Update to Set Working Folder Dialog

Set Working Folder Uses File Open Style Dialog

A new feature of Civil 3D 2019 is an update to the Set Working Folder dialog. Previously it was strictly a browse and select folder dialog. As of Civil 3D 2019, the Set Working Folder dialog now resembles a File Open dialog.

This may seem like something small but for those of you that must drill multiple folders deep to select the Working Folder for a project, this new dialog is a nice improvement because now you can copy then paste a folder path from the Windows Explorer address bar into the Set Working Folder dialog address bar or Folder path.

Convert Survey Figures to Polylines

Sometimes survey figures are exactly what you want and other times you just want a polyline at elevation zero. If your like me, you created a figure style that flattens all elevations to zero then you exploded it. If that figure had an arcs, they became segmented like this:

I'm happy to report that there is a workflow to create these polylines with arcs from figures. I have confirmed that this workflow will work for versions 2016 through 2019. Note that the polylines will not update if the survey figure changes and is updated in the drawing.

Create a 2D figure style in your template

1. In your template, expand the Toolspace > Settings tab > Survey > Figures category.
2. Right click on Figure Styles and choose New.





3. In the Figure Style dialog > Information tab, set the figure style name to 2D.





4. In the Figure Style dialog > 3D Geometry tab, set the Figure display mode to Flatten figure to elevation and confirm that the Flatten figure to elevation is set to 0.00.





5. In the Figure Style dialog > Display tab, change the layer, color, linetype, and so on to meet your CAD standards then click OK.
6. Right click on the Toolspace > Settings tab > Survey category and choose Edit Feature Settings.





7. In the Edit Feature Settings - Survey dialog, expand the Default Styles category and set the Default Figure Style to the 2D figure style you just created then click OK.





8. Save and close the template.

Export Survey Figures to Polylines at Elevation Zero

1. Begin a drawing with the template that contains the 2D figure style.
2. Open a survey database and import figures to the drawing. The default style should be the 2D figure style.
3. Set the UCS to World then save the drawing.
4. In the application menu, select Export > Export Civil 3D Drawing.





NOTE: Exploding figures using the 2D figure style will create polylines with segmented curves. That's why you'll need to use the Export Civil 3D Drawing command to get polylines with arcs.


5. In the Export Autodesk Civil 3D Drawing dialog, choose the folder for the exported drawing then click Export.





6. When the export is complete, click OK in the Export Status Dialog then Cancel in the Autodesk Civil 3D Drawing dialog.





7. Open the exported drawing and confirm that the figures were exported to polylines at elevation zero.
8. Select all the polylines representing exported figures and copy to the clipboard with a basepoint using SHIFT+CTRL+C and entering 0,0 as the base point.
9. If you are replacing the figures in the original drawing, you can now delete them.
10. In the original drawing, confirm that the UCS is set to World then use CTRL+V and enter 0,0 as the insertion point to paste the polylines into the correct location.
11. Save the drawing.

An alternate workflow might be to have a separate template for importing just figures into a temp drawing so that you can export them and they will be on the correct layer. For this you'll need separate figure styles for each type of figure/layer combination you need. Then you can choose to import figures into the original base drawing onto the feature line or equivalent layer and have them displayed as a 3d object instead of a 2D object.