1 CV3042 – Producing Compelling Visualization for Civil Engineering Project Proposals Summary This class concentrates primarily on the production of compelling visualizations of AutoCAD Civil 3D‐derived civil engineering projects, using Autodesk 3ds Max Design and Dynamite VSP from 3AM Solutions. Dynamite VSP is a third‐party product from 3AM Solutions that runs inside Autodesk 3ds Max Design. The product streamlines the process of passing AutoCAD Civil 3D data into Autodesk 3ds Max Design. It also revolutionises the process of populating the scene with further 3D content ‐ allowing virtually anybody to produce compelling visualizations of civil engineering projects large and small. Dynamite VSP is unique in its ability to react to frequent design changes in AutoCAD Civil 3D. This opens the potential for visualization to become an integral part of the design process, allowing Autodesk 3ds Max Design based civil visualizations to evolve in tandem with AutoCAD Civil 3D based design models. The presenter of this class is Bruce Harfield ‐ the original driving force behind the development of Dynamite VSP. Before founding 3AM Solutions, Bruce gained many years of experience in the civil engineering industry, specialising in the field of highway design. Bruce is joined by Jack Strongitharm and Jamie Gwilliam – both Application Engineers at Autodesk in the UK. They will be providing specific product knowledge on AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk 3ds Max Design respectively. 2 Industry and Product Terminology The primary target audience for this document is civil engineering professionals using AutoCAD Civil 3D. The document intentionally uses terminology familiar to civil engineers, and more specifically to AutoCAD Civil 3D users. One of the challenges in communicating a design visualization workflow to a civil engineering audience is the key difference between terminology generally encountered in AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk 3ds Max Design. The terminology used in this class draws from both products in order to accommodate the most appropriate terms relevant to the application being used in each part of the workflow. For a quick reference to the key AutoCAD Civil 3D terminology and 3ds Max Design equivalents used, refer to the Appendix at the end of this handout. While this document refers to AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk 3ds Max Design specifically, the techniques described are also applicable to both AutoCAD Civil and Autodesk 3ds Max software. What is Dynamite VSP? Dynamite VSP is designed specifically to simplify and expedite the process of visualising civil engineering projects in Autodesk 3ds Max Design. The flow of civil design data and other content into Dynamite VSP It features strong integration with AutoCAD Civil 3D, allowing all the benefits of 3D modelling in AutoCAD Civil 3D to be harnessed for the production of high‐quality visualizations. It also features a custom user interface inside Autodesk 3ds Max Design which is tailored specifically for the needs of the civil engineer. Materials are assigned and managed automatically, and a unique style or template driven approach means that populating the scene with 3D content can be almost entirely automated. Adding further content to a visualisation in Dynamite VSP is very easy. Content such as lighting columns, road markings and animated vehicles retain a dependency on the paths of imported alignments and feature lines from AutoCAD Civil 3D. This means that as projects evolve and highway alignments and other details are refined, the visualization adapts to those changes automatically. 3 Preparing the model in AutoCAD Civil 3D This stage of the demonstration will cover some recommendations on how to best structure your civil design model in AutoCAD Civil 3D in order to prevent subsequent roadblocks in the visualization process. Corridor Surfaces There is no need to generate a corridor surface in AutoCAD Civil 3D in order to ensure that a surface is available for export to Dynamite VSP. The VSP3D File Ex porter for Civil 3D features its own corridor surface generator which negates the need for an AutoCAD Civil 3D user to generate corridor surfaces. This allows the DWG file to be optimised for design/drawing purposes without the need for carrying the overhead/burden of defining traditional AutoCAD Civil 3D corridor surfaces. If traditional corridor surfaces do exist in the active DWG file, they should not be selected for export to avoid the possibility of duplicate corridor surfaces being written to the VSP3D file. Hide Boundaries In any AutoCAD Civil 3D model, the existing ground surface which immediately surrounds the main design forms an essential part of the context of the site. In AutoCAD Civil 3D, this surface usually needs to have cut‐outs applied (or hide boundaries) for all areas in which new roads or design surfaces have been defined. If hide boundaries are not generated, parts of the design which fall below the existing ground surface will not be visible in the visualization. Currently, the generation of hide boundaries in AutoCAD Civil 3D is a manual process which must be re‐applied by the user each time the design is modified. The “MarkPoint” Subassembly This subassembly is used to mark any existing point on an assembly with a custom point code. This is ideal for causing feature lines to be generated with a specific label at any location on a corridor assembly, making it ideal for the generation of road marking feature lines. 4 The “GenericPavementStructure” Subassembly Individual link codes within subassembly definitions in AutoCAD Civil 3D are used to determine material assignments applied to each part of the corridor surface on import into Dynamite VSP. For a detailed definition of subassemblies and links, refer to the Appendix at the end of this handout. In many subassemblies, these link codes are hardcoded as part of the subassembly definition itself. If you require more control over the individual link code s in a corridor assembly, consider using subassemblies that allow users to define their own custom link codes. A good example is the GenericPavementStructure subassembly which can be used to represent a simple road structure with user‐definable point, link, and shape codes. GenericPavementStructure Subassembly Properties showing the use of user‐definable link codesThe GenericPavementStructure Subassembly 5 The Data Transfer
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