basic 3d drawing in autocad 2017

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June 10th, 2019

Using Templates and Drawing Settings for Civil 3D Implementation

Introduction

AutoCAD® Ceremonious 3D® is complex software with many dissimilar and connecting parts working together to provide solutions to ceremonious design projects. In this article we are going to explore how to use template files to capture characteristic and object settings that you can employ to outset your new drawing or reference into an existing drawing. For a successful implementation, the CAD manager or designer can create, update, and distribute template files to all users to ensure a standard and uniform approach to design work.

Templates

Whatever new cartoon in Civil 3D starts with a default drawing template or a custom template you tin create. Drawing template files are drawings that store styles, settings, layers, and layouts in a drawing including championship blocks.

Standard Template Process

When you lot create a new cartoon based on a cartoon template, the new drawing gets a copy of the styles in the template, merely it is a i-fourth dimension copy. The connection is not maintained; therefore, if you update the template it volition not update your drawing file. For example, if you lot update the surface styles in your template and you wanted your drawings to go those same updates, you needed to manually re-create or import those changed styles into your drawings.  Y'all tin can do this past dragging and dropping or selecting the import tab on the Ribbon as shown in Figure one.

Effigy i: Import styles

Templates are also listed under the Cartoon Templates collection in the Prospector tree Master View as shown in Effigy 2.  Observe the ii Civil 3D templates supplied from Autodesk.

Figure 2:  Templates under the Primary View in Prospector

Ii templates are provided when yous install Civil 3D.  The path for these templates can be plant within the options dialog box under the Files > Templates folder.  We are going to open the _Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt and save this to C3D_Standard.dwt. The 2 AutoCAD Civil 3D cartoon templates are based on the U.s. National CAD Standard®.

• _AutoCAD Ceremonious 3D (Imperial) NCS
• _AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS

These templates contain an extended set of styles and settings. When you start a new cartoon with the New command on the Application carte du jour, you tin can cull which template you lot want to use.

The QNEW control, which is available on the Quick Admission toolbar, automatically uses the template specified in the AutoCAD Options dialog box.

Figure 3: The main templates provided

We are at present going to change the settings of our template file (Figure four). Open up the template file you created named C3D_Standard.dwt on the Home tab of the Ribbon > Palettes console > Open up Toolspace.

1. On the palette, move to the Settings tab.
2. Brand certain y'all are in the Active Cartoon Settings View and right-click C3D Standard as shown.
3. Select Edit Cartoon Settings.

Note: If you move upwardly and downwards on this palette in that location are hundreds of different settings that can be applied to all types of Civil 3D object information.

Figure 4: Drawing settings

C3D Drawing Settings

Settings in Ceremonious 3D control many preset values, such every bit drawing units, scale, and coordinate system. Ceremonious 3D has drawing, feature, and command settings. All iii levels of settings in AutoCAD Civil 3D are saved with the cartoon, and they can be saved to a cartoon template.

1. Drawing settings: Plant values for the whole drawing.
2. Feature settings: Control beliefs for a feature, such as Surfaces or Parcels.
3. Command settings: Apply to private commands within a characteristic, such as the AddParcelAreaLabel control within the Parcels feature.

You change each level of settings at a different location in the Settings tree, as shown in Figure 5.

Effigy 5: Setting tree

Permit's focus on the main drawing Drawing-Level Settings and Characteristic Level Settings. To access cartoon-level settings, right-click the drawing name C3D_Standard in the settings tree and click Edit Drawing Settings every bit shown in Figure half dozen.

Figure 6:  Edit Drawing settings

At the drawing level, the Edit Settings dialog box contains general tabs for the cartoon (or template) as shown in Effigy 7.  Nosotros practise not want to modify any of these settings except for the Object Layers. Ambience Settings can be altered, but volition be overridden by the drawing and feature settings.

Figure seven: Cartoon settings

To illustrate how this works, nosotros volition edit one of these settings in the Object Layers section.  Motion to the Object Layers tab on the dialog box and scroll down to Tin Surface as shown in Figure 8. We are going to add a suffix to the default label using a wildcard to ensure that our surface is always on the C-Topo- layer with a suffix of the surface name (i.eastward., C-Topo-EG).

Effigy 8: Object layers

1. Move to the C-TOPO layer.
2. Change the value to Suffix.
3. Add together a -* to the value field.  The hyphen will be added to C-TOPO and the surface name will exist appended to the finish of the layer (i.east., C-TOPO-EG).

Y'all accept at present created a standard for Tin Surface layers in Ceremonious 3D and can implement this process. Explore other options at the drawing settings level to ensure your template is ready to go.

Figure ix: Object Layer modifications

Feature-Level Settings

Use the object collection level in the Settings tree to control all settings that pertain to the object blazon. Access the object or characteristic-level settings by right-clicking the object collection in the Settings tree and clicking Edit Feature Settings.  For this case, nosotros are going to select the Signal Collection.

Effigy x: Point Feature settings

At the object level, this dialog box also contains object-specific settings, such equally default betoken styles. In this section we tin control how our point label styles are in our drawing as default. If nosotros want all the points to be brought in every bit a particular fashion or maker, we tin can edit these values as our default within our template file. Figure eleven shows the Point Label Manner and the dialog box to change the value inside the object feature settings.

Figure 11: Edit Feature settings

Command-Level Settings

Utilise the Commands collection level in the Settings tree to override both the object-level settings and drawing ambient settings on a command-by-command basis. Yous can also specify command-specific settings. Access the command-level settings by expanding the Commands drove for an object type in the Settings tree, right-clicking the control, and clicking Edit Command Settings. Figure 12 shows us editing the command level settings for a surface.

Figure 12: Command-level setting

Layer Standards in Templates

Maintaining a standard for the utilize of layers in your drawing is easier if you have a drawing template with predefined layers, and styles that reference those layers when objects are created.

For consistency, save your template as an AutoCAD® standards file (.dws format). Then, in the template, enter the STANDARDS command and in the Configure Standards dialog box, link the standards file to the template. If y'all want to enforce the standards, you can click the Settings push and actuate notifications of standards violations or override such violations. For additional information on the CAD Standards Manager run across CSI: CAD Standards Implementation at Autodesk University 2017. https://autode.sk/2T0ozBa

The layers created in the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 templates follow the National CAD Standard (NCS) rules. For more information about the National CAD Standard layering settings, see http://world wide web.nationalcadstandard.org.

Now that yous have many of your standards in place for your template, we need to ensure that the template is used on new drawings.  From the awarding menu, select New and your open up dialog box will be displayed as shown (Figure thirteen). Select the C3D_Standard.dwt and all your settings will be inside the new drawing.

Effigy xiii: New template

Note: To control the location of template files and QNEW, review the options under the FILES menu > template settings.

Reference Templates

New to Civil 3D 2022 is a process called reference templates. The command can exist found on the Manage tab of the Ribbon > Styles palette > Reference, as shown in Figure xiv

Effigy 14: Import styles

When you lot attach a reference template to a drawing, the AutoCAD Civil 3D styles that are in that reference template are copied into the drawing, and the connexion between the drawing and the reference templates is maintained. Drawings tin can be updated on an ongoing basis either automatically or manually with changes to the styles in the templates.  We are going to add a reference to our electric current drawing file (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Attach Reference Template

As we piece of work on our project, changes to the reference templates are pushed to the drawing so information technology is kept upwards to date:

• New or changed styles in reference templates are copied to the drawing.
• Styles that are deleted from reference templates are removed from the drawing if the styles are not in apply. If a way is in use, a local copy of the mode is made in the drawing.

Select the update push for the template to be added to the cartoon. In the Toolspace Settings tree, styles that accept been referenced into the drawing are marked with a newspaper clip icon as shown in Figure 16.  Notice how the surface styles are now beingness controlled by the reference template and not the drawing settings.

Figure 16: The Newspaper Prune

As you lot continue to update and/or add together new styles to the project standards template, those changes are pushed to the drawings that reference that template.

The following AutoCAD Ceremonious 3D components tin be imported and referenced by a reference template.

• AutoCAD Layers
• AutoCAD blocks, text styles, and linetypes
• Settings
• Cartoon Settings
• Abbreviations
• Ambience Settings
• Object Layers
• Feature Settings
• Label Mode Defaults
• Styles
• Characterization Styles
• Object Styles
• Tabular array Styles
• Pipe and Construction Rules
• Pressure Network Parts lists
• Quantity Takeoff Criteria

If you try to edit a surface style (i.east., rename a layer color) yous volition go the post-obit error indicating that your style is existence controlled by a referenced template or a company standard. You do have options to override the setting as shown in Figure 17, but this is a skillful reminder to all of u.s.a. while we work on drawings and maintain our company standards.

Figure 17: The alert

Conclusion

In a perfect globe, your drawing templates and settings will have the perfect set of styles for your projects. This typically takes time to abound and can be considered a living template. Consider designing styles to reflect the information requirements at unlike times in the project.  The templates are there as a guide to provide y'all with the basic information needed to brainstorm your design project efficiently. You can create styles and templates for many different disciplines and still follow your company standard. Keep the implementation process going and create your template to help guide your users and your company to a ameliorate, more standard arroyo to design work.

Sam Lucido is a CAD Services Director with Haley & Aldrich, Inc. He has more than 25 years of feel involving design, user back up, and customization. Sam is an Autodesk certified professional and an Expert Aristocracy Member. He uses his vast noesis most AutoCAD and Ceremonious 3D to help provide support to engineering and design teams past holding easily on workshops and online training. Sam is a pinnacle-rated Autodesk University and Midwest University Speaker too every bit beingness an AUGI Board Member. You can reach Sam at CADProTips.com or by email
at lucido1373@gmail.com.

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