Learn how to create sample lines in Civil 3D using different methods such as points and polylines. This guide will also cover the process of navigating the tool space, looking at the sample lines already created, and examining options for information and calculations.
Key Insights
- The sample lines created in Civil 3D are linked to the alignment, and one can navigate to these via the tool space and dropdowns in the alignments.
- There are numerous options for information within the sample line group properties, including the ability to change the layer, style, and swath width of the lines created.
- Additional sample lines can be created using points or polylines, with the latter requiring the creation of a polyline before selecting "sample lines". The software does not automatically delete the polyline after creating the sample line.
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In this video, we're going to go ahead and create a couple more sample lines using different methods. We're going to go ahead and create one using points and we're going to create one using polylines.
So before we do that, I want to go ahead and look at the sample lines that we've already created. We're going to navigate over to the tool space. We're going to drop down in our alignments because our sample lines are linked to our alignment.
We're going to go to our center line alignments. We're going to go to our dev branch because that's where we connected our sample lines to. And then underneath dev branch, we're going to see sample lines and we have this SL collection one.
So I'm going to go ahead and select SL collection one, right click and select properties. And then inside of here, we have our sample line group properties. So inside of here, you have the options for your information.
So your name and your description, then you have which sample lines you have created. So it has all the information on the station, the name, and the layer, the style, and then your offsets. So inside of here, you can go ahead and change any of the options that you had selected when you created these sample lines.
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So you can change your layer, you can change your style, you can change your swath width, so your offsets. So inside of here, you can select here, change 50 to a different swath width if you weren't sampling far enough outside of your corridor. So moving on from there, we have our sections tab.
So this is the sources of these for our sections. We have our surfaces and our two corridors. If we wanted to sample more sources, we have the sample more sources button here.
You can go ahead and pick this button. And then what Civil 3D is going to do is it's going to give me an option of all my available sources. And then I could select one and then hit add and it would bring it across to here and then give me the options for the style, the layer, and then the model and how you update it.
So I'm not going to add any additional sources, so I'm going to go ahead and hit cancel. Moving on from here, we have the section views tab. If you've created section views, this is where it would show up and it would have the name of the section view, which group plot style you have, what the style is, and then other information related to this section view.
And then the next tab is if you were going to be doing material calculations based on your sections that you've created, you can do that here by adding materials and adding criterias based on different material types that you have, so surfaces and corridor shapes. And then you can do volume calculation methods, either an average end area prismoidal or composite volume, or you can import other criteria. So moving on from here, we're going to go ahead and create those additional sample lines.
So what I'm going to go ahead and do is I'm going to pick on sample lines and then I'm going to hit ENTER. I'm going to go ahead and go to dev branch and hit okay. And then I am going to actually go down here and I am going to select group from drawing.
I'm going to go ahead and pick one of the sample lines. And so now I'm into the sample lines that I've created before. I'm going to go ahead and drop down my creation methods and I'm going to do a pick points from screen.
So I'm going to go ahead and pick a point here and pick a point right here. Now I could keep dodging back and forth or creating more section lines. I only want to have this one.
And so what you can see though, is that this sample line is in fact, it doesn't have to be perpendicular when we do at a station or by range, it creates them perpendicular to the alignment, but you can create sections through a roadway that is not perpendicular. So I'm going to go ahead and hit ENTER to finish. So civil 3D has created that new sample line.
I do have to escape out because I didn't have a polyline created. So I'm going to go ahead and do PL for polyline and I'm going to create another sample right here using a polyline. And then I'm going to go ahead and go back into sample lines.
I'm going to hit ENTER. I'm going to select dev branch and hit okay. And then I'm going to make sure I'm working in the correct sample line group.
So I'm going to go ahead and select group from drawing. I'm going to select sample line from the group. And then I'm going to go ahead and drop down into my creation methods.
I'm going to select existing polylines. I'm going to select that polyline and then I'm going to hit ENTER to have created that sample line here. I'm going to hit escape.
And then what you'll notice is that civil 3D did not give us an option for deleting out that polyline. So I'm going to do shift space, click to get that polyline selected and then hit E for a race. Actually, I have to hit space to turn off cycling and then hit E for a race so I can delete out that polyline.
So from here, you can see we created one based on two points and it creates, it gives us the station for where we cross the center line, but it doesn't necessarily, it's not necessarily sampling only at that specific station. It just associates it with the station where it crossed the alignment. Same thing here.
We have a sample line. We have a station, but it's the station associated with the crossing here. So I'm going to go ahead and save and then I'll meet you in the next video.
