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June 10th, 2019

Using Templates and Drawing Settings for Civil 3D Implementation

Introduction

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® is complex software with many different and connecting parts working together to provide solutions to civil pattern projects. In this article we are going to explore how to apply template files to capture feature and object settings that you can utilise to start your new drawing or reference into an existing drawing. For a successful implementation, the CAD managing director or designer can create, update, and distribute template files to all users to ensure a standard and uniform approach to design work.

Templates

Any new drawing in Civil 3D starts with a default drawing template or a custom template y'all can create. Drawing template files are drawings that store styles, settings, layers, and layouts in a drawing including title blocks.

Standard Template Procedure

When you create a new drawing based on a cartoon template, the new drawing gets a copy of the styles in the template, but it is a one-time re-create. The connection is not maintained; therefore, if you update the template it will not update your drawing file. For example, if y'all update the surface styles in your template and you wanted your drawings to get those same updates, you lot needed to manually re-create or import those changed styles into your drawings.  You can do this by dragging and dropping or selecting the import tab on the Ribbon as shown in Effigy i.

Figure 1: Import styles

Templates are also listed nether the Cartoon Templates collection in the Prospector tree Master View as shown in Figure 2.  Detect the 2 Civil 3D templates supplied from Autodesk.

Figure two:  Templates nether the Main View in Prospector

2 templates are provided when you install Civil 3D.  The path for these templates tin can be found within the options dialog box nether the Files > Templates folder.  Nosotros are going to open the _Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt and save this to C3D_Standard.dwt. The 2 AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing templates are based on the The states National CAD Standard®.

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

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

The QNEW control, which is available on the Quick Access 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 4). Open the template file you created named C3D_Standard.dwt on the Home tab of the Ribbon > Palettes panel > Open Toolspace.

1. On the palette, move to the Settings tab.
2. Make certain you are in the Active Cartoon Settings View and right-click C3D Standard equally shown.
3. Select Edit Drawing Settings.

Note: If you motility up and downward on this palette there are hundreds of dissimilar settings that can be applied to all types of Ceremonious 3D object data.

Effigy four: Drawing settings

C3D Cartoon Settings

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

1. Cartoon settings: Establish values for the whole drawing.
2. Feature settings: Control behavior for a feature, such as Surfaces or Parcels.
3. Control settings: Apply to individual commands within a characteristic, such as the AddParcelAreaLabel control within the Parcels feature.

You lot modify each level of settings at a different location in the Settings tree, as shown in Effigy 5.

Effigy 5: Setting tree

Let's focus on the main drawing Cartoon-Level Settings and Feature Level Settings. To access cartoon-level settings, correct-click the drawing name C3D_Standard in the settings tree and click Edit Drawing Settings as shown in Figure half dozen.

Figure 6:  Edit Drawing settings

At the cartoon level, the Edit Settings dialog box contains general tabs for the drawing (or template) as shown in Figure 7.  We do non want to change any of these settings except for the Object Layers. Ambient Settings tin exist altered, but will be overridden by the drawing and feature settings.

Effigy 7: Drawing settings

To illustrate how this works, we will edit one of these settings in the Object Layers section.  Move to the Object Layers tab on the dialog box and scroll downwardly 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 volition exist added to C-TOPO and the surface name will be appended to the end of the layer (i.due east., C-TOPO-EG).

Yous have now created a standard for Can Surface layers in Civil 3D and can implement this process. Explore other options at the drawing settings level to ensure your template is ready to go.

Figure 9: Object Layer modifications

Feature-Level Settings

Use the object collection level in the Settings tree to control all settings that pertain to the object type. Admission the object or feature-level settings by right-clicking the object collection in the Settings tree and clicking Edit Feature Settings.  For this example, nosotros are going to select the Point Collection.

Figure 10: Point Characteristic settings

At the object level, this dialog box besides contains object-specific settings, such as default point styles. In this section we can control how our signal label styles are in our drawing as default. If we want all the points to be brought in as a particular style or maker, we can edit these values as our default within our template file. Figure xi shows the Point Label Style and the dialog box to change the value inside the object feature settings.

Figure 11: Edit Characteristic settings

Command-Level Settings

Use the Commands collection level in the Settings tree to override both the object-level settings and drawing ambient settings on a command-past-command footing. You can also specify command-specific settings. Admission the command-level settings past expanding the Commands collection for an object blazon in the Settings tree, right-clicking the command, and clicking Edit Command Settings. Figure 12 shows united states of america editing the control level settings for a surface.

Figure 12: Command-level setting

Layer Standards in Templates

Maintaining a standard for the use 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, relieve your template as an AutoCAD® standards file (.dws format). Then, in the template, enter the STANDARDS control and in the Configure Standards dialog box, link the standards file to the template. If you desire to enforce the standards, y'all can click the Settings button and activate notifications of standards violations or override such violations. For additional information on the CAD Standards Managing director see CSI: CAD Standards Implementation at Autodesk University 2017. https://autode.sk/2T0ozBa

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

At present that y'all have many of your standards in place for your template, we need to ensure that the template is used on new drawings.  From the application carte du jour, select New and your open dialog box volition be displayed equally shown (Figure 13). Select the C3D_Standard.dwt and all your settings will be within the new drawing.

Figure xiii: New template

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

Reference Templates

New to Civil 3D 2022 is a procedure called reference templates. The control can exist plant on the Manage tab of the Ribbon > Styles palette > Reference, as shown in Figure 14

Figure 14: Import styles

When you 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 connection between the drawing and the reference templates is maintained. Drawings can be updated on an ongoing footing either automatically or manually with changes to the styles in the templates.  Nosotros are going to add together a reference to our current drawing file (Figure 15).

Figure fifteen: Adhere Reference Template

Every bit nosotros work on our project, changes to the reference templates are pushed to the cartoon and so it is kept upward 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 cartoon if the styles are non in apply. If a style is in use, a local copy of the style is fabricated in the drawing.

Select the update button for the template to exist added to the drawing. In the Toolspace Settings tree, styles that take been referenced into the drawing are marked with a paper prune icon as shown in Figure 16.  Observe how the surface styles are now existence controlled by the reference template and not the drawing settings.

Figure 16: The Newspaper Clip

As you keep 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 Civil 3D components can exist imported and referenced by a reference template.

• AutoCAD Layers
• AutoCAD blocks, text styles, and linetypes
• Settings
• Drawing Settings
• Abbreviations
• Ambient Settings
• Object Layers
• Feature Settings
• Characterization Style Defaults
• Styles
• Label Styles
• Object Styles
• Table Styles
• Pipe and Structure Rules
• Pressure Network Parts lists
• Quantity Takeoff Criteria

If you lot endeavour to edit a surface manner (i.due east., rename a layer color) yous will become the post-obit error indicating that your style is existence controlled past a referenced template or a company standard. You exercise have options to override the setting equally shown in Figure 17, but this is a practiced reminder to all of us while we work on drawings and maintain our visitor standards.

Figure 17: The warning

Decision

In a perfect world, your drawing templates and settings will accept the perfect fix of styles for your projects. This typically takes time to grow and can exist considered a living template. Consider designing styles to reverberate the information requirements at dissimilar times in the project.  The templates are there equally a guide to provide you with the basic data needed to brainstorm your pattern projection efficiently. You can create styles and templates for many different disciplines and notwithstanding follow your company standard. Keep the implementation process going and create your template to help guide your users and your company to a meliorate, more than standard approach to design work.

Sam Lucido is a CAD Services Manager with Haley & Aldrich, Inc. He has more than 25 years of experience involving design, user support, and customization. Sam is an Autodesk certified professional and an Expert Elite Fellow member. He uses his vast knowledge about AutoCAD and Civil 3D to help provide support to technology and design teams past belongings hands on workshops and online training. Sam is a top-rated Autodesk University and Midwest University Speaker too as being an AUGI Board Fellow member. You tin achieve Sam at CADProTips.com or by email
at lucido1373@gmail.com.

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