Project Explorer is an application that is used to manage the content of Civil 3D models and provide reports. The user interface was presented in last week’s blog, Project Explorer for Civil 3D – Part 1, and I recommend reading it if you missed it.
Part 2 will introduce the various features and tools used to edit and, in some instances, create Civil 3D objects from within Project Explorer, further promoting the efficiency the application provides by having these tools in a single interface and reducing the time spent searching through the toolspace and dialogs.
Object Editing Features
Object parameters displayed in a color and with a white background on the object or sub-object panes can be edited by double clicking on the parameter. Any change to a parameter's value is immediate and can be seen in Project Explorer and in Civil 3D directly. The following example shows how the Default Slope of a subassembly in the open Civil 3D drawing can be edited.
Certain object types have editing features that are specific to them such as surfaces, feature lines, and pipe networks.
Surface and Feature Line elevations can be adjusted by right clicking on the name of the object in the object pane and selecting the desired tool from the menu that opens.
Within the Pipe Networks sub-object pane there is a Pipe Run tab, right click on a pipe and select Set Pipe Slope/Elevation to launch a dialog to edit the pipe parameters. This tool allows you to set the slope or elevations for the selected pipe. On a larger scale, there is a button on the view toolbar labeled Edit Pipe Run that will open a dialog that provides the ability to set a slope or change elevations across the entire run of the network selected in the object pane.
Editing Object’s Assigned Styles
Often, we need to change how an object is displayed in Civil 3D by setting it to a different style. There are several ways to make that happen, however, there are times when we need to change the assigned style on multiple objects at a time and Project Explorer can do that. Highlight the multiple objects you want to change the style of then right click to open the menu. There are various options to set styles, descriptions, and more depending on the type of object that is selected.
These are some examples of the types of edits that can be made to Civil 3D objects with Project Explorer and it is recommended to explore the tool to find even more capabilities. I really like that it can remain open on another screen and accessible when needed rather than having to select objects, open and close dialogs etc. to gather information or make adjustments to my design. Hopefully, this series has been helpful so far. Next week look for Part 3 discussing the reporting tools in Project Explorer.
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