Resources » How-Tos » Civil 3D – Volumes Dashboard vs Composite Volumes

Civil 3D – Volumes Dashboard vs Composite Volumes

Leo Lavayen

Autodesk Civil 3D provides great tools for calculating surface volumes.  Early releases of Civil 3D (pre-2012) analyzed composite Surface volumes in the Panorama vista as a simple calculator. Whereas since 2012, when comparing surfaces in the dashboard a Volume Surfaces will be created.

Surface Volumes:  THEN the Composite Volumes tab

The command used to be found from the Ribbon Analyze tab > Volumes and Materials panel > Volumes button > will open the Panorama vista.  Once the panel is closed the window will reset itself.

01-VOL

The question is, “Can we still get the old Panorama vista, that only computes and does not create surfaces?”  From the command line use the  REPORTSURFACEVOLUME command.

Surface Volumes:  NOW the Volumes Dashboard tab

From the Ribbon Analyze tab > Volumes and Materials panel > Volumes Dashboard button > will open the Panorama vista.  This will create a New Volume Surface and keep track of it.

02-VOL

If a Volume type surface is created it can be added here.  Also, the function of creating area-specific Bounding Volumes is an option.

About the Author

Leo Lavayen

Civil Applications Expert<br><br>As an Applications Expert, Leo is responsible for supporting, training and implementation of software for survey and civil engineering professionals. He has more than 19 years of experience helping large and small, public and private clients in the eastern United States.

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