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Civil Site Design V21.21

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Civil Site Design for Civil 3D, AutoCAD & BricsCAD.

This readme contains important information regarding the installation and use of Civil Site Design versions as described above.

Civil Site Design is available for:

  • AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 to AutoCAD Civil 3D 2021
  • AutoCAD 2015 to AutoCAD 2021 including all AutoCAD derivatives
  • BricsCAD V20 & V21 (64bit install)
  • Civil Site Design Plus

CONTENTS

CRITICAL INFORMATION

BRICSCAD USERS

For BricsCAD V20 users, it is critical that customers ensure they have downloaded and installed the latest version. 

In an earlier version (BricsCAD v20.2) there were issues with the programmatic inclusion of title blocks in the drawing that contained attribute definitions. These these needed to be inserted using the INSERT tool in order for them to be included in the drawing.

BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY

After installing this version and opening a drawing, the CSD data structure may be updated and will not be compatible with Civil Site Design V19.01 or earlier. The drawing file itself (.dwg) is unaffected.

Note: A backup copy of the -Data folder is not made when the data format is updated.

NAHIMIC SOFTWARE INTERFERES WITH MODEL VIEWER

We have found that the software ‘Nahimic’ may prevent Model Viewer from displaying – the installation of Nahimic creates a conflict in Eyeshot (the graphics engine we use in Model Viewer).

If Model Viewer will not open, please check if Nahimic is installed. If so, updating Nahimic may resolve the issue. Uninstalling it will resolve the issue.

Nahimic software provides enhanced audio (typically for gamers) and is commonly installed with gaming laptops. More information about Nahimic can be found here: https://www.nahimic.com/gamers/

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

CIVIL SITE DESIGN

You do not need to uninstall any previous versions of Civil Site Design. This installation will install over the top of any previous CSD installation.

If you are upgrading from Civil Site Design V20 or earlier, you will need a V21 license key to continue use beyond the default 30 day evaluation period.

Subscription customers can obtain their V21 license keys, and obtain Home Use Licenses, directly from the CSS Subscription Portal:

Subscription centre

An update to the Civil Survey Solutions Network License Manager is required for V21. Please refer to the Installation Guide for more information:

software installation guide

CIVIL SITE DESIGN PLUS

Customers installing this product will required a new V21 license.  Licensing is set for the current user and the activation process is the same (user generates trigger codes, this is emailed to us and we provide an activation code via email).

If you already have Civil Site Design Plus installed, you will need to first uninstall the application in order to install this updated version.

  • Windows 10 method:
    • Open the Start Menu and click Settings
    • In the top search bar type ‘Add or remove programs‘
    • From the list, select Civil Survey Solutions Civil Site Design v21
    • Click the Uninstall button that appears

Note: Uninstalling the application will not delete your license or remove your Civil Site Design settings.

NEW FEATURES V21.21

  • Surface intersect command
    • This command extracts polylines for the cut & fill between two surfaces.
    • There is a file called SurfaceIntersect.dat in the Common-10 folder to control how Surface Intersect behaves in terms of working out gaps in the cut/fill lines.  Second line down is the tolerance.  Bigger will join segment gaps (but maybe where it shouldn’t.  Smaller will potentially leave gaps where it shouldn’t).
  • Paste Surfaces
    • Added a new ‘Auto Boundary’ toggle to disable the auto boundary around the pasted surfaces.  This is useful when there is a requirement to ‘fill the gap’ between surfaces.  No boundary is applied to the surface created when Auto Boundary is unticked.

IMPROVEMENTS / CHANGES V21.21

  • Pack Mode Performance
    • When Pack Mode is on, save speed is now 2.5-3 times faster than previously.
    • We’ve increased the maximum data folder size for packing to 150mb.
  • Paste Surfaces
    • The surface paste routine is now builds pasted surfaces 3-4 times faster than previously.
    • The triangulation method has been rewritten to enable consistent pasting of discontinuous surfaces and partially overlapping surfaces, without inconsistencies in the triangulated mesh.
    • In the Surface Manager:
      • The Inputs > Edit > Flip Edge can now be applied to paste surfaces.
      • The Inputs > Edit > Delete Edge can now be applied to paste surfaces.
      • The Boundary controls have been disabled on the Surface Manager form, to prevent users from applying boundaries (not supported).
    • Pasted surfaces can be reused in another paste surface.
  • Volume Surfaces
    • The triangulation method has been rewritten to improve volume surface triangulation.
    • Performance of volume surface paste has been improved.  Expect a faster volume surface creation time.
  • Model Viewer
    • Model viewer is leveraging the changes to the paste surface triangulation methods.  This delivers more consistency in the automated base surface trimming.
  • Roads – Vertical Grading Editor (VGE)
    • The Add IP form is now resizable, for customers who have the text DPI scaling set above 100%.  This is one of the hardest forms to navigate when the text scaling pushes the text and buttons outside the default form extents – users can now stretch the form out to get to the buttons.
  • Pipes – Vertical Grading Editor (VGE)
    • Updated the ribbon frame for older versions of Windows 10 (customer reported trimming of the bottom buttons).
  • Styles and Settings
    • The Volumes Surface Style has been fixed to remove the maximum triangle length control.
    • To support the new volume surface enhancements, you will find added ‘Height Shading’ surface styles to load and apply (these will be added to your CSD settings folder after install).  These ramp from reds in cut through greens in fill.  There is a binary cut/fill presentation style and also various others with different cut/fill increments.
  • Ribbon Interface Changes (USA Civil 3D Customers Only)
    • The Roads and Pipes tab panels and commands have been changed to focus on the Civil 3D production output tools and core creation/editing tools.
    • The Civil 3D Output tab has been renamed ‘Production‘.
      • The CAD based outputs for Roads and Pipe Networks have been moved here.
      • The Road Driveway tools have been moved here.

FIXES V21.21

  • Previously, surface contour labels in BricsCAD were being created on the colour BYBLOCK instead of BYLAYER.
  • We removed a restriction on designing strings that are less than 1m long.  You can now design strings of any length greater than 0.1m.
  • The Civil 3D Surface command now includes only string based surfaces for export (because this command writes out breaklines to Civil 3D)

KNOWN ISSUES V21.21

  • Civil 3D Pipe Network Creation Tools
    • Inlet/Outlet type parts are not supported at this time.
    • If there is no match between a Civil Site Design part and a Civil 3D part, no pipes or structures will be created
    • Pipe Data Source is not managed at the time of creating the profile views – the first network will automatically be assigned. Pipe Data source needs to be manually set by the user post creation of the profile views
    • Alignments created by the software will not trace curved pipes – geometry will consist of a straight line between structures.
    • Selecting surface profiles at the time of creating the Civil 3D pipe network is a once off assignment. This cannot be changed by using Manage Network and updating. The Profiles will need to be deleted and recreated. To do this:
      • Delete all Profiles for the Pipe Network
      • Use the Manage Networks to Update the Pipe Network with the desired surface.
    • If the Civil 3D pipe network is created and then curved pipe/s are applied in Civil Site Design (replacing previously straight line pipes) the user will need to delete that Civil 3D pipe in the drawing and run the Sync Networks command to create the curved pipe.
  • Cul-de-sac creation
    • It is possible that upon first creation of a Cul-de-sac, the centre line string of the incoming road may extend through the cul-de-sacs and result in crossing strings in Totalmodel.  Reviewing the Cul-de-sac geometry and string creation settings and then Updating the string should resolve the issue.
  • Knuckle creation: Widening Options
    • Using the widening option of Move the ‘Match to Code’ may result in unexpected elevation changes at the start/end of the knuckle if the adjacent road elevations are adjusted.
      • If this widening option is desired it is recommended instead to select “None” and then use Variations and Batter overrides on the Road to associate the EB code to the knuckle string.  Section edits over the knuckle range would include: Variation > Set Code Offsets &/or Levels to String, then Variation > Delete All Sections Outside Selected Codes to remove codes outside of the EB code, then Batters > Slope Batters (set the side with the knuckle to have blank entries for cut/fill).
  • Export Corridor
    • Regions are created to support changes in default widths on the template – this is deliberate to help speed up the corridor (by reducing the number of parameter overrides)
    • It is recommended that when exporting a corridor that includes a cul-de-sac with offset geometry, the Apply targets to cul-de-sac settings be un-ticked.  Applying targets to cul-de-sacs in this case will likely result in errors in the exported corridor.  Users can review the Corridor Settings to change this option and then run Sync Corridors to update the corridor in the drawing.
  • Exchange Settings
    • If Subassembly Composer was used to create the desired subassembly, it is recommended to use the Import PKT option when selecting the subassembly, and not selecting it from the Tool Palette it may have been added to. If the subassembly doesn’t live in a Catalog (even though it may be in a tool palette) it will not work in the corridor.

It is likely that a message will display when using Select Subassembly, about providing read/write access to certain folders. The software is trying to access all folders that contain subassembly catalogs and finding issue – follow the instructions in the message to resolve the issue. This does not stop you from exporting corridors, but may limit the list of subassemblies you can use.

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