Corridor outputs...

[whf]

I am wondering about the data export capabilities of civil 3d. Is there a way to generate corridor data reports (i.e. curb, sidewalk, road surface & base volumes, surface areas, linear feet, etc.)? We would like to streamline/customize or system so that all entities can have meta data attached to them, so that when they are placed in a drawing, a report can automatically be generated populated with user defined data or feature data. For instance, in addition to generating take-offs for feature data (c&g vols, etc.), we would like to attach data to, say, a fire hydrant block, so that every instance of a fire hydrant placed in the drawing would populate a table that could be outputted to a data base file. It would also be nice if we were able to attach parameter variables to these entities, such as defining a parameter that would indicate when/where/how many mega-lugs were required for each hydrant so that when the hydrant was placed, a table would also be populated with the required appurtenances for the entity being installed based on our user defined parameters. If anyone has any experience with this type of data linking, or has tried with no luck, please let me know. Any input on this is greatly appreciated, as this is something that could potentially greatly streamline our bidding/procurement process and is something that we have been trying to incorporate for some time. Thanks for your time.

Bill Fellman

[MHultgren]

Bill,
This could be accomplished using Map to pull the Xdata from the Points that you could place with the Hydrant symbol. Maybe look at using Topologies to add the Megalug info to the pipe joints? Then build your Link template and export to your DB.

[whf]

Hi Mark,

Thanks. But could the point be bound to the hydrant block, rather than placing a certain point for every entity that I wanted to take off? I'm not real familiar with how civil 3d handles point creation (I'm just now switching from LDD to civil 3d). I just don't see a "check points" command anywhere...I assume it is now automatic, but I don't know if it would even recognize a point embedded in a block (or how it would handle point numbering). Also, I am still left needing take-offs for curb & gutter, pave, etc. I know that I could just generate some offset alignments to output and then run a little routine to output all of my volumes/surface areas/etc., but it just seems that there would be an easier way within civil 3d without having to generate hundreds of alignments to sift through....

Bill

[MHultgren]

Hi Bill,
You might want to check out these two KB artciles to see if they will get you started down thew road to automation a little easier 8)
Cogo and LandXML (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?id=6057462&linkID=3549480&siteID=123112)
Custom Description Columns (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?id=5680925&linkID=3549480&siteID=123112)
Hope they help. If not, I would look at using the topology approach for your curb and gutter quatities.

[backwoods]

I am not sure off hand about the fire hydrants, cause honestly I have not done enough to be familiar with the parameters of installation requirements. But the power of corridors is really unbelievable.

by the way you worded your original post, it sounds as though you have already used corridors to generate your quantitiy take-off reports and so forth, and as was mentioned previously, xml is a great way to export that data in a clean report.

I will have to do a little thinking about the hydrants.