In this tutorial you’ll create simple existing ground and layout profiles for an alignment an existing ground profile is extracted from a surface and shows the changes in elevation along a horizontal alignment a layout profile is a designed object that shows the proposed grade and elevations to be constructed profiles are displayed on an annotated grid called a profile view go ahead and open your profile dash one drawing in your tutorials folder this drawing contains an existing ground surface which you can see right here and it contains an alignment that represents a road Center Line as you can see right here and you’ll find a polyline right here that actually represents the center line of an intersecting Road you’ll use the rectangle at the northeast corner of the site as a guide to create a profile view let’s get started by clicking on your Home tab and go to your create design panel click the profile drop down and click create surface profile in the create profile from surface dialog box you’ll see that we already have our existing surface selected go ahead and click add the surface gets added to the profile list and note for this exercise the First Street alignment and the existing grade surface are the only available selections and are selected by default click draw and profile view
click create profile view in the Wizard now select the lower left corner of the rectangular placeholder
the First Street profile view is now displayed containing the dashed profile view that represents the existing ground surface the left and right sides of the profile annotate elevations in the bottom annotates the stations now that we have our existing grade profiled let’s go ahead and create our layout profile let’s get started again by going to our home tab go to the layers panel navigate until you get to the profile layer and then thaw this layer now you’ll use the circles and the profile view as a guide to draw the layout profile go to your home tab click on the profile drop down and then select profile creation tools you’ll notice in the command line that it’s asking us to select the profile view to create the profile go ahead and select our profile in the create profile draw new dialog box specify the following parameters in the name let’s type in finished grade Center Line Dash First Street
for the profile style we’ll keep it at design profile but for profile label set we’ll select complete label set then click ok the profile layout tools toolbar is now displayed this toolbar enables you to lay out a finish grade profile using either points of vertical intersection or PBIS or constraint based tangent and curve entities for this exercise you’ll create pvis at specific points tangents will be created between the PBIS and curves will be created at each pvi on the profile layout tools toolbar in the draw tangents list select draw tangents with curves the command line now prompts for a start point before selecting a start Point verify that your object snap is on specifically the endpoint and Center Point now moving from left to right click the Circle Center points to place the pvi
press enter to complete the layout profile the blue finish grade Center Line profile and its labels are displayed in the profile view I’ll go ahead and close your toolbar now go into your home tab click your layers and go ahead and freeze this profile layer now you know how to design simple profiles in civil 3D in this exercise you’ll create a surface profile from an existing surface after creating the profile and several offsets you’ll create a profile view to display the profiles go ahead and open up your profile Dash 2A drawing in your tutorials folder the drawing contains an existing ground surface and
two alignments let’s examine the alignments the red one with curves
is named Ridge Road and represents a proposed Road Center Line and now the other
is named Powerline and represents a proposed power line offset about 25 feet from the road now go to your home tab go to your create design panel and click on profile
click create surface profile
now in the create profile from surface dialog box under the alignment select Ridge Road
then we’re going to add the existing surface to our Ridge Road
now make sure the sample offsets check box is checked now enter 25 comma negative 25. now this field enables you to specify that profiles be created on either side of the center line the left offset which is negative 25 will Mark the approximate location of the power line if you wanted more offsets you could enter a series of them here use positive numbers for write offsets and negative numbers for left offsets with values separated by commas go ahead and click add now let’s open our dialog box up just a little bit more
now in the profile list under the description column type in the following descriptions for the first one we’re going to name that Center Line
for the next we’re going to name that right offset because it’s positive
and then for the negative offset we’re going to type left offset
now in the update mode column update the left offset to static this option specifies that the left offset reflects the surface elevation at the time of its creation it will not update to reflect future changes in the surface go ahead and click ok
a message that indicates profiles have been created is displayed in the Event Viewer let’s go ahead and check the event
now go to your home tab next go to the profile and section views panel click on the profile view drop down and select create profile view
in the create profile view wizard on the general page select our alignment for Ridge Road
next click profile display options the table on the profile display options page shows the existing profiles for Ridge Road and by default they’re all checked in the draw column indicating that they will appear in the profile view let’s open up our wizard just a little bit more so we can see more information
now in the specify profile display options table in the style column double-click the cell for the left offset in the pick profile style dialog box change the style to existing ground then click ok now click the label style for the left offset and select none click ok now for this example you won’t create labels for existing ground profiles you’ll specify a label set when you create a layout profile now repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other two profiles
click create profile view now in the drawing pan and zoom to a blank area at the lower right of the surface
click a suitable location for the lower left corner of the profile view grid the profile view is now drawn with a grid axis title and two data bands along the x-axis one above the grid and the other below it as you can see right here now note if you want to move a profile view within a drawing click anywhere on the grid to select it a blue grip appears at the lower left corner click the grip and drag the profile view to a new location so you now know how to go about creating and displaying surface profiles with offsets in civil 3D in this exercise you’ll change a profile style in two different ways first you’ll change a profile style globally which change the profile’s appearance in all profile views then you’ll learn how to override a profile style in a single profile view this tutorial continues from the last exercise where we created and displayed surface profiles with offsets let’s start by opening the profile Dash 2B drawing in your tutorials folder go ahead and go into your home tab and go to the profile and section views panel select the profile view drop down and click create profile view
in the create profile view wizard on the general page select the Ridge Road alignment next click the profile display options under the left offset surface double click on the surface Style go ahead and choose standard for the profile style and click ok in the name column click the first row hold down shift and select the last row then under the labels column go ahead and click on one of the cells now under the label set go ahead and choose none and click ok now go ahead and select create profile view pan to a location above the top of the first profile view
now the new profile view which is pv-2 is drawn you’ll note that the left offset profile is the same color as the other two profiles pan to the lower View in pv1 notice that the left offset line has also changed in this profile the left offset profile changed because you changed the style of the profile which affects every instance of the profile in every profile view in the drawing go ahead and select this profile right click and click profile view properties
click the profiles tab and then notice we have two columns Style and we also have override Style within the override style column go ahead and click on your left offset profile click the check box now you can select the existing ground surface and click ok
now hit apply click ok the left offset profile changes to Red reflecting the existing ground style in profile view pv1 but not in pv2 the left offset profiles are different because you can override the profile style for a particular profile view but you did not change the profile style you can use the style override to preserve the profile style within a profile view protecting it from later style changes for further explanation go ahead and select your profile right click and select profile view properties go ahead and clear the override Style
then click ok this changes the style for the profile and affects both profile views and the drawing now note that the left offset line is an approximate and static profile of the terrain along the power line optionally if you wanted to see the actual profile you could create a profile and a profile view based on the power line alignment so that’s how you go about changing the profile style in civil 3D in this exercise you’ll examine some of the information displayed in the profile and the profile view this exercise continues from changing the profile Style go ahead and open up your profile Dash 2C drawing in your tutorials folder then zoom in to the lower profile which is profile one select the highest profile line being careful not to select the profile view grid and right click on the geometry click edit profile geometry profile layout tools toolbar is displayed notice that no editing grips are displayed along the profile and most controls in the profile layout tools toolbar are shaded and unavailable this profile is dynamic it’s linked to the surface elevations and no part of the line can be edited click the profile grid view in the toolbar
profile entities Vista is displayed in the Panorama window this table displays useful grade data for the entire profile again values are unavailable so you cannot edit them editing these values would break the Integrity of the link between the profile and the surface press escape to deselect the profile now click the red profile line notice that editing grips appear along the profile if you zoom out you can see that the same profile is also attached in the other profile view now if you grip edit into one profile view
that change will be reflected in the other
now because this line is a static line and detached from the surface you can edit it in various ways including copying and moving it you would not edit this line if you wanted to preserve it as a snapshot of the surface at a particular time now notice that the profile entities table now displays design data for the left offset profile line with values you can now edit
when you selected the left offset profile it became the active profile for the editing tools go ahead and close the toolbar the profile layout tools toolbar and the profile entities Vista both close and the left offset profile line is deselected in the drawing so that’s how you go about reviewing surface profile characteristics in civil 3D in this exercise you’ll create the layout profile typically the profile is used to show elevations along a proposed Road surface or a finished grade the layout profile is similar to a horizontal alignment in that it’s constructed of straight tangents with optional curves placed where the tangents intersect these tangents and curves on a layout profile are located on the vertical plane and the intersection points are called points of vertical intersection or pvi this exercise continues from the using surface profiles tutorial we’ll start by hiding the offset profiles go ahead and open up your profile Dash 2C drawing which is located in your tutorial drawings folder go ahead and zoom into this bottom grid right here which is profile view one select it then right click then select profile view properties
in the profile view properties dialog box we’re currently on the profiles tab expand the name column
like so and we’re going to go ahead and expand the description
clear the draw check boxes for the right offset and for the left the profiles tab displays all the existing profiles for a given horizontal alignment for both surface profiles and layout profiles you can use the draw check boxes to specify which profiles to display in the profile view go ahead and click ok let’s specify the profile creation settings note we need to make sure that the osnap is currently turned off So currently it’s turned off this is the on position this is the off position go ahead and go over to your Home tab and then look over in your create design panel click the profile drop down
and select profile creation tools
select profile view number one which is at the bottom and now we’re in the create profile draw new dialog box change the profile Style to finish ground in a profile label set we’re going to leave it at its default of standard but we’re going to edit this profile label set in the profile label set dialog box make sure you’re on the labels tab and then under type change that to horizontal geometry points and then for profile horizontal geometry point we’re going to change that to station and type go ahead and click add
in the geometry points dialog box you can go ahead and examine the geometry points that can be labeled you can specify any combination of points that you want to label go ahead and click ok and then in the profile label set dialog box we’re going to click ok on the design criteria tab the options in this tab are used only if you want to ensure that the profile design meets specified design criteria however you won’t be applying design criteria to the profile in this exercise go ahead and click ok to accept the settings let’s go ahead and draw the layout profile in the profile layouts toolbar click this Arrow and select curve settings
in the vertical curve settings dialog box specify the following parameters for curve type select parabolic for Crest curve length we’re going to change this to 100
and for seg curve length we’re going to change that to 100. notice that you can select one of three different curve types
and specify parameters for each type go ahead and click ok now in the profile layout tools toolbar Ensure that the draw tangents with curves is selected
you’re now ready to draw the layout profile by clicking in the drawing at the proposed locations of PBIS at each pvi the application inserts a curve to be realistic your line should follow the general profile of the surface Center Line however it can cut across steep Hills and Valleys to outline a smoother Road surface the profile view go ahead and click over to the left side
and click a point to start the layout profile extend the line to the right
and click in this General location
then continue in this manner
at the last point we’re going to click and then right click to end the profile you’ll see that the profile is now drawn and labeled you can zoom and pan along
the layout profile to examine the labels so that’s how you go about creating a layout profile in civil 3D in this exercise you’ll modify the layout profile by using grips and entering specific attribute values this exercise continues from creating a layout profile so let’s edit the profile parameters go ahead and open up your profile Dash 3A drawing in your tutorials folder and then zoom into the bottom profile view select the red layout profile
right click then select edit profile geometry now you’ll see that the profile layout tools toolbar is displayed on the profile layout tools toolbar select this button to select a pvi and the command line it says to pick point near pvi to select this option specifies that you will edit the data for each profile pvi on the layout tools toolbar select the profile grid View the profile entities Vista is displayed in the Panorama window the first row in the profile provides data about the starting point of the layout profile subsequent rows provide data about the PBIS the last row provides data about the endpoint examine the grade n and grade out columns with the aim of reducing one or more of the steeper grades in the profile let’s go ahead and grip edit the profile with a profile curve clearly visible go ahead and click on it and then we have this circular grip right here as you can see it’s right at the midpoint go ahead and click it until it turns red which indicates that it can be moved you can move this to a new location but no further than the pvi as you can see I’m going to move this right about here the Curve moves to pass through the point that you clicked as you can see here and the length changes click the Triangular grip at the pvi then move it to a new location
next you can experiment with some of these other grips click this Arrow right here
click this Arrow right here
and you can even select these point of tangencies as you can see the constraints are keeping me from moving this grip any further up or down but it continues along this line
we can do it with the other side as well
so that’s how we go about editing a layout profile in civil 3D in this exercise you’ll copy a part of a Center Line layout profile you’ll use the copy to create a starting line for a ditch profile that is a specified distance below the center line this exercise continues from editing a layout profile so let’s go about copying the layout profile go ahead and open up your profile Dash 3B drawing which is located in your tutorials folder let’s zoom into the profile view down at the bottom here which is profile view number one and then select the red layout profile go ahead and right click and select edit profile geometry
you’ll see that the profile layout tools toolbar pops up select this button right here to copy the profile we get our dialog box here to copy the profile data now specify the following parameters for the pvi range we’re going to select station range
we’re going to start at 300 and end at 1700. the destination profile options we’re going to go ahead and create a new profile go ahead and click ok now the new profile is drawn on top of the old one go to your tool space and click on the prospector tab expand the alignments
the center line and the Ridge Road
next go into your profiles collection you’ll see that we have a copy profile right down here go ahead and press Escape now we’re going to offset the profile in the drawing we’re going to select the profile and right click then go to profile view properties
select the profiles tab
and then we’re going to clear out the check box for layout one under the draw column now clearing this checkbox removes the original profile from the profile view later you can restore this profile to the profile view if you wish as a tip instead of removing a profile from the profile view you can try selecting a profile to move it however the process described here is more reliable with overlapping profiles go ahead and click ok
now the profile view properties dialog box closes and the profile view is redrawn showing just the copy of our layout click the layout profile and you’ll see under the name of the selected profile is our layout copy you’ll see it’s also within the layout tools toolbar in the next few steps you’ll lower the profile copy by five feet to represent the elevation of the ditch on the toolbar select this button to raise and lower the PBI now we’re going to specify some parameters for the elevation change we’re going to put negative 5 feet
and for the PBI range we’re going to keep it on all then click ok
as we zoom out you’ll see in the profile view above in both profile views the line moves to its new position this profile copy is a full featured object that can be edited in the same way as the original layout profile press escape to deselect the profile and in the drawing go back to profile view number one select the profile view right click and select profile view properties within the profiles tab we’re going to check our original layout and clear out our copy
then select ok
clearing the checkbox removes the copy of the profile from the profile view but notice that the copy is still displayed
on profile view number two so that’s how you go about copying a profile and offsetting it vertically in civil 3D
