File Getting Big? Use Data Shortcuts

Files in Civil 3D can grow very quickly when dealing with large surfaces or long corridors. This is where we need to take advantage of the Data Shortcuts in our Civil 3D software.

Here we have an example of a project containing a good amount of roadway design, along with a couple very large surfaces. You can see the file is beginning to become a decent size file. Sitting at 43MB, the file is definitely not too big for Civil 3D to handle (60MB seems to be pushing it).

This is a good opportunity for us to break this into a few pieces to up the performance and ensure our data is safe.

When using Data Shortcuts we have the option of using four different types of data. The data that we can use this tool with are Surfaces, Alignments, Pipes and View Frame Groups. One immediate thing you will notice is that corridors are not an option. This is ok though, as we can simply edit the drawing that the corridor lives in and see that Corridor Surfaces update in our drawing where it is referenced. In the picture below you will also see the different options available to us on how we can use the Shortcuts. We can create references of our existing ground to project grading too, without the extra weight in the file. We have the option to open the Source Drawing which will allow us to edit items that define the object that may not be available through the Shortcuts, for example, Corridor Surfaces which are obviously dependant on the Corridor itself. Dont forget that we can also promote items that will provide us with a full working object in our current drawing.

Another added benefit would be the ease of having all this data at few clicks. This means that you could potentially compare two different design strategies very quickly, on everything from roadway design to calculating and diverting natural watersheds. That's enough about what they can do, lets see how easy they work.

First thing is setting up the working folder where this data will be stored at.  First we must establish a working folder. To do this, right click on the Data Shortcuts in the Prospector Tab once we choose a general folder to set, and then we are one step closer to our goal.


After the working folder is set we simply choose to create a New Data Shortcuts folder using the same right click option from the working folder.

After we give it the name test you can see the change in the prospector. Now our Data Shortcuts folder contains the path to our Data. Now we do our work and perform another right click when we are finished to create the LandXML files that will be used to store our objects in.

Once we right click Data Shortcuts again we can choose to Create Data Shortcuts, which will prompt a dialog seen below.



At this point we pick and choose what items we would like to have available at anytime and the files are generated and neatly compiled in the specified folder. Now we can use any method discussed earlier to bring in and use Data in a very quick and easy way that saves time, increases design analysis and reduces file size all at the same time.
 

 

This page last edited on Thursday, June 03, 2010