What is Civil 3D?

We’ve all heard the term BIM being thrown around for quite some time now. In general, BIM is the process typically applied to and associated with intelligently and dynamically designing an actual building or structure, where architects/engineers and designers can visualize and anticipate the true constructability of a project.

On the survey and civil engineering side, we’ve been generating, designing, and modeling everything outside buildings/structures in a 3D environment for just as long, if not longer, than the term BIM has been around. However, for one reason or another, these designs have not typically been viewed as BIM by the vast majority.

This is where Autodesk’s Civil 3D comes into the picture. Civil 3D is essentially a BIM design authoring tool that fully supports both surveying and civil engineering designs. When utilized the right way, we have the power to create and manage intelligently designed models, perform cost estimations, interfence checks/clash detections, prepare our models for construction sequencing, and even perform asset management integrations well beyond design.

It’s important to note that Autodesk’s Civil 3D is considered a vertical application of Autodesk’s AutoCAD. A vertical application in this context essentially means that Civil 3D is built on top of AutoCAD, thereby still providing a lot of 2D-focused tools and functionality. To make the transition from 2D to 3D, we’ll need to realize the separation of where the content resides and how the application of tools differs in each world. Throughout the course of this book, I will cover both 2D and 3D applications of design intent to provide a bit more insight as to how and when to apply each of them.

Historically, it is always recommended that anyone looking to fully utilize Civil 3D should have a basic understanding of AutoCAD to establish that foundation. Depending on the individual learning, that concept is more frequently dismissed as it has the potential to root bad design habits in those not willing to fully embrace the 3D world. As Civil 3D continues to evolve and become more of a model-centric focused design authoring tool, the industry has a much better opportunity to fully embrace the concept of BIM and design with intelligence from the beginning.

What types of BIM projects can Civil 3D manage?

When trying to determine how Civil 3D can best be utilized from a design standpoint, we’re going to break down the tools and functionality into the following three main design categories or markets: land development, utilities, and transportation. In addition to the three main design categories, it’s important to realize all projects, whether building or infrastructure, rely upon existing conditions, and Civil 3D is a great partner for hosting these parameters as well as modeling new ones for a complementary design to the interior of the structure. This added benefit is heavily relied on and supported in the surveying industry as well.

In this course, we’ll cover all four of these categories in great length as follows:

• From a surveying perspective, we’ll cover tools that allow for full integration of survey databases, field books, existing conditions modeling, and even point cloud integration from drone and laser scan technology. Any BIM design being generated can only be as accurate as the survey and existing conditions model, making these early steps critical to successful design downstream.
• From a land development perspective, we’ll cover methods that allow a wide array of civil site designs including subdivisions, residential/commercial sites, parks, and even environmental designs.
• From a utility perspective, we’ll cover tools and functionality that support storm drainage, sanitary sewer, waterline, and natural gas designs.
• From a transportation perspective, we’ll cover tools and functionality that support roadway designs, rehabilitations, and access roads. Additionally, we’ll cover tips and tricks on how some of these tools can be applied in civil site designs and even stream and restoration projects.

Understanding real-world applications of any new technology solution is critical from an overall adoption and implementation standpoint. Throughout this book, especially as we dive deeper into the specific tools and functionality of Autodesk’s Civil 3D, we’ll begin to understand how and why it is viewed as a leading design authoring tool supporting the AEC industry.

Let’s go ahead and jump into the program to begin to familiarize ourselves with the user interface to get an idea of where to locate all of the tools and functionality available to us.