Professional | ~1 hr. 35 min.

How to Set Up Civil 3D for AEC Projects

Course | Outcomes and capabilities
This course teaches users how to set up and efficiently manage a project in Civil 3D. You can enhance your drawing performance, ensure a dynamic, single-source design, and maximize team collaboration by using external references and data shortcuts in your Civil 3D project. Templates and styles can be used to standardize object display, layers, and drawing settings across a project. Once established, templates and styles can be imported or referenced across drawings. Civil 3D object catalogs can also be shared with other team members to ensure the same assets are available project-wide.

This course teaches users how to set up and efficiently manage a project in Civil 3D. You can enhance your drawing performance, ensure a dynamic, single-source design, and maximize team collaboration by using external references and data shortcuts in your Civil 3D project. Templates and styles can be used to standardize object display, layers, and drawing settings across a project. Once established, templates and styles can be imported or referenced across drawings. Civil 3D object catalogs can also be shared with other team members to ensure the same assets are available project-wide.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

  • Manage data in a Civil 3D project using external references (XREFs) and data shortcuts (DREFs).
  • Use drawing templates to standardize layers, styles, labels, and object catalogs.
  • Reference or import styles across drawings and share Civil 3D object catalogs.

Course modules

~45 min.
Data Management Practices in Civil 3D
Module

Using XREFs allows you to reference AutoCAD drawings into your working drawings for sharing graphics information. With XREFs, you can also add Civil 3D labels without the need to reference the Civil 3D data. Data shortcuts are used in a similar way to reference Civil 3D data within a project. This enables you to split your design data so multiple team members are able to work on different parts of the project at the same time. 

~30 min.
Drawing Templates and Styles in Civil 3D​
Module

Welcome to the Drawing Templates and Styles in Civil 3D module. When we design, we want our drawing to display a certain way for different phases of a project. These styles can come from Autodesk templates, be developed to use your company standards, or come from country kits. When using a template, it can include layers, display styles for Civil 3D objects, drawing settings, etc. In this module, you will learn how different styles affect the appearance of your model. 

~20 min.
Sharing AutoCAD Entities and Civil 3D Objects​
Module

Civil 3D is built on the AutoCAD software, so you can use the Tool Palettes to share AutoCAD entities, such as blocks, hatches, etc. These elements can be inserted into the Tool Palette in multiple ways, including using the Design Center. In this module, you will learn how to share AutoCAD entities using the Design Center to create new content within your Tool Palette. You will also learn how to share Civil 3D object catalogs and share the drawing associated with the catalog to share styles and rules.