Beyond Civil3D: 2014

Monday, October 27, 2014

Missing Or Hidden Dialog Boxes in AutoCAD

Ever have dialogs disappear in AutoCAD and not be able to access them without what seems to be CTRL-ALT-DEL and exiting the software? This blog post helped me out greatly to solving the issue when using multiple monitors and the dialogs disappearing: http://autodesk.typepad.com/beyondthebox/2013/10/missing-or-hidden-dialog-boxes-in-autocad.html

Additionally, I've had some app dialogs disappear and the command remains running but inaccessible due to accidentally clicking off of the dialog. How do you gain access back? Here's an example and how.

Here I've used an app from the app store and the dialogs appear - (App is Set Multiple Object Styles for Civil 3D)

In the image below, I've accidentally clicked off of the dialog and the focus goes back to AutoCAD Civil 3D. The dialog has disappeared but the command is still running - see command line. No obvious way to access the dialog.

However, we can get around this issue by cycling through our running applications using ALT + TAB. Then use the arrow keys to move over the AutoCAD Civil 3D icon, at which point you will see text noting the dialog that is currently running. Upon selecting the AutoCAD Civil 3D icon the running dialogs will appear again allowing for selection and completion of the command.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Civil 3D Slope Across Pipes App

Have you been looking for a better workflow in assigning slopes to pipes, especially when they are not needed to be analyzed in Storm Sewers or Storm and Sanitary Analysis? There's a new app for that on the app store now!!

Check out Slope Across Pipes here.

This app allows for quickly setting the slope of a number of pipes within a common pipe network and applying pipe drop across each structure. The app allows for selecting pipes/structures in plan view or pipes/structures in profile view and offers two modes - by slope and by inverts. When selecting parts in profile view, the app also provides the ability to extract the selected point elevation from the profile to apply to the pipe network. For both modes, the app does not care if the upstream or downstream end is selected, nor does it care if the start and end points of the pipes are in the same configuration throughout. When applying pipe drops in structures, the app checks to see if the structure is not a null structure before applying.