Tutorials CivilCraft help Walkthroughs
View the site in 3D
Open the 3D view, orbit, pan and zoom, set the vertical exaggeration and colouring, choose what shows, and click pipes, structures and points to select them.
Written for CivilCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
The 3D view shows the site as one model: the existing ground and the graded surface, contours draped on them, breaklines and the surface edge, each alignment on its design profile with station ticks, the corridor feature lines, pads with their daylight lines, and the pipe network with pipes and structures at their real elevations. It reads the same project as the plan, so every edit shows in both.
Open the 3D view
- Open survey points (or a LandXML or project file) so there is a surface.
- Press DD, or click 3D in the View group of the toolbar. The 3D view opens over the plan, looking at the whole site from the southeast. The first time, it takes a moment to load.
- Press DD again, or click 3D again, to go back to the plan. Choosing a drawing tool such as Alignment or Pad also goes back to the plan, since drawing happens there.
Move around
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Orbit | Drag with the left or the middle button |
| Pan | Drag with the right button, or ⇧Shift and drag |
| Zoom | Turn the wheel; it zooms toward the pointer |
| Orbit on a trackpad | Swipe with two fingers (⇧Shift and swipe pans) |
| Zoom on a trackpad | Pinch |
| Touch | One finger orbits; two fingers pinch to zoom and move to pan |
| Keys (the view has the focus) | ←← →→ ↑↑ ↓↓ orbit, with ⇧Shift they pan; ++ and −− zoom |
The bar over the view has the rest:
- The view list: Iso, Top, Bottom, Front (looking north), Back, Left, Right.
- Perspective: pressed is a perspective view; click it for a parallel projection (no foreshortening).
- Extents: shows everything again. FF does the same while the 3D view is open.
The view cube
The view cube in the top right corner turns with the view. Click a side, an edge or a corner to look at the site from there (the camera turns smoothly unless your system asks for reduced motion). Drag the cube to orbit. The compass ring under it shows north (grid north, +Y): drag the ring to turn the site about the vertical, or click N, E, S or W to look from that side. Home, the small house at its top left, goes back to the iso view of the whole site. With the keyboard: TabTab to the cube, arrows choose a side, edge or corner, ReturnEnter looks from there.
On the plan the same cube shows the top. Click any other side, edge or corner (or drag it) to open the 3D view looking from there: this is the quickest way into 3D from a given direction. To swap the cube for a small axis icon, or hide it, see Corner indicator in CivilCraft settings.
Exaggerate the elevations
Sites are usually much wider than they are high, so the elevations are stretched by 2× to start with. Choose 1×, 2×, 3×, 5× or 10× in the list on the bar, or under 3D vertical exaggeration in CivilCraft settings (the two are one setting). Only the view changes: volumes, profiles and exports stay at true scale.
Colour the surfaces
- Elevation bands: the same bands and colours as the plan's elevation bands (the number of bands is set under Display in the left panel). Each band edge is cut exactly at its elevation.
- One colour: the existing ground and the graded surface each in a plain colour.
When both surfaces are shown, the existing ground is see-through over the graded surface, so you can see the cut (ground above the design) and the fill.
Choose what shows
Click Show on the bar and tick or clear:
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
| Existing ground | The surface built from the survey points (or read from LandXML) |
| Graded surface | The existing ground with the corridors and pads graded in (only when there are some) |
| Triangle edges | Every TIN edge, as lines |
| Contours | Minor and major contours of each surface shown, at the plan's interval |
| Surface edge | The outer edge of each surface shown, at its elevations |
| Breaklines | Every breakline, at its elevations |
| Alignments and stations | Each alignment on its design profile (on the ground where there is no profile), with ticks every 50 ft or 20 m |
| Corridor feature lines | Edge of pavement, shoulder and daylight on both sides |
| Pads and daylight | Each pad outline at its elevation and its daylight line |
| Pipes and structures | Pipes as round pipes between their inverts, structures from rim to sump |
| Survey points | A dot at each point with an elevation (off at first) |
Your choices, the exaggeration and the colouring are remembered in this browser.
Pipes and structures
- A pipe is drawn with its bottom inside at the inverts you set and its top inside (the crown) one inside diameter higher. Diameters are in inches on a feet project and millimeters on a meter project, as in the right panel.
- A structure runs from its rim (typed, or from the surface) down to its sump (the lowest invert minus the sump depth). Without any invert, it is drawn 5 ft (1.5 m) deep.
- Pipes and structures with a problem (see the network check in the right panel) are drawn in red.
- A pipe without inverts is not drawn; a note at the bottom of the view says how many.
Select from the 3D view
Click a pipe, a structure or a survey point. It is selected just as if you clicked it in the plan: its properties open in the right panel, where you can edit them. A tip next to the pointer names it with its easting, northing and elevation. Pipes and structures can be clicked even where they are under the ground.
Click the ground to read the easting, northing and elevation there in the tip.
Export the 3D view
Click GLB or OBJ on the bar. What the view shows is saved, in true scale (no exaggeration), in meters, with Y up. Details: Export the site in 3D.