Download save the topo map file drawing
(If the program doesn’t appear in your Start menu, follow the route Start – All programs
– College of Engineering – Applications – Autodesk – Autodesk Civil 3D 2009).
Also, notice how the Layers Toolbar (the whole toolbar) can be dragged into the drawing space – that’s called “undocked.” (Try it.) Then drag it back into its corner (“dock” it).
What if the Layers toolbar isn’t there? (That will happen if you close it, for example). Right click on the upper toolbar, select ACAD, and check Layers.
This will come in handy in step (c) later.
b. Create an empty surface.
Next to Layer name, type in the value “SurfaceData”
Click OK repeatedly until all the dialog boxes vanish.
Press Enter, and the program will automatically rebuild Surface1 using the contour data.
Congratulations – you now have a digital terrain model for highway design!
Note: Civil 3D has tools that let you alter the colors, shade the surface, rotate the terrain, and all kinds of other visualization tools.
Finally, return to the Layer Manager and turn off the layer with the surface data, and turn all the other layers back on except the layer “image”.
In the left toolbar area, select the Settings tab (next to Prospector). Expand Alignment; expand Commands; double click on CreateAlignmentLayout. A table will appear.
Expand Curve and Spiral Settings. Change “Curve Radius for SCS Group” from 200'
Look at the item “Parabolic Crest Curve Length and K-Value.” In the Value column, it
has a pull-down menu offering 2 choices; select “K-Value” (that’s your way of saying that you want vertical curves to be based on a standard K-value rather than on a standard length). Do the same for sag curves. Then, in the Value column, edit the K-value for crest curves to be 44, and the K-value for sag curves to be 64. (The other parameters in the table don’t matter).
3
Before you get going, look at the topography and choose a route. Think of the heading you want the road to take, where it should curve to another heading. OK, ready?
In the top menu, Select Alignments – Create by Layout – OK (accept the defaults). An alignment toolbar appears. In the far left, click on the drop-down option triangle and select Tangent – Tangent (with curves). In the command line, it asks you for a starting point. Click on the starting point (using OSNAP to get it right). Next you’re expected to click on successive PI’s (you pick where they are); turn OSNAP off for this part to prevent AutoCAD from snapping to a contour line. Finally, click on the end of the alignment (with OSNAP on again).
Check 4: take a critical look at the alignment. Can it be simplified or shortened? Can you avoid any hills or valleys?
d. Edit the alignment as needed.
To change a radius: In the alignment toolbar (to get it, click on Alignments / Edit Alignment Geometry, and click on the alignment), near the right is an icon for “Alignment Grid View”; it creates a table of curves and tangent sections; you can directly edit radius.
7. Create the ground profile.
Depending on default settings, your profile may be cluttered with labels indicating grade every time the grade changes. To reduce the clutter, we’ll set a “weeding factor” to 100, which will limit labels to one every 100 feet:
Left-click on your profile in order to highlight it and select Edit Labels by right-clicking.
expand Profile View
expand Profile View Styles
change the major tick interval to 6 ft. (Later, when you’re plotting a finished curve, you can change it back to 10 ft if you wish.)
Draw a design profile.
Look at your design profile. Each tangent should be labeled with a grade; are there sections too steep? Is the cut / fill OK? Again, this is just a tutorial, so there’s no need to get your profile perfect. However, in the spirit of learning, please make at least four edits to your profile.
One good way to examine your profile is to see the table of curves. Select (top menu) Profile – Edit Profile Geometry. When asked to select a profile, click anywhere on the design profile. A “Profile Layout Tools” toolbar appears. Select the Profile Grid View icon (looks like a table); a table of vertical curves will appear. This gives an immediate view of the grades of the different sections.
6
pretty self-explanatory. However, added PVI’s won’t have any curve; you’ll have to add the curve later (see next step).
o Zoom to an extent of the drawing that you would like to plot
Click layout tab at the bottom left hand corner of the drawing window (This will take you to what is know as paper space)
If the some of the text is too big (especially the Profile labels) you can change it by going to model space in the same view port, to do so click the option box at the bottom of Autocad dialog window showing “PAPER”. It should change to model. Right click on the Profiles and choose Edit labels. Click on the combo button arrow to the right of the label style drop down box and choose edit current selection. In the dialog box that will come up, look for text height and change it to a smaller size. Look for Grade Breaks change it according to you plot requirements. Change curve detail attributes, etc. Click the model box before plotting.
a table of horizontal curves and tangents