• Civil 3D

Create a corridor and a surface for a 3D road model

Create a corridor for your 3D road model in Civil 3D, and create a surface for the road.


00:03

A Civil 3D corridor combines horizontal alignments, vertical profiles,

00:08

and cross-sectional assemblies to create a 3D representation of your project.

00:14

This enables you to visualize the entire design

00:17

and ensure that all components work together seamlessly.

00:21

Advantages to corridors include integrated design and visualization,

00:26

dynamic and parametric design capabilities,

00:29

and accurate earthwork calculations.

00:32

You can also use a corridor to easily create a surface for your model.

00:37

To create a corridor for a 3D road model in Civil 3D,

00:42

first, you must have a horizontal alignment, a vertical profile,

00:46

and an assembly already designed, as in the drawing for this example.

00:51

From the ribbon, Home tab, Create Design panel, expand Corridor, and select Corridor.

00:59

In the Create Corridor dialog, specify a Name, add a Description,

01:05

choose the Corridor style, and select the Code set style.

01:09

By default, Alignment, Profile, and Assembly are all set to None.

01:15

To select an alignment, in the Alignment column, click the Select icon.

01:21

You are prompted to pick an alignment in the drawing.

01:25

Since the selected alignment has an associated profile, in the Select Profile list,

01:30

select the appropriate profile.

01:34

Back in the table, click Select in the Assembly column.

01:38

In the drawing, zoom in to locate the marker, then click it to select the assembly.

01:45

Your alignment, profile, and assembly are now set.

01:50

Click OK.

01:52

The Baseline and Region Parameters dialog opens,

01:56

where you can set the targets for your corridor.

01:59

Note that in this example, the selected assembly has daylight lines that need to know what to target,

02:05

so there is an exclamation point indicating that this region is out of date.

02:10

To resolve this issue, select Set all Targets.

02:14

The Target Mapping dialog appears, allowing you to set Offset, Elevation, and Surface targets.

02:21

From the Surface tab, set the target to the existing ground, or EG,

02:26

for both the right and left sides of the Daylight Basin subassembly.

02:32

For each Target Surface Row, expand the Target drop-down and select EG.

02:38

Click OK, then click OK again to rebuild the corridor.

02:44

If prompted that the corridor is out of date, select Rebuild the corridor.

02:50

In the drawing, notice that the corridor model now overlays the alignment.

02:56

To view the model in 3D, select the corridor, then right-click and select Object Viewer.

03:04

Review the 3D model and 2D line work, and then close the Object Viewer.

03:12

You currently have a road model, but with no surface,

03:16

so the next step is to create a surface from the corridor.

03:21

In the drawing, select the corridor model.

03:24

Then, on the contextual ribbon, in the Modify Corridor panel, click Corridor Surfaces.

03:31

In the Corridor Surfaces dialog, expand the Specify code drop-down to choose an option for creating the surface.

03:39

For example, if you want it to represent where you need to grade down to

03:43

before building up the road with base and subbase materials,

03:47

choose Datum elevation.

03:49

Here, you just want the top surface, so select Top.

03:54

Click Create a Corridor Surface,

03:56

and then click Add surface item to add the chosen codes to the surface.

04:02

Click OK.

04:04

Back in the drawing, notice that since the road in this example is U-shaped,

04:08

there is an issue with the contours crossing through the middle area.

04:12

To avoid this, return to the Corridor Surface dialog.

04:17

On the Boundaries tab, right-click the boundary and select Add corridor extents as boundary, then click OK.

04:27

In the confirmation dialog, select Rebuild the corridor.

04:32

As you can see, the contours are now corrected.

04:37

Select the surface and open the Object Viewer

04:40

again to see the surface and corridor model together.

04:43

Now you can combine a horizontal alignment, a vertical profile,

04:48

and a cross-sectional assembly to create a 3D corridor model in Civil 3D.

Video transcript

00:03

A Civil 3D corridor combines horizontal alignments, vertical profiles,

00:08

and cross-sectional assemblies to create a 3D representation of your project.

00:14

This enables you to visualize the entire design

00:17

and ensure that all components work together seamlessly.

00:21

Advantages to corridors include integrated design and visualization,

00:26

dynamic and parametric design capabilities,

00:29

and accurate earthwork calculations.

00:32

You can also use a corridor to easily create a surface for your model.

00:37

To create a corridor for a 3D road model in Civil 3D,

00:42

first, you must have a horizontal alignment, a vertical profile,

00:46

and an assembly already designed, as in the drawing for this example.

00:51

From the ribbon, Home tab, Create Design panel, expand Corridor, and select Corridor.

00:59

In the Create Corridor dialog, specify a Name, add a Description,

01:05

choose the Corridor style, and select the Code set style.

01:09

By default, Alignment, Profile, and Assembly are all set to None.

01:15

To select an alignment, in the Alignment column, click the Select icon.

01:21

You are prompted to pick an alignment in the drawing.

01:25

Since the selected alignment has an associated profile, in the Select Profile list,

01:30

select the appropriate profile.

01:34

Back in the table, click Select in the Assembly column.

01:38

In the drawing, zoom in to locate the marker, then click it to select the assembly.

01:45

Your alignment, profile, and assembly are now set.

01:50

Click OK.

01:52

The Baseline and Region Parameters dialog opens,

01:56

where you can set the targets for your corridor.

01:59

Note that in this example, the selected assembly has daylight lines that need to know what to target,

02:05

so there is an exclamation point indicating that this region is out of date.

02:10

To resolve this issue, select Set all Targets.

02:14

The Target Mapping dialog appears, allowing you to set Offset, Elevation, and Surface targets.

02:21

From the Surface tab, set the target to the existing ground, or EG,

02:26

for both the right and left sides of the Daylight Basin subassembly.

02:32

For each Target Surface Row, expand the Target drop-down and select EG.

02:38

Click OK, then click OK again to rebuild the corridor.

02:44

If prompted that the corridor is out of date, select Rebuild the corridor.

02:50

In the drawing, notice that the corridor model now overlays the alignment.

02:56

To view the model in 3D, select the corridor, then right-click and select Object Viewer.

03:04

Review the 3D model and 2D line work, and then close the Object Viewer.

03:12

You currently have a road model, but with no surface,

03:16

so the next step is to create a surface from the corridor.

03:21

In the drawing, select the corridor model.

03:24

Then, on the contextual ribbon, in the Modify Corridor panel, click Corridor Surfaces.

03:31

In the Corridor Surfaces dialog, expand the Specify code drop-down to choose an option for creating the surface.

03:39

For example, if you want it to represent where you need to grade down to

03:43

before building up the road with base and subbase materials,

03:47

choose Datum elevation.

03:49

Here, you just want the top surface, so select Top.

03:54

Click Create a Corridor Surface,

03:56

and then click Add surface item to add the chosen codes to the surface.

04:02

Click OK.

04:04

Back in the drawing, notice that since the road in this example is U-shaped,

04:08

there is an issue with the contours crossing through the middle area.

04:12

To avoid this, return to the Corridor Surface dialog.

04:17

On the Boundaries tab, right-click the boundary and select Add corridor extents as boundary, then click OK.

04:27

In the confirmation dialog, select Rebuild the corridor.

04:32

As you can see, the contours are now corrected.

04:37

Select the surface and open the Object Viewer

04:40

again to see the surface and corridor model together.

04:43

Now you can combine a horizontal alignment, a vertical profile,

04:48

and a cross-sectional assembly to create a 3D corridor model in Civil 3D.

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