I admit it may be too early for a "how-to" for Civil 3D 2007 given the minor technicality that it has not officially been released yet. Well, here we go...

I was asked a question several times in 06 version if we could simply offset an alignment and turn it into a pipe network, we could not in 06. Now in 07, we can with a few simple commands.

1. Use the AutoCAD offset command to offset your alignment to the desired side and offset. The new object is NOT an Alignment object, but a Polyline object.

2. Use the Alignments-->Create from Polyline command to turn the Polyline into an Alignment. Don't worry about the style of the alignment since you will eventually be deleting it and don't worry about the stationing of the alignment if indeed it will be controlled to the centerline alignment.

3. IF NECESSARY... Use the Alignments-->Edit Alignment Geometry and from the Alignment Layout Toolbar, use the "Delete Sub-entity" tool to remove lines and/or curves from the alignment that is currently representing your pipe network if you don't want to make your pipe network the entire length of the alignment

4. Go to Pipes-->Create from Object to turn the Alignment into a Pipe Network. Make sure you check the "Erase existing entity" check box. You will most likely NOT need this alignment under the pipe run as the pipe network will be controlled to the centerline. Before hitting OK to the "Create Pipe Network from Object" dialog box, make sure you associate your alignment and surface to the new pipe network. Associating it to your centerline alignment will allow it to be controlled to the stationing of that alignment. Associating it to a surface will allow your pipe rules that you have setup to represent logical values.

**You now have a pipe network with a uniform offset from the centerline as well as you can add this pipe network to your profile using the process in 06. Seems easy and perhaps unbelievable that we could not do this in 06.

Posted by DannyCounts @ 11:27 AM
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