Go take a look at it and tell me what you think. Note from Brian: I wrote up an article showing an alternative way to bring in free surface and image data (at least for those in the United States) HERE. Compare that with what you get out of Google Earth. Check out this example, in the following image you can see where four of the images downloaded from the Seamless server line up and it’s REALLY close to being exactly matched up (I can’t see any offset or other error personally). Getting the data yourself takes a bit longer but you get MUCH better results. Importing from Google Earth is fast but you get very poor data. Sure this process takes longer then importing from Google Earth but think of it this way, “You get what you pay for”. ![]() This will bring the images in georeferenced. To bring the images into Civil 3D, use the Map Image Insert command MAPIINSERT (yes, two I’s in there). Also make sure you read the comments as you’ll need create the surface in a metric drawing and use LandXML to bring it into a drawing that is in imperial units. When you add the DEM file, use the coordinate system code LL83. I’m not going to get into the details in the post as I’ve already talked about how to bring DEM files in to Civil 3D. To bring the DEM file into Civil 3D, create a surface and add the DEM file as data. When you get to, on the left hand side, there is a panel and on this panel, is a link to the Seamless Viewer (you can access it HERE if you like). You’ll need to create an account to download the data but it’s free. aerial images) as well as surfaces (DEM files). Here you can browse a map to find your project location and download orthoimagery (i.e. So, instead of relying on Google Earth, go out and get the data yourself! You’ll be much happier with the results.įor those of you with projects in the United States there is an amazing resource that I was familiar with but never really investigated much, the USGS Seamless Data Warehouse (I was playing around with the Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler and looking for data). Sure, you can pick anywhere you want but you are limited to importing 5,000 points and, if you have a large area, that’s not very much data at all (I recently downloaded a DEM file with over 2.5 million points, now THAT’S data!). The surface data that you bring in is very limited. The guys over at Being Civil wrote up a nice post about this issue HERE if you are interested (also, the images come in black and white). First of all, the imagery is inconsistent at best. There are two primary issues that I’ve seen when importing data from Google Earth. I’m constantly amazed at how many people import data from Google Earth into Civil 3D and then complain about how horrible the data is. Note from Brian: There’s some new functionality in the 2015 release regarding images. If you aren’t sure what to use here, check with your surveyor on the project. On the Units and Zone tab, assign an appropriate coordinate system to your drawing. If you don’t do this, your images won’t work. If you aren’t familiar with this, simply right click on the drawing name on the settings tab of the Prospector and choose Edit Drawing Settings. One thing you must do is assign a coordinate system to your drawing. This button basically runs the MAPWSPACE command so you’ll still have to tell the program you want it ON. ![]() If you are using Civil 3D 2013, there is a button on the Palettes panel on the Home tab. You can access this by typing MAPWSPACE and then choosing the ON option. Don’t worry if you’ve never used FDO, it’s REALLY easy!Īfter you install the add-in, simply open up the Map Task Pane. These maps are brought in via the Map 3D FDO tools. This tool will allow you to easily bring in maps from Microsoft Bing. This is a new product available at Autodesk Labs. ![]() ![]() Well, just announce is a new and very simple way to bring aerial images into your drawing. You could use Google Earth but it has issues (see why HERE) and there are other alternatives to getting the imagery but they are all pretty tedious. This life of this tool has been extended to August 12th 2013 so get back out there and start using it some more!ĭo you like using aerial imagery while working in Civil 3D? I know it’s always helped me when I’ve had access to it.
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