r/civil3d

Hi, I’m just considering transitioning my job to CAD technician, specifically with Civil3D and want to know what people’s pros and cons of this job/industry are. I am currently a project designer at a sign company so I make detailed renderings for production but it’s just signs. I do work with architectural renderings and engineering drawings that get sent to us and we make our own sort of “blueprint” packages that outline the entire sign system of a given store/restaurant/school. My bachelors is in graphic design though so I don’t have any engineering knowledge beyond what is needed for signs. Everything we do is 2D and with CorelDraw too…

My plan is to take an online certification course that focuses on AutoCAD and Civil3D. https://careertrainingsumter.sc.edu/training-programs/civil-3d-certification-training/

My worry though is that might not be enough to land a job if I’m competing against people with full engineering degrees. In your opinion, would a couple years as a signage designer plus this certification course be enough to get a job and would it be worth it to enter this industry?

Estou pensando em migrar do Windows 11 para um MacBook Pro M5, alguém já utilizou o Civil 3D em dispositivos Apple? Gostaria de receber alguns feedbacks.

I know there is a similar post from one year ago but I wanted to ask the same question with the difference being that I will be working on large data center projects with multiple large surfaces and pipe networks. They files are broke out as much into smaller files as they can be but, even working on Forma is a challenge for the larger projects. My current laptop is going on a couple of years old and has a 6GB VRAM graphics card and 32GB installed RAM with a 13th gen intel core i7-13800h processor. I know the card is undersized and am hoping the upgrades in the future are enough. That's why I want to find out the best specked laptop for these large projects. Appreciate the advice!

Has anyone here used a smart mouse for design work?

I just bough the Logitech MX Master 4, and it has a ton of features, mappable buttons, and an “Action wheel” that allows you to perform different actions based on the app you have open.

I’m wondering if anyone has used a mouse like this with Civil3D and if it helped efficiency. Currently there’s no built in support for Civil3D/CAD, so I’d have to program the mouse to do the actions I’d want.

https://preview.redd.it/jdn777ulecjh1.png?width=999&format=png&auto=webp&s=66f4df4291cf5baf3ba43b47022a6944f2e8193e

the hatching is going allover the place and not covering the building

Hi everyone, direct to the point, I'm looking for remote work involving CAD drafting or land development with Civil 3D (grading, utilities, site plans, topo maps, corridor modeling).

I've been doing this kind of work for firms in the US, Canada, and I'm looking to take on more. DM me if you want to know more, happy to share samples/portfolio.

What is the best/easiest way to make a tin surface from a corridor where the corridor has a vertical wall.

Such as a simple road cross section where I want the subgrade of the road, but finish grade of the ditch/sidewalk/whatever.

Since tin surfaces can't do true vertical walls, I can't see a way to just generate a surface using the corridor surfaces panel.

I would like to have another column(s) of descriptive information added to a point coordinate file. We currently use P,N,E,Z,D but I'm wondering if I can add one or more attributes to this file (attribute 1, attribute 2 .... ) and have an output file like P,N,E,Z,D,A1,A2. These attributes would have information like: Date, measurement Type (GPS/Terrestrial), like point Features (monument size)?

We use Leica captivate in the field and civil 3D in the office.

The issue I'm having is with GPS points. We often locate the same control point multiple times, with GPS and total station, and then again on later dates to confirm GPS quality. I had toyed with the idea of a more complex point number (i.e. "G1.081226" would be GPS-Point#1-August, 12 2026) but civil 3d doesn't seem to allow decimal numbers and adjustment software seems to want identical point numbers.

Also, our point description is setup to use both multi codes and descriptions (i.e. OHW3 UP 5 AT&T draws an overhead wire line, a utility pole symbol, and text for pole number and company. It seems like it would be cleaner to have only codes in the description and then point features as attributes with the idea that an attribute could add text and/or manipulate the symbol (i.e. scale the symbol size for a tree).

What do you all do for extended point information? Can attributes be used in civil 3d as described?

Is there any way to get around this? C3D simply won’t allow me to create data shortcuts, no matter what file I’m actively using because my company doesn’t have the Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro subscription level. From my research, I should be able to do it locally, regardless of my subscription; but Forma is taking precedence.

Is there a way to add PIs or elevation points at regular intervals along a specific segment of a feature line in Civil 3D? If so, how?

Hello, I have been learning civil 3D for a while now, but I haven't been able to truly progress because I don't have projects to practice with. Any help would be appreciated.

Hello everyone,

I’m a survey CAD tech and I just used layer states for the first time and I think it messed up my edits.

Basically what happened was I created a layer state for all things boundary/easements and another for all layers that I would want to plot (same as the other but plus utilities, improvements, etc). I spent the morning working in the easements layer state then had to switch gears and clean up linework so I switched to the plot layer state. I saved throughout. I made a save as drawing to prep to send to the engineer, and when I went back to the original drawing and went back to the easements layer states, I noticed almost all my easements edits were gone. All the linework edits I made were still there, so it wasn’t a save issue. I also looked at the save-as drawing and saw the easement edits weren’t there either.

I am not convinced it’s a layer state issue, because many of the edits I made after creating the layer state were still there, but not all of them. I just don’t know what else it could be. I’ve been drafting for almost 4 years and never experienced anything like this. Using layer states is the only thing that’s different today from any other day.

Note: I updated C3D yesterday so everything should be up to date.

What the heck is going on 😭

I’ve just entered this company and my position is more on Rail Alignment Engineer. As a newbie and with zero knowledge in Civil 3D, where and what should i focus first? what is the most basic fundamental need to focus first? especially in Rail Alignment. Please help ma sifu.