I often see users new to grading with Civil 3d make the same errors reviewing surfaces. Here we are going to continue our series and show you a few shortcuts to help you review surfaces faster.
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I see this often with new users, they want to check the grades, and do it by copying a grade label all over the place. To review these they need to review each number. Lets supercharge this and talk about surface analysis!
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Select the surface, right click and select Surface Properties.
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Setup the desired # of surface analysis. I usually use this scheme:
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I usually do this for the following reasons. I want to flag any slope under 0.50% as too flat to drain. Often I may want to increase this range. 0.50-1.50% I also want to check out. 1.5%-2% is flagged so we can check for any issues with ADA cross-slope. 2-8.33% is acceptable for ADA longitudinally. 50%+ I want to check for any too-steep slopes.
To get these to display, edit your surface style and make sure Slope Arrows is on (visible).
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Now I can review my surface slopes by looking at the surface.
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One issue you can have is the slope arrows are too/big or small.
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You can change the size of the slope arrow by editing the style.
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Adjust the slope arrow length as needed.
If you are printing this for review by your team, you can add a surface legend table
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After selecting ‘Add Surface Legend Table’ and selecting your surface, it will ask what type of table you need. Select A for Slope Arrows. It will ask if you want a dynamic or static table.
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Tin Lines Make Sense out of Chaos.
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When reviewing the slope arrows, sometimes making sense out of them can be difficult. Turning on the tin lines helps make sense out of chaos.
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This will conclude part 2 of this series. I will post part 3 sometime after Autodesk University in New Orleans. Hope to see you there.
To read part 1, visit this link: http://c3dk.com/2022/09/06/techniques-for-reviewing-civil-3d-surfaces-part-1/