Civil 3D, WisDOT and Machine Controlled Grading



That's a grumpy looking badger.

 The Badgers might have lost the Rosebowl, but we're still full of WIN in Wisconsin!

My esteemed colleague Russ is presenting at the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors conference later this month and I'm blatantly stealing his research to blog about it.  The surveyors requested that he include information on how Civil 3D can work with machine controlled grading equipment.  Russ decided to ping  our buddies at WisDOT who are very familiar with Civil 3D and on top of the latest developments in grading technology.

WisDOT is now actively using and putting out data in Civil 3D 2010.  The first few Civil 3D projects are out the door and under construction.   Even before they went live with the product, they had been looking into mandating surface model files or a derivative thereof.  At the moment, they are nowhere near the point of requiring surface models, but they have several pilot projects in the hopper that will help them determine the future of Automated Machine Guidance for highway projects in Wisconsin.

Brad Hollister, PE, is part of the team at WisDOT that is integrating technology into the entire WisDOT work-flow.  In addition to being an all-around great guy, he is a big proponent of Civil 3D and the streamlining that can be done to the construction process with the data that results from corridor models (which he calls Roadway Models in the email that follows).

As part of Russ' research, he contacted Brad to see what the scoop was with AMG today.  Brad's email response is included here:

Right now WisDOT has language in our Standard Specifications addressing Automated Machine Guidance. The current spec places the burden of Roadway Model development on the contractor, a necessity considering our design environment which uses CAiCE. As our C3D implementation progresses, it will allow us to reconsider this policy regarding Roadway Model development.


We’ve already seen a few WisDOT design projects finished in C3D, and we are conducting a series of 4 pilot projects this year in which we are sharing Civil 3D proposed surfaces (Roadway Models) with contractors for Automated Machine Guidance operations. One important aspect of the pilots is that we are making our Roadway Models available to contractors prior to LET.


At a minimum, Automated Machine Guidance (AMG) operations will need roadway alignments and proposed surfaces from design, and control from project survey.


Project control consists of points, and can be shared in any number of formats, LandXML or text files work fine.


For roadway alignments, we are trying out LandXML version 1.2. This year’s pilots will tell us how well LandXML works for sharing our C3D alignments with contractor software.


For surface sharing, LandXML is an option but it is not the format we are using in the pilots. The reason we are not using LandXML is that given our typical project size the LandXML surface files can be pretty big, and we’ve seen import problems with these huge surface LandXML files in the past. Instead, we are taking our Civil 3D surface DWGs, viewing the surface with a triangles-only style, and exporting the file to AutoCAD 2004 DWGs. Each resulting surface DWG contains a single surface represented by 3DFaces. In the past we’ve had success sharing large surfaces with contractors using the AutoCAD DWG-3DFaces format. At some point in the future we may try surface sharing in LandXML again but for now we are recommending AutoCAD DWG.

We are sharing 4 Roadway Model surfaces for each construction stage of the project:

• Datum (for grading operations)
• BaseCourse (for base placing and trimming operations) 
• Top (to help contractors interpret design intent)
• Exist (for verification of Existing ground accuracy in the field, for earthwork quantity manipulation to aid in bid preparation, and to allow contractors to recompute earthwork quantities for alternative staging sequences)

  One other item of interest to consider is the overall intent of the Civil 3D design workflow we are using at WisDOT. One of the goals of our C3D design workflow is to develop construction-ready Roadway Model surfaces directly from design, surfaces that will not need additional modification by contractors for AMG operations. This year’s pilot projects will help us determine if our workflow meets this AMG-ready Roadway Models goal. Ultimately WisDOT is looking to make AMG-ready Roadway Models a deliverable of the design process on all our projects, although there are many considerations to address before the Roadway Model deliverable requirement is implemented.

Hopefully the next steps will have them digging deeper into the model (pun intended) and as technology evolves, integrating more direct links between Civil 3D and their contractors' software.

Don't Exit Civil 3D Before You Exit the Corridor Section Editor!

This was the topic of two separate tech support calls this week.  If points make a line, two problems make a blog post.

First, I want to talk about the corridor section editor in general.  It is an AMAZING, powerful tool.  If you build a corridor and need to tweak the cross section at a station or a range of stations, this is how you do it.  Some users attempt to modify the cross section views.  The section views are only a reflection of the model and cannot be used to change your corridor in any way.

The best way to get into the corridor section editor is to click on the frequency line at the station whose section you wish to modify.  From the context-sensitive ribbon, click Section Editor.

You will be taken into a purely data-driven view of your cross section.

Now that you are here, you can modify your cross section data just at this frequency line or at a range of stations.  The best way to modify this thing is through the parameter editor.  The parameter editor lists all the subassemblies and their current values as they are applied to the corridor.    In my opinion, use the numeric values to adjust your section whenever possible.

Sometimes you just need to adjust a daylight line by snapping it to a specific location on the exiting ground.  To graphically edit the section, hold down control while you click the daylight line.  You will see grips that you can use to move the line.  Be patient, it is a little slower than traditional line editing.

Here's the rub - you *can* modify the section graphically, but you cannot mix graphic changes with numeric changes.  If you went through and tweaked a lane width numerically then graphically edit the daylight line, the graphic edit blows away all your numeric changes.  So...you need to decide how you are going to make the modifications and stick with it.

Ok - here's where I get to my original point:  When you are done making your edits, save the drawing, then close the section editor using the ribbon!  Even if you are done for the day and want to go home, close the section editor first.

If you forget, or you are unfortunate enough to crash while in the section editor - don't fret.  When you open your drawing back up - things will look weird.  You are still in a modified coordinate system.  To get back to reality, go to your view tab and click the World icon.   Now, type PLAN at the command line, (hit enter), then W for world (hit enter).

Life will go back to normal...at least where Civil 3D is concerned.

Flickery Dickory Dock, Civil 3D 2011 is Flickering Lots

This post is going out to my homeboy Troy who said something to me today along the lines of, "None of the blogs are giving any good information right now.  All anyone can talk about is AU!  I probably won't see any decent posts until late December."

Guilty as charged.  My challenge to fellow bloggers is: post something that has absolutely nothing to do with AU, before the Thanksgiving holiday.

In the last few days I've run into several people who are having problems with their Civil 3D 2011 graphics acting really annoying after service pack 1 was installed.   

Some are seeing the viewcube show up with a white background (even when their modelspace background is black!). 

Some are seeing this issue manifest itself as an error with "The configured Heidi driver cannot be loaded. Switching to default software driver."

Some are seeing "Exception in acmapworkspace.arx ARX Command" or "Unhandled exception 28ed90 (access violation reading 0x0028) at address blah blah blah..."

No matter how you are experiencing it, the root cause is the same: your graphics card is stressing out about Civil 3D. 

First thing to try:
Make sure your graphics card is up to snuff.  Is your card supported (or is it a cheap piece of crap that came with your box-store purchased machine)? 
If the card is supported, you may just need to update the driver.  Do that here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6711848&linkID=9240698
If it is a cheap p.o.c. look for a new card here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/bfp_autocad_2011.html

Second thing to try (stolen from: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=15851876&linkID=9240697):

1. Inside of your application, type 3DCONFIG at the command line.
2. In the dialog box that appears, select the Manual Tune button.
3. At the top of the Manual Performance Tuning dialog box, toggle the 'Enable hardware acceleration' option. 
4. Select OK and OK to return to the drawing workspace. 
5. Repeat steps 1-4 again to toggle the 'Enable hardware acceleration' option back to its original setting.

Note that it not necessary to disable the hardware acceleration. However, toggling this setting should resolve the issues.

 

 Third thing to try:

Go to Analyze tab,Inquiry panel and under station tracker select Off.  

The key-in for it is AeccHideDrawingTips

 

Peace out.

Where to Stalk Me at Autodesk University

This information is also handy for those of you trying to avoid me.

 

As of today, there are only 18 days left until AU.  My schedule is quite full for the week.  Here's an overview of where you will find me during the conference. 
 
Monday:

• Arrive in Las Vegas in the AM
• Nap
• Blogger Social 6-8pm
• Speaker Social 6:30-9pm (I've heard the bloggers are more fun, so I'm just going to pop my head in with the speakers.)

Tuesday:

• Sessions in the Civil Track all day
• Nap
• Go Out

Wednesday:

• More classes in the AM
• MY LAB: CV327-5L 1:30pm
• Depending on how the lab goes I'll either be going to more sessions or looking into changing my identity.
• Private Party: 9:30pm-?

Thursday:

• Nurse expected hangover.
• Sessions, sessions, sessions.
• 1:00pm @ Autodesk University Theater "Meet the Authors" session w/ Rick Graham and yours truly. (I'm working on the next edition of Mastering Civil 3D)
• Nap
• I heard something about a gift card?

Friday:

• Fly home. 

 See you there!

 

AUGI Cad Camp Minneapolis

Pictures of my boys at AUGI CAD Camp Minneapolis 2010. 

L to R: Robert Green, ME!, Rick Ellis



L to R: Eric Schubert, Mike Dunham, Mark Weizenegger of MasterGraphics



It was no AU, but by golly it was a good warm up.

I spoke about Point Cloud functionality in Civil 3D 2011.  A good time was had by all.