Civil 3D 2013 New Features Part 4

Good morning everyone. I hope everyone  had a great Easter weekend. So for the past 2 weeks the internet and tweeter world has been blowing up with the all the new features that C3D 2013 has to offer. The introduction to pressure pipes and import/export capabilities for IMX fix was huge leap, there was some draw backs. As most of you know the import Google earth feature has been remove. I’m sure this is kick to the stomach for some of you. Overall I rate this version a B+.













Anyways in this post, I will skim over the new pressure parts features. For those of you that have already download your version of C3D 2013 from the subscription website, you will instantly notice all the features relating to pressure parts/networks throughout the ribbon. I have posted some images of some area where you can find links/features related to pressure pipes.


As you can see pressure pipes can be honestly be considered the star of the show for C3D 2013. So what is pressure pipes?
Pressure Pipe Typical Workflow.

1. Select the Pressure Network Catalog
2. Create a part list such as Water Parts
3. Create pressure pipe network from Pressure Network Creation Tools on the ribbon
4. assign the reference surface
5. Select the pipe size and material
6. lay out of your pressure network

As you can see, you have the ability to display true pipe bends, fittings and apparatus on the fly when laying out your pressure network. On top of that, a new feature has now been included to check pipe coverage for your network. In addition, you can also create vertical curve pipe in your profiles.

On the negative side, Autodesk did fail to add PVC as a material on the pressure parts material. This causes you, as the user to custom build the PVC material from scratch. In order to this you have to use content catalog editor. To build the PVC material you will need all the manufactures specification data.

Civil 3D 2013 New Features Part 3.

Good morning everyone. Well congrats on Kentucky wining the men’s NCAA national basketball championships and Texas Baylor Bears winning the women’s NCAA national championship. I also want to send my prayers go out to all those that lost their homes in the DFW area during Tuesday’s tornados storm. 

Anyways, I hope everyone is exciting about all the new features that C3D 2013 has to offer. Some new feature may benefit some firms greatly, while it may not be useful to other firms. It honestly depends on what type of projects your company/firm works on. So moving on, in this post I would like to talk about the transportation improvements that Autodesk has included in C3D 2013. I have listed below  few more new features of C3D 2013. I have also included a short video presentation.

1. The addition of Subassembly Composer
2. The addition of railway design tools
3. The addition of cant railway design with new rail alignment
4. New layout tools
5. Importing/Exporting IMX files from/into Infrastructure Modeler
6. Pressure Part Network.

Some of you may be asking what is cant rail design? Well basically cant rail design is used to steer a train moving along a curve, keeping the wheel flanges from touching the rails. This minimizes friction and wear. In addition, cant rail design helps in the distribution of weight across both rails, and creates a smoother ride by neutralizing the effects of lateral forces. The two acting factors of cant design is the speed and radius of the rail track. Cant design is basically in essence referred to as superelevation of a rail from one side of the rail to the other side. If you go to your settings tab on your toolspace, and right click on your ALIGNMENTS and select Edit Feature Settings, here you will find settings for your rail options and cant design. From here you get set the rail wide, degree of curvature, design speed,pivot method…and so on.



In a few weeks I go more in depth over rail design. I have presented below the new and improved layout Tools tab.
Civil 3D 2012 Layout Tools Panel

Civil 3D 2013 Layout Tools Panel

As you can see from above, the layouts panel has a new look with a few needs features. See video below.

C3D 2013

As you can tell some really cool features have be incorporated into C3D 2013. If you are in subscription you can now sign in and download you new slick C3D 2013. I apologize for only skimming over the new features so fast but I will do a few more new features post to get a better understand of the new features. . Feel free to comment.