Tutorials CivilCraft help Walkthroughs
Export the plan to DXF
Write the plan linework as an R12 DXF on named layers, with contours at their elevations and breaklines in 3D, for any CAD program.
Written for CivilCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
DXF writes what the plan shows as a DXF file in the R12 format, the version every CAD program opens. If you have used AutoCAD or Civil 3D, open or insert it as you would any DXF.
Export
- Set up the plan the way you want the drawing: under Display, choose the surface (existing or proposed), the contour interval, and which things are on (contours, labels, points, point labels, triangles, breaklines, surface edge, pipes, slope arrows).
- Click DXF in the Export group.
- The browser downloads
<name>.dxf. The status bar says, for example, "Exported R12 DXF: 2,140 objects; labels sized for 1" = 40'. Bands are not exported."
Coordinates are written in your project units, at their real values (state plane coordinates stay as they are). Nothing is scaled or moved.
What is in the file
| Thing | DXF entity | Layer |
|---|---|---|
| Minor and major contours | 2D polylines at their elevation | C-TOPO-MINR, C-TOPO-MAJR |
| Contour labels | Text | C-TOPO-TEXT |
| Triangles | Polylines | C-TOPO-TINN |
| Breaklines and boundary | 3D polylines | C-TOPO-BRKL |
| Surface edge | Polylines | C-TOPO-BNDY |
| Slope arrows | Polylines | C-TOPO-SLOP |
| Survey points and their labels | Points (with elevation), text | V-NODE, V-NODE-TEXT |
| Alignment centerlines | Lines and arcs | C-ROAD-CNTR |
| Stationing ticks and labels | Polylines, text | C-ROAD-STAN |
| Corridor edges | Polylines | C-ROAD-CORR |
| Pads, daylight lines, slope lines | Polylines | C-GRAD-PADS, C-GRAD-DAYL, C-GRAD-SLOP |
| Pipes, structures, labels | Polylines, text | C-STRM-PIPE, C-STRM-STRC, C-STRM-TEXT |
| Pipes and structures with problems | Polylines | C-STRM-PROB |
Each layer has a color. The full list is in Plan layers.
Label size
Text has to have a size in drawing units. CivilCraft sizes labels for the scale at which the whole plan fits on a Tabloid sheet (feet) or an A3 sheet (metres), and says which scale in the status message. If you plot at another scale in your CAD program, scale the text there.
What is not exported
- Elevation bands (screen only).
- The profile view. Profiles go out as LandXML, not as a drawing.
- The surface itself as a 3D object. Use LandXML for the TIN, or turn on Triangles to get its edges as linework.
- Anything you turned off under Display.
DWG
DWG writes the same linework as a DWG drawing. A small dialog asks for the format: 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 or 2018. 2000 opens in almost every CAD program, old and new; pick a newer one when whoever gets the drawing asks for it. Your choice is remembered in this browser.
- Click DWG in the Export group.
- Pick the Format and click Download DWG.
- The browser downloads
<name>.dwg. The status bar says what went in, for example "Exported DWG (2018 format): 12 polylines, 40 labels on 9 layers".
The DWG has the same layers, colors, contours (as polylines at their elevation), 3D breaklines, labels and points as the DXF, in the same coordinates. Layer names a DWG cannot hold are changed, and the status message says so. CivilCraft writes DWG with its own code, so nothing leaves your computer.