Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
project. In Chapter 9, “Designing in 3D Using Corridors,” you created a corridor
surface to represent the model of the roads. This approach of designing the shape
of the terrain in parts is common and recommended. For even the most talented
designer, it's difficult to design all aspects of a project at once. It's easier, and often
more efficient, to divide the design into “mini-designs” such as the road, lots, and
pond that you experienced for yourself.
Once the parts are in place, it's then time to combine them into one master
surface. To accomplish this, you use a simple but very powerful capability of
surfaces in Civil 3D:
pasting
. Just as you're able to paste a paragraph of text into
a document, you can paste one surface into another. The similarities between
surfaces and documents end there, however. For example, when you paste one
surface into another, the pasted version is a live copy of the original, meaning
if the original is modified, the pasted version is also modified. To find the com-
mand to paste surfaces, right-click Edits in a surface in Prospector or choose
the Surfaces ribbon tab (see Figure 18.1).
FiGuRE 18.1
The Paste Surface command, located in a Prospector
context menu (left) and the Surface ribbon tab (right)
When you're working with multiple pasted surfaces, you can use the order in
which they are pasted to achieve a desired result. The way this works is that when
two overlapping surfaces are pasted, the second one overwrites the first in the
area where they overlap. You can control the order in which surfaces are pasted
on the Definition tab of the Surface Properties dialog box (see Figure 18.2). Here
you can rearrange the order of operations not just for pasting surfaces, but for
other operations as well.
