be used and processed by AutoCAD Map if an elevation attribute is
present in the GIS data. Similarly, spot elevation text at elevation 0 in a drawing can be used and
processed by Map into an ASCII file, and ASCII files of XYZ format can be used as well.
Breakline Data ‐ Breaklines are also referred to as Faults, or Features. Breaklines, as used in this
context, represent the linear edges of site features along which there is a noticeable change in
grade. Successfully applied, a breakline forces a deflection in a contour to show a grade change.
Examples are edges of pavement, shoulders, toes or tops of slope, toes or tops of wall, water
features, etc.
Contour Data ‐ The definition of contour Data for Digital Terrain Modeling is very specific, and not
necessarily what one would expect. Contour Data are strings of point data connected by segments
in complex objects; the CAD representation is a polyline. Contour Data do not have to be at
constant elevation, as one typically thinks of contours. Contour Data are a fast means of selecting
and processing point data, utilizing the vertices of the objects. Most Digital Terrain Modeling
applications will also process the segments between the vertices as breakline data, and can filter out
vertices too close together or add interpolated vertices if required. Contour Data must be at a
correct Z elevation to be processed in a Terrain Model. Polylines must be at a correct Z, either
constant as a 2D polyline, or varying, as a 3D polyline. GIS data can again be used, and AutoCAD
Map can read elevation attributes from GIS Contour Data and apply them to polylines through a
Property Alteration Query.
Most Civil Engineering and Surveying applications will utilize some combination of data types in a
Terrain Model; having two types present is common and all three is not unusual at all.


Evaluating a Drawing for Digital Terrain Modeling

With the types of data available for Digital Terrain Modeling defined, the data available in the source
drawing should be evaluated. In the example project a contour drawing has been provided by the aerial
company, so the drawing is opened directly in Civil 3D to examine its contents.
Figure 1111.06 - Aerial Contour Drawing for Chestnut Ridge Project
At first glance the drawing seems to contain representations of
the three data types described for Digital Terrain Modeling;
there are point data present, in the spot elevations, breakline
data in the streams and road, and plenty of contour data. What
is not yet know is the actual format used to represent these
elements in the drawing, which could still prove troublesome.
Examining the information more closely involves checking each
piece of data, determining its type within AutoCAD, and
whether or not it as the appropriate elevation data. This can be
accomplished a variety of ways, including the AutoCAD List
command and the Properties palette.

Figure 1111.07 - Detail of Data in Aerial Drawing

Drawing Point Data
Beginning with the examination of a spot elevation in the drawing, each spot elevation in this instance
consists of two objects, a piece of text, and an AutoCAD point. Critical for terrain modeling, each of
the two objects sits in the drawing at a correct Z elevation as shown. The insertion point of either object
can be used by Civil 3D in building a surface, and the point is obviously preferable as it actually marks
the spot. The spot elevations in this drawing are ready to use with no manipulation.
Figure 1111.08 - Examination of Point Data in Drawing
For point data, the desirable data types supplied by an aerial company, in order of preference are:
1. AutoCAD points, or nodes, at actual elevation.
2. AutoCAD blocks, inserted at actual elevation.
3. AutoCAD text, insertion point at spot location, inserted at actual elevation.
4. AutoCAD Mtext, inserted at actual elevation.
5. ASCII file of spot elevation data in X,Y,Z format.
6. GIS Shape file data, with elevation attribute.

It should be noted that other formats can be used, and converted into desirable formats by AutoCAD
Map, but will involve more manipulation and time. Native Civil 3D or Land Desktop points, if supplied,
can be used directly with no manipulation.

Drawing Breakline Data
An example of a site feature in this drawing which potentially should be processed as a breakline is the
edge of stream seen in Figure 1111.09. Noticeably, the stream crosses from one contour to another in
the drawing, and therefore must be at changing elevation. There is only one AutoCAD compound
object, usable in a Terrain Model that can incorporate changing elevations in this fashion ‐ a 3D
Polyline. In examining the edge of stream in the drawing, it is not a 3D Polyline, but is instead a 2D
manifestation of a polyline, although this distinction is not as clear as it may seem.
AutoCAD distinguishes between three types of polylines: LWPolylines, or Lightweight Polylines,
2D Polylines, or Heavy Weight Polylines, and 3D Polylines. The presence or absence of a
non‐zero Z value does not identify the polyline type, as any of the three could sit at zero and have a
constant elevation. Only the 3D Polyline can have elevation values that vary from vertex to vertex along
the polyline, however. The polyline listed in Figure 1111.09 shows as a LWPolyline in the List
command, and as a Polyline in Properties, hallmarks of a Lightweight Polyline. Lightweight
polylines must have constant elevations throughout. Correct representations of breaklines in a drawing
must have changing elevations, and therefore cannot be Lightweights. The breakline polylines in this
drawing are the wrong type, and will have to be replaced, using tools in Civil 3D to draw them correctly.
Figure 1111.09 - Examination of Breakline Data in Drawing
Before leaving the breakline topic, it would be helpful to see what the results of the examination would
be, were the drawing in the right format. The polyline selected in Figure 1111.10 is a 3D Polyline; this is
immediately evident in the Properties Palette. What are less clear are the results of the List command.
List displays the result only as a polyline, and does not distinguish it as 3D. The differentiating
information in List is the presence of the word "Space" at every vertex. "Space" is a placeholder for
width information which a 3D polyline cannot have. The presence of the word "Space" indicates that a
polyline is 3D, desirable for breaklines, but undesirable for contours. To complete the trio of contour
options, if the listed polyline were a 2D, or Heavy weight , the word "Space" would be replaced with
"Starting width" and Ending width" as seen in Figure 1111.11 on the next page.
Figure 1111.10 - Results with 3D Polyline in Drawing
For breakline data, the only desirable data type in a drawing supplied by an aerial company is a 3D
Polyline at correct elevation.

Figure 1111.11 - Results with 2D Heavyweight Polyline in Drawing


Drawing Contour Data
Knowing the various polyline types makes it easy to assess the contours in the drawing. As seen in Figure
1111.12, they are LWPolylines, sitting in the drawing at correct Z elevations. This is the desirable format
for contours in an aerial drawing, so these are also ready to use without modification.
The density of the grips on the polylines indicates the density of vertices. By default, each vertex will
become the endpoint of a triangle in the terrain model; if the vertices are too dense, the terrain model
can be too large to use efficiently. Civil 3D can filter vertices too close together in building the surface.
The presence of hachure marks on contours, small tick marks added to some contours to indicate the
down slope direction, can be troublesome in some instances. If the hachure marks themselves are
polylines on the same layer as the contours, they will be interpreted by Civil 3D as additional contour
data. When hachure marks are in fact polylines they can be removed by the Map Drawing
Cleanup tools. Hachure marks are frequently blocks, which are not a problem.
There usually is not a need to join polylines before building a surface, nor is there a need to close gaps in
contours created by labels, as the terrain modeler will usually jump across the gap successfully. It is
often desirable to request that contour labels not be supplied by an aerial company, as they invariably
seem to fall in bad locations.
Figure 1111.12 - Examination of Contour Data in Drawing
For contour data, the desirable data type in a drawing supplied by an aerial company is a Lightweight
Polyline at correct elevation.

A Warning on Contour Data
Many clients receive contour drawings from aerial companies, and find that the drawings are extremely
large in size. The issue is related to the polyline types described above, and to miscommunication in the
ordering of the aerial drawing.
Many times contours supplied in aerial drawings will actually be 3D Polylines, in spite of the fact that
they represent constant elevations. A 3D polyline consumes considerably more space in a drawing file
than a Lightweight polyline, and a drawing supplied with the contours as 3D polylines will be abnormally
large.
The error in this case is not really on the part of the aerial company, who sometimes does not even use
AutoCAD. The error occurs when the person ordering the aerial requests the contours in the drawing be
polylines, and that they be 3D. The aerial company obligingly sets the output of their software to 3D
Polylines, and voila ‐ huge file. When the contour drawing is ordered the specification should call for
contours as AutoCAD Lightweight or 2D polylines at true Z elevation (2D Heavyweights are converted
into Lightweights upon opening the drawing, except in unusual cases).
If a drawing is received where the contours are 3D Polylines, they can be converted to Lightweights by
using Map. The Drawing Cleanup tools found in the Tool-Based Geospatial workspace
Ribbon, Tools Tab, Map Edit Panel can accomplish this. Each 3D Polyline is converted to a
Lightweight Polyline, with the elevation of each taken from the first vertex of each original polyline. This
step has been seen to reduce drawing size sixteen fold.
Figure 1111.13 - Map Drawing Cleanup

Finalizing the Aerial Drawing for use in Civil 3D

With the drawing open in Civil 3D the temptation is to begin building the surface from the data
identified. The problem is that the open drawing is the one received from the aerial company, and not
one begun from a Civil 3D template. If the surface is built in this drawing there will be no Surface Styles,
and no guarantee that any Civil 3D settings are correct. No work should ever be done in Civil 3D in a
drawing not begun from an appropriate template. The solution is to insert this drawing into a new
empty drawing (or to query it in using Map if the aerial drawing is not on the same coordinate system as
the project).
There still two concerns in the aerial drawing, however, before bringing it into Civil 3D ‐ units, and
layers.
Drawing Units
If a drawing is begun in one of the AutoCAD Civil products, its units will reliably be set to Decimal Feet
(or Meters). If the drawing is then inserted (or attached as an Xref) in another drawing its scaling will be
reliable.
When drawings are begun in other products, including AutoCAD Map, there is no guarantee that the
units are set correctly. Often the units are inadvertently set to Inches. When the drawing is the inserted
into one correctly set to Feet an erroneous scale factor is applied. This results in the all‐too‐familiar
situation where an inserted block disappears into CAD never‐never land. The solution is to insure that
each drawing to be inserted (or attached or queried) has the correct unit settings before use.
To check or set the units the AutoCAD Units command is
used. In the Drawing Units dialog the Type is set to
Decimal, and the Insertion Scale Units to
scale inserted content to Feet. Pressing OK
completes the process.
If the aerial drawing were on a dissimilar coordinate system
from the working drawings in the project, it could be
projected by using a Map Query. Map would require that
the coordinate system be set using Civil 3D's Drawing
Settings, covered later in this chapter. In this example
both the aerial and working drawings are on the same
coordinate system.

Figure 1111.14 - AutoCAD Drawing Units


Drawing Layers
Bringing the aerial drawing into a new drawing begun from the Civil 3D template is going to inherit the
layering from the aerial company, often a problem. Looking at the layers in this aerial drawing they are
not too bad, certainly better than most. They do not meet the layer standards in place however; as
Reference data all should be prefixed with R-. While the layers could be renamed manually in the Layer
Properties Manager, the AutoCAD Rename command provides an easier solution.
Figure 1111.15 - Aerial Drawing Layers Before Renaming
Typing Rename at the command line displays the
Rename dialog. Make sure the Named Objects
selection is Layers. In the Old Name field enter *
or star. In the Rename to Field enter R-*. Press
OK. All layers are renamed with the desired prefix,
shown in Figure 1111.16 on the next page.
Thanks to Rex Cooper from Smartdraft for this

one. There's no way any of us can know everything in
this program.

Figure 1111.16 - Rename Dialog


Figure 1111.17 - Aerial Drawing Layers After Renaming
With the layers renamed, Save and Close the aerial drawing.
Starting the Civil 3D Existing Conditions Drawing
The processing of the aerial drawing into a surface must take place in a Civil 3D drawing begun from an
appropriate template as described, to insure that required setting and styles will be available. The
actual organization of this drawing in the project scheme is variable with the size of the project and the
preferences of the operator. Following the "Divide and Conquer" drawing organization described in
Chapter 1011, this will be only one of a number of drawings eventually brought together using Civil 3D
project management and Xrefs, so the drawing started here will be an "Existing Base" drawing. Some
clients prefer to import aerial data into a "Reference Base" or "GIS Base" drawing which is then
combined with a separate "Survey Base" to produce an "Existing Base"; low accuracy reference data are
segregated from high‐accuracy survey data in this scenario. The situation here will be a little simpler,
and both survey and aerial data will
eventually be combined in this drawing.
Using the New  Drawing command
from the Application Menu, the
desired template drawing is selected
and Open pressed to begin the new
drawing.
Resist the temptation to pick the New

icon from the Quick Access toolbar - it
actually runs the QNEW command, and will
not prompt for the selection of the template.
Figure 1111.18 - Template Selected in New Command

Since Civil 3D uses standard AutoCAD file
management the new drawing is started as
DrawingX; the drawing should be named and
immediately saved to the desired location
using the SaveAs  AutoCAD
Drawing command, again from the
Application Menu. Navigate to the
desired folder, and supply the drawing name
as desired, pressing Save to complete the
operation.
2010001 is the job number in this

case.
Figure 1111.19 - File SaveAs Dialog
The actual folder structure is obviously at the
discretion of the operator, but the structure in use in
this project looks like this. The Existing Base drawing
just begun sits in the \CAD folder, and the aerial
drawing is in the folder beneath \Received. This
structure will become more important in later
chapters in discussions of the Civil 3D Project folders
and Survey Database.
Figure 1111.20 - Project Folder Structure
Drawing Setup
Every drawing used in Civil 3D must be setup correctly. Drawing Setup can be easily accomplished, and
may be automatic if project requirements coincide with settings already made in the Civil 3D template,
but the setup must be checked. Drawing Setup for Civil 3D consists of three elements, Units,
Coordinate System, and Feature Settings.
Units and Coordinate System
The interface for checking or setting Civil 3D Unit and
Coordinate System settings has already been discussed in
Chapter 1011, and is easily accessed. Switching to the
Toolspace's Settings Tab, right-click on the
drawing name, and select Edit Drawing Settings
from the menu.

Figure 1111.21 - Edit Drawing Settings

In the Drawing Settings
dialog click to the Units
and Zone tab. Check or
change the Drawing
Units as desired. Check or
change the Coordinate
Category and Zone if
necessary, and check the
Imperial to Metric
Conversion if no
coordinate zone is used. The
Scale can be set to the
likely plot scale so that
annotation placed in Model
space will approximate their
actual extents. More
information on these
selections can be found in
Chapter 1011. Press OK
when the Units and
Coordinate Settings are set. Figure 1111.22 - Drawing Settings Dialog
It is important to insure that the coordinate system is set if the aerial drawing is to be transformed
to the working drawing's coordinate system using Map.
Critical Civil 3D Surface Feature Settings
Civil 3D has the advantage of being an infinitely customizable program. This advantage allows Civil 3D to
be used effectively in almost any locale or units. Civil 3D has the disadvantage of being an infinitely
customizable program. This disadvantage means that there are a plethora of Civil 3D settings that
control the program, and a concurrent risk that an important setting could be overlooked.
Every element, or Feature, in Civil 3D has its own settings. This means that there are settings that
control the creation, interaction and editing of surfaces, as well as points, alignments, parcels and every
other portion of the Civil 3D system. Civil 3D Feature Settings determine the default styles that will be
applied to each feature, various options unique to the feature's operation, and then Feature Command
settings that fine‐tune the way Civil 3D operates.
Feature Settings are among the options controlled on the Toolspace's Settings tab, and are exposed
under each of the various collections listed there. Many Feature Settings can be set at the time data are
actually created, rather than prior to use. Some Feature Settings can be adjusted "on the fly", such as
those for Point Creation. Civil 3D Surface Feature Settings are exceptional, in that certain critical
Surface Feature Settings must be made before any surfaces are created in Civil 3D.


To begin examining Surface Feature settings, expand the
Surface collection on the Toolspace's Settings
tab. Also expand the Commands collection below Surfaces.
Civil 3D Feature Settings are always found at two levels on the
Settings tab: at the parent level of the collection (Surfaces in
this case), and at the appropriate command level for the Civil
3D command to be used (CreateSurface, which we'll get to
shortly).
To examine the settings at the Surfaces parent level, right-
click on Surfaces and pick Edit Feature
Settings from the menu.
In the Edit Feature Settings ‐ Surface dialog two different
glyphs can be seen.
Settings with the glyph are actually inherited from the
general Civil 3D Drawing Settings made earlier. Any changes
made to these settings will affect Surface settings only; settings
for any other feature in Civil 3D will continue to reflect the
global drawing settings. An edit of this type would also result
in a Child Override indication in Drawing Settings as discussed
in Chapter 1011.
Settings with the drunken pentagon glyph ‐ ‐ are the
settings unique to and introduced by the actual Surfaces level. Figure 1111.23 - Surface Collection and
Command Settings on Settings Tab
Of the three Surface Settings
levels in the dialog, only one
is really important at all
before creating a surface, the
Surface Default
Style. Set to Border Only
in this template, the surface
will initially display only as its
perimeter or border when
built, and this setting can
easily be overridden when
the surface is built. There is
clearly nothing critical here,
so press OK to close the
parent surface Feature
Settings.
Figure 1111.24 - Edit Feature Settings - Surface Dialog


The second level of Civil 3D Feature Settings that should
always be checked on the Settings tab is at the appropriate
command level for the Civil 3D command to be used. In this
instance we are about to create a surface; to access the
setting for this operation right-click on
CreateSurface under Commands, and pick Edit
Command Settings from the menu.
Again, different glyphs can be seen in the Edit Command
Settings ‐ CreateSurface dialog. The and glyphs
again refer to settings inherited from the collections above,
Drawing Settings and Parent Surface Feature Settings
respectively. Changes made at these levels in this dialog
would again be child overrides having no effect on the
drawing or feature settings above.
The new glyph pertains specifically to the operation of
creating a surface, and there are two levels: Surface
Creation and Build Options.
Opening the first collection, Surface Creation, the
options look pretty straight forward. One option that is
somewhat new is the ability to select the Surface
Default Type. Civil 3D can build not only TIN Surfaces
but Grid Surfaces. TIN's are Triangulated Irregular networks,
a specific type of terrain model common to Land Desktop and
many other Civil Engineering and Surveying applications.
TIN's are preferable for profiles and cross sections based on
the accuracy of their triangle‐based model, but they are not Figure 1111.25 - Surface Command
necessarily visually pleasing. Grid surfaces, the other type that Settings on Settings Tab
can be produced by Civil 3D,
model a surface using
quadrangles.
Grid models tend to be visually
smoother, but less accurate for
engineering purposes. Most
surfaces built in Civil 3D will be
TIN's so this doesn't seem that
important either. The
operator is being lulled into a
false sense of security at this
point, but a huge land mine in
Civil 3D is looming....

Figure 1111.26 - Edit Command Settings - CreateSurface - Surface Creation

Collapsing the Surface
Creation collection and
expanding the Build
Options collection, things
still appear reasonably familiar.
Here the program can exclude
data below or above a
threshold value, familiar to
anyone who has used Land
Desktop. There are other data
filters, actually restored from
earlier versions of Softdesk.
One setting seems to stand out
though; Allow Crossing
Breaklines. Set to yes in
this template, the out‐of‐the‐
box setting for this value as
supplied from Autodesk is no. Figure 1111.27 - Edit Command Settings - CreateSurface - Build Options
Anyone who has used any previous Civil product knows that a basic tenet of terrain modeling is that
Breaklines, as already defined in this chapter, cannot cross. In Land Desktop, when one breakline
crossed over another one or both would be ignored. This rule extends even to field work ‐ surveyors are
taught that when running linework for bottom face and top face of a curb, in a curve, care must be
taken to align the bottom and top shots together so the fault lines will not cross. It has always been that
way. So why does this setting seem to negate a basic rule of terrain modeling, and allow crossing
breaklines? And who would want to anyway?
The answer is simple: Autodesk is changing the rules ‐ and the language ‐ on the fly. Used in this
dialog, Breaklines, does not mean Breaklines as we have defined (and used for years). Breaklines
means TIN Triangles. The setting means "Allow Crossing TIN Triangles: Yes, or No?"
As confusing as this seems, one must know a little more about how TIN's are constructed in Civil 3D
before answering the question. Unlike Land Desktop, Civil 3D does not wait until all data are selected
for the surface then perform the interpolation between all selected data. Civil 3D builds the surface
interactively as each set of data are added...
As already described, many surfaces are built from a combination of data types. In this example, the
aerial spot elevations will be used, the contours will be used, and (true) breaklines will be developed and
used. Building the TIN in Civil 3D, as soon as the spot elevations are selected the program will build TIN
triangles between them. The contour vertices will then be added to the TIN in a second step. If the
"Allow Crossing TIN Triangles: Yes, or No?" setting is set to No (the factory default), Civil 3D will
cheerfully reject the addition of the contours to the surface. The obscure "Allow Crossing Breaklines"
setting will reject them. This operation results in an unexpected occurrence of the Event Viewer, packed
with warning messages, frustration, and calls to tech support.
In order to build a surface from more than one type of data in Civil 3D the "Allow Crossing Breaklines"
must be set to Yes.
 The Allow Crossing Breaklines setting must be set to Yes in Civil 3D.
Now that the "Allow Crossing TIN Triangles" land mine has been avoided, a second one appears.
Setting the Allow Crossing Breaklines option to Yes enables another setting below it,
Elevation to Use. This option has three choices, one of which uses the dreaded "A" word. This
setting determines how triangle edge elevations should be handled when triangles already built are
reevaluated by the addition of another set of data: Should the elevation of the first data set be used, the
elevation of the last data set be used, or the elevations averaged (argh).

Figure 1111.27 - Determination of Elevation to Use for crossing TIN Triangles
Again, some deeper analysis is required. Consider for a moment a cross sectional topographic survey of
a road, and the production of a TIN from the data. The field crews set stationing, and shoot cross
sections at a defined interval, for sake of example 25 feet. The road in question involves a crown, edges
of pavement, and edges of shoulder. The crew runs linework for the crown, EP's and shoulders, and
these lines will be used as breaklines in the surface.
Additionally, the crew also picks up other points on the road surface: manholes, inlets, water shutoffs,
gas shutoffs, traffic light trip plates and the like. All of these data will be added to the TIN as points.
The most reliable way to build this TIN is to set the Elevation to Use setting to Use first

breakline elevation at intersection, then to select the breaklines for the surface first,
then select the point group. This allows the TIN to be built first from the breaklines, which properly
model the general cross sectional characteristics of the crowned road. Adding the points second then
allows the TIN to deflect up or down in the areas influenced by individual points within the general
shape of the road. If the point data were selected first when building the surface the TIN would
connect the manholes, inlets, water shutoffs, gas shutoffs, and traffic light trip plates, forming
triangles whose elevations would not be changed by the later addition of the breaklines.
The way to use the Terrain Modeler in Civil 3D is to set the Elevation to Use setting to Use
first breakline elevation at intersection, then to select data for the TIN based on its
accuracy, adding the most accurate data first, and moving sequentially through data of lesser
accuracy.
This concept is critical for successful use of the Terrain Modeling in Civil 3D! Civil 3D arguably has the
best Terrain Modeler that has ever appeared in an Autodesk product. It has many new settings and
concepts, and, once understood, can produce TIN's of exceptionally high quality.
 The Elevation to Use setting should be set to Use first breakline elevation at intersection,
and then data should be selected for addition to the TIN based on their accuracy, with higher
accuracy data selected first.
Set the Allow Crossing Breaklines and Elevation to Use settings as described, and

press OK from Command Settings.


Inserting the Aerial Drawing
After the preceding discussion of
triangulation and the like inserting the aerial
drawing as a block seems anticlimactic, but it
is the most effective way to bring the aerial
data into the Civil 3D environment. Do be
sure that the Explode option is turned on
in the Insert dialog.
 That Locate using Geographic

Data option looks like a new and neat way
to accomplish transformation when the
aerial drawing and project drawing are on
different coordinate systems. Don't go
there. This is another case of Autodesk
seeming to offer new tools which really Figure 1111.28 - Insert Options
don't play well together. Stay away from
this option in Civil 3D.
The drawing should be Saved at this point, saving the data and settings.
Starting the Surface in Civil 3D
To begin creating the existing aerial surface in Civil 3D,
change to the Prospector tab. Right-click on the
Surfaces collection, and click Create Surface
from the menu.
It should be noted that this is only one of several

methods to start the surface. The process can also be
started from the Home tab of the Civil 3D Ribbon, Create
Ground Data Panel, Surfaces Dropdown, Create Surface.
The interface used is the preference of the operator. In
many instances right-clicks from the Prospector will be used
in these chapters; we feel these are faster in many cases,
and are available to readers using versions prior to Civil 3D
2010.
Figure 1111.29 - Create Surface in Prospector


The Create Surface dialog appears. Taking
care of the easy entries first, supply the
surface Name and Description.
A less-than-obvious consideration

for the surface name is the capitalization.
Since the surface name will be suffixed to
a layer name, be sure to type the surface
name in all caps if your layer naming
convention is to use capitals.

Figure 1111.30 - Create Surface Dialog with Name and Description
The Surface layer in the upper right corner of the dialog is wrong for an existing surface; a C-
TOPO surface would be for proposed. Since this surface is from aerial data the base layer needs to be
changed to R-TOPO. To override the layer press the button in the upper right. As the Object Layer
dialog opens press the button in its upper right. Select a new base layer, or use the New
button to create a new base layer. Press OK from two dialogs back to Create Surface.

Figure 1111.31 - Dialogs to Change Surface Base Layer


The Border Only style set as the default for
surface creation will not give a good sense of
how the TIN is built in Civil 3D. Change it by
clicking on the button in the Style field.
As the Select Surface Style dialog opens, use
the drop arrow to select Triangles Only as the
new surface style. Press OK back to the
Surface Creation dialog, and press OK from
there.

Figure 1111.32 - Selection of Surface Style
The new empty EXISTING AERIAL surface definition is
added to the Prospector. Use the glyphs to expand the
levels below it, including the Definition level where data will
be added.
If the Prospector can be thought of as the equivalent of

the Land Desktop Terrain Model Explorer, it must also be
thought of as the equivalent of the Land Desktop TIN data file.
The TIN in Civil 3D exists only in the Prospector in this
drawing, not in an external data file, unless it must be
exceptionally large.

Figure 1111.33 - Surface in Prospector


Adding Spot Elevation Data
The surface in the example project will be built from a combination of spot elevation, breakline and
contour data; following the advice given above the breakline data would normally be added to the
surface first, as these data are of the greatest accuracy or significance. For instructional purposes we
will deviate from those instructions here in the interest of showing exactly how a surface is built by Civil
3D, and will add the spot elevation data first. In normal practice, the spot elevations would be the last
data added, after the breaklines and contours.
 Data should be selected for addition to the surface based on their accuracy, with higher
accuracy data selected first.
In order to facilitate some layer management magic that will be needed to select the spot elevations it is
helpful if their layer is made current; if there is more than one layer of spot elevation data to be used,
any one of them can be made current.
Remembering that the spot elevations in this drawing are
AutoCAD points, they will be added to the surface as
Drawing Objects. Right-click on Drawing
Objects under the Definition level for the
EXISTING AERIAL surface, and pick Add from the menu.

Figure 1111.34 - Add Drawing Objects from Prospector
The Add Points from Drawing Objects dialog allows selection of a
variety of AutoCAD entities; select Points from the list,
corresponding to the objects found in the drawing. Supply a
Description for the objects, and press OK to select them in
the drawing.

Figure 1111.35 - Add Points from Drawing Objects


The Select objects: prompt appears, requiring the selection of the spot elevations in the drawing.
This is one of the places where Civil 3D differs substantially from Land Desktop: selection by layer is not
an option. Civil 3D lacks the social graces that Land Desktop had in many areas; rather than offering a
custom selection option, Civil 3D usually reverts to regular AutoCAD selections. It would have been
possible to isolate the spot elevation layer before starting the selection, and that would have worked
fine. The disadvantage to isolating the spot elevation layer, from a training standpoint, is that the
surface layer would be turned off by that operation and the surface not displayed until the isolate
reversed (assuming, of course, that isolate is set to turn layers off....). The best solution to selecting data
for the surface is to revert to an old AutoCAD trick ‐ a transparent command.
At the Select objects: prompt type 'LA and press Enter; the Layer Properties Manager appears
inside, and without interrupting, the AutoCAD selection! In the Layer Properties Manager, turn off all
layers except the spot elevations ‐ R-SPOT ELEVATION in this case. Press OK to exit the Layer
Properties Manager, returning to the Select objects: prompt.
Select all of the spot elevations with a Window or Crossing selection, but do not hit Enter to
close the selection.
Figure 1111.36 - Selecting Spot Elevations with Crossing
AutoCAD is still at the Select objects: prompt; again type 'LA and press Enter to redisplay the
Layer Properties Manager. Turn the layers back on (or restore a layer snapshot to be really tricky), and
again press OK to exit the Layer Properties Manager and return to the Select objects: prompt.
At this point, the selection and layer hocus‐pocus are done; press Enter to end the selection, and Civil
3D builds the surface.

Figure 1111.37 - Drawing with Surface from Spot Elevations
A lot just happened; let's look at the transparent layer stuff first. Many AutoCAD commands can be run
inside another command by typing their command name prefaced with an apostrophe as we did here.
This is an extremely old AutoCAD trick, and has been around at least since AutoCAD 10. Autodesk used
to allow this by picking many of the icons in earlier versions; it was possible in earlier releases to trigger
the Layer Properties Manager transparently by picking its icon from the Layers toolbar, but it doesn't
work in 2010. Typing still works though, and typed commands will often allow access to parts of
AutoCAD that just can't be reached any other way. While we're on the topic, other niceties like layer
previous, layer isolate, don't work transparently, whether typed or picked ‐ only the low level AutoCAD
commands work.
There also wasn't a better way to do that selection set inside the Civil 3D command. Select similar
doesn't work there, nor does a PICKFIRST selection work. You can pass a selection set to the command
with P for previous, old school AutoCAD again.
Now let's turn our attention to the surface built in the drawing. As soon as data are selected for a
surface in Civil 3D the surface is built, totally different from the process in Land Desktop. The surface
has triangulated between the spot elevations selected, and the Triangulated Irregular Network, or TIN,
shows in the drawing. The TIN is displayed in the drawing based on our selection of a Surface Style that
shows it, Triangles Only; more on the Surface Style later.
Clicking on a TIN line in the drawing it is obvious that the whole TIN is one object in the drawing; the
Properties Palette lists it as a TIN Surface, and venturing into the List command reports it as a
AECC_TIN_SURFACE. It is important to remember that the surface in Civil 3D exists only in the drawing.
There is no database. The information shown in the Prospector is the data structure itself. Clicking on
the Definition level in the Prospector shows a summary of the data currently in the surface in the
pane at the bottom. If the TIN is erased from the drawing, it is gone. Period. It's also gone if Joe
Autocad explodes it, but that's another topic....
At this point it's advisable to save the surface. Since it's drawing data, save the drawing.
Adding Contour Data
Contour data will be the next information added to the surface. Since some layer management magic is
coming once again, set one of the contour layers current.
Remember that the contours in this drawing are polylines, and that they have a significant number of
vertices. They will be subject to filtering when selected, a process known as contour weeding.
Selection of contour data begins in the Prospector again, Right-clicking on Contours under
the Definition level for the EXISTING AERIAL surface, and picking Add from the menu.
What pops up next is the Add Contour Data dialog, with contour Weeding factors, Supplementing
factors and Minimize flat areas settings. This is one of the most misunderstood dialogs in Civil 3D, but a
critical dialog from the standpoint of TIN accuracy, so some detailed explanation is in order.
Figure 1111.38 - Add Contours from Prospector
Figure 1111.39 - Add Contour Data Dialog


Weeding Factors
The Weeding Factors in the Add Contour Data dialog supply the filtering of vertices on contours selected
for inclusion in the TIN. Remember that each contour vertex added to the TIN becomes the endpoint of
a TIN triangle; if there's too many vertices you'll need to lease time on a Cray to build the TIN. The
Weeding Factors filter out vertices too close together through the application of a Weeding Distance
and Weeding Angle, which are applied together to filter along each contour.
The first three vertices of a contour are shown in Figure 1111.40.

Figure 1111.40 - Vertices Along Contour
The Weeding process begins by examining the Distance through the first three vertices of the contour as
highlighted in red in Figure 1111.41. If this cumulative distance through the first three vertices is
greater than or equal to the Weeding Distance specified in the Add Contour Data dialog the vertex will
be used in the TIN, and the program continues, evaluating the next three vertices in the contour. If this
cumulative distance is less than the Weeding Distance specified in the Add Contour Data dialog the
program evaluates the Deflection Angle between the vertices.

Figure 1111.41 - Cumulative Distance through Three Vertices


The Deflection Angle is evaluated as shown in Figure 1111.42. If the Deflection Angle is greater than or
equal to the Weeding Angle specified in the Add Contour Data dialog the vertex will be used in the
TIN, and the program continues, evaluating the next three vertices in the contour.

Figure 1111.42 - Deflection Angle through Three Vertices
If, however, the Deflection Angle is also less than the value specified in the Add Contour Data dialog
the contour segment is too short, too straight, and the intermediate vertex will be ignored in
producing the TIN, much as shown in Figure 1111.43. The program continues to evaluate the next
combination of three vertices along the contour, and cycles through all contours selected.

Figure 1111.43 - Resulting Treatment of Short, Straight Segment
It should be noted that Contour Weeding in building a surface does not remove vertices from the
contours; it simply filters which vertices will or will not be used in the surface.
The challenge in working with Civil 3D is to come up with numbers for contour weeding to plug into the
dialog box. For sites ranging in size from 10 to 250 acres a good rule of thumb is 25' of weeding
distance and 2° of angle. The numbers can be decreased for smaller sites and increased for larger ones.

With the objective of the Weeding Factors being to remove vertices too close together along a contour,
the objective of Supplementing Factors is to add vertices to polylines having very few. Supplementing is
especially important with filleted contour polylines such as are seen in proposed surfaces, as a filleted
polyline has no vertices around the arc.

Supplementing Factors
Supplementing consists also of two values, but they are applied separately rather than together. The
Supplementing Distance is applied through straight segments of a contour, between vertices, and the
Mid‐Ordinate Distance is applied through a true arc.
A portion of a filleted contour is shown in Figure 1111.44. The original segment is shown in green, and it
has four vertices: the endpoints and beginning and end of the arc. Without supplementing these would
be the only vertices used in the TIN, and it would jump right across the arc.
The Supplementing Distance is applied to the contour first as shown in Figure 1111.44. The program
measures down the contour by the Supplementing Distance; if a vertex is not found one is added. This
process continues to, and resets at, the next actual vertex, and skips over the arc as seen, continuing to
add more vertices with the same spacing.
Figure 1111.44 - Supplementing in Straight Segments


The treatment of the arc revolves around the application of a mid‐ordinate distance, the deflection of
the arc from its chord measured at and perpendicular to the midpoint of the chord. The definition of a
polyline arc in AutoCAD uses this measurement, shown dashed in red in figure 1111.45, and this is why
no vertices are present around the arc. The Supplementing Mid‐Ordinate Distance in Civil 3D specifies
a new shorter chord as seen in the Figure; where this chord hits the arc a new vertex is added, and the
same new chord length is repeated along each arc found to supplement vertices to allow the TIN to
include the arcs.

Figure 1111.45 - Supplementing in Arcs
The challenge again in working with Civil 3D is to come up with numbers for contour supplementing for
the dialog box. For sites ranging in size from 10 to 250 acres a good rule of thumb is 100' of
supplementing distance and 2' of mid‐ordinate distance. The numbers again can be decreased for
smaller sites and increased for larger ones.

Minimizing Flat Areas

The lower half of the Add Contour Data dialog supplies for options to Minimize flat areas. These
options control the application of a new concept for Autodesk products found in Civil 3D, Surface
Trending. Surface Trending attempts to minimize flat areas formed by TIN triangles jumping across
contours, rather than by projecting from the bulge in a contour to the next higher or lower elevation.
Flat areas formed in TIN's lead to "steps" in profiles and sections, and are the reason why contours
formed from TIN's in Land Desktop often did not match the contours from which the TIN was produced.

Figure 1111.46 - Minimize Flat Area Options
The best guidance for building an Existing surface from contours is to accept the defaults in the Add
Contour Data dialog, leaving Filling gaps in contour data, Adding points to flat
triangle edges and Adding points to flat edges each On, but leaving Swapping
Edges Off. Turning on Swapping Edges slows the processing of the TIN significantly, and additional
flipped faces are often not worth the overhead. It is better to examine the TIN with the defaults
processed, and then rebuild with the fourth option enabled if desired.
It should also be noted that None of the Minimize flat areas options should be used in building a
Proposed TIN from contours. The use of Surface Trending with a proposed TIN would radically alter the
TIN shape from what is desired. An example of the result of Surface Trending is coming later in the
example.
 Never use the Minimize Flat Areas

options in building a proposed TIN from
contours.
Returning to the selection of data for this
surface, the Description is entered, the
Weeding Distance and Angle
values supplied, the Supplementing
Distance and Mid-Ordinate
distance supplied, and the Minimize
flat areas settings left in their defaults.
Press OK to select the contours.

Figure 1111.47 - Add Contour Dialog Settings in Example
At the Select contours: prompt type 'LA and press Enter, displaying the Layer Properties
Manager again. In the Layer Properties Manager, turn off all layers except the contours ‐ R-
CONTOURS 2 and R-CONTOURS 10 in this case. Press OK to exit the Layer Properties Manager,
returning to the Select contours: prompt.
Select all of the contours with a Window or Crossing selection, but do not hit Enter to close
the selection.


Figure 1111.48 - Selecting Spot Elevations with Crossing
AutoCAD is still at the Select objects: prompt; again type 'LA and press Enter to redisplay the
Layer Properties Manager. Turn the layers back on (or again restore a layer snapshot), and again press
OK to exit the Layer Properties Manager and return to the Select objects: prompt.
Press Enter to end the selection, and Civil 3D rebuilds the surface, adding the contour data.
The updated TIN will display in the drawing, and the Event Viewer should appear.
Figure 1111.49 - Event Viewer
The appearance of the Event Viewer announces the fact that TIN triangles already formed have been
crossed by the addition of the second set of data, the Crossing Breaklines setting discussed earlier. Had
this setting under Surface Feature Settings not been made, the Event Viewer would be full of error
messages and the TIN would look significantly different ‐ missing most of the contour data in fact.
Before dismissing the Event Viewer clear it; use the Action pulldown within the Event Viewer itself
and select Clear All Events. Then close the Event Viewer with the in its upper corner.

This is also a good time to Save the drawing.
Figure 1111.50 - Surface After Addition of Contour Data


Surface Styles

Zooming in and looking at the surface produced thus far, the pattern of the triangles following the
contours is plainly evident. This is the display of the Triangles Only style, which was set current at the
time the surface was produced. To look more deeply at the style, click to highlight the surface in either
the drawing or the Prospector, Right-click, and pick Surface Properties from the menu.
It is often faster to start Surface Properties from the Prospector than from the Drawing Area;
AutoCAD highlights the entire selected surface by default, which can take time.
In the Surface Properties dialog, make sure the Information tab is current. To the right of the
Surface Style field, hit the icon, and select Edit Current Selection from the menu.
Figure 1111.51 - Surface Properties Dialog, Shown Over TIN Surface


In the Surface Style dialog, click to the Display tab. The Display tab specifies which components of a
Civil 3D surface will be visible when the style is set current. For the Triangles Only style, the only visible
component is the Triangles, as evidenced by Visible column.
The style dialogs actually configure component visibility several ways, in normal Plan view, in 3D
Model view and when displayed in a Section, as specified in the View Direction option.

Figure 1111.52 - Surface Style Display Options for Triangles Only Style
In addition to the component visibility, the other important setting is the Layer. Note that the layer
for the display of the Triangles in this style is 0. The Color and other display settings are ByLayer.
This may seem odd, and could lead one to the conclusion that controlling the display of the TIN triangles
would necessitate the manipulation of layer 0. Remember, instead, that the behavior of Civil 3D objects
mimics the behavior of blocks in AutoCAD. The use of layer 0 in a Civil 3D Object Style definition
functions just like the use of layer 0 in a block definition, forcing the object to take on the color and
linetype of the layer of insertion. The layer of insertion for this surface is R-TOPO-EXISTING AERIAL,
and the use of layer 0 in the style definition means the color of the TIN Triangles can be controlled from
that layer.
Press OK from the Surface Style dialog, and OK from Surface Properties. Return to the Layer
Property Manager, locate the R-TOPO-EXISTING AERIAL layer and change its color. The
TIN will obligingly take on the color of its layer of insertion due to the use of layer 0 in its display style.


Figure 1111.53 - Triangles Only Style in Magenta due to Layer Color Change
To look at another alternative in a style, return to Surface Properties, and reset the current
Surface Style to Existing Contours 2' and 10', pressing Apply and remaining in the dialog.
Note that as the style is applied, the contours do not take on the color of the current layer.
Again use the icon in Surface Properties and select Edit Current Selection from the menu.
Figure 1111.54 - Surface Properties Dialog, Shown Over Existing Contours Style


Examining the Display tab for the Existing Contours 2' and 10' style shows a very different
treatment of the display. Rather than being set to layer 0, the components visible in this style, Major
Contour and Minor Contour, are set to fixed layers, V-TOPO-MAJR and V-TOPO-MINR respectively.
This treatment is the use of Color Control Layers as described in Chapter 1011: changing the display of
these contours in the drawing is accomplished by changing the color (and linetype or lineweight) of
these two Color Control Layers.

Figure 1111.55 - Surface Style Display Options for Existing Contours 2' and 10' Style
Press OK to close the Surface
Style dialog, returning to the
Surface Properties dialog.
In the Surface Properties dialog,
change the Surface Style
to _No Display. Also click on
the Show Tooltips option
at the bottom left. Press OK to
close the dialog.

Figure 1111.56 - Options Set in Surface Properties Dialog
Returning to the drawing, the surface has disappeared. It is still in the drawing, evidenced by the
Tooltip, which displays the elevation whenever the cursor is stationary over the surface.

Figure 1111.57 - Drawing with Surface Set to _No Display, and Tooltip On
To see how this behavior is accomplished, return to Surface Properties by Right-clicking
on the surface name in the Prospector. Again use the icon in Surface Properties to edit the _No
Display style.
The _No Display style is simply
configured to suppress the
visibility of all of the components.
This allows the surface, as a data
structure, to remain present tin
the drawing and to function, but
with no visible overhead.
This same strategy, employing _No
Display styles, will be repeated for
most other object types in Civil 3D,
including points and alignments.

Figure 1111.58 - Surface Style Display Options for _No Display Style
It should be mentioned that an alternative method for suppressing the visibility of the surface in Civil 3D
is to freeze its layer of insertion. This method is not recommended, and _No Display styles should be
used instead.

The overhead in a drawing file of any Civil 3D object is contingent on the visible objects configured by
the current object style. If a surface is present in a drawing displayed as TIN triangles, and the drawing is
saved, the drawing will be extremely large. Changing the Surface Style to something displaying
less information, such as the Border Only style, will reduce the drawing size substantially.
The situation is even worse if the drawing is saved displaying TIN triangles, and the layer of insertion is
frozen, as the huge drawing containing all of the triangle display data must be loaded into memory.
Then, since the layer of insertion is frozen, that whole block of memory sits unavailable, bound up in the
frozen triangles.
 Always save a drawing with a surface displayed using the style with the least amount of
visual overhead allowable.
Before leaving Surface Styles, let's return to the Surface Trending described earlier and see how it has
impacted the TIN. Press OK to close the Surface Style dialog, returning to the Surface Properties dialog.
Change the current Surface Style back to the Existing Contours 2' and 10' style, and press the
Apply button; the style in the drawing should change. Again use the icon in Surface Properties to
edit the Existing Contours 2' and 10' style.
In the Surface Style dialog click
on the Visibility of Points in
the surface. The use of the
word points here is misleading,
as this really controls the
display of the actual vertices of
the surface itself, not Civil 3D
points.
Thanks again Autodesk.

This time, remain in the Surface
Style dialog, but click to its
Points tab.

Figure 1111.59 - Surface Style Dialog with Point Visibility On


On the Points tab, make sure the Point Display collection is expanded. Using the glyph that
appears in each of the three fields, change the Data Point Color, Derived Point Color
and Non-Destructive Point Color as shown.
Figure 1111.60 - Surface Point Color Settings
Press OK to close the Surface Style dialog, OK to
close the Surface Properties dialog, and Zoom in to
the drawing and look at the contours.
The green vertices highlighted are the original
vertices of the contours used in the surface, after
weeding. The yellow vertices are new vertices
added by Surface Trending. The program examines
the surface trend up or down in the surface. When
the surface runs out of data, it then continues this
trend up or down, forming a logical ridge or valley to
improve the surface.
It should be noted that Surface Trending, and the
minimizing of flat triangles in general, only works
with contour data. Also, the presence of another
piece of data added to the TIN, such as a breakline,
stops the trending. Adding a breakline for a cell
tower pad anywhere along the ridge shown in Figure
1111.61 would stop the trending in that area!

Figure 1111.61 - Vertices Added to Surface by Surface Trending
Once an examination of the vertices added is complete, it is essential to turn off the display of the TIN
Points before saving the drawing. The display of the TIN points adds tremendous overhead to the
drawing, and it would likely crash if saved in this format.
Return to the Surface Properties, and the icon in Surface Properties to edit the Existing
Contours 2' and 10' style. On the Display tab of the Surface Style dialog, turn back off the visibility
of Points. Click OK to return to Surface Properties, and reset the current Surface Style to _No
display before leaving. Press OK to close, and Save the drawing.

Figure 1111.62 - Display of Points Turned Off in Contours 2' and 10' Style
Adding Breakline Data to the Surface
Breaklines are essential in the preparation of an accurate surface, and are necessary to correctly
illustrate features that have their own grade characteristics, such as the edge of a road.
Creating Breaklines from Drawing Information
While there are edges of roads in the example aerial, they will actually be replaced by surveyed field
work for the two main roads involved, to be supplied as points and breaklines in a later chapter. One
location where breaklines would still potentially be useful would be in the streams, shown in this
drawing as 2D polyline features. The edges of stream could be important in the surface if HEC‐RAS
sections were to be prepared from it using tools in Smartdraft, though an additional breakline would be
required for the thalweg of the stream to correctly shape it in the surface. In any event, breaklines
often need to be prepared from plan features such as those provided, and the trick is how to accomplish
it.

Looking at an area where the
breaklines are needed, one can see
how the blue edge of stream in the
drawing meanders from contour to
contour. The elevation where the
edge crosses the contour can be
determined, and a 3D Polyline could
be drawn starting from there. The
problem is that there are quite a few
vertices required before reaching a
known elevation at the next contour
crossing, and the elevation of each
vertex would have to be interpolated
as the polyline is drawn.
There is a tool in Civil 3D that can
actually handle this interpolation in a
somewhat automated fashion, and
can be used to ultimately produce a
3D Polyline usable as a breakline in Figure 1111.63 - Blue Edge of Water Crossing Contours
the existing surface. The command is
actually a Grading command that produces a Civil 3D Feature Line, but a Feature Line, when exploded,
becomes a 3D Polyline, exactly what we want at this point.
Some setup in preparation for drawing the breaklines is required.
There is a R-FEATURES layer in the drawing; the features or breaklines for the aerial should really be
on this layer, so make it current (it may be frozen).
Several running OSNAPS will be required in this exercise: turn on running OSNAPS of Endpoint

and Nearest, clearing any other that may be on.
Zoom in to an area where breaklines are needed.
If working with the aerial drawing supplied in the dataset, careful inspection of the R-FEATURES
layer will reveal that most of the breaklines are actually there!
To begin, a command will be
selected from the Ribbon. From
the Home Tab, Create
Design Panel, open the
Feature Line Dropdown
and pick Create Feature
Line.

Figure 1111.64 - Create Figure Line command in Ribbon

The Create Feature Lines dialog displays, with way more
options than are needed in this case.
Each Feature Line in Civil 3D needs to be contained in a Site.
Sites have no bearing on what we're doing here, and we really
don't want to spend time on their definition, so leave the
Site set to the default.
Sites are geospatial envelopes serving as the

containers for interrelated alignments, parcels and grading.
Yeah, we'll leave that for another day.
The Name can turned off, and the Style turned off.
The Layer option can be changed to Use current
layer.
Press OK from the dialog.

Figure 1111.65 - Create Figure Lines Dialog
The command prompts Specify start point:,

and things now start getting tricky. The intent is to
start a piece of the breakline where the edge of
stream crosses a contour, indicated by the red circle
in Figure 1111.66. The problem is that this picked
point must use the elevation of the contour itself,
and that is no small trick in AutoCAD. The point
cannot be picked with an Intersection snap (INT), as
there is no intersection due to the objects being at
different elevations. The use of an Apparent
Intersection snap (APPINT) won't work as planned
either, as AutoCAD would insist on using the
elevation of the object with a Z of 0; not what we
want. Figure 1111.66 - Location for Picked Vertex on Breakline
The solution is to use another old trick in AutoCAD, a
.XY filter, which instructs AutoCAD to use only the X
and Y coordinate of a picked point, and to get the Z
from somewhere else. At the Specify start
point: prompt type .xy and press Enter.
AutoCAD prompts Specify start point:.xy
of; pick the place where the stream and contour
cross; an APPINT snap can be used, but it's overkill.
With the point picked, AutoCAD prompts (need
Z):; place the cursor anywhere on the contour,
allowing the running OSNAP to lock it on the contour
and pick; AutoCAD will read the elevation from the
contour and echo it at the prompt, press Enter. Figure 1111.67 - Cursor After Picking with .XY
This gets the Feature Line started, at the elevation of the contour. It's going to get tricky (trickier) from
here, so watch the command line options.

The command should be prompting Specify the next point or [Arc]: Move down the feature
slightly to the next vertex along it to be used, and pick. The running Endpoint and Nearest snaps
should make this easy.
The command will prompt Specify elevation or
[Grade/SLope/Difference/SUrface/Transition] <178.00>: offering the last elevation used.
The elevation at this picked point is not known; we want the program to interpolate this elevation based
on the next known elevation we give it. To start this interpolation mode, type T for Transition at
this prompt and press Enter.
Move along the feature and pick the next desired vertex. The command now prompts Transition
or [Grade/SLope/Elevation/Difference/SUrface] <Transition>:. Since we need to
remain in the Transition mode until the next known elevation, press Enter, as Transition has now
become the default option on the command line.
Continue picking vertices along the feature, and
remembering to hit Enter for Transition at
each picked point, until just before the next location
where an elevation is to be specified (the next
contour crossing).
 Don’t forget to hit Enter for Transition for

each picked point, or this is going to get ugly.
In Figure 1111.68 we've come up on another
contour, so some more hocus‐pocus is due.
To deal with the known elevation at the contour
crossing, again type .xy and Enter prior to picking Figure 1111.68 - Approaching Next Contour
at the contour crossing. Once the crossing is picked,
again pick right on the contour to satisfy the Need Z: prompt.
The command will now prompt:
Specify the next point or [Arc/Length/Close/Undo]: .xy of _non (need Z):
Distance 116.36', Grade 1.72, Slope 58.18:1, Elevation 180.00'
Transition or [Grade/SLope/Elevation/Difference/SUrface] <Transition>:
The elevation read is at the command line, but one line up from the current command. Type E for
Elevation to use the elevation value read for this picked vertex, and Enter to confirm the
Elevation.. The command uses the original elevation for the first vertex, this picked elevation for the last
vertex, and interpolates all elevations in between!
That elevation wouldn’t even show up if the command line was off and Dynamic Input was the only
command interface being used.
At this point, continue in the command, picking the next vertex and returning to the Transition
mode by typing T. Don't try to go too far, however; it’s better to build bunch of these rather than trying
to do one long one.
Also be very careful of the Undo option in the main command line: Specify the next point or

[Arc/Length/Close/Undo]:. When you get buggered up in the command it seems like it would be
easy to back up on vertex at a time with the Undo option. In reality the Undo option hoses the
transition totally. Better to either pull‐up and start again, or hope for the best and finish where you are,
hopefully cleaning up a vertex turning toward the center of the earth in AutoCAD. The command is
unforgiving, and won’t let you out without specifying an elevation for the current segment.
When you've run along the feature as long as you need or as long as you dare, end the command with
an extra Enter at the command prompt.

Figure 1111.69 - Segment of Feature Line Drawn in this Example
Before adding the Feature Line to the surface, it would be helpful to make sure it is correct. This can be
easily accomplished by using one of the Contextual Tabs in the Ribbon.


Click on the Feature Line to display its Grips. As the Feature Line Contextual Tab appears,
move to its Edit Elevations tab, and pick Elevation Editor.

Figure 1111.70 - Feature Line Contextual Tab in Ribbon
The Feature Line elevations display in the Grading Elevation Editor, which is a tab in the Panorama.
Scroll through the elevations, making sure there is nothing unexpected. Bad elevations could be edited
here, but frankly if the Feature Line is buggered up it's usually better to erase it and start again.
Figure 1111.71 - Feature Line Elevations in Grading Elevation Editor
Satisfied that the elevations are (hopefully) fine, close the Grading Elevation Editor with the button
in its corner.
The process used to create the breakline has produced a Civil 3D Feature Line. The Feature Line itself is
overkill at this point, and will just create complication in the Prospector later. Sacrifice the Feature Line
at this point by exploding it in AutoCAD; the exploded Feature Line is a 3D Polyline, the preferred
vehicle for a breakline.
Repeat this process until all breaklines needed in the drawing have been produced.
There will actually be only two that need to be created in the example drawing. You're welcome.
Be sure to Save the drawing when all breaklines are created.
Adding Breaklines to the Surface

Before adding the breaklines to the surface, change the Surface Style back to Triangles Only in
Surface Properties. This will make the impact of the additional breaklines easier to see.
The impact of the added breaklines will be most evident in the northwestern most portion of the site,
where there is a major stream which is presently not visible in the TIN triangles. The TIN crosses over
the edges of the stream with no knowledge of its existence, as seen in Figure 1111.72.
Figure 1111.72 - TIN Crossing Over Edges of Stream
The color of the TIN has been changed by changing the color of its layer of insertion.
To add the breaklines to the surface, Right-click on
Breaklines under the Definition level for the
EXISTING AERIAL surface, and pick Add from the menu.

Figure 1111.73 - Add Breaklines from Prospector


The Add Breaklines dialog displays. Enter a
Description as appropriate. The
breakline type will be Standard, since
the objects to be selected are 3D Polylines.
The other breakline types are

explored in later chapters.
The Weeding factors and
Supplementing factors can be
left off; these can be used to modify the
number of vertices along the breaklines in
the same manner as for contour data.
Press OK from the dialog.

Figure 1111.74 - Add Breaklines Dialog Settings in Example
At the Select Objects: prompt use the same transparent layer magic with 'LA to turn off the layers

other than the breaklines, select the breaklines, then again use 'LA and turn the layers back on.
After pressing enter to end the selection the surface is rebuilt.
Figure 1111.75 - Selecting Breaklines with Crossing
The updated TIN will display in the drawing, and the Event Viewer should again appear.

Figure 1111.76 - Event Viewer
The appearance of the Event Viewer again announces the fact that TIN triangles already formed have
been crossed by the addition of the third set of data, the Crossing Breaklines setting discussed earlier.
Before dismissing the Event Viewer clear it; use the Action pulldown within the Event Viewer itself
and select Clear All Events. Then close the Event Viewer with the in its upper corner.
Returning to a view of the surface again in the northwest corner of the site, notice how the TIN
Triangles, which previously crossed over the stream now have been re‐triangulated to include it. The
breaklines have clearly worked as expected.
Figure 1111.77 - TIN Crossing Incorporating Edges of Stream
Again, this is a good time to Save the drawing.


Surface Integrity and Data Security
With the breaklines added to the surface, some thought should be given to the management of the
drawing, and its anticipated uses. This is the Existing Base drawing, which will be Xref'd into the overall
drawing set to display existing conditions. Many of the existing features will become start points for
proposed features, perhaps being offset or otherwise manipulated in AutoCAD. The breaklines
produced are 3D duplicates of features already visible in the drawing as 2D objects, and their duplicate
presence would seem unnecessary. 3D polylines are often troublesome in a drawing as they cannot be
offset, and are hard to manipulate. In earlier Civil applications, including Land Desktop, when breaklines
were defined they were added to a breakline database, and the original 3D polylines could be erased to
reduce the drawing size…..
Civil 3D is different. There is no database for the breaklines, in fact, there is no database for the
surface. Moreover, everything in the surface continues to be dynamically linked to the objects from
which it was produced. If the breakline 3D polylines are erased (or exploded), the breaklines will be
removed from the surface and the surface will be rebuilt. Care must be taken in Civil 3D to insure that
the objects from which the surface (or other Civil objects) are produced remain in the drawing, intact.
This situation extends as well to the aerial contours. In spite of the fact that the surface can now be
displayed as contours, the original contours must remain in the drawing. This becomes part of the
impetus for use of a Civil Project; using a project, this drawing can be isolated from others in the set, but
this surface shared with other drawings with far less overhead. More on that in later chapters.
Several other related concepts come in to play in dealing with the data integrity we're discussing.
Surfaces, like most Civil Objects, can be locked to prevent accidental edits and unintended updates.
Surfaces should be locked to protect them, and we'll deal with surface locking shortly, after we do some
TIN editing.
The updating of surfaces can be controlled, and updates are
managed through the Rebuild options available by Right-
clicking on the surface name in the Prospector. The surface will
always Rebuild when new data are added. Whether or not it Rebuilds
at other times, including when underlying data disappear, is
controlled by the Rebuild Automatic setting in the Prospector. For
the time being we've left Rebuild Automatic Off; if Civil 3D
sensed that the surface needed to be rebuilt it would communicate it
by placing a glyph before the surface name. That glyph can be
misleading, and we'll talk about it, and the Rebuild Automatic setting,
in a later chapter.
Civil 3D normally links the surface to the full set of underlying data Figure 1111.78 - Surface Options

from which the surface is built, providing the dynamic linkage
described. An option is to create a Snapshot within the surface, which creates a duplicate copy of the
underlying surface data and binds it in the surface object. Doing this "protects" the surface; even if Joe
Autocad erases the original contours the surface will stay intact. In reality, surface snapshots are not the
panacea they seem. Surface snapshots bloat already large drawings to huge proportions, with a
concurrent degradation of performance. It's much better not to use snapshots, to make sure the
drawing is backed up, and to send Joe Autocad to training.
Surface Editing

The surface, as produced thus far, has some TIN triangles around the outside edge that are wrong, and
will need to be cleaned up. These triangles can be affected several ways, by conventional TIN Editing, or
by the application of a Boundary. Though we'll eventually add a boundary in this example, we want to
talk for just a moment about TIN editing.
In order to edit the TIN the surface must be displayed using a Surface Style that shows the triangles. The
triangles can be the only element shown, as is the case at the moment, or the triangles can be shown
along with other elements, such as the contours. The CivilTraining.Com template drawing includes two
Proposed Contours - Edit Surface styles that display contours and triangles for this purpose.
The Edit Surface commands themselves can be accessed either of two ways: Right-clicking on the
Edits level below Definition below the Surface Name reveals an Edit Surface Menu,
and clicking on the surface to select it in the drawing displays the TIN Surface Contextual Tab
in the Ribbon, where Edit Surface is found on the Modify Panel. We've managed to show both
through the magic of mirrors in Figure 1111.79, along with some of the bad triangles that we're after.
Figure 1111.79 - Edit Surface in Prospector and Ribbon
We'll spend more time with other surface edit operations in a later chapter, but the pertinent tool here
is Delete Line. Picking Delete Line from either interface takes one to a Select edges: prompt;
individual TIN edges can then be selected in the drawing to be deleted. Curiously, Civil 3D suppresses
AutoCAD's Selection Set Automatic here. Picking in blank space in the drawing should start an
automatic Window or Crossing, but doesn't. A Crossing selection can be started within the
command by typing C, or a Fence selection by typing F. The advanced selection options work, but
won't start automatically.
Thanks again, Autodesk.

Working around the drawing, as many TIN edges as desired can be cleaned up in this fashion. When
done, the surface needs to be saved. Again, since the surface is drawing information, save the drawing
to save the surface.
Though we're supposed to love the Ribbon, this type of TIN editing is WAY faster if the command
is started from the Prospector. To bring up the Contextual Tab, the surface has to be selected in the
drawing. To be selected, AutoCAD highlights the surface - that takes time. Then, as each set of TIN
lines are deleted, AutoCAD has to update the highlight, taking even more time. Some AutoCAD
documentation suggests turning off highlights totally. That's such a bad idea we won't even tell you how
to do it.
Adding Boundaries to The Surface
Boundaries can be added to a surface, to suppress the display of some data, to show other data, or to
add a hard clip beyond which no data will be added.
The boundary concept has been present in Terrain Modeling for some time, and the basic prerequisite
remains the same as in previous versions ‐ boundaries need to be closed polylines, the closed polylines
cannot self‐intersect, cannot have duplicate vertices, and the closing segment must be formed by the
Close option in the pline or 3D polyline command, not by snapping back to the original vertex. In fact,
some Data Clip boundaries in Civil 3D can also be defined from other Civil Objects, including Parcels,
Feature Lines or Survey Figures.
The aerial drawing provided includes a good candidate for a surface boundary, the limit of certification
provided as a polyline by the aerial company.
To start the application of the boundary, Right-click on Boundaries below Definition below
the Surface Name and pick Add from the menu. The Add Boundaries dialog displays.
Supply a Name to identify the boundary.
There are four different types of boundaries that could

Figure 1111.81 - Add Boundaries Dialog
Figure 1111.80 Add Boundaries


be selected: Outer, Show, Hide and Data Clip. A Hide boundary suppresses the display of TIN
data beyond the boundary; the data are still there, but are not shown. A Show boundary displays the
data inside the boundary. An Outer boundary is the outer‐most Hide boundary on the surface; data are
still present in the surface beyond the Outer boundary, and additional data can be added beyond it. A
Data Clip boundary suppresses the processing of any data beyond the boundary. No data can be added
beyond the data clip, and if an attempt is made to add data beyond the application of the data will be
"trimmed" at the clip boundary. As we do not want to necessarily limit the application of data beyond
the limit provided, an Outer boundary is selected.
The use of a Data Clip here would prevent the addition of more TIN data from GIS beyond the
aerial provided, which might be useful in evaluating overall site drainage.
An important concept in the application of the boundary is the possible processing of the boundary as a
Non-destructive breakline. The Non‐destructive breakline setting determines whether each
triangle crossed by the breakline will be discarded in its entirety, or whether each will be cut by the
boundary and the portion inside the boundary retained. Examining Figure 1111.82, notice how certain
triangles begin inside the magenta boundary, then run substantially outside it. If the Non‐destructive
breakline setting is on, the small portion of these triangles inside the boundary would be retained, and a
small band of erroneous data added around the periphery of the surface. This band of bogus data could
have an impact on a slope analysis performed. As is usually the case with a boundary around the edge
of an existing surface, the Non-destructive breakline setting here should be off to discard
these triangles completely.
The Mid-ordinate distance in the Add Boundaries dialog is used to convert arcs in a boundary to
chords for processing; the setting can be ignored as the polyline used does not contain arcs.
Press OK to apply the boundary. Like many operations in Civil 3D, a Regen may be required to see
the result, shown in Figure 1111.83.
Save the drawing.
Figure 1111.82 - Before Boundary Application Figure 1111.83 - After Boundary Application


Locking The Surface
With the boundary applied, the Existing Aerial surface is complete. A last step is to protect it from
accidental editing by Locking.
The surface can be locked several ways, from the Prospector, from the Surface Properties dialog and
from the Properties Palette. To lock in the Prospector, Right-click on the Surface Name, and
select Lock from the menu. Once locked, the surface displays the glyph before its name, and will
not rebuild or update without being unlocked.
Save the drawing.
Figure 1111.84 - Lock Surface Figure 1111.85 Surface Lock Glyph
 Always keep surfaces locked in the drawing when not being edited.


Building a Surface From Mass Points and Breaklines
As promised, we'll finally provide a glimpse of the process involved in building a surface from an aerial
drawing, when the drawing is supplied in the more desirable Mass Points and Breaklines format. This
will take place in a wholly different location and project, and on a somewhat larger scale.
The drawing is shown in Figure 1111.86. This is a 1,700 acre site in central Pennsylvania, and a surface
that had proved troublesome in earlier releases of both Civil 3D and Land Desktop. The aerial has been
inserted into a drawing started from the Civil 3D template drawing as before.

Figure 1111.86 - Aerial Drawing In Civil 3D


A detail of the data in the drawing is shown in Figure 1111.87. The entire drawing is comprised of 3D
polylines and AutoCAD blocks, plus a 2D polyline limit of certification, which can be used as a boundary.
Figure 1111.87 - Detail of Drawing Data
The organization of the drawing information is shown in Figure 1111.88. The layers have not been
renamed in this example, and the entire drawing consists of the three 11- layers seen. The 11-
BOUNDARY layer is turned off for the moment to simplify selection of the breaklines.
Figure 1111.88 - Layers, with BOUNDARY Layer Off
The objective is to build the surface as easily and accurately with the data provided….

In Figure 1111.89 the surface has been started from the Prospector; the base layer name has been
overridden, and the other selections made as before in the Create Surface dialog.
Figure 1111.89 - Create Surface Dialog


The first data that will be added to the surface will be the breaklines. The method employed may be a
departure from what is expected, as they are added using Contours from the Prospector.
While the breaklines are not contours in the usual sense, they do meet the definition of contour data as
established earlier. Civil 3D always treats contour data as breaklines (this cannot be turned off as in
Land Desktop), so the treatment in the surface will be the same as if they were added under the
Breakline collection. What is the difference? Minimizing flat areas. The Minimize flat areas tools, and
Surface Trending, work only with Contour data, and a better surface will result if the breaklines are
added in this manner.
The Add Contour Data dialog is completed as before, with reasonable Weeding Factors as
desired. On pressing OK, the entire drawing is picked at the Select contours: prompt; although the
spot elevations are included they are filtered out by the command.
Figure 1111.90 - Add Contour Data
The appearance of the Event Viewer is handled as described earlier.
The addition of the Mass Points begins as before, with Drawing Objects from the Prospector.
The selection made in the Add Points From Drawing Objects dialog this time is Blocks, as this aerial
company has indicated the mass points, or spot elevations, as AutoCAD blocks.
Again, a Description has been supplied, and, upon pressing OK, the entire drawing is
Windowed, with the breaklines filtered out from the selection this time.
Figure 1111.91 - Add Drawing Objects


Finally the processing turns to the Boundary. The 11-BOUNDARY layer is turned back on , and a
convenient location in the drawing found for its selection.
The processing of the Boundary follows as before, with the Boundary level in the Prospector, and
the same options in the Add Boundaries dialog.
Figure 1111.92 - Add Boundaries


At this point the surface is complete, processed with a minimum of muss and fuss. The key, as stated
before, is obtaining the right information from the aerial company.
Figure 1111.93 - Completed Surface
The question remains, "How good is it?"
Well…..


The question could be answered by examining its Triangles Only style in 3D within AutoCAD. Doing so
is somewhat hampered by AutoCAD's performance issues in manipulating a model of this size (the
drawing is 15 mb).
Instead, the model has been exported using a Navisworks Exporter installed in Civil 3D, as a
Navisworks .nwd file. The resulting model is then opened in Navisworks Freedom.
Navisworks excels in its ability to manipulate and explore large models of this type. In even the most
cursory of examinations the quality of the surface is readily seen.
Figure 1111.94 - Surface from Civil 3D in Navisworks Freedom

AutoCAD Civil 3D Core Concepts – Styles and Settings
Styles and settings interact in Civil 3D to provide the desired appearance of all Civil 3D objects and the
finished drawing. This chapter examines this interaction, the procedure used to implement a desired
presentation in the drawing, and some of the options offered.
Civil 3D Object Concept
Civil 3D manages all of the civil engineering and surveying data contained in drawings through the
concept of Civil Objects. Each "entity" within a drawing, whether a surface, point, alignment, profile
gradeline or profile grid, is a complex object produced by Civil 3D. This is different from programs such
as Land Desktop, where each "entity" is rendered in the drawing as a combination of AutoCAD
primitives: lines, polylines, text and blocks.
Consider the two profile views shown in Figures 1021.01 and 1021.02. The same vertical grid line at
station 2+00 has been picked in each. In the Land Desktop profile, only the vertical gridline itself selects;
in Civil 3D, the entire Profile View selects, as a Profile View is an example of a Civil 3D Object.
Figure 1021.01 - Land Desktop Profile View Figure 1021.02 - Civil 3D Profile View
Civil 3D uses the concept of styles to determine how each Civil Object will be displayed, and how
annotation or labeling related to the Civil Object will be controlled. The control of the display of the
Profile View in Civil 3D is infinitely flexible, while the appearance of the profile view in Land Desktop was
very rigid. With flexibility comes complexity, and the process of creating styles to achieve a desired
appearance in drawings will take time.


Civil Object Behavior - AutoCAD Block
When working with Civil 3D Objects and their associated styles, always remember one guiding principle:
the behavior of a Civil 3D Object in a drawing mimics that of an AutoCAD block.
An AutoCAD block is a complex object produced by grouping together a combination of AutoCAD
primitives ‐ lines, polylines, text, etc., along potentially with other blocks, to form a new, complex object.
The complex object can have its own internal layer structure, bring with it various AutoCAD text styles,
linetypes and other settings. Once the block is defined it can be reinserted in the drawing in various
places.
As a block is inserted, the insertion takes place on a specific layer. Depending on how the block was
originally drawn and defined, portions of the block can take on the color and other properties of the
layer of insertion. This involves the AutoCAD concepts ByLayer and ByBlock, which determine how
dependent objects take on properties when inserted. Additionally, freezing the layer of insertion of a
block suppresses the display of all of the block's contents; the Freeze operation tells AutoCAD not to
mathematically recalculate the block's contents, which turning a layer Off does not.
We've just summarized about three days worth of an Intermediate AutoCAD class here…
The developers of Civil 3D had the foresight and wisdom to use AutoCAD block properties in controlling
Civil 3D Object display, enabling the ByLayer and ByBlock concepts. This has again brought tremendous
flexibility in display control, but at the expense of expanded complexity and potential confusion.
Accessing Setup Functions

The setup functions for Civil 3D are broken into three major areas: Drawing Settings, Feature Settings
and Styles. All are revealed on the Toolspace's Settings tab, but styles in particular can often be
accessed from individual object selections from the Prospector.
Drawing Settings
Drawing Settings is accessed by a Right-Click on the
drawing name from the Settings tab, and selection of
Edit Drawing Settings from the menu.

Figure 1021.03 - Edit Drawing Settings
Many settings are exposed in the Drawing Settings dialog, explored in some detail in Chapter 1011.
Pertinent to our discussion in this chapter are settings that will affect the drawing appearance and
presentation throughout the program, which are presented on two tabs in particular.


Ambient Settings Tab
The Ambient Settings tab configures the default decimal Precision, Unit and Format for

elements in Civil 3D. While decimal precisions can be overridden by individual Label Styles later, the
unit and format settings are pervasive through the program, and care must be taken to insure that Civil
3D is configured to accept and display data in the format desired. Civil 3D Angle settings are
particularly important as shown, where angular data are configured as Degrees‐Minutes‐Seconds rather
than decimal degrees. This is repeated as seen in the Lat Long settings, also set to Degrees‐Minutes‐
Seconds. The Angle settings basically configure the input the program expects, and the Lat Long settings
configure how results will be presented.

Figure 1021.04 - Drawing Settings - Ambient Settings


Object Layers Tab
The other important tab in Drawing Settings is the Object Layers tab. The Object Layers tab in
Civil 3D manages the layer of insertion of each of the Civil Objects used. The layer specified in the
Layer column for each object type becomes the base layer for the insertion of each object type. If the
Modifier field for a particular object type is set to None, the layer is used as specified. Using a
Suffix modifier allows the layer as specified to be altered; the Value -* means that the layer will be
altered by the addition of the object name as a suffix. Using the setting shown in Figure 1021.05, a
Surface named EXISTING AERIAL would reside on the layer C-TOPO-EXISTING AERIAL.

Figure 1021.05 - Drawing Settings, Objects Layer Settings Tab
The insertion layer configured in Drawing Settings becomes what will be referred to later as the visibility
layer or freeze‐thaw layer for each object type. This layer is separate from the color control layers used
by some styles that will be examined in this chapter. Color control layers are dependent layers within an
object or label style that allow display of two or more colors (and lineweights) in the same object or
label. The color of the insertion layer for an object may or may not control the object's color depending
on how its style was produced, and whether or not a color control layer is in use.
For reference in this chapter, the basic layer format used in the CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing
is:
G- layers General drawing data
C- layers Proposed Civil data
R- layers Non‐surveyed Existing data, such as Aerial or GIS
V- layers Surveyed Existing data
Returning to the Object Layers tab shown in figure 1021.05, the Immediate And Independent

Layer On/Off Control Of Display Components setting at the bottom is very unclear.

Basically, keeping this setting off preserves the treatment of layers within Civil Objects as being the
same as layers within blocks: if the layer of insertion is frozen (or off), the entire object is not displayed,
even if it contains other dependent layers. Overriding this setting by turning the option on can become
very confusing in the drawing.
Feature Settings
As described in chapter 1011, every element, or Feature, in Civil 3D has its own settings. Feature
settings are specific and unique to surfaces, points, alignments, parcels and every other portion of the
Civil 3D system. Civil 3D Feature Settings determine the default styles that will be applied to each
feature, and thereby its default appearance, and fine‐tune the way each Civil 3D function operates.
Feature Settings are among the options controlled on the Toolspace's Settings tab, and are exposed
under each of the various collections listed there.
To look at some Feature settings, examining their impact on appearance, expand the Alignments
collection on the Toolspace's Settings tab. Also expand the Commands collection below
Alignments.
Civil 3D Feature Settings are always found at two levels on the Settings tab: at the parent level of the
collection (Alignments in this case), and at the appropriate command level for the Civil 3D commands to
be used (CreateAlignmentEntities and CreateAlignmentLayout, which we'll get to shortly).
To examine the settings at the Surfaces parent level, right-click on Alignments and pick Edit
Feature Settings from the menu. In the dialog, expand the Default Styles level.
Examining the settings, the default Alignment Style and appearance for an alignment created
from CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing will be Proposed. The exact presentation and content of
this style we'll explore later, but absent instructions to the contrary, the Proposed style will be used,
typical of a proposed alignment. Also take notice of the glyph in the Child Override column; this is
an indication that an instruction to the contrary are being given someplace else.

Figure 1021.06 - Edit Feature Settings - Alignment

To examine where this instruction is being given, OK from the Alignment Feature Settings dialog, and
Right-click on CreateAlignmentEntities under Commands below Alignments,
accessing Edit Command Settings from the menu.

The CreateAlignmentEntities command settings adjust the way the creation of an alignment from
existing entities in a drawing takes place. Alignments frequently need to be produced for both existing
and proposed applications. Existing alignments are more likely to be produced from polylines, whereas
proposed alignments are more likely to be produced interactively, through the Civil 3D layout functions.
The CreateAlignmentEntities command settings control the way alignments created from polylines, lines
or arcs are produced, not alignments created by layout.
Examining the CreateAlignmentEntities settings, the default Alignment Style and appearance for
an alignment created from polylines, lines or arcs in the CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing will be
Existing, not Proposed. This is the Child Override seen in the previous dialog, and fine tunes the style
used for this particular application. Civil 3D provides for very precise control over display based even on
individual operations performed, and is extremely helpful in implementing CAD Standards.
Do you have to worry about this precise a level of control when you first implement Civil 3D - no,
but the tools are there when you want to.

Figure 1021.07 - Edit Command Settings - CreateAlignmentEntities

The command settings that would be pertinent for an alignment created for a proposed application
would be CreateAlignmentLayout. Closing the CreateAlignmentEntities command settings and
examining the CreateAlignmentLayout command settings, the default Alignment Style returns to
Proposed.


Exploring Civil 3D Styles
There are hundreds of different types of styles in Civil 3D, and their features and interfaces differ from
style family to style family. Style settings can also be accessed from multiple places within the program,
often leading to even more confusion.
Accessing Style Settings
There are two primary points of access for style settings in Civil 3D: The properties of an available style
can be directly accessed from the collections on the Toolspace's Settings tab, or the properties of an
applied style can be accessed through the individual object's Properties.
To access settings for the Existing Contours 2' and 10'

surface style in the 2010001 Existing Base drawing,
change to the Settings tab. Expand the Surfaces
Collection, expand the Surface Styles level,
Right-click on the Existing Contours 2' and 10'
surface style and pick Edit from the menu. The Surface
Style dialog displays, and the style can be changed or
edited from there.

Figure 1021.08 - Edit Surface Style from Settings Tab
Accessing the style from the Settings tab is easy, provided the exact style for which an edit is required is
known. The glyph on this style indicates that it is in use, and the fact that the only other one in use is
_No Display makes the distinction easy. When there a lot of styles in use, however, it may be easier to
access the style properties from an object already displaying the style to be modified.


To access the style properties for the same surface style where it is applied, Right-click on the
Existing Combined surface in the 2010001 Existing Base drawing from either the drawing area or the
Prospector, and use Surface Properties. In the Surface Properties dialog use the icon to the
right of the Surface style selection, and pick Edit Current Selection from the menu.
The Surface Style dialog again displays, and the style can again be changed or edited from there.

Figure 1021.09 - Edit Current Selection from Surface Properties
Remember that both points of access change the style wherever it is used in the drawing.
Modifying a style through the properties of a selected object will change the same style on any other
object where it is applied. If style settings unique to an individual object are required, a new style must be
created with the desired properties and applied to that object.
Consistent Content in Style Settings Dialogs
While the settings dialogs vary from style family to style family within Civil 3D, certain content and
settings are consistent in the interfaces, manifested in the dialogs as consistent tabs.


Consistent Content in Object Styles
Accessing the properties of the Existing Contours 2' and 10' surface style through either of the two

means described above, the Surface Style dialog displays.
There are three consistent tabs in all object style dialogs in Civil 3D: Information, Display and Summary.
The remaining tabs are variable depending on the type of object style in question; surface styles happen
to have many other tabs as there are numerous other elements that are involved in surfaces, but other
object styles, such as parcels, have few.
The Information tab configures the style Name, and provides for a Description. The
description is especially important, and frequently overlooked. Remember that others will be using the
styles created throughout the use of Civil 3D; nuances of naming and other characteristics obvious to
the creator may not be obvious at all to the operator who uses the style in the future.
The Display tab controls visibility, including color and lineweight of the entities within the object;
we'll look at that tab in detail shortly. The Summary tab is a catch‐all listing every configurable
component of the object, and the list is huge for a surface. While the Summary tab is not necessarily the
best place to configure and element of a style, sometimes it's the best place to find an element of a style
that can be changed.

Figure 1021.10 - Surface Style Dialog


Consistent Content in Label Styles
To look at the consistent content in Label styles, staying with the surface collection in Civil 3D, change to
the Settings tab, expand the Surface collection, expand the Label Styles level. Under Label
Styles expand the Contour level, and Right-click on any one of the EX contour label styles,
pressing Edit from the menu. The Label Style Composer displays.
The five tabs of the Label Style Composer are always present; what differs considerably is how these
tabs function from one object family to another. The same characteristics and instructions for the
Information tab hold true as for Object styles ‐ good descriptions are essential. The Summary tab is
again a catch‐all, and again of marginal utility.

Figure 1021.11 - Label Style Composer for Surface Contour Label
Each of the other tabs in the Label Style Composer we'll explore in detail later in this chapter, but one in
particular, the Layout tab, reveals another level of complexity in the process.


Accessed through a mechanism we'll explore shortly, the Layout tab configures the actual text
component of the label, reading data from the Civil 3D object, through another dialog box opened from
the Label Style Composer ‐ the Text Component Editor. Remember that we previously characterized
Civil 3D as Lost In Endless Dialogs ‐ this is where the complexity really kicks in and a trail of bread
crumbs is sometimes necessary to get back…
We'll get there shortly.
Figure 1021.12 - Text Component Editor Launched from Label Style Composer
 The Text Component Editor can be one place where Civil 3D's need for a certified graphics
card can rear its ugly head. Working on a computer with a non-certified graphics card, the Text
Component Editor seems to push the graphics system beyond its limits. This usually manifests
itself as an ugly crash after editing one or two styles - no warning, just goodbye. If this happens
there is no workaround - the only options are to replace the graphics card with a certified card, or
to edit styles from a different computer that has one.


Creating Styles for Civil 3D
Creating styles for Civil 3D is a daunting task at best. As usual, a little preparation goes a long way in
simplifying the process.
Things Required Before Creating Styles
Some things are always needed before beginning the creation of styles in Civil 3D. These may seem
obvious, but all too frequently they're not.
Know what the final drawing appearance should be. This one should be a no‐brainer, but it rarely
is. The CAD Manager, or any else conscripted into creating styles, may not really know what the
engineer wants in terms of drawing appearance. Users of Eagle Point or Land Desktop have been
constrained for years by their programs' tendency to produce drawings with appearance typical of
the Midwest or New England. Profiles produced in the Southwest look nothing like profiles
produced in New Hampshire. Time expended in producing styles to reproduce the previous drawing
appearance would be a total waste if the engineer wants it to appear differently. Unfortunately,
telling the engineer that "CAD can't do that" isn’t likely to fly any more ‐ Civil 3D probably can, but
the trick is figuring out how.
Have CAD Standards in order before beginning. Remember CAD Standards? There's been a
committee on that for the last X number of years, right? Now is the time. It's a waste of time
implementing CAD Standards that don’t work or that nobody follows in Civil 3D, as the template
drawing produced will be useless later when CAD Standards finally get attacked. There are
exceptions to this, and we'll talk about creating template drawings that can be easily modified, but
the more CAD Standards are in order the better. At the very least, make sure that the decision to
continue with color‐dependent plotting (ctb's) versus style dependent plotting (stb's) is in place. Is
this the time to implement National CAD Standards layering? That's a tough question, as NCS
standards still seem not to work that effectively for civil drawings ‐ Civil 3D can use them easily,
however.
Make sure your layering convention is in place. This is really a subset of CAD Standards, but it
sounds less scary. Layer names are going to be pervasive through both object styles and label styles
in Civil 3D, so get the big picture standard worked out.
Have your text style conventions worked out. This again is really part of CAD Standards, but
important individually in label style creation and naming. If your firm uses slanted text for existing
and vertical text for proposed, make sure that standard is reflected in text styles available in the
template drawings. Civil 3D is an excellent tool for implementing standards, meaning fewer
operators will stray into the Style dialog in AutoCAD and begin creating wild styles with strange true
type fonts (you know who you are). Civil 3D will configure all text used in label styles with heights
expressed in plotted units, so text styles configured in AutoCAD should have zero heights. This is in
direct contradiction to Land Desktop, which required styles with non‐zero heights. Also remember
that Annotative text in Civil 3D and Annotative text in AutoCAD are not the same thing, and the
text styles used for Civil 3D label styles should not have AutoCAD Annotative properties.


Make sure blocks to be used in styles are clean and organized according to CAD standards. Various
styles will utilize blocks; point styles, for example will use blocks for display of survey "symbols", and
label styles will use blocks for markers or station ticks. The blocks to be used in styles must be present in
the template drawing, as Civil 3D cannot seek them from a Symbol Manager. If entities in blocks are to
take on the color of the style as applied make sure the elements are drawn on layer Ø. Make sure each
block is organized according to the layer and text style standards developed, and that each is purged of
extraneous junk. Civil 3D drawings will get big enough on their own ‐ they don't need any help from
surplus baggage carried around with block definitions.
Where to Begin in the Style Creation Process
The best place to start in creating styles is undoubtedly from a drawing containing them produced by
someone else. If one were to try creating styles from scratch in an empty drawing the process would be
overwhelming. It's necessary to explore the characteristics of each element in styles already in a
drawing to figure out how each element and control works.
The sad fact is that most good stuff in our business is "borrowed" from someone else, and Civil 3D styles
are a good example. We'll talk at the end of the chapter about "ownership" of styles and how easy it is
to rip them off from another drawing, but here that's a good concept.
The CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing provided with this class is a good starting point; the two
templates provided by Autodesk with Civil 3D, _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt and _AutoCAD
Civil 3D (Metric) NCS.dwt are another.
Prior to 2010 Autodesk supplied six templates with Civil 3D, including a very valuable one:
_AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS LDT.dwt. This template contained styles that produce drawing
appearance consistent with the way LDT formats things. Unfortunately, Autodesk did not continue this
template into 2010, and some of the styles contained within it are "lost." In reality, the 2009 template
works in 2010, with the exception that some settings will be missing for new 2010 features. As an
alternative to using this template directly, individual styles could be transferred from it to a 2010 template
as described later in this chapter. Remember, we take no questions that begin with "why".
One other consideration in embarking on style creation in Civil 3D ‐ start small and work from there.
Don’t try to think of every possible style nuance and get it incorporated into a template in the first try.
Focus on the major aspects of drawing appearance and get a template in use with the intent to grow it
from there. CAD Standards should never be static; they should always be changing to accommodate
new requirements. The implementation of Civil 3D styles should follow the model as well. As of this
writing the CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing is at version 1.44. That means that there have been
44 separate improvements to the template since it was begun at version 1.00, each improving on the
previous, typically by adding or changing style components.


General Properties of Civil 3D Styles
In beginning the creation of styles of Civil 3D several factors must be implemented which are consistent
across both Object Styles and Label Styles. These include the Style Naming Conventions, and
Color/Lineweight Control.
Style Naming Conventions
That styles need to be named is probably obvious, unless one attempts to mimic the wonderful usability
of MicroStation by simply assigning each a number.
Ouch.
In reality, the style naming convention is very important, as it
must convey to the operator at a glance what the various
options are, and how they differ.
A good example of a naming convention in use can be seen in
the Point Label Styles in the CivilTraining.com.dwt template
drawing. Examining the label styles from the Settings tab
as seen in Figure 1021.13 shows the general scheme at work.
Each Point Label Style generally begins with EX for Existing or
PR for Proposed; within the style family this establishes that
the style has either slanted or vertical text, and the color
control layer for the style as a V- or C- layer (more on that
shortly).
Since the operators are familiar with Leroy text sizing, the
next component of the name establishes the height of the
label in plotted units, 0.05" for L50, 0.12" for L120, etc.
Finally the remaining fields designate the point attributes
labeled by each.
There are two variations or exceptions to the overall scheme
seen in figure 1021.23. The Traverse Point Label Styles have
special labeling characteristics needed by the surveyors for
traverse points ‐ that is the variation. The exception is the
Standard style, which Civil 3D insists on creating. Operators
using this template know (or should now) to never use a
style named Standard, as it is not a style that adheres to
CAD Standards.
Figure 1021.13 - Point Label Style Names
 This insistence on the part of Civil 3D to recreate the Standard styles even if renamed or
deleted is annoying, and has lead to the directive never to use them in our opinion.

There are many more Point Label Styles in the CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing than are
displayed in Figure 1021.13.
Color/Lineweight Control
Objects created by Civil 3D must be able to be controlled for plotting purposes, and there are several
strategies by which color and lineweight can be controlled in Civil 3D.
What we're not going to jump into here is the greater CAD debate over control of plotted lineweight by
color (ctb's) versus control by lineweight and styles (stb's). Suffice it to say that the controls exerted in
Civil 3D as described here will work with either scheme, controlling either color or lineweight. The
CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing is intended for use with color dependent plotting, and only
ctb's are in use in the shop where it was produced. The drawing could be converted to lineweights and
stb's if desired by using the AutoCAD Convertpstyles command.
Generally, color/lineweight control in Civil 3D styles can be exerted by any one of three strategies:
Color/lineweight control by insertion layer. This strategy utilizes the AutoCAD properties of layer
Ø, a reserved layer in AutoCAD that allows dependent objects to take on the properties of their
layer of insertion.
Color/lineweight control by color control layers. This strategy utilizes fixed layers configured within
the style definitions that handle color, lineweight and linetype.
Color/lineweight control by the AutoCAD property ByBlock. This strategy also uses AutoCAD block
characteristics to pass the control of color, lineweight and/or linetype to a higher level object to
which the style is attached or dependent.
None of these strategies are obvious from their descriptions, and examples of each are needed for
clarity.
Since we're talking about it, layer Ø is another important topic in AutoCAD in general. As
described above, layer Ø is a reserved layer, and should only be used for drawing or creating entities that
will become part of complex objects such as blocks or Civil 3D objects. Entities created on layer Ø have
the unique ability to take on the properties of the layer on which later inserted. Nothing else should ever
be placed on layer Ø, including xref insertions, and layer Ø should never be frozen. Period. End of topic.


Color/Lineweight Control by Insertion Layer
A good example of color/lineweight control by insertion layer can be seen in the 2010001 Existing Base

drawing by using Surface Properties to change the Surface Style of the Existing
Combined surface back to _Triangles Only. The style redisplays the TIN Triangles, probably in color 7.
The Existing Combined surface is inserted in the drawing on the layer V-TOPO-EXISTING

COMBINED; accessing this layer in the Layer Properties Manager and changing its color will
change the color of the surface in the drawing as seen in Figure 1021.15; the _Triangles Only surface
style is configured to use the control strategy color/lineweight control by insertion layer.
Figure 1021.14 - Insertion Layer Set to Color 7 Figure 1021.15 - Insertion Layer Set to Color 72
We'll explore the mechanics of making this work in a little while, but briefly the enabling setting is found
on the Display tab of Surface Properties for the _Triangles Only surface style as seen in
Figure 1021.16 on the next page: the Layer for the displayed Triangles is Ø, and the Color,
Linetype and Lineweight settings are ByLayer ‐ just as though the object were a block.


Figure 1021.16 - Surface Style Display Properties for _Triangles Only Style
Color/Lineweight Control by Color Control Layers
Color/lineweight control by color control layers can also be illustrated easily using the Existing
Combined surface, changing its Surface Style back to Existing Contours 2' and 10'; change it back in the
Surface Properties dialog, press Apply to change the surface, but remain in the dialog. Use
the icon to the right of the Surface style selection, and pick Edit Current Selection
from the menu, returning to the Display tab.

The Existing Contours 2' and 10' style works differently, as seen in Figure 1021.17. Rather than using
the layer of insertion to derive its color, lineweight and linetype by referencing layer Ø, the Existing
Contours 2' and 10' style explicitly maps the display properties of the two visible components to two
explicit, or color control layers: V-TOPO-MAJR and V-TOPO-MINR. Notice that the values for
Color, Linetype and Lineweight continue to be ByLayer, allowing the color control layers to
modify them directly.
Figure 1021.17 - Surface Style Display Properties for Existing Contours 2' and 10' Style

Figure 1021.18 - Color Control Layers Default Figure 1021.19 - Color Control Layers Modified


Color/Lineweight Control By The AutoCAD Property ByBlock
Examining color/lineweight control by ByBlock is a little more involved than the first two schemes, as it
requires finding a situation where the control of color, lineweight and/or linetype of a style is passed to
a higher level object to which the style is attached or dependent. That somewhat nebulous sounding
requirement can be met by using the Point Group Display Order in Point Group Properties to
bring the display of the Control group back to the top in the 2010001 Existing Base drawing.
The control point, point number 1, sits in the drawing on the insertion layer V-BOUNDARY-P, and the
color of that layer in the drawing is 152. That behavior explains the appearance of the point object,
which is displayed as the Point Style SV_MON, manifested by the symbol. The SV_MON Point Style is
configured for color/lineweight control by insertion layer just as the _Triangles Only Surface Style was,
and that's not what we're interested in here. What is of interest is the attached label style; how are its
five fields of data deriving their appearance.
Figure 1021.20 - Control Point and Label Style Default Appearance
To access the display components of the Point Label Style, Right-click on the point in the drawing
and pick Point Group Properties from the menu.
Remember the display hierarchy for point display settings; since the Point Group overrode the
description key properties for point number 1, editing the point group properties will reveal the style in
use.
The Point Group Properties dialog shows the label style in use: EX L50 Point#-Elevation-Description-

Lat-Long. Use the icon to the right of the Point Label style selection, and pick Edit
Current Selection from the menu.


Clicking to the General tab in the Label Style Composer shows how the color/lineweight control of
the label style is working at the moment ‐ it is set to the fixed color control layer V-PNTS-TEXT,
currently set to color 12 in the drawing. We're about to change that for at least one of the attributes,
changing it to ByBlock.

Figure 1021.21 - Default Display Control with Color Control Layer
Without making any change to the color control layer, click to the Layout tab in the dialog. The
selected Component name in the upper left of the dialog should be Point Description;
under the text collection in the dialog change the Color from ByLayer to ByBlock as seen in Figure
1021.22, and OK all of the way out of the dialogs.

Figure 1021.22 - Point Description Component Color Changed to ByBlock

The color of the Description attribute in the Point Label Style takes on the color of the Point Style to
which it is attached. The Description field is color 152, because its ByBlock property hands control of its
display over to the higher level object to which it is attached, the Point Object. The remaining four fields
which were not changed from ByLayer continue to use the color control layer, V-PNTS-TEXT, currently
set to color 12 in the drawing.
The ByBlock concept is more difficult to use in Civil 3D than insertion layer or color control layers, but is
useful whenever one style element needs to match the properties of another to which it is attached.
Another application is in Alignment Label Styles.

Figure 1021.23 - Point Description ByBlock, Remaining Attributes ByLayer
Selecting a Control Strategy to Use
Given the three color/linetype control strategies in Civil 3D, which is the best one to use? Easy. All
three.
Each of the color/linetype control strategies has its own unique advantages. Control by insertion layer
has the advantage of simplicity, and facilitation of individual feature change. Change the insertion layer,
and the selected style, and only the selected style, changes. Control by color control layers has the
advantage of simplicity, and facilitation of global feature change. Change the color control layers, and
all styles using those layers change. Control by ByBlock has the advantage of inherited properties,
linking one object's display to another. Change the parent object's display, and the child object's display
changes as well. All three are needed in the implementation of Civil 3D.
The most important aspects of controlling styles are be consistent, and train the operators. If control is
reliably exerted in the same fashion across object families in Civil 3D operators will have little difficulty
modifying them once trained on their operation.


Creating Object Styles
We'll look at creating Object Styles in Civil 3D first, as they are considerably easier than Label Styles. The
best way is again to modify an existing style directly, or to create a new style as a copy of a previous one.
Creating a new style from an existing one is facilitated by a Copy or Copy Current Selection
option on any style accessed from either the Settings tab or from an object's Properties dialog,
seen in Figures 1021.24 and 1021.25.
Figure 1021.24 - Copy Surface Style in Settings Tab Figure 1021.25 Copy Surface Style in Surface Properties
Remember to assign a meaningful name to the new copied style.

Within any Style dialog, the Display tab will allow configuration of the various Components of the
object, with the actual component list varying considerably from object to object. The display controls

Figure 1021.26 - Surface style Dialog and View Direction

for the Layer, Color, Linetype, Lineweight and other parameters for each component can
be varied according to the display strategies already discussed.
One other consideration for configuring Object Style display is the View Direction, shown in Figure
1021.27. Most Civil 3D object types have more than one View direction. The different View directions
configure how the object will be viewed in a normal Plan View, in a 3D Model view, or if the object
would be seen in a Profile or Section View. (Profile Views are one notable exception; they can be
viewed only in Plan.) Often different View directions will have different component visibility in Plan
versus Model views; the Point Styles in the CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing have the label
component visible in Plan but not in Model; rock the drawing into 3D and the labels disappear but the
points still show.
The remaining tabs in any Style dialog are variable, and control the unique features of the style itself.
For the Existing Contours 2' and 10' surface style, the Contours tab specifies the Contour
Intervals, whether Smooth Contours will be applied, and the Smoothing Type. Since
the selected Smoothing Type is Add vertices, the degree of smoothing is controlled by the slidebar in
the lower portion of the dialog.

Figure 1021.27 - Surface Style Dialog, Contours Tab for Existing Contours 2' and 10' Surface Style


Changing to the properties of the Banding Slope (2D) surface style, the Display tab shows that the
style will display the major and minor contours using color control layers, and the slope ranges using the
layer of insertion. In reality the slope colors will be supplied by the range analysis settings themselves,
which override the setting made here on the display tab. The settings on the Model View
direction are different, with the visibility of all components turned off. Is this all that makes the
analysis 2D as the name implies? Change to the Analysis tab.

Figure 1021.28 - Surface Style Dialog, Display Tab for Banding Slope (2D) Surface Style
On the Analysis tab are the settings truly making this style 2D: under Slopes the Display type

Figure 1021.29 - Surface Style Dialog, Display Analysis for Banding Slope (2D) Surface Style

Is set to 2D Solid, and the Slopes Display Mode set to Flatten Elevations with the Flatten
Slopes to Elevation setting at 0.
The actual number of ranges used, the beginning and ending slope of each range and the colors
are not configured in the style, but in Surface Properties when the style is selected.
Some object styles have their own unique characteristics: point styles and parcel styles are good
examples.
Returning to an examination of the Control point in the drawing, accessing the Point Group Properties
dialog will not provide a vector to the point style settings in place. The point group settings did not
override the point style for the group, meaning that the point style is under the control of Description
Keys. To get to the point style in use go to the Settings tab, expand the Points collection, expand
the Description Key sets level, Right-click on the CivilTraining Alpha Description Key Set, and
pick Edit Keys from the menu.
Remember the point display hierarchy?

Scroll through the description keys and locate the MON* key. Right-click in the Point Label
Style field for the key, and access Edit Current Selection from the menu in the Point Style
dialog as shown in Figure 1021.30.

Figure 1021.30 - Edit Current Selection on SV_MON Point Style


The Point Style dialog provides for the appearance of the SV_MON point style on the Marker tab.
For this style the marker is represented by an AutoCAD block, cleaned and inserted into the drawing
as described previously. The Size settings in the upper right establish that the point will be annotative
to Use drawing scale, and that the size in plotted inches is 0.10. Other settings on the 3D
Geometry tab establish that this point style displays the point in 2D in the drawing, flattened to
elevation 0 as described in Chapter 1211.

Figure 1021..31 - Point Style Settings for SV_MON Style
A unique object style property for a parcel style can be seen by expanding the Parcel collection on
the Settings tab, expanding Parcel styles, Right-clicking on the Lots style, and picking
Edit from the menu.


On the Design tab is a reference to the Parcel name template. Pressing the icon to the
right of this field opens a Name Template dialog. In this dialog the actual default name of each parcel or
lot represented by this style can be configured, based on a combination of typed text or Property
fields selected from the available Civil 3D parcel data. We'll explore this style and the parcel data
much more in later chapters, but the characteristics of the parcel style are unique in the ability to read
data from the object as it is created and make it a part of the object's name, to eventually be reflected in
its label.

Figure 1021.32 - Parcel style Dialog for Lot Style, with Name Template Dialog
The best approach to creating the various object styles required in a template drawing is to continue
exactly the type of examination begun here: copy a style and begin to modify it until the desired result is
achieved. This examination is much easier in a drawing that actually contains data rather than an empty
one, as the impact of changes made can be more easily assessed. Once the desired appearance of the
new style is complete, the style can be transferred to the emerging template by a drag and drop as
described later in this chapter.


Creating Label Styles
Creating Label Styles starts off as a relatively easy concept: each style extracts one or more components
from the Civil 3D object to which it is attached, and processes the data (slope, elevation, station or what
have you) to display them as annotative labels. Each label has two appearance settings, the Layout
appearance, which is its default presentation, and the Dragged State, which is how it appears if modified
by a grip.
That seems simple enough. What makes it anything else? An endless collection of options manifested
in an endless collection of dialogs…
Again the easiest way to understand a label style is to examine one that already exists, and we'll look
initially at four innocuous seeming labels styles: a point label style, an alignment major station label
style, an alignment horizontal geometry label style (PC/PT label), and a contour label. Should be easy…
We also have a good used bridge for sale if you believed that….
To begin examining a label style, expand the Point collection on the Settings tab, expand the
Label Styles level, locate and Right-click on EX L80 Point#-Elevation-Description, picking
Edit from the menu.
We've already talked about the existence of consistent tabs in the Label Style Composer dialogs, but
there are other settings on the General tab we need to look at, so click there.
The General tab configures the Text Style for overall use in the style, though this can be overridden
as a child setting later as we'll see. The text style used here is romansR_00. This is a style created in
AutoCAD in the template drawing, obliqued to the right 22°, and it has a zero height. The
CivilTraining.com.dwt template drawing contains a number of different text styles for both general

Figure 1021.33 - Label Style Composer - General Tab

AutoCAD and Civil 3D use. Some styles have fixed heights, but those that end in 00 have zero heights.
Only the zero height text styles are used in Civil 3D label styles, as Civil 3D manages the final plotted
height through its annotative features. None of the text styles in the template drawing are Annotative
from a pure AutoCAD perspective.
The Layer setting we've already discussed; setting it to Ø in this dialog would pass control of all
attributes or label components to the layer of insertion of the point to which attached.
The Orientation reference of the label can be Object, View or World Coordinate System. Set

to Object, the label attaches to the direction vector of the object; if the view is rotated, the label
continues to "rotate" with the attached object. Set to View, each label remains readable as originally
oriented when a view is twisted as through a viewport; the labels "rotate" based on the relationship of
each object to the viewport. Set to World Coordinate System, the initial angle of the label as placed
relative to the WSC is determined; as the view is twisted, this same relationship to the WCS is
maintained. The most common options used for most labels are Object or View.
The Plan Readable setting maintains readability by flipping a label "up" if plan rotation would
otherwise turn it upside down. The Readability Bias setting establishes the angle at which this
"flip" kicks in.
The Layout Appearance
The actual work of configuring the default, or Layout appearance of the label takes place on the
Layout tab.
Again the concept is "simple": label Components can be created employing any combination of Text
fields, Lines or Block insertions, and added to the label through this tab. The EX L80 Point#-Elevation-

Figure 1021.34 - Label Style Composer - Layout Tab

Description point label style has three components, accessible from the Component Name drop
list in the upper left corner of the dialog. Each of the three components, Point Description, Point
Number and Point Elevation was added to the style using the icon to the right of the Component
Name field as shown in figure 1021.35, although one could be created as a copy of another using the
icon as well. Each component, once created, is separately configurable.

Figure 1021.35 - Label Style Composer - Layout Tab with Add Text Component Accessed
One word of warning on text component creation ‐ the order in which they are created matters.
Although there is a Component draw order icon in the dialog ( ), this draw order setting
only affects presentation when one component overlaps another. The order in which text components
are added to the label style becomes important in the configuration of the Dragged State, at which time
it dictates the order of text fields when the label is stacked text. If the order is found to be wrong,
there's no fixing it at that time, which could result in the recreation of many point labels from scratch.
Ask us how we know that…

Under the General level on the Layout tab the Anchor Component specifies the "hook" on
the object to be labeled, by which the label will be hung. This can be set to the actual feature to be
labeled, the point in this case, or to another component of the label. This is one of those decisions that
you'll live with for a long time; hooked to the Feature insures that a component moves with the feature,
but independent of any other component. Hooked to another component the one configured will still
move with the object, but may move if the anchoring component is moved as by a grip edit.
The Anchor Point establishes the position around the Anchor Component by which the label

component is hung. Think of a bounding box enclosing the entire object Anchor Component to be
labeled, the point in this case. The label can be hung off the Middle Center of that bounding box,
or any of the other positions moving around the bounding box.

Moving down through the Layout tab, the Text level is where the label actually takes shape. There are
a number of fields under this level which configure the text portion of the label, and we'll take them out
of order, partially because it makes sense to approach them the way we will, and partially to save the
hardest one until last….

The Attachment setting determines how the text portion of the label connects to the Anchor Point
configured above. The Attachment options are the usual positions moving around a piece of text in
AutoCAD, and any convenient position can be used. The Top left selection for the Description
component here is based on a desire to place the description in the label at the bottom of the "stack" of
text and to the right, but Middle left would have worked just as well.
The Text Height value configures the plotted height of the text field, and acts on the selected style
from back on the General tab. The value of 0.08" here reflects the name of the style, as L80 is the
corresponding Leroy size.
With the Attachment and Text Height specified, the X Offset and Y Offset shift the text into the

desired position, moving the Attachment Point relative to the Anchor Point. Considerable trial and error
goes into getting these values right ‐ again it's helpful to actually have data in the drawing where the
style is developed to see how the values work. The actual direction of X and Y may not be what they
seem, and do not necessarily correspond to AutoCAD's X and Y axes. Remember that the Orientation
Reference configured on the General tab might be set to set to Object, in which the X and Y Offset values
are relative to the direction of the object, not the CAD axes. Trial and error, again.
The Color and Lineweight settings we've already described, and these could be ByLayer or
ByBlock to enable any of the three display strategies discussed. Avoid hard coding values to the style
here unless you want to intentionally make the styles difficult to change.
The Rotation value is easy, so the only one left is Contents ‐ and this is the hard one. Clicking in
the Contents field shows a string of characters and reveals a icon. Click on this icon to launch
the Text Component Editor.
The Text Component Editor has two tabs, Properties and Format. A pane to the right shows the
contents of the text label, largely as a string of programming gobbledigook.

Figure 1021.36 - Text Component Editor
That gobbledigook is familiar to any of the 17 people in the world who figured out the Sheet
Manager in LDT Civil Design, as that's where it came from.

The Properties tab in the Text Component Editor configures what the text value in the label will contain,
and how it will be presented. The Format tab provides further text style formatting capabilities that can
override the settings from the General tab if desired.
Focusing on the Point Description component we had current when we started, the Properties tab is
currently configured to label the Full Description of the point, and to Preserve the case of the
description as entered. The label could be set to work differently, and doing so will serve to illustrate
how the Text Component Editor works. We'll change the label temporarily to label the Raw Description
rather than the Full, and to force upper case.
Begin by highlighting the entire text string in the preview pane, either by double-clicking on
it or by swiping it with the cursor.
With the string highlighted, use the drop list under Properties and change the selected data for the
label to Raw Description.

Figure 1021.37 - Changing the label Properties
Next, click in the Capitalization field and change the value to Upper Case from the drop list.

Figure 1021.38 - Changing the Capitalization


Finally, replace the highlighted string in the preview pane to the right by pressing the icon. This
operations "shoots" the present value over to the right side, and replaces the highlighted portion of the
label. The label string now reads <[Raw Description (CU]>, rather than <[Full Description (CP]>.

Figure 1021.39 - Label Text String Modified
The Format tab in the Text Component Editor allows further refinement of the text if desired.
Changes made on this tab are applied to the label string using the same icon on the Properties tab,
so this tab must be set before "shooting" the value. Notice the Color setting of ByBlock here; this
ByBlock reference means that the text string's color is dependent on the next level up to which it is a
child, the color setting under the Text collection back one dialog box higher in the Label Style Composer,
where the setting ByLayer supplies the current color seen, 12.
Remember that trail of breadcrumbs we said would be needed?

We'll experiment with modifications on the Format tab with a Profile View Band Style at the end of the
chapter.

Figure 1021.40 - Format Tab
For now, press Cancel to exit the Text Component Editor without making the change, and to return
to the Label Style Composer.


Back in the Label Style Composer for the EX L80 Point#-Elevation-Description point label style, change
the Component Name selection in the upper left to Point Elev. Notice how the Attachment,
X Offset and Y Offset values differ for this component to place the label in the desired position
relative to the Anchor Point. Click the icon in the contents field to access the Text Component
Editor. The Text Component Editor shows more options on the Properties tab for this component, as
more display options are available for these numeric data.
Figure 1021.41 - Point Elev Component in Label Style Composer and Text Component Editor
Closing the Text Component Editor, the remaining level in the Label Style Composer can configure an
optional Border and/or Background mask for the label, specifying a Gap that determines how
far beyond the edge of the label the border or mask will be placed.
The border and/or mask must be configured for each component of a multi-component label, and
does not "wrap" around the entire label.
We'll explore more options on the Layout tab for other styles shortly, but continue for now to the
Dragged State tab.


The Dragged State Appearance
The controls on the Dragged State tab dictate the behavior of a label when it is pulled from its
default position with a Grip.

Figure 1021.42 - Dragged State Tab
Most importantly, the Display setting determines whether the dragged label remains As Composed,
in which case the same appearance configured for the Layout appearance is preserved, or changes to
Stacked Text.
As Stacked Text an entirely new set of display settings are configurable here on the Dragged State tab,
and the text components will be displayed as individual lines of text, one above the other, in the order
in which the components were created. When the Dragged State option is used it is important to
match the Text Height setting here to that configured on the Layout tab, so that the label will retain
consistent height in either mode.
The Dragged State tab also provides for an optional leader as shown in Figure 1021.42, which can be
turned on or off with the Visibility setting. The leader is configurable as shown.
Press OK to close the Label Style Composer.


Lines and Blocks in Label Styles
The 2010001 Existing Base drawing contains and alignment, profile and profile view as illustrations of

other style capabilities in Civil 3D, despite the fact that these objects themselves are not addressed until
later chapters. The alignment has some station labels and geometry point labels (PC/PT labels), which
serve here to illustrate how line and block components can be used in label styles.
Locate the alignment in the drawing as shown in Figure 1021.43, click on any station label to display the
grips on the labels, right-click, and pick Edit Alignment Labels from the menu.

Figure 1021.43 - Edit Alignment Labels
In the Alignment Labels dialog, click on the glyph in the corner of the Ex Perpendicular with Tick -

0.01 End Station Major Station style to display the Pick Label Style dialog, and use the drop arrow to
edit the style in the usual fashion.

Figure 1021.44 - Alignment Labels Dialog with Pick Label Style Dialog

The settings on the General tab in the Label Style Composer are of interest and can be explored later,
but click for now to the Layout tab.
There are three components to this label style: Station Value Right of +, Tick, and Station Value Left

of +. Click on the Tick component first.
The Tick component places a block, CtcTickPlus, directly on the station value. Created as a Tick
component from the drop down list to the right of the component name list (and available for an
alignment style), the block supplies the ( + ) sign portion of the station label, sized and configured as
shown in figure 1021.45.

Figure 1021.45 - Tick Component as Block
The Station Value Right of + and Station Value Left of + components individually supply the station

values to either side of the plus sign as seen in Figure 1021.46 on the next page. Each is configured in
the Text Component Editor to display either the value left of the station character or right of the station
character as required to position each portion of the label adjacent to the plus sign.

Figure 1021.46 - Station Value Right of + in label Style Composer and Text Component Editor
Returning to the Alignment Labels dialog, click on the glyph in the corner of the Ex Perpendicular

with Tick and Line - Drag to Length Geometry Points style and display it in the Label style Composer in
the same fashion.
This style has three components, Geometry Point & Station, Tick and Line, shown in Figure 1021.47 on

the next page.


The Line component establishes a line at 90° from the geometry point, extending 2.25" by default. The
Geometry Point & Station text component then uses this line as its Anchor Component, so that the text
moves with the line as it is dragged to the desired length in the drawing with a grip.

Figure 1021.47 - Geometry Point Label Style Line Component
While the Alignment Labels dialog is displayed notice the reference to Label Sets in the bottom of
the dialog. Available for Alignments, Label Sets bundle a group of desired Alignment Label Styles
together by name for easy attachment to an alignment when it is defined.


Styles Gone Wild - Profiles and Profile Views
The complexity of objects and styles in Civil 3D reaches its zenith with profiles. First, Civil 3D
distinguishes between a Profile and a Profile View. A Profile is the actual gradeline, possibly sampled
from a surface or designed to represent proposed. Each Profile can its own attached labels, tangent,
curve, station or elevation. The Profile View is the grid that encloses the profiles, and serves as the
container for them. Profile Views have their own styles, and can incorporate Bands, which have their
own styles. A piece of the Profile View from the 2010001 Existing Base drawing is shown in Figure
1021.48. The Profile is shown in yellow. The Band is highlighted in red, and what remains is the Profile
View.
Figure 1021.48 - Profile view with Profile and Band
Right-clicking on the Profile View and picking Edit Profile View Style from the

menu will lead directly to the Profile View Style editor.

There's a lot happening in this editor, and a lot of settings that can be controlled. We won't examine
every option here, but the reader is encouraged to explore and experiment with the various Profile View
Style controls to see what settings affect what features, then move toward a style with the desired
appearance.
Figure 1021.49 - Profile View Style Dialog, Horizontal Axes Tab
The Autodesk supplied _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt template contains a profile view
style that reproduces the appearance of a Land Desktop profile.
Layout Appearance at Work - a Profile View Band Style
The Profile View in the 2010001 Existing Base drawing contains a good example of precise display

control exerted in a Layout appearance in the Band style. The band makes provision for two elevation
labels at each major station, one existing and one proposed. Their values are the same at the moment
as no proposed is in the Profile View yet, but notice that the two values use different text styles and
decimal precisions, in spite of their being the same label component.

Figure 1021.50 - Profile View Band Style


To examine how the band is constructed, click on one of the band labels, Right-click, and pick Edit
Band Style from the menu.
In the Profile Data Band Style dialog, click to the Band Details tab. Make sure the Major
Station label is selected, and click the Compose Label button.

Figure 1021.51 - Profile Data Band Style Dialog
In the Label Style Composer, click to the Layout tab. Set the Elevations Component name
current, and press the button in the Contents field to access the Text Component
Editor.
Got those breadcrumbs ready?

Figure 1021.52 - Label Style Composer

Two text strings are configured in this label, each with its own settings on the Properties and
Format tabs. The trick here is to configure the first label as desired, and place it with the button.
With the first label in place, click into the preview pane at the end of the label and press the Enter
key to start a second line. On the second line, format the text as desired and again use the button
to place the label.
The contents of both text strings, both the Properties and Format tabs, are shown in figures 1021.53 and
1021.54 below. Notice the difference in decimal precision, obliquing angle and font distinguishing
between the existing and proposed elevations.
Figure 1021.53 - Existing Elevation Label
Figure 1021.54 - Proposed Elevation Label


Fooling Civil 3D Into labeling What it Doesn't Want To
Sometimes you have to be a little creative to get Civil 3D to place a label you want, but it doesn't think it
can. A good example is in the same Profile Band Style.
By default, the Band Style as created places an elevation label at each Major Station tick. This places a
label at 41+00 as seen in Figure 1021.55, but no label at the ending station. There seems to be no
option to add a label at the end station. There isn't. But there is an option to add labels at Vertical
Geometry Points, and the Ending Station is considered a Vertical Geometry Point. Configuring the style
to add the same text label as an Ending Station Vertical Geometry Point label provides the desired
appearance.
sometimes you just have to search for the tool you need. It's probably there. Somewhere.

Figure 1021.55 - Major Station Labels Only Figure 1021.56 - Vertical Geometry Point Label Added


Transferring Styles Between Drawings
Styles can be readily transferred between open drawings in Civil 3D, using the Toolspace's Settings
tab and its Master View.
In an example in Figure 1021.56, the desire is to copy the Proposed Contours 1' and 5' style from the

2010001 Alignment Base drawing into the 2010001 Existing Base drawing. Both drawings are open in
Civil 3D, and the destination drawing (2010001 Existing Base) is current.
In the Toolspace, the Settings tab is current, and the Master view displayed. Note that the data
level for the destination drawing (2010001 Existing Base) is collapsed, or rolled‐up, using the
glyph before its name, hiding its contents. This leaves the style data in the source drawing available.
The transfer, or copy, is actually made by a drag and drop operation, locating the desired style,
clicking and dragging the style over into the active Drawing Area and releasing. The style will be
copied into the active drawing. If a style with the same name is already present in the destination
drawing the Duplicate Item Name dialog seen in Figure 1021.56 will display. If the style copied has
dependent sub‐entities, such as Major and Minor station label styles, they will be copied into the
destination drawing as well.
Figure 1021.56 - Styles Transferred Using Settings Tab's Master View and Drag and Drop

Styles and Ownership Issues
The time and energy expended in implementing Civil 3D and creating styles represents a considerable
investment. Unfortunately it is an investment not easily protected, as there is no mechanism to protect
ownership of styles within drawings.
Anyone who receives a copy of a Civil 3D drawing has live access to the styles within it, and they can
drag and drop the styles into their own drawings and use them from there. This has become a major
point of contention in the sharing of Civil 3D data, and one not easily solved. The only potential solution
is to Export the Drawing to AutoCAD ‐ doing so explodes all Civil 3D data in the drawing including the
styles, but also including the Civil 3D objects that would be needed for workshare.
Unused styles in Civil 3D drawings can be deleted, minimizing the impact, but styles in use will still be
available.
There presently is no solution to this issue; just be aware that sharing Civil 3D drawings shares the
benefit of the investment in implementation.

CivilTraining, LLC
a division of Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.
5300 Wellington Branch Drive | Suite 100 | Gainesville, Virginia 20155

Telephone: 732.869.0592 | Fax: 732.377.5454
CivilTraining.com

Cooke - AutoCAD Civil 3D Core Concepts

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Any recording, reuse or redistribution without prior written consent is prohibited.

Working with Points

Points, Objects and Styles

01/06/2016 1.05 © Copyright (2011) Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. Do not reproduce without permission. 1211‐1

The drawing being used is the Existing Base drawing in which the surface was produced in the

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Figure 1211.03 - Create Points by Northing/Easting

>>>>Enter northing <0.00>: 1044008.232 type northing value, press Enter.

>>>>Enter easting <0.00>: 668237.1924 type easting value, press Enter.

Enter a point description <.>: MON type desired point description, press Enter.

Specify a point elevation <.>: 229.8 type elevation value, press Enter.

Please specify a location for the new point: Press Enter to end the command.

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Figure 1211.06 - Point Display and Information in Properties

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Figure 1211.07 - Point Default Styles

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Can you say "Overly complicated user interface?"

Figure 1211.08 ‐ Default Layer Command Settings

The Default Layer for the placement of a point is set to <use current>; clearly the monument

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The Default Elevation, Default Description and Default Point Name entries

The Disable Description Keys setting seems somewhat strange. When this setting is False,

The Match on Description Parameter ($1, $2, etc.) setting allows the use of

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The Next Point Number setting establishes the current point number; Use Sequential

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To examine the Description Keys in use in this example Figure 1211.11 Description Key Sets

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Figure 1211.12 - CivilTraining Alpha Description Key Set in DescKey Editor

The Point Label Style column assigns a particular label style when a match is found; different

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Figure 1211.13 - CivilTraining Numeric Description Key Set in DescKey Editor

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To set the Search Order, Right-click on Description Key Sets on the Settings tab, and

Figure 1211.15 - Search Order Dialog

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The glyph in front of the _No Display point group indicates that the group may not be up to date,

To update the point groups Right-click on Point Groups in the Prospector, and click Update

The _No Display point group is not always present in Civil 3D, but it should be. Like the _All Points

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Using the _No Display Group

If the point does not immediately

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Figure 1211.21 - Point Group Properties on Menu

Figure 1211.22 - Point Group Properties - Information Tab

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01/06/2016 1.05 © Copyright (2011) Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. Do not reproduce without permission. 1211‐17

Clicking on the Style override and the Point Label Style Override means that their two styles

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01/06/2016 1.05 © Copyright (2011) Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. Do not reproduce without permission. 1211‐19

The Information tab for the _All Points group specifies a Point Style of 0.10 X 3D. This will

The Point Label Style is set to EX L80 Elevation-Description; based on the settings in the

Figure 1211.27 - Point Group Properties - Information Tab

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Figure 1211.28 - Point Group Properties - Include Tab

Figure 1211.29 - Point Group Properties - Overrides Tab

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Figure 1211.30 - New Point Group in Menu

Click to the Information tab in the Point Group Properties dialog.

Select a desired Point Label Style. Again, remember that this label style will be applied if a point

Figure 1211.31 - Point Group Properties - Information Tab

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01/06/2016 1.05 © Copyright (2011) Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. Do not reproduce without permission. 1211‐23