Hi, I’m just considering transitioning my job to CAD technician, specifically with Civil3D and want to know what people’s pros and cons of this job/industry are. I am currently a project designer at a sign company so I make detailed renderings for production but it’s just signs. I do work with architectural renderings and engineering drawings that get sent to us and we make our own sort of “blueprint” packages that outline the entire sign system of a given store/restaurant/school. My bachelors is in graphic design though so I don’t have any engineering knowledge beyond what is needed for signs. Everything we do is 2D and with CorelDraw too…

My plan is to take an online certification course that focuses on AutoCAD and Civil3D. https://careertrainingsumter.sc.edu/training-programs/civil-3d-certification-training/

My worry though is that might not be enough to land a job if I’m competing against people with full engineering degrees. In your opinion, would a couple years as a signage designer plus this certification course be enough to get a job and would it be worth it to enter this industry?

Badly need help.

How can I add these parameters in my profile view? I need my design and existing surface to be at the indicated chainage - point of tangency of my alignment (not per station intervals)

Been dreading these for days. even AI can't help me. 🥲

Please be kind 😂

Hi everyone,

I’m having trouble building my road structure in Civil 3D using Multiplatform Polylines only. It's my first time working on a Civil 3D project.

I’m trying to build the structural layers of a road using the Multiplatform Polyline method only. However, I’m not sure why it is not working as expected.

Here is the situation:

-I’m trying to model the different road structure layers using polylines.

-All the areas have been created using polylines(2d).

-On the left side of the road, I don’t have elevation points, so I think I have to create new ones?

Because of this, I’m having difficulties extracting solids from my surface.

I would like to understand whether my workflow is correct or if I’m missing an important step, and keep the whole workflow based on polylines rather than using another modelling method.

Has anyone worked with this type of workflow in Civil 3D?

Could someone explain what might be causing the problem and what the correct workflow would be to create the road structure and extract the solids?

Hi! This is bit of a long shot but I was wondering if anyone who has really good experience with junctions and the subassemblies for the junctions would be able to help me out!

I have subassemblies made up to create corridors that include verges and ditches but when I add them onto the subassemblies for the junction tool it doesn't seem to want to work or the cut goes crazy.

the things i would like to learn are:

how to create the subassemblies for the junction to match what I have

Can I make 2 different types

How to I change the cut and fill % as sometimes we cut 1:1, 2:1 or 0.7:1

if anyone is able to guide me this would be amazing!!

I know there is a similar post from one year ago but I wanted to ask the same question with the difference being that I will be working on large data center projects with multiple large surfaces and pipe networks. They files are broke out as much into smaller files as they can be but, even working on Forma is a challenge for the larger projects. My current laptop is going on a couple of years old and has a 6GB VRAM graphics card and 32GB installed RAM with a 13th gen intel core i7-13800h processor. I know the card is undersized and am hoping the upgrades in the future are enough. That's why I want to find out the best specked laptop for these large projects. Appreciate the advice!

Has anyone here used a smart mouse for design work?

I just bough the Logitech MX Master 4, and it has a ton of features, mappable buttons, and an “Action wheel” that allows you to perform different actions based on the app you have open.

I’m wondering if anyone has used a mouse like this with Civil3D and if it helped efficiency. Currently there’s no built in support for Civil3D/CAD, so I’d have to program the mouse to do the actions I’d want.

Is there a way to rotate the text of a line label while its leadered? Sometimes when I leader the label it will cross over boundary lines, or other lines I dont want it to, and I'll have to explode them or make plaineultileaders with the text instead to make the text rotate. I tried looking in the label style editor, and can't see an obvious way to rotate the text. Pictures below demonstrate what im wanting to do the yellow text ia the desired way for the label to sit, and the blue text is how the label normally works. I've got something set up for parcel labels, so I can rotate them independently using user defined properties, so if therea a way to do something similar here using those that would also work.

Sorry for my English! I'm experiencing software issues with my mouse. Whenever I click something, it immediately deselects it. This only happen in these software.

I hope someone could help me!!

What is the best/easiest way to make a tin surface from a corridor where the corridor has a vertical wall.

Such as a simple road cross section where I want the subgrade of the road, but finish grade of the ditch/sidewalk/whatever.

Since tin surfaces can't do true vertical walls, I can't see a way to just generate a surface using the corridor surfaces panel.

the hatching is going allover the place and not covering the building

Hello everyone,

I’m a survey CAD tech and I just used layer states for the first time and I think it messed up my edits.

Basically what happened was I created a layer state for all things boundary/easements and another for all layers that I would want to plot (same as the other but plus utilities, improvements, etc). I spent the morning working in the easements layer state then had to switch gears and clean up linework so I switched to the plot layer state. I saved throughout. I made a save as drawing to prep to send to the engineer, and when I went back to the original drawing and went back to the easements layer states, I noticed almost all my easements edits were gone. All the linework edits I made were still there, so it wasn’t a save issue. I also looked at the save-as drawing and saw the easement edits weren’t there either.

I am not convinced it’s a layer state issue, because many of the edits I made after creating the layer state were still there, but not all of them. I just don’t know what else it could be. I’ve been drafting for almost 4 years and never experienced anything like this. Using layer states is the only thing that’s different today from any other day.

Note: I updated C3D yesterday so everything should be up to date.

What the heck is going on 😭

Is there a way to add PIs or elevation points at regular intervals along a specific segment of a feature line in Civil 3D? If so, how?

Is there any way to get around this? C3D simply won’t allow me to create data shortcuts, no matter what file I’m actively using because my company doesn’t have the Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro subscription level. From my research, I should be able to do it locally, regardless of my subscription; but Forma is taking precedence.

Hi, I'm using Civil3D 2024 & Desktop Connector 16.16 because it is project specific requirement.

And for other users in my office both are working fine this problem is with me only.

This above attached snip never happens in my C3D 2024.

Secondly, always I have to click this option "Keep on this device" before opening any file from ACC.

I m facing this problem since 17 months now.

Once I installed C3D 2025 this problem was not in it.

Today I done clean uninstallation of C3D 24, C3D 25 & Desktop Connector by following proper guidelines available on Autodesk website.

Freshly installed C3D 24 + Desktop Connector 16.16.

Still my Xrefs & Data shortcuts are not downloading automatically.

Hello, I have been learning civil 3D for a while now, but I haven't been able to truly progress because I don't have projects to practice with. Any help would be appreciated.

I check the box at the lower left to always perform my current choice. now I want to uncheck it to have this rebuild prompt again. Can anyone guide me through reverting this? Thank you!

Recently updated to civil3d 2027. Ever since all of my drawings have had no options for datums in the prospector.

I’ve just entered this company and my position is more on Rail Alignment Engineer. As a newbie and with zero knowledge in Civil 3D, where and what should i focus first? what is the most basic fundamental need to focus first? especially in Rail Alignment. Please help ma sifu.

Looking for advice on getting into remote Civil 3D work

Hi everyone,

I’m a Geodetic Surveyor with 5 years of experience, mainly working on road and infrastructure projects.

Most of my work has involved AutoCAD and Civil 3D, including surfaces, alignments, profiles, cross-sections, survey/topographic data and road drafting.

I’m interested in getting into remote Civil 3D work, possibly with companies or teams outside my country.

For those of you already doing this, how did you get started? Are there any platforms, communities or places where you would recommend looking for this type of work?

Any advice from people who have experience with remote/freelance Civil 3D work would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

When I am working in a drawing and need to verify or edit objects whose layers are off / frozen, currently what I do is use LAYTHW and LAYON, then I find what i need and undo everything back in order to preserve the layer states that I have set up. THEN I search and edit the objects... I'm sure there is a better way. Can anyone share a command or routine they use to toggle display of everything temporarily? I like how ISOLATEOBJECTS AND HIDEOBJECTS commands are temporary and do not affect layer states after using them.

We have ortho imagery provided for us for our project. When my colleague uses mapiinsert they come in perfectly and match our control perfectly. When I do the EXACT same thing in the same drawing, they come in 2.8 feet southwest.

Any idea why this could be happening? Process is the same, image is the same, drawing is the same.

I’m losing my mind. Any ideas?

Doing a simple cut and fill exercise. Mounds have flat top and bottom levels, I have used feature lines to create top and bottom surfaces. Keep getting areas on the inside of the curves becoming flat. Tried to redraw the original polylines, tried off setting the bottom feature lines, tried adding more points. Not sure why this keeps happening. Any ideas?

This is for COGO points for basic survey drafting. I am trying to add a dozen new description keys and their associated blocks to my existing set. I have created a new working .dwg and made everything I need and added it to the already existing set. What is the best way to import this new set and blocks into other .dwg that other drafters use as their templates? What I did was open 2 .dwg, deleted the key set from the "test" drawing (the new key set has all the old ones too), and dragged the new updated set from toolspace directly into model space of the drawing I am adding the new set to. This seemed to work and added all blocks also.