Autodesk Civil 3D 2019.2 – Show Profile Crossings

This week, I would like to discuss a very useful feature enhancement included in the Autodesk Civil 3D 2019.2 update.  Because it is somewhat hidden in the ribbon, you will likely need to know about it to find it!

During the course of a design, it is very useful to display “linear” crossings in profile view.  We have always been able to show where pipes cross, but this tool is intended for items like alignments, other profiles, and feature lines.  Imagine you were designing a street that tied into an existing road.  It would be very beneficial to be able to display the edge of pavement of the existing road inside of the profile view.  A different example would be maybe you were working on a stream restoration and wanted to show the crossing alignment and profile of a roadway.  This task has historically been difficult in Civil 3D until this update.

To begin, you need a profile view to project into.  Using one of my example scenarios from above, the goal is to design the Ascent Boulevard corridor and tie into the Mission Avenue edge of pavement.

With a profile view selected, select the down arrow on the “Launch Pad” panel and select “Add Crossings to Profile View”

From there, pick the object(s) that you would like to project to the profile view.  There are object styles and label styles to control the display of the crossing objects.

Once projected, the objects appear as shown below:

Regarding the styles used, the crossing marker style is nothing more than a marker style found under the multipurpose styles collection.  The crossing label style can be found under profile view label styles.

Crossing alignments and profiles work in a similar manor except for the fact that since an alignment technically does not have an elevation, it shows up as a vertical line at the crossing point.

This just scratches the surface of the power of this tool, but hopefully it gets you thinking.  Best part is that if something changes, these will dynamically update too!

About the Author

Solutions Architect<br><br>As a Solutions Architect, Joe assists clients in developing implementation plans for Autodesk Infrastructure products as well as provides consulting services. <br><br>Joe has over 25 years of experience in land surveying and civil engineering encompassing field-data collection, site design and layout, residential subdivision design, and land planning. He is an EIT and a licensed land surveyor in Virginia, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering Technology from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. <br><br>

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