About the Author
Melanie Santer
Graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a BS in Industrial Technology in March of 2001. I have nearly 5 years of experience in the Civil Engineering industry. Over 2 years practical field survey experience, plus over two years land development/design experience for large commercial and industrial sites. Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert (ICE). I started working with U.S. CAD in May of 2005 and have taught hundreds of public and custom classes in AutoCAD, Land Desktop and Civil 3D. Recently awarded 2006 Americas Instructor of the Year!
In The News
Catch up on the latest news and press in the U.S. CAD Press Room.
Links
- L.A. CAD Website
- Autodesk's Civil Community Website
- CAD Digest
- BLAUGI-Civil
- AUGI Civil 3D Forum
- Autodesk C3D Discussion Group
- Civil 3D White Papers (L.A. CAD)
Civil 3D Blogs
- Digging In-Danny Counts of L.A. CAD
- Civil3D.com
- Paving The Way-Scott McEchron
- Beneath The Lines-Jason Hickey
- CAD vs. BIM-Jay Zallan
- The Dan and Dave Show-Dan Philbrick & Dave Simeone
- Wicked Cool Stuff-Anthony Governanti
Previous Posts
- Civil 3D 2008-Survey Link Installation Issues
- AU Presentation Handout
- Changing your Parcel Styles
- Getting Freaky with Label Styles
- AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 SP1 is here!
- No Point Group Layer option in 2008
- Point Label Properties in 2008
- Southern California CAD Summit
- Autodesk University 2007 Speaker
- Creating Label Styles Webcast
Archives
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- October 2007
- December 2007
Civil 3D with Dirt Diva
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Civil 3D 2008-Survey Link Installation Issues
Hi There:
Recently one of our clients had experienced some issues installing the Survey Link into Civil 3D 2008. After the link was installed when you type in "startsurveylink" into the command line you get an "unknown command" response. Another area that was checked was that AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 TDS SurveyLink Installer appears in the Add or Remove Programs list and a directory named 'svlink' is created under C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008\.
In order for the Survey Link to work you MUST first install SP2.
With help from Autodesk below is the resolution to the Survey Link Installation issue:
The individual had been double clicking on the msp file to apply the service pack. This appears to apply the service pack but will not update all of the files that are included in the patch. Hence Survey Link was not working.
A little background on the msp vs. exe issue. In a perfect world, you should be able to double click on the msp and obtain the same results as you would from double clicking on the exe. Unfortunately, with the 2008 release, there were issues with our msp file which we found after release (but before the service pack shipped) that forced us to include additional information and tasks to the exe. This left the msp file with the correct information but unable to update an installation independent of the exe or wrapper information.
As stated in the read me, this resulted in deployments requiring the service pack to be merged rather than appended. There is also a warning upon extracting the msp from the exe file (command line entries with dialog box warning). The differences between merging and appending are fairly straightforward. When you merge a service pack to a deployment, you are forcing the files to be included as part of the base installation. If you append a service pack to a deployment, the install of the application completes and then the service pack is applied to the application. This is referred to as daisy chaining and is common for deployments. The reason this won’t work is the same as why you cannot click on the msp and have the patch apply correctly. The added information isn’t included which ensures the files are updated. Merging forces the files to be updated.
These issues will be addressed for future releases.
Hope this helps!
Recently one of our clients had experienced some issues installing the Survey Link into Civil 3D 2008. After the link was installed when you type in "startsurveylink" into the command line you get an "unknown command" response. Another area that was checked was that AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 TDS SurveyLink Installer appears in the Add or Remove Programs list and a directory named 'svlink' is created under C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008\.
In order for the Survey Link to work you MUST first install SP2.
With help from Autodesk below is the resolution to the Survey Link Installation issue:
The individual had been double clicking on the msp file to apply the service pack. This appears to apply the service pack but will not update all of the files that are included in the patch. Hence Survey Link was not working.
A little background on the msp vs. exe issue. In a perfect world, you should be able to double click on the msp and obtain the same results as you would from double clicking on the exe. Unfortunately, with the 2008 release, there were issues with our msp file which we found after release (but before the service pack shipped) that forced us to include additional information and tasks to the exe. This left the msp file with the correct information but unable to update an installation independent of the exe or wrapper information.
As stated in the read me, this resulted in deployments requiring the service pack to be merged rather than appended. There is also a warning upon extracting the msp from the exe file (command line entries with dialog box warning). The differences between merging and appending are fairly straightforward. When you merge a service pack to a deployment, you are forcing the files to be included as part of the base installation. If you append a service pack to a deployment, the install of the application completes and then the service pack is applied to the application. This is referred to as daisy chaining and is common for deployments. The reason this won’t work is the same as why you cannot click on the msp and have the patch apply correctly. The added information isn’t included which ensures the files are updated. Merging forces the files to be updated.
These issues will be addressed for future releases.
Hope this helps!
Thursday, December 06, 2007
AU Presentation Handout
Hello Everyone!
Last week was a grueling, fun and exciting week in Las Vegas for Autodesk University 2007. For those of you that were able to attend I hope you had a wonderful time. For those of you that attended my class here is a link to the handout. I know I had a few people that came up to me asking if I had extra copies. This was the first year that Autodesk went "Green" and did not offer handouts at the door. Here is the link to my handout for your review.
Enjoy!
Last week was a grueling, fun and exciting week in Las Vegas for Autodesk University 2007. For those of you that were able to attend I hope you had a wonderful time. For those of you that attended my class here is a link to the handout. I know I had a few people that came up to me asking if I had extra copies. This was the first year that Autodesk went "Green" and did not offer handouts at the door. Here is the link to my handout for your review.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Changing your Parcel Styles
Ever created 50 parcel objects & suddenly realized that you used the wrong parcel style or area 
label style?
label style?I have a fix for ya!
Parcels--> Edit Parcel--> Edit Parcel Properties
Your command line with prompt you for (Polylines/All/Site). If you have a polyline already drawn through the parcels that you wish to update you can select P, if you want to make the change to all of your parcels you can select A and if you want to change only the parcels in a specific Site you would expect to hit S for site and be able to do this, but it appears as though this feature is currently broken in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 SP1. I am going to go with all for now :)
Type A for All and this will bring up your Edit Parcel Properties dialog box. Within this dialog you have the ability to edit your Parcel Style, Area Label Styles and also any User Defined Properties such as APN & address.
I am just going to demonstrate how to adjust the Parcel Style. Refer to the screen capture below with instructions.
GOOD LUCK!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Getting Freaky with Label Styles
Boy have things been hectic around these parts! Phew!
When adding the expression, you can put the TC and FL in two different text components or you can put them in one text component. In this example, we will put them in one text component. After adding the text component, you will need to click on the ellipses button in the text contents area. See the figure below for the text contents area.
Need for Left and Right Labels (Understanding Dragged State Mode)
There are some limitations to the dragged state mode of labels that creates the need for independent label styles for the text to be to the left and right side of the labels. When creating a label style where the text components are to the left of the leader, the angle of the line component will need to be set to 180 since the 0 direction always goes form left to right as expected. See the following figure for a label style with the suffix "-Lt” indicating left and the angle of the separator line at 180 degrees. A logical naming convention should be thought about as well for all the label styles you create.
If there is a need to show a line between the labels you will need to create label styles for the text to be to the left and right side. If you take a look at the figure below on the right, you will see that one of the two components is a Separator…
If you take a look at the Dragged State tab, you will see two options for Dragged State components, As Composed & Stacked Text. By setting this to As Composed, this will maintain the separator component that was previously added. The Stacked Text option will keep the Text as entailed but the line or separator that you added would be removed.
In the next figure below you will see the same label that is designed to show the text to the left of the leader, both are in dragged state, but one has been dragged towards the right. The appearance is not appropriate and this is why a separate style for left and right is needed.
I have come up for a brief breath of fresh air from lots of training, Civil 3D Implementation, Southern California CAD Summit & other miscellaneous pre-sales engagements.
Hope this summer finds you well!
Now lets dig into some label styles specific for spot elevations using expressions:
In this section we will learn how to create a separator that separates two fields of information. The two fields will contain a TC elevation and FL elevation where the FL elevation is made up of an expression.
Creating an expression
Right click on the Expressions area for Spot Elevation Label Styles for Surfaces to see the following dialog box shown here to the left.
Creating a Separator and adding an expression
The separator is made up of a line component and added first. When adding the line component the two main properties that are important to specific are the length and angle. You will see the angle is important when it comes to defining the labels to the left and right discussed later on.
In this section we will learn how to create a separator that separates two fields of information. The two fields will contain a TC elevation and FL elevation where the FL elevation is made up of an expression.
Creating an expression
Right click on the Expressions area for Spot Elevation Label Styles for Surfaces to see the following dialog box shown here to the left.
Creating a Separator and adding an expression
The separator is made up of a line component and added first. When adding the line component the two main properties that are important to specific are the length and angle. You will see the angle is important when it comes to defining the labels to the left and right discussed later on.
If you want the length of the separator to automatically adjust with the length of the text this CAN be accomplished, review the screen capture to the below on how to set this up!
When adding the expression, you can put the TC and FL in two different text components or you can put them in one text component. In this example, we will put them in one text component. After adding the text component, you will need to click on the ellipses button in the text contents area. See the figure below for the text contents area.
Need for Left and Right Labels (Understanding Dragged State Mode)
There are some limitations to the dragged state mode of labels that creates the need for independent label styles for the text to be to the left and right side of the labels. When creating a label style where the text components are to the left of the leader, the angle of the line component will need to be set to 180 since the 0 direction always goes form left to right as expected. See the following figure for a label style with the suffix "-Lt” indicating left and the angle of the separator line at 180 degrees. A logical naming convention should be thought about as well for all the label styles you create.
If there is a need to show a line between the labels you will need to create label styles for the text to be to the left and right side. If you take a look at the figure below on the right, you will see that one of the two components is a Separator…
If you take a look at the Dragged State tab, you will see two options for Dragged State components, As Composed & Stacked Text. By setting this to As Composed, this will maintain the separator component that was previously added. The Stacked Text option will keep the Text as entailed but the line or separator that you added would be removed.
In the next figure below you will see the same label that is designed to show the text to the left of the leader, both are in dragged state, but one has been dragged towards the right. The appearance is not appropriate and this is why a separate style for left and right is needed.
Friday, July 27, 2007
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 SP1 is here!
We have been eagerly anticipating this service pack and it's finally here, so hurry up, quickly download and install it.
Here you go: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9909730&linkID=9240698
Be sure to view the readme to find out all of the great fixes.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Here you go: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9909730&linkID=9240698
Be sure to view the readme to find out all of the great fixes.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
No Point Group Layer option in 2008
Even though the 2008 course ware is not out yet, grrrrrrr, I still have many clients that are just dying to be trained on the new product line. Using the 2007 course ware and pointing out the new features in 2008 I found some minor disturbing news.
In Civil 3D 2007 Point Group Properties dialog box you had the ability to put the point group on a specific layer (see image below)
For some STRANGE reason they have conveniently removed this functionality in the new 2008 version, much to my dismay (see image below)
Now it's not impossible to control your display using layers at this stage in the game. It just takes a little more planning and thought. You will have to set up your Point Style and Point Label Style to be on the correct layers.
Good luck!
In Civil 3D 2007 Point Group Properties dialog box you had the ability to put the point group on a specific layer (see image below)
For some STRANGE reason they have conveniently removed this functionality in the new 2008 version, much to my dismay (see image below)
Now it's not impossible to control your display using layers at this stage in the game. It just takes a little more planning and thought. You will have to set up your Point Style and Point Label Style to be on the correct layers.Good luck!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Point Label Properties in 2008
The more and more I play with 2008 the more I find that some of the tools that I was used to in 2007 have moved or been taken out.
When it comes to points using Autocad Civil 3D 2007 you used to have the ability to select a point label, right-click and go into your point group properties. While in your point group properties you could change the label style independent of the point group, and change the visibility.
In 2008 in order to accomplish that same task you must use the good ol' fashion properties window. Your properties window now has the ability set style, visibility and you can even change the RAW description.
