Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Editing Alignments
Of course, nobody gets it right the first time. As a general rule, you'll find your-
self laying things out about 10 percent of the time and spending the remaining
90 percent making edits. That's totally OK; it's the way Civil 3D was designed to
be used. In fact, it's highly recommended that you do a rough layout of the basic
design elements at the beginning of a project and then spend the rest of the time
adjusting, refining, and improving that initial layout until it's the way it needs to
be. This is also a great approach because it matches up with the general nature of
land-development designs, which typically change frequently throughout the life
of the project.
Editing Alignments with Grips
As you learned in the first section of this chapter, alignments are different.
They're smarter and more sophisticated than basic AutoCAD entities. They
have more types of grips, and the way they respond to geometric changes
is more intelligent. You can leverage this to make quick visual edits to your
alignment without ever typing a number or entering a command.
Exercise 5.3: Experiment with Alignment Grips
In this exercise, you'll experiment with the different grips that can be used for
editing alignments.
If you haven't already done so, go to the topic's web page at
www.sybex.com/
go/civil3d2015essentials
a
nd download the files for Chapter 5. Unzip the files
to the correct location on your hard drive according to the instructions in the
introduction. Then, follow these steps:
1.
Open the drawing named
Graphical Editing.dwg
located in the
Chapter 05
class data folder.
▶
2.
Click the Jordan Court alignment to display its grips. Click the upright
triangular grip on the second curve, and move your cursor to a new
location without clicking the new location.
This grip is located at the PI. As you move it, the curve always
remains tangent and the radius of the curve remains constant (see
Figure 5.4).
This exercise goes more
smoothly if Osnaps are
turned off. If they are
turned on, you can press
F3 to turn them off.
3.
Press Esc, and click the circular grip at either end of the curve. Move
your cursor to a different location without clicking.
