Civil 3D, despite its vast array of features for civil engineers, does have limitations in its program which may impact the synchronization with MiTS, particularly due to disparities in the architecture of the two softwares. This results in the verification errors or warnings on the Action Panel and variations in the design appearance during the integration (Civil Sync) from MiTS to Civil 3D.

Synchronization of Platforms as Surfaces #

Warning on Missing Area for The Tin Surface #

“MES Platform area is Xm^2, Civil related surface area is Ym^2, the difference is more than 1%”

MiTS Platforms to TIN Surfaces conversion can have errors in Civil 3D due to its inherent limitations. This can result in missing areas in the project, causing discrepancies of more than 10% in the earthwork volume computation between MiTS and Civil 3D, which is not acceptable in the industry.

We can confirm that this is a bug on the Civil 3D side, impacting version 2023.2 and below ( at least). You may want to vote up the issue here.

How To Check? #

• Using the feature implemented – MiTS to Civil 3D Area Tolerance (%) – which allows users to set a threshold value and receive a warning once the percentage difference is more than the set value.

Parameters > Platform > Input MiTS to Civil 3D Area Tolerance (%)

OR

• Coordinate trackers in Civil 3D which helps users to identify the Z level of the surface.

View tab > dropdown button on Palettes section > Coordinate Trackers > Select the right surface > Hover cursor on the area under the Surface selected

Solution: #

• Users will need to create the surface manually at the missing area with the correct Z elevation, to ensure that the volume computation is accurate enough.

Difference In Appearance When Involving Drops #

The earthwork computation in Civil 3D relies on TIN Surface and TIN Volume Surface, which divide the terrain into triangles to depict variations in elevation. However, due to its triangulation-based approach, the software cannot represent the vertical drops (walls) accurately and instead creates a smooth transition along the shared edges, resulting in inaccurate volume computations. This effect will be particularly evident when your design includes more abrupt changes in elevation.

Solution: #

• Users can look into ‘Breakline’ features available in Civil 3D that can be used to present the wall in between the shared edges of the man-made terrain.

Synchronization of Utilities as Gravity Pipes or Pressure Pipes #

Sharing Pipes or Structures Between Different Networks #

With the enhancement of the plugin, users are now able to integrate more than one network for all utilities design (drainage, sewerage and water reticulation) from MiTS to Civil 3D, and vice versa.

In MiTS, users have the control over the network assigned per pipe basis, hence pipes connected to one another can be in a different network such as distribution network and hydrant network that shares the same tapping source for water reticulation design.

However, this is not the case when it comes to Civil 3D in which pipes and structures cannot be shared between different running networks. Hence, a verification message has been implemented to notify users on the issue.

Solution: #

• To properly represent the design of multiple network sharing the entities in Civil 3D, users will need to group all the pipes within a single network in MiTS, and then modify the style of pipes and structures in each network to differentiate their visual representation in Civil 3D.

• Additionally, users can also split the network once synchronized to Civil 3D, on the condition that the networks are not sharing any entities.

Polyline Pipes (Curved Pipes) in MiTS #

Using the ‘shift’ function in MiTS, users can model utility pipes or drains as curved polylines without any intermediate nodes. However, once these curved pipes are synchronized to Civil 3D as either gravity or pressure pipes, they will be displayed as straight pipes. This limitation is due to the Civil 3D API for full curve 3D for gravity and pressure pipes.

Solution: #

• Users will need to manually edit the pipes to represent their curved shapes in Civil 3D.

• Consider replacing such curved polyline pipes as a series of straight pipes.

Pressure Pipe Size Changes in MiTS #

The pressure pipe size changes in MiTS could not be synchronized to Civil 3D due to a limitation on the Civil 3D API support. Once changes are made to the sizing of pressure pipes in MiTS and synchronized to Civil 3D, users will get a verification message on the pipe having a different diameter such as the image below.

Solution: #

• Users will need to manually change the size of the pipe in Civil 3D by using the Swap Pressure Parts feature.

Cast-in situ Drain Design in Civil 3D and MiTS #

The Pipe concept in Civil 3d Does not easily support cast-in situ drain type (such as half round) hence limiting the synchronization of drainage design from MiTS to Civil 3D and vice versa. This is because all pipes in Civil 3D are prefabricated pipes, but cast-in situ drains are constructed on the site and the height will vary depending on the ground conditions. 

Therefore, in order to integrate cast-in situ drains design between the two software, users must use any rectangular-shaped drains as a substitute representation in the 3D model.

Solution #

1. Substituting cast in-situ drain type with a rectangular-shaped Civil 3D drain type as per the steps below.

Steps:

• Go to MES Toolbar > Click on Parameters > Go to Drainage Pipe Sync tab.
• Defined the Network for C3D and MES > Click Edit button.
• Defined the Pipe Mapping Definition which requires users to select the MES Drain Shape and MES Pipe Category Type.
• For the C3D Pipe Type Rectangular-shaped Drain (in this example, we are using Concrete Box Culvert), users will need to define the MES Drain Shape as a cast in-situ Drain Type used in MES.

• However, with this approach, the Civil 3D information preserved is limited to the drains’ invert levels, length, coordinates, and alignment only and could not accurately represent the shape and sizes.

2. Users can also change the styling of the rectangular-shaped drain pipe to show as cast in situ drain.