Hi, I’m Charles Ellison. Civil 3D designer and trainer at autocadcivil3dtraining.com. Today we’ll be looking at Transparent Commands in Civil 3D 2020. Today, we’ll be looking at Transparent Commands in Civil 3D 2020. These Civil 3D specific commands work on top of AutoCad commands. Have you every panned or zoomed in and out of your drawing while in the line command? This might give you an idea of the power of Civil 3D Transparent commands.
Transparent commands are Civil 3D specific that show up as a toolbar within the interface by default on the right side of the screen. These commands are able to run inside of another command. Zoom is an example of a transparent command within AutoCAD. I can click zoom while I’m in the middle of a line command. A Transparent command within Civil 3D allows us to be in the line command, then provide coordinate control by giving a bearing and distance. Or, try using Civil 3D objects such as points themselves. With Civil 3D points, you can type in the point number to draw a line from point to point.
You can also use alignments such as a profile views station and elevation. So, after selecting this transparent command, its starts with an apostrophe and says select profile view. I’ll select this profile view, and it says type in the station, we’ll do 126. And it says specify elevation. Notice, it graphically shows me now, I’m snapped to 126. And we’re going to type in 253.25, and notice now, my line has begun and it continues and says specify another station. Well I’m done with specifying a station, so I hit escape. I don’t end the line command, I’m simply ending the transparent command of profile station and elevation. And notice now, my line has begun using that coordinate of where the profile view currently sits, providing station and elevation.
This tool is very helpful and often overlooked. We can use regular AutoCAD commands along with Civil 3D to identify a coordinate and work with the information using civil geometry or civil objects.
