Poly In 3D: Pipe Network

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Electrical Duct Banks in Civil 3D

I often have to model electrical duct banks for utility layouts and conflict resolution. I do not have access to duct bank design software and Civil 3D gravity pipes and pressure pipes may not work in all scenarios. I came up with alternate solution that will generate a 3D model to utilize in the BIM world. Here is a fast and easy way to create and electrical duct bank utilizing Civil 3D Corridors and Storm Junction Structures. Since everyone has different Civil 3D styles, use your company's standard styles or create new electrical styles. I assume the user has a working knowledge of Civil 3D for this exercise.

In this exercise, I will utilize Civil 3D alignments, profiles, assemblies, corridors, pipe networks and surfaces.

Creating the Electrical Duct Bank.

1. Create the electrical duct bank Alignment(s).

2. Create Profile(s) from the alignment. Select the necessary surfaces. Existing and finished grades surfaces.

3. Create the Profile View(s).

4. Select the Profile View then create two separate top and bottom duct bank profiles using the Profile Creation Tool.

5. Create an electrical duct bank Assembly for the bottom and sides. The assembly in this exercise is 3'x2.5'

a. Use the Generic Link Width and Slope sub-assembly for the left and right bottom and sides.

b. Set the left and right side wall sub-assemblies to a width of 0.01 and slope of 25000.00% to create the 2.5' tall duct bank.

6. Create a duct bank Assembly for the top. The top is 3.02' wide due to the left and right side wall sub-assemblies slopes.

a. Use the Generic Link Width and Slope sub-assembly for the left and right top.

7. Create a corridor for the electrical duct bank bottom and sides.

a. Select the duct bank alignment.

b. Select the duct bank bottom profile.

c. Select the duct bank bottom assembly.

8. Create a second corridor for the electrical duct bank top.

a. Select the duct bank alignment.

b. Select the duct bank top profile.

c. Select the duct bank top assembly.

9. Adjust both top and bottom corridor frequency as needed. I set it to 5.00'.

10. Create TIN surfaces from the top and bottom corridors.

11. Create surface boundaries for each surface. Use Corridor extents as outer boundaries.

Creating Electrical Duct Bank Manhole Structures

1. Create a Pipe Network, call it DUCTBANK.

2. Select the 48"x48" Rectangular Junction Structure. (Change structure size as needed.)

3. Delete the pipes as I'm only utilizing the structures from the network.

4. Adjust the structure height as needed per specification. (Use Rim to Sump.)

5. Draw/Add the structures parts to the electrical duct bank profile. (Label as needed.)

Notes:

Other Assembly options are to create custom duct bank sub-assemblies.
Data Shortcuts can be created of all objects for use in other drawings and profiles.
The objects can also be exported to other software such as InfraWorks, 3D Studio Max and Navisworks.

The electrical duct bank surfaces referenced in a storm sewer profile.

Tip: Be sure to properly name all the Civil 3D objects.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Civil 3D Reference Pipe Network Issue

So I’ve been trying to resolve the Civil 3D Reference Pipe Network issue. If you are not aware of the issue, when you synchronize the reference pipe network, the layers and styles are reset back to default. I think I have a fix for it. As I was poking around in the data shortcut XML file for the pipe network, I decided to change the a few settings. I know there is a notice in the XML file to “” but this was on a test file. I changed the Layer and useLayer settings within DisplayProperties. The only thing is I'm not sure where the settings are in Civil 3D to have it change this are of the XML file.

Here are the steps for the test.

· I created two different pipe networks in a source file called Existing Network – 1 and Existing Network – 2.

· Created the data shortcuts.

· I modified the XML for Existing Network – 1 as shown below.

· Created the reference networks into a new file.

· Changed the layer and style of the pipes and structures to meet my needs.

· Flipped over to the source file and clicked save.

· Flipped back to the reference file to synchronize the pipe networks.

· Existing Network – 1 retained the layers and styles and Existing Network – 2 was set back to default.

Below is the modified pipe network XML and the default XML. The modifications are in bold and red.

Modified XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

Default XML: