Using Civil 3D with Land F/X for a BIM Workflow

Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)

• Intro/TOC
• Why BIM?
  • Levels of BIM
  • BIM Deliverables
  • BIM Level 2 and Land F/X for Landscape Architects
• Types of Toolsets for BIM We Support
• Civil 3D With Land F/X as a High Level 2 BIM Toolset

0:00 – 3:29: Intro/TOC

“How does a practice go about ‘implementing BIM’? There is no set way; there are different options for achieving many of the same goals, and different types of practices will take different steps depending on their clients or specialisms.”

– BIM for Landscape, The Landscape Institute

3:30 – 14:10: Why BIM?

BIM is a process, and there are tools to help achieve it.

 

For landscape architects, it doesn’t mean “Building Information Modeling” anymore.

 

BIM centers on reduced costs driven up by mistakes that could have been caught and corrected earlier in the process.

 

Ideals:

• Front-loaded workflow
• Disciplines working collaboratively
• Shareable data and information
• Reducing risk and waste
• Improving efficiency

 

Levels of BIM (4:50)

Level 3 (future) (5:05)

• Fully integrated data for all disciplines
• Auto-synced Web-based connectivity

 

Level 2 (5:35)

• 2D/3D with some automated connectivity and integrated data
• Separate discipline BIM tools

 

Level 1 (8:05)

• Still separate but linked
• Working in DWG format
• 2D and/or 3D, not together
• No integrated data

 

Level 0 (8:30)

• Paper documents
• Separate information sources
• Very basic CAD
• Unlinked drawings (no Xrefs)

 

BIM Deliverables (9:00)

• A plan with data for your work
• A plan to coordinate with other consultants
• A plan to communicate the concept and construction
• BIM standard format?
  • IFC file format
• Not all types of objects supported in IFC format
• Limited at this time by discipline
• DWG (+ XLS support meets BIM Level 2)

 

BIM Level 2 and Land F/X for Landscape Architects (11:05)

• Land F/X + Civil 3D + Excel
• Land F/X + AutoCAD or F/X CAD + SketchUp or Rhino +Excel
• Land F/X + Civil 3D or F/X CAD + SketchUp or Rhino +Excel

14:11 – 40:19: Types of Toolsets for BIM We Support

(Note: We worked in Civil 3D for this presentation.)

 

Surfaces and contours (14:11)

 

Setting a contour interval and toggling between surface styles (15:30)

 

Integrating a survey DWG with smart points (16:30)

 

Smart contour lines (18:00)

 

Changing elevations along smart contours (19:00)

 

Breaklines (19:50)

 

Specifying a grade percentage (20:15)

 

Display variables, including Contour and Triangles  (21:17)

 

Elevation banding in Civil 3D (22:11)

 

Cut-fill (dynamic in Civil 3D) (22:35)

 

Analyzing the cut-fill in a Civil 3D drawing (25:00)

 

Compiling the smart surfaces to create a smart profile (26:55)

 

Adding trees and other objects to the smart profile (27:55)

 

Using grading groups to create a dynamic feature line and change the site’s grading (28:30)

 

Analyzing the site’s grading (29:50)

 

Smoothing out a grade (30:30)

 

Changing elevations in the site grading and adjusting the profile (31:03)

 

Using Land F/X to create a Plant Schedule from plants in an Xref (32:40)

 

Note that AutoCAD and F/X CAD users can view Civil 3D drawings and Xref their portions of the plan (such as planting, irrigation, etc.) into the main Civil 3D drawing. It’s also easy to coordinate with consultants out of house.

 

Xrefing an irrigation or planting plan into a Civil 3D drawing (35:00)

 

Preparing to bring the plan into SketchUp (37:58)

The triangles you see in a site plant in Civil 3D Are actually 3D faces.

 

The site design in SketchUp (39:10)

40:20 – end: Civil 3D With Land F/X as a High Level 2 BIM Toolset

Using the Export Design feature of our Land F/X SketchUp Connection tool to export a planting plan into SketchUp (40:30)

 

Importing the planting plan into SketchUp (41:47)

 

Note that site amenities created with our Reference Notes tool will also import into SketchUp. (42:55)

 

Exporting objects from SketchUp back into CAD (43:30)

 

Example of a plan imported into Rhino using the Land F/X Rhino Connection (44:00)

 

We also plan to take our connectivity capabilities into Revit with a Revit Connection tool. (45:00)

 

Examples of the connective data from Land F/X you can use to coordinate with other designers (46:00)

 

Question: When will the Revit Connection be available? (48:00)

Answer: Watch our weekly newsletter for an announcement on when it will be available.

 

Question: How do I ask an engineer who’s using Civil 3D to export a model that’s best compatible with SketchUp? (49:10)

Answer: Amanda will show us what they’ll need to do:

1. Select the surface lines in Civil 3D.

2. Right-click in the design and select Edit Surface Style from the menu.

3. Select the Display tab in the Surface Style dialog box, and set the Slopes display to Visible.

4. Select the Analysis tab. Expand the Slopes item and select the 3D Faces option from the Display Type menu.

5. Select Save As, and save the drawing with a new name.

6. Explode the surfaces.

7. Select everything in the drawing and deselect the surfaces.

8. Delete everything but the surfaces.

9. Explode the surfaces again to create 3D faces.

10. Export the file to an AutoCAD drawing, and save that drawing to a location where it can be easily located, such as the desktop.

This step will remove all the civil objects and proxies from the drawing.

 

Once the Civil 3D drawing is saved as an AutoCAD drawing, you can bring it into SketchUp.

 

You can use the Erase tool in SketchUp to smooth the surfaces.

 

Coordinating between Civil 3D and Revit using the Exchange Settings button (55:15)