Thirty years ago, the method used to prepare land development plans was relatively the same as it had been for hundreds of years: plans were drawn on paper, providing only a two-dimensional depiction of what was to be built. The information that existed for the design was limited to what could be displayed on paper. Then, with the advent of computers, something magical started to happen. Virtual versions of design components could be modeled electronically. They could be represented in all three dimensions and even have additional information attached to them. Now, instead of using an ink line on paper to represent a pipe, you could do it with a 3D cylinder that also stored the pipe’s material, structural characteristics, and flow characteristics. This “smart” object could be ported to hydraulic design software for further analysis in conjunction with local rainfall data to determine whether it was large enough to handle a storm with a specific likelihood of occurring within the life span of the pipe. And so on, and so on.
Thus, in 30 years we have progressed from ink on paper to 3D intelligent objects. The step from drawing with a pen to drawing with a mouse came early in that evolution—not 3D or intelligent, but lines on a screen that could be printed. Civil 3D contains all of the basic tools to represent your design in this manner, and unfortunately, many users are creating only basic 2D drawings even though they have access to the dynamic 3D environment that you’ve seen in this chapter. My sincere hope is that you will not be this type of end user, but that instead you will squeeze every dynamic relationship possible into the models that you build with Civil 3D. You may not realize the full potential of the dynamic relationships that you build until you have the opportunity to use them, but you can bet that they will pay dividends on every single project.
Building your designs as dynamic models does take a bit more effort and time, but as you develop more and more skills, this extra time and effort becomes a smaller fraction of the overall process. The resulting models will be much more useful, much more information rich, and much more valuable to your clients and the other parties involved in your projects. There’s no telling how this information will be used, but one thing is for sure: It won’t be used at all if it’s not there.Examples of Putting Dynamic Models to Use
Here are a few examples of putting dynamic models to use.Building Information Modeling
Building information modeling (BIM) has been a hot topic in the design, construction, and facilities management fields for quite some time now. Although some would argue that Civil 3D has little to do with the B (building), it definitely has the I (information) and the M (modeling) aspects. Many civil engineering projects are incidental to building construction and therefore present an opportunity for Civil 3D models to be integrated with BIM. No model, no BIM.GPS-Guided Machine Control
Imagine being able to download the instructions to assemble your bike and then upload them to your own personal robot, which would assemble it for you. That might sound like science fiction, but something similar to that is common practice in the land development industry. Models built with Civil 3D are being uploaded to GPS-guided earthmoving machines. These giant “robots” synchronize GPS-based locations of themselves and their digging implements with the dimensions of the Civil 3D model until the real dirt and rock are a match to the model. Without a model, there is no GPS-guided machine control.Construction Simulation
If you think about it, one thing that Civil 3D enables you to do is to simulate the project before having the contractor attempt to build it in the field. Why do this? It’s a lot cheaper to undo a CAD command than to undo the placement of several truckloads of concrete. Contractors are taking this one step further by simulating the construction itself. The sequence of operations, staging of materials, arrangement of equipment, and many other aspects can all be simulated with several products available on the market. These 4D (3D + time) or even 5D (3D + time + cost) simulations are becoming commonplace in nearly all major construction projects. No model, no simulation.Visualization
Visualization is itself a form of simulation. With design software now commonly producing 3D models, the leap to 3D visualization is much shorter and easier to accomplish than ever before. Clients, review agencies, and the public are now beginning to expect renderings and even animations of proposed designs to be available for them to assess. No model, no visualization.
In addition, building designs as dynamic models improves the quality and efficiency of the design process. Designers who make full use of the dynamic model produce better designs by creating more design iterations and what-if scenarios than those who don’t. They can respond more quickly to design changes, reducing the overall cost involved in designing the project and increasing the bottom line. Leveraging the dynamic model isn’t just cool, it’s also practical and very smart from a business perspective.