LDT3
LDT3
LDT3
Getting Started
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Installing Autodesk Land Desktop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What’s New in Autodesk Land Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
First Things to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Setup Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Menu Palettes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
How to Use the Documentation Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Recommendations for New Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Path Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Help Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Concepts, Procedures, and Reference Information in Help . . . . . . . 16
Using the Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Using this Getting Started Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
iii
Chapter 2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
3D Graphics System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Install Autodesk Land Desktop 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Use Customized Files and Settings from Release 1 or Release 2i
(with SP2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Register and Authorize Autodesk Land Desktop 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Add Autodesk Land Desktop 3 Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Reinstall or Repair Autodesk Land Desktop 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Uninstall Autodesk Land Desktop 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Uninstall Trimble Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Uninstall Volo View Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
iv | Contents
Opening Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Opening Drawings in Other Types of AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Viewing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Using the Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Using Zoom and Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Scaling Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Using Named Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Redrawing and Regenerating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Organizing Drawings with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Changing Properties of Layers and Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Working with the Layer Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Using Drafting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Using Reference Points in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Plotting Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Exiting Autodesk Land Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Contents | v
Working with External Data References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
Performing Geodetic Transformations on Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Calculating State Plane Coordinates from a Known
Latitude and Longitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
vi | Contents
Chapter 6 Working with Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Using Point, DEM, Contour, Breakline, and Boundary Data
in Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Surface Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Working with the Terrain Model Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Creating Surface Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Creating Breaklines to Use in Surface Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Creating Contours to Use in Surface Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Creating Boundaries to Use in Surface Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Building Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Building a Watershed Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Creating Finished Ground Data for Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Editing Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Edit History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Working with Surface Output and Visualization Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Viewing Surface Statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Dynamically Viewing Elevational Characteristics of a Surface . . . . 177
Viewing Quick Sections of a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Creating Contours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Creating Contours from a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Using a Surface Boundary to Contour Around a Building
or Pond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Comparing Two Surfaces to Calculate Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Presenting Cut/Fill Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Creating a 3D Map to Present Elevation Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Projecting 2D Lines onto a 3D Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Contents | vii
Chapter 8 Listing and Annotating Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Listing Object Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
CAD-Based Inquiry Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Autodesk Land Desktop Inquiry Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Labeling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Label Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Accessing Labeling Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
Editing Label Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
viii | Contents
Introduction
1
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 is based on AutoCAD 2002 In this chapter
and Autodesk Map 5. Using Autodesk Land Desktop 3, ■ Autodesk Land Desktop 3
■ What’s New in Autodesk
you can create, maintain, output, and analyze all of the
Land Desktop
data in your land development projects. ■ First things to know
■ How to use the
New features include integrated LandXML data import
documentation set
and export, updated Point Group Manager, and updated ■ Finding information
1
Autodesk Land Desktop 3
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 is the foundation of the Autodesk Land Solutions
suite. Designed for professionals in the land planning and development
industries, the Land Solutions suite includes the following products:
To use Autodesk Land Desktop 3 .dwg files with earlier releases, save version 3
drawings in R14 format by using the Save As command from the File menu.
Otherwise, all Land objects display as proxy graphics.
2 | Chapter 1 Introduction
What’s New in Autodesk Land Desktop
New Features in Release 3
Product Name and Version Changes
Windows® ME Support
LandXML Import/Export
■ You can use the Import LandXML and Export LandXML commands to
import and export Autodesk Land Desktop project data in LandXML
format. This feature was previously provided as an extension to AutoCAD
Land Development Desktop 2i. For more information, see Chapter 8,
“Importing and Exporting Data in LandXML Format” on page 221.
Point Groups and Point Selection Dialog Boxes
■ The Create Point Group dialog box has been updated to provide a new
method for selecting the points to add to a point group (on the Raw
Desc Matching tab) and for reviewing the points selected (on the
Summary tab).
■ Point groups now have persistent properties and can be updated when
point data (such as elevation or description) change, or if points are added
to or removed from the point database.
■ During the installation process, you can choose to install a Trimble menu,
which provides commands to import and export data from and to Trimble
equipment. To use some of these Trimble Link™ commands, such as
Import Job and Export Road, Autodesk Survey or Autodesk Civil Design
must be installed.
Features in Release 2i
If you are upgrading from Release 1.0 or 2.0 of AutoCAD Land Development
Desktop, read the following list that describes some of the key features that
were added to AutoCAD Land Development Desktop Release 2i.
4 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Features in Release 2.0
If you are upgrading from Release 1.0 of AutoCAD Land Development
Desktop, read the following list that describes some of the key features that
were added to AutoCAD Land Development Desktop Release 2.0.
NOTE If you open a drawing, or create a new drawing, without using the
Autodesk Land Desktop versions of the New and Open commands, you are
prompted to select a project with which to associate the drawing. If you decline
to select a project, then Autodesk Land Desktop automatically creates a project
called _scratch and links the drawing to it.
When you create a new project, you must specify a name and a prototype
(default settings for new drawings that are associated with the project) for the
project. You can also add a description of the project and any keywords that
help you identify the project. When you are searching for a project, you can
filter the list of projects based on the keywords to find a particular project.
For more information, see “Working with Projects” on page 58.
TIP Although it is not required, we suggest that you save the drawings in the
\dwg subfolder that is created in the project folder. This keeps the drawing and
the project files together for easier archiving.
6 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Prototypes
Prototypes provide a convenient way for you to maintain standard settings for
Search Help for…
the drawings. After you set up the drawing settings by using the Drawing
Prototypes - concept Settings command on the Projects menu, you can save them back to a proto-
type. When you create a new project, you can select a prototype to use for
the default settings for new drawing creation.
At first, prototypes may seem similar to templates. However, each serves a
distinct purpose:
TIP When you base a new project on a prototype, the entire prototype folder
is copied to the new project folder. You may want to store commonly-used files
in a prototype folder so they are automatically copied to new projects.
Setup Profiles
Each new drawing can have different units, scale, zone, orientation, text
Search Help for…
style, sheet size, and border settings. These settings are collectively known as
Drawing Setup - concept a setup profile.
Several setup profiles are included with Autodesk Land Desktop. You can load
one of these profiles, or you can customize a setup profile by using the
Drawing Setup Wizard or the Drawing Setup command.
You have three options for drawing setup:
■ The Drawing Setup Wizard guides you through the setup process by using
tips and context-sensitive help that describe each option on each page of
the wizard. At the end of the Wizard, you can save the settings to a setup
profile you can use again.
■ The Drawing Setup command presents all the drawing settings necessary
for setting up a drawing, such as units, text style, current zone, and so on,
including saving and loading setup profiles.
■ The User Preferences command has an option you can select to load a
pre-existing setup profile automatically.
8 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Settings
Autodesk Land Desktop settings are comprised primarily of two types: user
Search Help for…
preferences and drawing settings.
Changing the User
Preferences - concept ■ The User Preferences control program-wide preferences such as the project
paths for various files, the AutoCAD overrides, and the drawing setup
method.
The preference settings are stored in the following folder:
c:\Program Files\Land Desktop 3\data\pref
The file name is <AutoCAD login name>.dfm. The preference path settings
are stored in the sdsk.dfm file in the program folder.
Menu Palettes
Autodesk Land Desktop menus are arranged in palettes. A menu palette
Search Help for…
defines the pull-down menus that are available. When you first start
Using Menu Palettes Autodesk Land Desktop, the Land Desktop 3 menu palette is loaded. If you
want to use Autodesk Civil Design commands, for example, then you must
switch to the Civil Design palette.
The default menu palettes that are installed with Autodesk Land Desktop
include the following:
To create a custom menu palette, you can use the MENULOAD command to
set up the AutoCAD, Autodesk Map, and Autodesk Land Desktop menus the
way you want them, and then save this configuration as a palette.
Menu palettes are saved in the following folder:
c:\Land Desktop 3\data\Menu Palettes
Release 3, 2i, and 2.0 menu palettes have the file extension .apm2, whereas
Release 1 menu palettes had the file extension .apm.
NOTE When you save a menu palette, only the pull-down menu configura-
tions are saved. Toolbar configurations are not saved with menu palettes.
■ You can choose Menu Palettes from the Projects menu and select a menu
palette from the Menu Palette Manager dialog box.
10 | Chapter 1 Introduction
The following illustration shows the Menu Palette Manager.
■ You can type a macro at the command line to load a default menu palette,
such as MLC to load the Land Desktop 3 Complete menu palette.
■ You can type a command at the command line to access a custom-named
menu palette.
NOTE If you installed the Trimble features, you can access Help about these
commands by choosing Trimble Link Help from the Trimble menu.
Learning AutoCAD
If you have never used AutoCAD, then you may want to start by using the
AutoCAD Learning Assistance to learn the AutoCAD basics. To use the
Learning Assistance, place the AutoCAD Learning Assistance CD-ROM in
your CD-ROM drive and choose AutoCAD Learning Assistance from the
Help menu.
12 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Path Naming Conventions
When referring to the Autodesk Land Desktop program folder, the documen-
tation uses the following convention to represent the program path:
c:\Program Files\Land Desktop 3
Of course, if you installed the program on another drive or if you used
another folder name, please substitute that path for the path described in
the documentation.
When you install the program, a folder for storing the project data is
also created. The documentation uses the following convention for the
project path:
c:\Land Projects 3
If you installed the program on another drive, or you renamed the
project folder, please substitute that path for the path described in the
documentation.
Finding Information
The following sections describe how to access the online Help, how to find
information in Help, how to use the online tutorial, and how to use this
Getting Started guide.
Accessing Help
You can access Help files for Autodesk Land Desktop by using the
following methods:
From within Autodesk Land Displays an introductory This Help file displays a
Desktop, choose Help Topics topic in the online Help. combined index and
from the Help menu, type Includes links to AutoCAD table of contents, as well
Help on the command line, Help and Autodesk Map as a combined search
or press F1. Help. mechanism so you can find
the Help topics you need.
Finding Information | 13
Accessing Help files (continued)
From the Autodesk Displays an introductory Using this method, you can
Land Desktop 3 program topic in the Land Desktop run the online Help
group, select the Autodesk online Help. Use the table independently from
Land Desktop 3 Help icon. of contents, index, or Autodesk Land Desktop.
search mechanism to
locate information.
Move the pointer over a Displays the Help topic This topic has links to
command in a menu using that describes the specific Help topics for the
the up and down keyboard commands in the menu. commands in the menu.
arrows and press F1.
From a dialog box, click a Displays the Help topic This topic provides the
Help button. that describes how to use information you need
the dialog box. without having to search
for it.
Key Concepts
■ Within a Help topic, you can move to other relevant topics or definitions
by selecting the blue underlined text.
■ Click on the navigation bar to move to the previous topics that you
viewed. Only those topics that you have already viewed in the current
instance of online Help are included in this Back button sequence.
Help Navigation
The Help system has a variety of methods that you can use to locate informa-
tion about Autodesk Land Desktop commands, including the table of con-
tents, index, and search. There is also a Favorites tab to which you can add
frequently used topics.
14 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Each of these methods has its own tab in the left pane of the Help system, as
shown in the following illustration:
■ The Contents tab has books with topic pages listed below each book. To
view a topic, click a book or a page.
■ The Index tab lists words organized numerically and alphabetically. Type
a keyword to display the index entries, select a topic to view, and then
click Display. If more than one topic shares the same index entry, you can
choose the topic that you want to view. Only those topics that are indexed
are listed on the Index tab.
■ The Search tab can locate keywords in the Help system regardless of
whether the topic is indexed. You can use options such as AND and NEAR
to help narrow down the search.
Finding Information | 15
Concepts, Procedures, and Reference
Information in Help
Many of the topics in Help are organized into concept, procedure, and refer-
ence information, making it easier to find relevant information. When such
a topic is open, you can switch between concept, procedure, and reference
information by clicking the tabs in the right pane of the Help window.
The following illustration shows how the information on the Reference tab
changes as you move your mouse over a different command name.
16 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Click the browse button to move through the tasks in the tutorial. The tuto-
rial window stays on top of the Autodesk Land Desktop window so it stays
visible while you perform the steps.
If you prefer to print the tutorial, select Land Desktop Tutorials from the Help
menu to display the contents window, click the Autodesk Land Desktop
Tutorial book icon, and then click Print at the bottom of the contents
window.
The above example shows that you can use the Search tab in the Help to
locate the topic, “Changing the Point Database Setup Settings.”
Finding Information | 17
The following example describes how you can locate a specific topic title in
the Help.
Steps
1 Start Help by using one of the methods listed in “Accessing Help” on page 13.
2 Click .
The following illustration shows the search tab.
3 For best results, select the Search Titles Only check box, and clear the Match Similar
Words check box.
4 In the edit box on the Search tab, type the Help topic title that you want to find, and
then click List Topics.
5 From the Select Topic list, locate the topic title you are searching for.
6 Click the name of the topic, and then click Display to view the Help topic.
18 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Installation
2
This section provides instructions for installing and In this chapter
authorizing Autodesk® Land Desktop 3 on a stand-alone ■ System requirements
■ Install Autodesk Land
computer. If you are installing Autodesk Land Desktop 3
Desktop 3
for a network, see the Network Administrator’s Guide ■ Use customized files and
settings from Release 2i
located in the \netsetup\support\Adlm\docs folder on the
■ Register and authorize
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 CD. Autodesk Land Desktop 3
■ Add Autodesk Land Desktop 3
NOTE Installation instructions are provided in this chapter for components
both unlocked and soft-locked versions of Autodesk Land
■ Reinstall or repair Autodesk
Desktop 3. Where appropriate, notes have been added to
Land Desktop 3
distinguish the two types of installations.
■ Uninstall Autodesk Land
Desktop 3
■ Uninstall Trimble Link
■ Uninstall Volo View Express
19
System Requirements
Before you begin installing Autodesk Land Desktop 3 on a stand-alone
computer, make sure that your computer meets the minimum recommended
requirements. See the following table for hardware and software
requirements.
Operating system Windows® NT 4.0 with SP 5.0 It is recommended that you install and run
or later Autodesk Land Desktop 3 on an operating
Windows 98 system in the same language as your
Windows Millennium Edition (ME) version of Autodesk Land Desktop 3 or on
Windows 2000 an English version of the operating system.
Windows 2000 users must have either
Power User or Administrator permissions to
install Autodesk Land Desktop 3. Not
assigning these permissions can cause
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 and third-party
applications to perform incorrectly. See
Windows 2000 Help for information about
assigning user permissions.
To run the Autodesk Land Desktop
application on Windows 2000, users must
have either Power User or Administrator
permissions. In Windows 2000, Power Users
have all the capabilities that Windows NT
4.0 users had. See Windows 2000 Help for
more information about user permissions.
To use the Oracle8i TM Spatial features in
Autodesk Land Desktop 3, you must run
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 on Windows 98,
NT, or 2000.
RAM 64 MB (minimum)
128 MB (recommended)
Video 800 x 600 VGA with 256 colors Requires a Windows-supported display
(minimum) adapter
1024 x 768 SVGA with 64
thousand colors (recommended)
20 | Chapter 2 Installation
Hardware and software requirements (continued)
Optional hardware Open GL®-compatible 3D video The OpenGL driver that comes with the
card. 3D graphics card must have the following:
Printer or plotter
■ Full support of OpenGL or later.
Digitizer.
■ An OpenGL Installable Client Driver
Modem or access to an Internet
(ICD). The graphics card must have an
connection.
ICD in its OpenGL driver software. The
Network interface card (required
"miniGL" driver provided with some
for network versions of Autodesk
cards is not sufficient for use with
Land Desktop 3).
Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
The network interface card must be
compatible with existing Ethernet network
infrastructure and is required for installing
and running the network version of
Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
Oracle Spatial Oracle8i Spatial client, Required to use the Oracle8i Spatial features
(optional) version 8.1.6, updated with the in Autodesk Land Desktop 3. The Oracle
patch 8.1.6.3.10 for the Oracle Spatial client can be installed either before
Object for OLE (OO4O). or after you install Autodesk Land
Desktop 3.
Web browser Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0 Internet Explorer 5.5 is installed with
NetscapeTM Navigator 4.5 or later. Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
NOTE Additional space may be required for rollback. The rollback feature allows you to restore
your computer to the state it was in prior to running setup. This feature is useful if the setup
process is interrupted. This feature requires additional hard drive space to store information and
files prior to setup. If you do not have the additional hard drive space for the rollback feature, you
will be informed and have the option to disable rollback to continue with setup. You may also end
setup and clear hard drive space or choose a different drive and then re-run setup.
System Requirements | 21
3D Graphics System Requirements
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 uses the Autodesk Heidi® 3D graphics system and
supports dynamically loadable Heidi 3D Display Drivers. These Heidi Drivers
are linked into Autodesk Land Desktop 3 at run time and allow Autodesk
Land Desktop 3 to take advantage of 3D graphics hardware.
There are two Heidi 3D Display Drivers at present, Heidi Software and Heidi
OpenGL. A third, Heidi Direct3D, will be provided in the future as a down-
loadable update to Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
To use Autodesk Land Desktop 3 with OpenGL, the OpenGL driver provided
by the 3D graphics card vendor must have the following characteristics:
22 | Chapter 2 Installation
NOTE Some files required by Autodesk Land Desktop 3 are installed in your
system folder (for example, c:\Windows\System, or c:\Winnt\System32). This
folder may be on a different drive than the folder you specify as the installation
folder (for example, d:\Program Files\Land Desktop 3). You may need up to
55 MB of space in your system folder, depending on the components you select
to install. You are alerted if there is insufficient free space on the drive that con-
tains your system folder.
■ Autorun starts the installation process unless you hold down the SHIFT key
when you insert the CD.
■ If Autorun is turned off, you must designate the CD-ROM drive. From the
Start menu, choose Run. Enter the CD-ROM drive letter and setup. For
example, enter d:\setup.
6 On the User Information page, enter your user information and choose Next.
7 If this is a first-time installation, and you do not have any previous version
of AutoCAD Land Development Desktop on your computer, go to step 8.
NOTE You can install Autodesk Land Desktop 3 side-by-side with either
AutoCAD Land Development Desktop R1 or AutoCAD Land Development
Desktop 2i with Service Pack 2 (SP2). If you have any other version, you must
upgrade to 2i with SP2 or uninstall your existing version of AutoCAD Land
Development Desktop and then install Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
8 On the Select Installation Type page, specify the type of installation you
want, and then choose Next.
24 | Chapter 2 Installation
■ Dictionaries. American English
■ Help files. Online documentation
■ Land ActiveX API Samples.
Soft-locked licenses are limited to one machine at a time. By using the Portable
License Utilities, you can transfer a soft-locked license from one stand-alone
machine to another. For more information on the Portable License Utilities,
launch Portable License Utilities from the Autodesk Land Desktop 3 Program
Group and then choose Help. You can also view the AutoCAD Portable License
Guide from the Help system (Contents tab) by choosing AutoCAD Online
Manuals ➤ Customization Guide ➤ Change the AutoCAD Setup ➤ Use the
AutoCAD Stand-Alone License Manager ➤ AutoCAD Portable License Utility.
Custom installs only the files you select. By default, the Custom installation
option installs all Autodesk Land Desktop 3 features that are installed with a
Typical installation. To install additional features, select the drop-down next
to the feature, and then choose Entire Feature Will Be Installed on Local Hard
Drive. To remove a feature from the installation, select the drop-down next
to the feature and choose Entire Feature Will Be Unavailable.
Installation options on the drop-down list are:
■ Entire Feature Will Be Installed on Local Hard Drive: Installs a feature and
its components on your hard drive
■ Entire Feature Will Be Unavailable: Makes the feature unavailable.
NOTE To preview disk space requirements, select Disk Costing from the
Destination Folder page. Choose OK to return to the Destination Folder page.
NOTE If you choose not to upgrade NetMeeting, you will not be able to use
the Meet Now feature until you upgrade.
26 | Chapter 2 Installation
13 If you selected a Typical or Custom installation including Volo View Express,
Volo View Express is launched at the end of the Autodesk Land Desktop
installation. Follow the instructions to complete the installation.
NOTE Volo View Express is necessary for DWF file support and for the Publish
to Web feature. If an existing version of Volo View Express is identified, it will be
automatically upgraded to the latest version. Volo View Express will not over-
write an existing version of Volo View. If you require the full functionality of Volo
View, you may purchase an Autodesk Land Desktop-compatible version
separately.
NOTE There are some commands in Trimble Link that are only available after
you install Autodesk Civil Design 3 or Autodesk Survey 3.
NOTE You can also view the Readme file after you have installed Autodesk
Land Desktop 3 by choosing Start ➤ Autodesk Land Desktop 3 ➤ Autodesk Land
Desktop 3 Readme Files ➤ Autodesk Land Desktop 3 Readme.
WARNING! If you do not restart your computer, you may have problems
running Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
28 | Chapter 2 Installation
Register and Authorize Autodesk Land
Desktop 3
The first time you start Autodesk Land Desktop 3, the Authorization wizard
is displayed. You can authorize Autodesk Land Desktop 3 at that time, or run
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 and authorize it later. Autodesk Land Desktop 3
displays the Authorization wizard for 15 days. Each time you start the pro-
gram, you are prompted to provide an authorization code. After 15 days, you
must enter an authorization code in order to run Autodesk Land Desktop 3.
You can register and authorize Autodesk Land Desktop 3 in one of the
following ways:
■ Internet. Guides you through entering your registration information and
sends it to Autodesk over the Internet. Once you submit your information,
registration and authorization occur almost instantly.
■ Fax. Guides you through entering your registration information. Saves
the information in a file that you can print and fax to Autodesk.
■ Email. Guides you through creating an email message with your registra-
tion information, which you can send to Autodesk.
■ Post/Mail. Guides you through entering your registration information.
Saves the information in a file that you can print and mail to Autodesk.
■ Select Register and Authorize, which will guide you through the electronic
registration process.
■ Select Enter Authorization Code, where you will enter your authorization
code (which you’ll receive after you’ve registered your product).
To add components
1 From the Start menu, choose Settings ➤ Control Panel.
2 In the Control Panel, choose Add/Remove Programs.
3 Do one of the following:
■ Windows® 98, NT, and ME. In the Add/Remove Program Properties dialog
box, on the Install/Uninstall tab, select Autodesk Land Desktop 3. Choose
Add/Remove.
■ Windows 2000. In the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, select Autodesk
Land Desktop 3, and choose Change.
■ Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive. Installs a feature and
its components on your hard drive.
■ Entire feature will be unavailable. Makes the feature unavailable.
30 | Chapter 2 Installation
To reinstall Autodesk Land Desktop 3
1 From the Start menu, choose Settings ➤ Control Panel.
2 In the Control Panel, choose Add/Remove Programs.
3 Do one of the following:
NOTE You can find information on optimizing and configuring Autodesk Land
Desktop 3 in the online AutoCAD Customization Guide. You can view it by
choosing Help ➤ Autodesk Land Desktop 3 Help and, from the Contents tab,
choosing AutoCAD Online Manuals ➤ Customization Guide.
■ Windows® 98, NT, and ME. In the Add/Remove Program Properties dialog
box, on the Install/Uninstall tab, select Autodesk Land Desktop 3. Choose
Add/Remove.
■ Windows 2000. In the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, select Autodesk
Land Desktop 3, and choose Change.
32 | Chapter 2 Installation
4 In the Confirm File Deletion dialog box, choose Yes to remove the
application.
5 InstallShield® removes the files from your system.
6 When the program has been uninstalled, choose OK.
4 In the Confirm File Deletion dialog box, choose Yes to remove the
application.
5 InstallShield removes the files from your system.
35
Starting Autodesk Land Desktop
To start Autodesk Land Desktop, select the Land Desktop 3 icon from the
Search Help for…
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 program group or from the Windows desktop.
Starting a Drawing
Session
When you start Autodesk Land Desktop, the Today window is displayed,
shown in the following illustration.
Today provides quick access to drawings. When you place the cursor over a
drawing name, a preview of the drawing is displayed. You can also view four
of the most recent drawings, or you can view drawings by date, file name, or
location by changing the display of the Open/Create tab.
NOTE When you install Autodesk Land Desktop, a Land Enabled Autodesk
Map 5 icon is created. Use this icon to start an object-enabled version of
Autodesk Map. You can use this version of Autodesk Map to open Autodesk Land
Desktop drawings and to view custom objects without having to select a project.
Using this version, you cannot use Autodesk Land Desktop commands, but you
can open multiple drawings at a time and use all of the AutoCAD 2002 and
Autodesk Map 5 commands.
TIP If you want to redisplay the Today window after closing it, you can do one
of the following:
The menus in the Autodesk Land Desktop 3 menu palette, plus the Image
menu, are displayed by default. The Image menu, which is not included in
the default menu palettes, provides information about Autodesk
CAD Overlay®. For more information about menu palettes, see “Selecting a
Menu Palette” on page 41.
When you start Autodesk Land Desktop, the Autodesk Map® Project
Workspace is displayed by default. You can use the Project Workspace to
NOTE You can run multiple sessions of Autodesk Land Desktop 3 on one com-
puter. Within each session, however, only one drawing can be open at a time.
Key Concepts
■ When you carry out a command, prompts and messages display on the
command line. You can view a complete history of the prompts and
messages of the current drawing session by pressing F2 to open the
AutoCAD text window which records the commands. For more informa-
tion, see “Text Window” on page 49.
■ To quit a command at any time, press ESC.
■ Autodesk Land Desktop has additional context-sensitive menus that you
can access by selecting an object and right-clicking. For more information,
see “Shortcut Menus” on page 47.
Key Concepts
■ After you select a pull-down menu, choose a command by clicking its
name.
■ If a command name on pull-down menu is shaded, then it is not available
at that point in the drawing session.
■ Ellipses (…
) following a command name indicate that further options are
displayed in a dialog box.
■ To view online Help about a command, highlight a command in the
menu and press F1.
■ On the command line, the spacebar usually works like the ENTER key.
You can access pull-down menus and commands in the following ways:
NOTE If you are using Windows 2000, by default the hot keys do not appear
until you press the ALT key.
To change the group of menus, you can select a different menu palette.
1 From the Projects menu, select Menu Palettes to display Selecting a Menu Palette
the Menu Palette Manager.
Search Help for… ■ To load the Autodesk Land Desktop menu, type MLD.
■ To load the complete Autodesk Land Desktop menu (which includes all
Autodesk Land Desktop
Macros AutoCAD menus), type MLC.
■ To load the Autodesk Civil Design menu, type MCD.
■ To load Autodesk Survey, type MSV.
2 Click the Menu Bar tab, and under Menu Group choose a
menu name from the list.
For example, if you want to add AutoCAD menus to the
menu bar, then choose ACAD.
4 Under Menu Bar, select a menu name in the list. The order
of the Menu Bar list duplicates the order from left to right
of the menus on the menu bar.
6 After you finish adding the menus to the menu bar, click
Close.
9 Type the name and description of the new palette, and Changing the Name or
click OK. Description of a Menu
Palette
Toolbars
When you start Autodesk Land Desktop, the AutoCAD Standard and Object
Properties toolbars are displayed at the top of the window, and the Modify
and Draw toolbars are displayed on the left side of the graphics screen.
To learn how to display the Autodesk Land Desktop toolbars, see the task at
the end of this topic.
You can display other toolbars with various tool categories. Each toolbar
contains a set of tools that represents specific commands in a category. Start
a command by clicking a tool. To identify a tool, move the pointer slowly
over the tool. A small label, or ToolTip, displays the tool name, as shown in
the following illustration.
■ Toolbars can float within the drawing area, or you can organize them as
needed by docking them at the top, bottom, or sides of the drawing area.
■ To turn a toolbar on or off, select or clear the check box next to its name
in the Customize dialog box. You can also close a toolbar by clicking the
Close button in the toolbar’s upper-right corner. The Close button is visi-
ble only when the Toolbar is floating within the drawing area.
■ You can customize a toolbar by adding and removing tools or by creating
new tools.
■ You can enhance an existing toolbar by creating a flyout toolbar.
Tools in the flyout toolbar are nested under the Flyout icon (indicated
by a black triangle in the lower-right corner). You can replace the Flyout
icon with any icon, and then associate a toolbar with it.
1 From the View menu, select Toolbars to display the Toolbar Command
Customize dialog box.
You can also move the cursor over any toolbar, right-click,
and choose Customize from the shortcut menu.
4 Click Close.
Standard tools
Status Bar
The status bar at the bottom of the Autodesk Land Desktop window displays
Search Help for…
the X,Y coordinates of the current cursor location and the status of fre-
Display Coordinates on quently used modes, as shown in the following illustration.
the Status Bar
Key Concepts
■ You can view the coordinate values of the current cursor location in
the left section of the status bar. There are three display options for
coordinates.
■ Double-click the drawing aids SNAP, GRID, ORTHO, POLAR, OSNAP,
OTRACK, and LWT to turn them on and off.
■ If you have not specified any running object snaps before selecting a
command, you can then specify the object snap settings by
double-clicking OSNAP to display the Drafting Settings dialog box. For
more information, see “Transparent Commands” on page 48.
■ Double-click MODEL/PAPER to switch between paper space and model
space when the drawing is in Layout mode. For more information, see
“Paper Space and Layout Mode” on page 132”
AutoCAD editing
commands
Utilities commands
Key Concepts
■ Autodesk Land Desktop has a shortcut menu for grip editing. Select an
object in the drawing to display the grips, select a grip, and then
right-click to display the shortcut menu. For more information, see
“Working with Editing Tools” on page 149.
■ As you use real-time panning and zooming, you can right-click to display
shortcut menus with specific options for those commands.
To display the default drawing tools shortcut menu, hold down the SHIFT key
and right-click. The shortcut menus are displayed at the cursor location.
Transparent Commands
You can use the command line to access a second command without leaving
the first command. To use a command transparently, type an apostrophe (’)
before the command name on the command line. For example, if you are
using LINE to draw a line, you can type ’zoom (’z) or ’pan (’p) to change the
view of the drawing and the LINE command remains active. After you have
finished using a command transparently, the suspended command
continues.
NOTE The only commands that you can use transparently are commands that
do not select or create objects, or commands that do not regenerate or end
drawings.
Key Concepts
■ You can use a command transparently by selecting it from a menu or
toolbar.
■ Whenever a command name is documented with a leading apostrophe,
you can use the command transparently.
Text Window
Use a text window to view a complete history of commands that you used in
Search Help for…
the current drawing session.
Navigate and Edit Within
the Command Window
Press F2 to open a text window, which expands from the command line.
Press F2 again to return to a drawing window.
Establishing Settings
Early in a project you should establish the following settings:
Search Help for…
■ User preferences
Changing the Autodesk
Land Desktop Settings ■ Drawing settings
■ Prototype settings
■ Data file settings
NOTE When you start a new drawing, you also set up the drawing for units,
zone, sheet size, and so on. For more information, see “Setting Up Drawings” on
page 64.
Establishing Settings | 49
User Preferences
The User Preferences control three main aspects of the program: file paths,
Search Help for…
drawing setup method, and AutoCAD overrides.
Changing the User
Preferences
Establish file
paths.
Clear these
check boxes to Select the
use standard method you
AutoCAD want to use for
commands. Drawing Setup.
File Paths
You can control file paths, such as the path for storing menu palettes, proto-
types, setup files, and speed tables. To use these items, you must store them
in the locations specified in the File Locations settings. For example, to use a
speed table to calculate a spiral, the speed tables must be located in the path
that you specify for speed tables.
NOTE When you install Autodesk Land Desktop, these paths are set up auto-
matically. You need to change these paths only if you move any items, such as
drawing setup files, to a different folder.
AutoCAD Overrides
If you want to use the AutoCAD New and Open commands, instead of
Autodesk Land Desktop commands, then you can change the AutoCAD
override settings.
Clear the “New” Drawing Dialog check box to use the AutoCAD New com-
mand every time you use the New command. Select this check box to use the
project-based Autodesk Land Desktop New command.
Clear the “Open” Drawing Dialog check box to use the AutoCAD Open
command every time you use the Open command. Select this check box to
use the project-based Autodesk Land Desktop Open command.
The Autodesk Land Desktop New and Open dialog boxes are shown in the
following illustrations.
New Drawing Wizard Drawing Setup dialog box Sample of a setup file
Establishing Settings | 51
Drawing Settings
The Edit Settings dialog box is a centralized location from which you can
modify settings that are specific to each drawing. To display the Edit Settings
dialog box, select the Edit Drawing Settings command on the Projects menu.
1. Choose
the program
that has the 2. Choose the
settings you settings you
want to want to edit.
modify.
3. Click Edit
Settings.
The settings are arranged by program so you can more easily locate the set-
tings that apply to a project. There are settings for Autodesk Land Desktop,
Autodesk Civil Design, and Autodesk Survey.
Search Help for…
These settings are all available elsewhere in the program. The Edit Settings
Changing the Autodesk
Land Desktop Drawing dialog box provides an easy way to change different settings simultaneously
Settings and then save them back to a prototype. By saving the settings to a proto-
type, they are used automatically whenever you create a new drawing in a
project that is based on that prototype. You can establish the settings once
and then apply them to each new drawing.
Key Concepts
■ The drawing settings are controlled on a drawing-by-drawing basis unless
you save them back to the prototype on which the project is based. This
is designed so that individual drawings in a project can have different
settings.
■ The default drawing settings are based on the project prototype that you
select when you create a project. For more information, see “Working with
Drawings” on page 62.
Prototype Settings
Every Autodesk Land Desktop project must be based on a prototype. A pro-
totype stores drawing settings. These settings are copied to each drawing that
is created in the project. Autodesk Land Desktop includes a prototype for
meters and a prototype for feet.
The Prototype Settings dialog box provides a centralized location from which
you can modify prototype settings. To display the Prototype Settings dialog
box, select Prototype Settings from the Projects menu, select the prototype
you want to modify, and then click OK.
1. Choose
the program
that has the
settings you
want to edit.
3. Click Edit
Settings.
Establishing Settings | 53
Data File Settings
You can use the Edit Data Files dialog box to access data files for Autodesk
Land Desktop, Autodesk Civil Design, and Autodesk Survey. This dialog
box provides a centralized location from which you can access and modify
import/export formats, speed tables, label styles, tag styles, and contour
styles.
To display the Edit Data Files dialog box, choose Data Files from the
Projects menu.
1. Choose
the program.
2. Select the
data file that
you want to
edit.
3. Click Edit
Data.
■ Command synonyms.
■ Equipment settings.
■ Figure Prefix Library.
Establishing Settings | 55
The following table gives a brief overview of the settings.
Tab Function
Files Specifies the directories to search for support, driver, menu, and
other files. Also specifies optional, user-defined settings such as the
dictionary to use for checking spelling.
Open and Save Controls options that relate to opening and saving files.
System Controls system settings, including the Startup option and Live
Enabler settings.
User Preferences Controls options that optimize the way you work.
1 From the Tools menu, choose Options to display Set Interface Options
the Options dialog box, and then click the Display tab.
4 From the Color list, select a basic color for the Model tab
background, and then click Apply & Close to return to the
Display tab.
6 Select a font style and then click Apply & Close to return
to the Display tab.
Saving a Profile
You can customize profiles to accommodate different projects and different
users. When you change settings in the Options dialog box, the group of set-
tings is automatically saved as the default profile. Any changes that you make
are immediate. You have no warning before you lose the default profile set-
tings. To avoid having to reinstall Autodesk Land Desktop to restore the orig-
inal settings, copy and save them as a backup profile (named, for example,
LAND) before you make any changes.
IMPORTANT The Reset button sets the selected profile to the basic
AutoCAD 2002 settings, removing access to additional functionality from the
selected profile. It is recommended that you copy and save the original
Autodesk Land Desktop profile settings before you make changes in the
Options dialog box.
Establishing Settings | 57
Using the World Coordinate System
for Creating Data
When you use a default drawing template to start a new drawing in Autodesk
Search Help for…
Land Desktop, you are in the world coordinate system (WCS) automatically.
Change to a View of the The X axis is horizontal, the Y axis is vertical, and the Z axis is perpendicular
XY Plane to the XY plane.
To change the coordinate system to World, type UCS on the command line,
and then type World.
Creating Projects
You can create a new project when you create a new drawing, or you can
create a new project from the Project Manager. As you create a new project,
use the Project Details dialog box to establish the project name, description,
Select a prototype
to establish initial
Type an optional
drawing settings.
description for the
project.
Type a name for
the project. Type optional
keywords for the
project.
Choose a location
for the project’s
drawing files.
■ Create new projects. If you are a CAD Manager, then you may want to
create the projects from within the Project Management dialog box so
that others can start their drawings and reference the same project data.
■ Create new project paths. By default, the project path is c:\Land Projects 3,
but you can create new project paths if desired.
■ View the project details, including project description, keywords, and
drawing storage location.
■ View and manage the file locks. On a network, you can view the file locks
to see who has files open.
■ Copy, rename, and delete projects. It is recommended that you use the
Project Management dialog box for copying, renaming, and deleting
project data.
Default prototypes for feet and meters are included with Autodesk Land
Desktop. If you delete the default prototypes, then they are recreated,
using the default system settings, the next time that you start Autodesk
Land Desktop.
When you install Autodesk Land Desktop, a prototype folder
(c:\Program Files\Land Desktop 3\data\prototypes) is created by default. Each
default prototype, and each prototype that you create, is represented by a
Key Concepts
■ When you create a new drawing, you must name the drawing and select
or create a project.
■ When you create a new drawing, you can create a new project.
■ You can base a new drawing on a drawing template. Template files contain
all the settings for a drawing and can also include predefined layers,
dimension styles, and views. For more information about using drawing
templates, locate “Using Templates” in Help.
1 From the Autodesk Land Desktop 3 program group, Starting a Drawing Session
choose the Autodesk Land Desktop 3 icon.
The Today window is displayed.
Or, if Autodesk Land Desktop is already running, choose
New from the File menu.
2 Click New to display the New Drawing: Project Based Starting a New Drawing
dialog box, as shown in the following illustration.
Type the
name of the
new drawing.
Select the
project name if
one exists.
Or you can
click Create
Project to
Choose a
create a new
drawing
project.
template.
You can use this Wizard to select the current zone, and to adjust the draw-
ing units, the horizontal and vertical scales, the current text style, and
other settings.
Key Concepts
■ Set up the drawing units and scale based on a plot scale.
■ You can insert custom borders into drawings.
■ The precision values in the Drawing Setup Wizard control displayed infor-
mation and plotted labels, not the actual values that are stored in the data-
base, which are calculated to the highest internal precision.
■ After you modify the settings for a drawing, you can use the Load/Save
Settings page to name and save the setup so that you can use the same
settings for each drawing in a project.
■ After you initially set up the drawing, you can modify the Drawing Setup
values by choosing the Drawing Setup command from the Projects menu.
1 From the Projects menu, choose Drawing Setup to display Setting Up a Drawing Using
the Drawing Setup dialog box. the Drawing Setup
Command
3 Under Base Point, type X, Y coordinates for the base point, Changing the Base Point for
or click Pick and select a point from the drawing. a Drawing
Setting a different base point affects the view of the
project data in the current drawing only and does not
alter the point database coordinates. All project data files
store their information as northing/easting coordinates.
4 Under Northing and Easting, type the northing and Changing the North
easting coordinates to associate with the X,Y base point. Rotation for a Drawing
For example, if X,Y is 0,0 (the lower-left corner of the
drawing screen), then you can specify the local northing/
easting coordinates that were used in a survey of the site,
such as 5000,5000. This makes 0,0 equivalent to
northing/easting of 5000,5000.
7 From the Inquiry menu, choose Track North/East to Tracking Northing and
display a box that tracks the northing and easting of the Easting Coordinates
pointer as you move it across the screen.
Opening Drawings
You can open an existing drawing by using the Today window, by selecting
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the Open command from the File menu, and by typing open at the
Opening an Existing command line.
Drawing
If you open a drawing that is associated with an existing project, then the
drawing is linked automatically to that project. If you open a drawing that is
not associated with a project, then you must select a project or create a new
project for the drawing to work with Autodesk Land Desktop commands.
Proxy Graphics
Proxy graphics, which represent the custom objects, are used to indicate the
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locations of custom objects in the drawing.
Work with Custom and
Proxy Objects
NOTE If you share a drawing with another person who uses proxy graphics,
then make sure when you save the drawing that the PROXYGRAPHICS variable
is set to 1.
The Proxy Information dialog box identifies the missing application and the
number of proxy objects in the drawing. The dialog box also contains three
options:
Key Concepts
■ You can view drawings or objects from a side viewpoint, such as right, left,
top, or bottom; from isometric angles; and in an elevation view.
■ To view a drawing in 2D planes (X and Y planes), use plan view. In plan
view, the drawing is displayed as if you were directly above and looking
down on it.
NOTE Plan view has a beneficial and fail-safe property. After you have been
working in 3D, you can always return to plan view to reorient yourself and
the drawing.
Key Concepts
■ The initial view in the Object Viewer corresponds to the drawing view.
■ If the drawing is in plan view, the objects in the Object Viewer are in
2D plan view.
■ If you are viewing a drawing in 3D, then the objects are displayed in 3D.
■ You can shade object surfaces using flat shading or Gouraud shading. Flat
shading shades the objects between the polygon faces. Gouraud shading
shades the objects and smooths the edges between polygon faces, giving
the objects a smooth, realistic appearance.
Viewing Drawings | 69
To view an object in the Object Viewer
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Object Viewer. Using the Object Viewer
Zoom options
Option Description
Realtime Zooms in and out of the drawing by moving the magnifying glass
icon. Realtime is the default setting for the ZOOM command. You can
right-click to display a shortcut menu with additional options.
All Zooms out to include everything within the drawing file. This option
also regenerates the drawing.
Dynamic Displays the drawing within a view box that you can adjust. After
you specify the extents of the box, press ENTER and that area becomes
the new display.
Extents Enlarges the drawing to the tightest zoom possible of everything in the
drawing file.
Previous Restores the prior view. You can select up to 10 previous views
in succession.
Option Description
Scale Zooms the display at a specified scale factor. The value you enter is
relative to the limits of the drawing. For example, entering 2 doubles
the apparent display size of any objects from what it would be if you
were zoomed to the limits of the drawing.
NOTE If you want to zoom or pan in real time without using commands,
select Aerial View from the View menu. The drawing is displayed in a separate,
smaller window that remains open while you work, and in which you can navi-
gate around the drawing quickly. For more information, see “Pan and Zoom
with the Aerial View Window” in the online Help.
Scaling Views
When you work on the drawing in model space, you work at full scale. In
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paper space, you must specify a drawing scale that is determined by the size
Scale Views Relative to limits of the sheet of paper, or by how you want the drawing views to display.
Paper Space
You can scale the drawing in two ways. You can specify a scale factor at plot
time, relative to the paper size, or you can scale the views in paper space float-
ing viewports. Scaling in layout viewports provides instantaneous feedback
about whether the drawing view fits on the sheet of paper.
TIP You can use the DIST command to measure the model drawing to help you
determine the scale.
Key Concepts
■ To scale a view relative to the current view, use the Scale (X/XP) option of
the ZOOM command. Add x after the value that you enter. For example,
enter 2x to double the image size.
■ To scale a drawing relative to paper space units, use the Scale (X/XP)
option of the ZOOM command, and then enter the “xp” (“times paper
space”) factor. For example, if you want 1 inch in paper units to equal
1 foot in drawing units, then 1 in. = 1 ft. Enter the scale factor 12xp at the
prompt.
■ Use MVSETUP to scale viewports independently or as a group.
Viewing Drawings | 71
Using Named Views
As you work on a drawing, you may find that you return frequently to the
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same views. For example, you may zoom repeatedly into a particular area in
Save and Restore Views the drawing. Rather than using the ZOOM command every time you want to
view this area, you can name this view, and recall it when you need it.
From the View menu, select Named Views to display the View dialog box in
which you can create, save, delete, or restore a view.
Key Concepts
■ When you save a view, both the viewing position, such as a specific pan
or zoom position, and scale are saved.
■ If you work in tiled viewports in model space, then only the view in the
current viewport is saved. If you work in paper space, you can save the
entire layout, including one or more floating viewports.
■ When you restore a named view in model space, it replaces the active
viewport. In paper space, however, the restored view replaces the entire
layout, including one or more floating viewports.
■ For more information about viewports, see “Paper Space and Layout
Mode” on page 132.
Key Concepts
■ You can group and organize drawing layers by function and other catego-
ries. For example, you can place minor contours on one layer and major
contours on another.
■ Each drawing can have its own layer structure, or hierarchy. You can also
set up a layer configuration and then save it as a drawing template to
enforce linetype, lineweight, color, and other standards when you create
new drawings.
■ Assign layers a color, linetype, and/or lineweight to distinguish them from
other layers. Layer 0 is created when you start a drawing and it cannot be
deleted. All other layers are layers that you create.
■ By turning layers on and off, you can plot the same drawing to serve
different purposes.
■ In lists, layers are sorted alphabetically by name.
Tool Description
Turns layers on and off. Layers that are turned off are
invisible and not plotted.
Tool Description
Drafting settings
Drafting Description
setting
Grid Displays a web of visible dots that you can use as a guide. The dots are
spaced according to the value that you specify in the Snap section of the
Drafting Settings dialog box.
The following illustrations show the grid turned on. In the illustration on
the left, Snap is turned off. The cursor does not snap to the grid points. In
the illustration on the right, Snap is turned on. The cursor snaps to the grid
points.
Polar Sets the angles used with polar tracking and sets options for object snap
Tracking tracking. Sets the basis by which polar tracking alignment angles are
measured. The following illustration shows an example of polar tracking.
Object Controls running object snap settings and object snap tracking. Running
Snap object snaps automatically snap to points in the drawing when using a
command. For more information see “Object Snaps” on page 79.
Object Snaps
You can use object snaps (osnaps) to move the cursor to defined points on
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objects, such as the center of a circle, the midpoint of a line, or the intersec-
Use Object Snaps tion of two lines. For example, you can start a new line from the exact end-
Snap to Locations on point of another line. Set the object snaps you want to use in the Drafting
Objects (Object Snaps) Settings dialog box, which is displayed when you choose Drafting Settings
from the Tools menu.
During a drawing session, if you do not want to use an object snap that you
set, you can turn it off temporarily before you select a point. Double-click
Osnap on the status bar, or press F3 to turn the settings off. Double-click
Osnap again or press F3 to turn the same settings back on.
To display the Object Snap shortcut menu, run a drawing command like
LINE, then press the SHIFT key and right-click.
AutoSnap
After you set snap point locations in the Drafting Settings dialog box, you
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can select AutoSnap options to preview and confirm locations during a
Set Object Snap Visual drawing session before using the pointing device to specify a point. To access
Aids (AutoSnap)
When the cursor moves over an object snap location, a marker is displayed
(when the Marker check box is selected). If you pause, a ToolTip shows the
name of the location (when the Display AutoSnap Tooltip check box is
selected).
The following illustration shows the marker that is displayed over the
endpoint, and the ToolTip that explains the snap point the cursor is
snapped to.
AutoSnap works even when you set multiple object snaps. Press TAB to cycle
through the snap points on an object.
2 Turn on a running object snap like ENDPOINT by using Use Object Snaps
the Drafting Settings command from the Tools menu.
3 If AutoTrack is not currently active (the OTRACK button on Track to Points on Objects
the status bar appears indented when AutoTrack is active), (Object Snap Tracking)
turn on AutoTrack by clicking OTRACK on the status bar.
8 Click to place the start point of the line at this location that
AutoTrack identified.
Plotting Drawings
When you are ready to plot a drawing, set up a layout and configure the
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settings in the Plot dialog box. These settings include the printer or plotter
Overview of Plotting you want to use, the plot style table, the layout(s) to plot, the plot area, scale,
Overview of Plot Styles orientation, and other parameters.
To set up a drawing to plot, you work in a layout (also known as paper space).
You can click the Model and Layout tabs at the bottom of the drawing screen
to switch between model space and paper space. You use the Layout mode to
set up the view that you want to plot by configuring viewports. You can have
multiple layouts set up within one drawing to plot different views of the
drawing. For more information about model space and paper space, see
“Paper Space and Layout Mode” on page 132.
Plotting Drawings | 83
Key Concepts
■ A plot style, which is an object property, can change the way a plotted
drawing looks. By modifying an object’s plot style, you can override that
object’s color, linetype, and lineweight. You can use plot styles if you need
to plot the same drawing in different ways.
■ Plot settings are saved in the drawing.
■ The Layout configuration is affected by the following plot settings: paper
size, printable area, plot area, plot scale, and plot offset. If you modify the
plot settings from the Plot dialog box, the layout paper image reflects the
new plot settings after a drawing has been plotted.
Key Concepts
■ When you quit a drawing, you are prompted to save any changes that you
have made but not yet saved.
■ To allow multi-user read/write access to the point database and the align-
ment database, the point and alignment information is written directly to
the databases, so they never need to be saved.
85
Introduction
Points that Autodesk Land Desktop creates are called COGO points. COGO
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stands for Coordinate Geometry. COGO points are stored in an external
COGO Points database and are organized by their point numbers. COGO points have
extended entity data associated with the points that includes point number,
point name, description, elevation, northing, and easting.
COGO point data is stored in an external database file called points.mdb,
which is referenced by all drawings in a project. Because project points are
stored externally, you can reference them without drafting them in a
drawing. Point data can be accessed by multiple people on a network.
To add points to the point database, you can do the following:
■ Create points using the Create Points commands on the Points menu.
■ Import ASCII files.
■ Import data from a Microsoft Access database file.
■ Download from a data collector.
The following diagram illustrates the several ways to add points to a project.
Point markers include a point marker node and point marker text for point
number, description, and elevation. Although you must use labels to achieve
full description key substitution, you can substitute full descriptions for raw
descriptions using point markers.
In contrast, point labels can label any number of items. You can customize
point labels to display any type of information about points. You can label
points with data from external databases by using External Data References
(XDRefs). You can also set up point label styles that perform description key
substitution.
For more information about point markers, see “Changing the Point Marker
and Point Text Settings” on page 95. For more information about description
keys and point labels, see “Working with Description Keys” on page 114.
The COGO points are usually assigned description and elevation data as well
as a required point number and northing and easting coordinates. This point
data is stored in the point database. In contrast, a point node exists only in
a drawing file, and it has only X, Y, and Z data associated with it.
You can convert CAD point nodes to COGO points by using the Convert
from AutoCAD Points command from the Points ➤ Point Utilities menu.
■ A COGO point is an object instead of a block with attributes. All point fea-
tures are now placed on the same layer, the current layer, unless you use
description keys or point labels. The point object can stay the same size
regardless of the zoom level magnification you use.
You can create leaders for points by dragging the point grip away from the
point node, or you can turn this option off in the Point Settings dialog box
so that leaders are not created when you move the markers.
For more information about changes to points for Autodesk Land Desktop 3,
see “What’s New in Autodesk Land Desktop” on page 3.
■ All programs in the Autodesk Land Solutions suite use the point database.
■ You can set up the point database so multiple people can access it over a
network.
■ The point database stores all the point information outside of the draw-
ings, which keeps the size of the drawing files smaller.
Because all the project point information is stored in one file, it is easier to
manage point data for a project. This is especially true when you work on a
large project that contains several different drawings or when you work on
the same project with other people on a network.
All commands that use point data, such as when you draw a line between
points, refer to the point database, not to the drawing. Therefore, you can
perform these functions even when the points are not drafted in the drawing.
This gives you added flexibility when you work on large projects with thou-
sands of points. By keeping the points out of the drawing, you can speed up
redraw time significantly.
Because all point information is stored in a database, you can create a new
drawing and insert only the project points that meet specific criteria, such as
region, point number range, or description. For example, you can insert
points with descriptions associated with the boundary, such as iron pipes,
corner points, or fence points.
You can limit access to the point database to one person, or you can share it
with other people. If you share the point database with other people, then
you can use the Lock Points command from the Points menu to protect
against unwanted edits to the database.
Key Concepts
■ All drawings in a project share a single point database file.
■ Autodesk Land Desktop protects against duplicate point numbers. You are
prompted for how to resolve any duplicates that may arise.
■ For users of Autodesk S8 products: The point database project.pdf is called
points.mdb.
After you create the point database, you can choose the database open mode
by running the Point Database Setup command. To run this command,
choose the Point Database Setup command from the Points ➤ Point
Management menu.
When you import points, the Insert To Drawing As Created setting is used,
but certain point settings, such as elevation, point number, and description,
are not applied. The Import Points command uses the information in the file
that you are importing.
If more than one person working on a project over a network is creating
points, then each person can adjust the current point number to avoid con-
fusion. One person could set 100 as the current point number, and another
person could set 200 as the current point number. The same point number
cannot be used twice in a project.
Choose a custom
marker style for the
point node.
Use the Text tab to control how the point text is displayed.
Creating Points
Use Autodesk Land Desktop point creation commands to create points in
many ways, such as by northing/easting, along an object, by turned angle,
and so on. You can create points at intersections, on a slope, on alignments,
by referencing a surface, and by interpolating.
Key Concepts
■ Points created by using the commands on the Points menu are always
added to the point database.
■ Point prompts can differ, depending on how you set up the Point Creation
Settings. Use these settings to assign elevations and descriptions to points.
■ To create points by referencing geodetic directions, you must first choose
the current zone for the drawing from the Drawing Setup dialog box.
2 Click the Create tab to change the Point Creation settings. Changing the Point
These settings determine the data you are prompted for, Creation Settings
the data created automatically for the points, and
whether the points you create are inserted into the
drawing.
4 From the Points menu, choose Create Points ➤ Northing/ Creating Points at
Easting. Northing/Easting
Coordinates
■ Type the northing of the point you want to create.
■ Type the easting of the point you want to create.
■ Type the description and elevation for the point if you
are prompted for them.
Importing Points
A quick and effective way to place points in a project is to import them. You
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can use the Import Points command to import the following:
Importing Point Data
■ Point ASCII files.
Importing and Exporting
Points ■ Data from a Microsoft Access database file.
■ Points from another project point database.
For example, if a surveyor collected point data by using a data collector, the
data can be downloaded as an ASCII file and then imported into the
Autodesk Land Desktop project by doing the following:
1 Download the point data from a data collector as an ASCII text file using data
collector software.
2 Create an import/export format that specifies information in the ASCII file.
3 Import the points using the import/export format.
All points you import are added to the project point database.
Importing Points | 97
To create an import/export format and import points
4 Choose the type of import/export format you want to Point File Format Dialog Box
create. For example, to import an ASCII file, select User
Point File and click OK.
5 Click the column headings (the <unused> buttons) to Select Column Name Dialog
establish the format. Box
The Select Column Name dialog box is displayed.
Importing Points | 99
To create an import/export format and import points (continued)
9 Name the format, and then close the Point File Format
dialog box.
11 From the Points menu, choose Point Settings and click the Adding Points to the
Create tab. Drawing as Points Are
To import the points into only the database, clear the Created
Insert to Drawing as Created check box. This significantly
increases the speed of the import. You can specify the
points that you can later bring into the drawing from the
project point database by using the Insert Points to
Drawing command from the Points menu.
13 Use the options in the COGO Database Import Options Changing the COGO
dialog box to determine the following: Database Import Options
■ How to resolve duplicate incoming points.
■ What to do when point numbers are assigned by the
source file.
■ What to do when point numbers need to be assigned.
Click OK to continue.
14 From the Points menu, choose Import/Export Importing Points into the
Points ➤ Import Points to display the Format Manager - COGO Point Database
Import Points dialog box.
15 Select the format and the source file that you want to
import.
16 Select the Add Points to Point Group check box to add the
imported points to a point group, then select or create a
point group.
Point filters make it easy for you to accurately retrieve coordinate points from
the point database or to accurately select points from the drawing. Point
filters are a letter preceded by a period that you can type at any “Select
Points” prompt.
■ Type .p, press ENTER, and then type a specific point number.
■ Type .g, press ENTER, and then select the point in the drawing.
■ Type .n, press ENTER, and then type the point’s northing and easting
coordinates.
For example, you could use the .g graphical selection filter to select any part
of a point object on screen. This retrieves the exact coordinates of the point
object from the point database.
1 Select a command that prompts you to select points. For Drawing a Line by Selecting
example, from the Lines/Curves menu, choose Line. Start and End Points
NOTE The filters work only for Autodesk Land Desktop
commands. They do not work for AutoCAD commands
such as LINE.
2 At the Starting point prompt, type .p to turn on the point Using Point Filters to Select
number filter. Points
The command line changes to a prompt for a Point
number.
5 Select the next point from the screen using the pickbox.
NOTE You can also use AutoCAD commands, such as MOVE or ERASE, to edit
the points in the drawing. However, by default these commands do not update
the project point database. To update the project point database after using
these commands, use the Modify Project command from the Points ➤ Check
Points menu.
Key Concepts
■ The commands in the Edit Points menu, such as Points ➤ Edit
Points ➤ Erase, change both the drawing and database simultaneously.
AutoCAD editing commands, such as ERASE, change only the drawing
and not the database.
■ You can lock points to protect them against unwanted edits by choosing
Points ➤ Lock/Unlock Points ➤ Lock Points.
■ To edit points by using MOVE, select the Allow Points to be MOVE’d in
Drawing check box on the Update tab in the Point Settings dialog box. To
update the project point database, you must also select the Update Point
Database After MOVE Command check box.
1 With points in the drawing (or in the point database only), Editing Points
choose a point editing command, such as Move, from the
Points ➤ Edit Points menu.
2 After you edit the points, choose Modify Project from the Updating the Project Point
Points ➤ Check Points menu to update the project with Database with Drawing
the changes that you made to the points in the drawing. Point Information
■ Select all project points, select specific points by using the tabs, or select
points by typing a point list directly in the Point List box.
■ Select points by specifying raw description filters and point groups.
■ Include and exclude points based on point numbers, elevations, and
descriptions, using separate Include and Exclude tabs.
■ Turn case sensitive matching on and off. When case sensitive matching is
turned off, a description typed as “perimeter” will select all points with
the description “perimeter,” “Perimeter,” “PERIMETER,” and so on.
■ View a summary of your selection on the Summary tab.
■ Insert points into the drawing, remove points from the drawing, erase
points, lock, and unlock points, right from the dialog box. These features
are also now available from within the Point Group Manager.
To select multiple points on the Edit tab (or the List tab of any of the other
point selection dialog boxes, or the Point Group Manager), you can do any
of the following:
Key Concepts
■ You can use the point selection dialog box to select points for all of the
commands on the Points ➤ Edit Points menu except for Unerase. This
dialog box is also used for the List Points, Insert Points to Drawing,
Remove from Drawing, Radial Stakeout, and Consecutive Stakeout
commands.
■ To clear a point selection, right-click and select Clear Selection.
■ When no points are selected on the Edit tab (for the Edit Points command
only), you can right-click a column heading and select Edit to edit all of
the points in the column at once.
For example, if more than one person is working on the project and adding
points to the point database, then the points in the drawing may not match
the project points. You can update the drawing with the project points by
using the Modify Drawing command from the Points ➤ Check Points menu.
The following illustration shows the options available when you use this
command:
■ Saving To and Loading From a Prototype: You can now save a standard
point group file to a prototype that you can load into other projects.
■ Simplified Point Selection Methods: The Create Point Group dialog box
now has separate Include and Exclude tabs for specifying the points to
include or exclude from the point group. A new Summary tab summarizes
the properties you define for the group and lists the total number of points
in the group.
■ Additional Point Commands: Insert points into the drawing, remove
points from the drawing, erase points, lock, and unlock points in the
Point Group Manager dialog box. Select the points and right-click to dis-
play these options in the shortcut menu.
Key Concepts
■ You can show additional columns of data in the Point Group Manager. To
show all columns (including point name, grid northing, and grid easting,
which are not shown by default), right-click a column heading and choose
Show All Columns from the shortcut menu.
■ When you assign overrides, point groups can override existing point data
that is contained in the point database.
■ From within the Point Group Manager, you can lock a point group to
prevent it from being updated. You can also lock the points in a point
group so they cannot be edited.
4 Select the points for the point group by using the Raw
Desc Matching tab, the Include tab, and the Exclude tab.
Click Apply to update the Point List box at the top of the
dialog box. All the points in the Point List box are
included in the point group when you click OK.
5 Define overrides for the point groups by using the Point Group Overrides
Overrides tab.
To see if a point group requires updating, you can check point group status.
There are two ways to check point group status:
■ Select the Check Status on Startup check box in the Point Settings dialog
box to automatically check point group status when the Point Group
Manager is opened.
■ Use the Check Status options in the Point Group Manager to manually
check the point group status.
When the point group status is checked, the point group properties are
compared with the point database. If the point group is out-of-date, the
point group icon changes to .
To see why a point group is out-of-date, use the Show Changes commands.
The Show Changes commands provide a detailed list that describes the
points that need to be added to or removed from the point group. The fol-
lowing illustration shows that points 16-20 should be removed from the
LOTS point group because these points no longer match the point group
properties (their descriptions were changed).
After you review this list, you can update the point groups from within the
Show Changes dialog box by clicking the Update Point Group(s) icon. You
can also use the Update All Point Groups command to update the point
groups without reviewing the changes.
■ You can override the point label style, description, elevation, or name
with a single fixed value that is used for all points in the group.
■ You can specify an XDRef name to substitute data that is in a Microsoft®
Access database on a point-by-point basis. Use this option to override each
point with a different value.
The following illustration shows the Overrides tab in the Create Point Group
dialog box. Fixed overrides are applied to the point group Elevation and
Point Label Style properties, and an XDRef override is applied to the
Description property.
Overrides apply to a point group whenever you reference the point group.
For example, if you include a point group that has elevation overrides in a
surface definition, the elevation override values are used in the surface. If you
insert a point group with description overrides into a drawing, then the
description overrides are used for the raw descriptions of the points. If the
override description matches a description key code, then description key
substitution can occur.
When you use overrides, no substitution is ever applied to the point
database itself.
When you define description keys, you assign a description key code, a
description format (or “full” description), a symbol, a point layer, and a sym-
bol layer. When you create or import a point with a raw description that
matches a description key code, the point is placed in the drawing with the
symbol, the point and symbol are placed on the specified layers, and the raw
description is replaced with the full description.
When you create points, you are prompted for the point number, point ele-
vation, and point description. A description key is essentially a replacement
for the point description. For example, if you type TREE as the description for
a tree point, and if TREE has been defined as a description key and it has a
symbol associated with it, then a tree symbol is created for that point.
Autodesk Land Desktop includes many symbols that you can use for
description keys. Imperial and metric symbols are stored in subfolders of the
following folder:
c:\Program Files\Land Desktop 3\data\symbol manager
■ In the top illustration, the point label style inserts a symbol only (no text
label), and the point marker text is visible.
■ In the bottom illustration, the point label style inserts a symbol and
creates a text label. The text label expands the description key code
(dshrub) to its full description (Deciduous Shrub). Point marker text is
turned off.
The point label style controls whether description key matching is on or off,
which description key file to use, whether full descriptions are substituted for
Description Parameters
When surveyors enter data in the field, they can use description parameters.
Description parameters are entries, separated by a space, that expand the
description of a point. For example, TREE OAK 7 is a description that has
three parameters.
By formatting a description key to use description parameters, you can main-
tain but reorder the point description information. For example, you can set
up a description key that uses description parameters to convert the raw
description “TREE OAK 7” to “7-inch Oak Tree.”
Key Concepts
■ Description keys are saved to external files. Each project can have mul-
tiple description key files, which can be shared with other users across a
network. All drawings within a project reference the same description
key files.
■ You can save description key files to prototypes so that you can add them
into new and existing projects.
■ You can use wild card characters when you create description keys. Wild
cards expand the flexibility of description keys. For example, if you create
a description key named T*, then any point whose description starts
with T, such as Topo, T-1, or T2, is assigned the description key symbol.
8 From the Points menu, choose Point Using the Description Key
Management ➤ Description Key Manager to display the Manager
Description Key Manager dialog box.
9 Click to display the Create Description Key dialog Creating a Description Key
box.
14 In the Symbol Layer box, type the layer for the symbol.
16 From the Labels menu, choose Edit Label Styles and then Editing Point Label Styles
click the Point Label Style tab.
18 In the Data list, choose Point Number and click the Text
button.
23 From the Labels menu, choose Show Dialog Bar and make Selecting the Current Label
the Desckey point label style that you created the current Style from the Style
point label style. Properties Dialog Bar
24 From the Points menu, choose Create Points ➤ Manual. Creating Points at Selected
Coordinates
7 From the Points menu in Autodesk Land Desktop, choose Using External Data
Point Management ➤ XDRef Manager to display the References
XDRef Manager dialog box.
8 From the Manager menu, choose Create XDRef to display Creating an External Data
the Create External Data Reference dialog box. Reference
13 From the Column Name list, select Desc1. This list shows
all the columns that exist in the table that you selected.
The dialog box should appear as shown in the following
illustration.
16 Click the Point Label Styles tab. Editing Point Label Styles
17 In the Name box, type a name for the new label style,
such as Borehole.
18 From the XDRef list, select the name of the XDRef that you
recently created.
19 Click the Text button to add that XDRef to the label style.
For a borehole label, you may want to label the points
with multiple descriptions and elevations. You can also
add any other point data, such as point number, to the
label style.
The upper-left section of the dialog box should appear
similar to the following illustration:
20 Click Save to save the style, and then exit the dialog box.
21 From the Points menu, choose Point Settings. Click the Changing the Point
Insert tab, and verify that the Use Current Point Label Insertion Settings
Style When Inserting Points check box is selected.
22 Click the Create tab and verify that 1 is the Current Changing the Point
Number. Creation Settings
NOTE For this example, the new points you create in
step 25 must be numbered 1, 2, and 3 in order to obtain
their description from the XDRef.
23 From the Labels menu, choose Show Dialog Bar. Selecting the Current Label
Style from the Style
Properties Dialog Bar
2 Click the Zone tab and select the current zone Changing the Current Zone
for the drawing. for a Drawing
4 From the Points menu choose Point Utilities ➤ Geodetic Using the Geodetic
Calculator to display the Geodetic Calculator dialog box. Calculator
5 Type the latitude and longitude of the first point that you
observed with the GPS.
The calculator automatically displays the grid northing
and grid easting coordinates for the point that is related
to the current zone that you selected in step 2.
Make a note of these coordinates.
129
Introduction
This chapter describes how to use the geometry creation and editing tools in
Autodesk Land Desktop. Some topics include:
Click a layout tab to view a layout, and then click the Model tab to return to
model space.
Model Space
When you start a drawing, you usually begin in a single, model space
viewport where you design and create drawings. As you work in model space,
you can switch at any time to paper space where you can set up a drawing
sheet for plotting.
You can work in one or multiple viewports in model space. To make it easier
to work on more than one portion of a drawing without having to constantly
zoom or restore views, you can configure model space to use multiple, tiled
viewports. Only one viewport, however, can be active at a time. Click inside
a viewport to make it active.
1 From the View menu, choose Viewports ➤ New Viewports Viewports Dialog Box
to display the Viewports dialog box.
Key Concepts
■ In paper space, you can place layout viewports anywhere on the drawing
sheet. Each new layout, by default, has one layout viewport that fills the
entire display, or you can design a layout sheet with multiple viewports.
■ When you use paper space to create text and dimensions, you can apply
correct scaling relations between drawing objects and text in dimensions.
Key Concepts
■ You can edit the contents of the layout viewport by returning to model
space. To do this, click PAPER on the status bar.
■ Objects that are created in paper space, such as a border, are visible only
in paper space and cannot be edited in model space.
■ To plot viewports with different scales, it is recommended that you add
dimensions in paper space.
■ You can put dimensions and annotations on another layer, and you can
make that layer visible or invisible.
■ You can turn off viewports that you do not want to plot. You can also
turn off a viewport when you move or resize it to avoid regenerating the
drawing.
Key Concepts
■ Usually it does not matter how you draw objects. You can use the
commands that work best for you. An exception is when you draw vertical
curves or spirals as you design a roadway. To draw spirals, use Autodesk
Land Desktop spiral commands; to draw vertical curves, use the Autodesk
Civil Design vertical curves commands.
■ After you draw the basic geometry of lines and curves, you can use the
Autodesk Land Desktop database definition commands to define the
geometry to databases. For example, you can use the objects to define
parcels or roadway alignments.
For most purposes, you can use the clothoid spiral. However, when you
design for extremely high-speed travel, such as for the rail systems of Europe
and Japan, use spirals with quadratic, cosinusoidal, or sinusoidal curvature
functions.
Key Concepts
■ It is recommended that you create spiral curves by using the spiral com-
mands, rather than by using ARC or POLYLINE.
■ You can create spiral curves using speed tables. Superelevation informa-
tion, or the E value, is associated with spirals created from speed tables.
You can use this superelevation data in Autodesk Civil Design when
designing superelevated roads.
Special lines include styles for a shore line, various fences, walls, and railroad
tracks. You can also add annotation or symbols to special lines.
Key Concepts
■ Most drawing tools generally display prompts to specify a start point and
then an endpoint. You can specify these points with the pointing device
or by entering coordinates on the command line.
■ As you use drawing tools, it is important to pay attention to the prompts
on the command line. Many drawing commands contain additional
options.
■ You can use basic objects as reference. For example, polylines can define
boundaries, and construction lines can define limits.
Lines
The line is the most basic and functional drawing object. You can draw a
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line as a single segment or as a series of segments. To start a new line
Draw Lines segment at the endpoint of the last line drawn, enter the LINE command
Draw Polylines again and press ENTER.
Use Orthogonal Locking
Key Concepts
■ Draw a line segment by specifying a start point and an endpoint. A line
can be one segment or be composed of a series of connected line
segments. You can close line segments by joining the start point of the
first line segment with the endpoint of the last segment.
■ To draw lines with accuracy, enter coordinates on the command line.
■ Specify settings such as object snaps or grid snaps to ensure precision. Use
orthogonal locking, or the Ortho mode, which restricts the cursor to the
horizontal and vertical axis, and assists in constructing 90-degree corners.
■ To end the LINE command, you can press ENTER or ESC at any time. If you
press ENTER twice, the LINE command is interrupted, and you can start a
new line.
Polylines
Polylines are a series of line segments connected at vertices, or intersections,
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as shown in the following illustration.
Draw Polylines
Modify or Join Polylines
NOTE To draw a solid wide line, make sure that the Apply solid fill option
on the Display tab of the Options dialog box is selected, or type fill at the
command line and select ON.
■ Specify the start point and endpoint of the polyline segments with the
pointing device or by entering coordinates. To close a polyline (the start
point of the first line segment joins with the endpoint of the last segment)
use the Close option.
■ You can also create a polyline from the boundaries of overlapping objects
or from an object that was drawn using lines and arcs by using the
Boundary command.
■ To modify a polyline, choose Polyline from the Modify menu, or type
pedit on the command line to display options for editing polylines.
Curved Objects
You can use various methods to create curved objects, such as circles, arcs,
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ellipses, and donuts.
Draw Curved Objects
Key Concepts
■ Create a circle by specifying a center point, radius or diameter, or tangent
points. You can choose a method to create circles according to how you
want to control the sequence of point selection.
■ There are several ways to create an arc, but one of the points that you
specify is either the center point or the start point.
■ To draw an ellipse, you can specify center points or endpoints. The size of
the ellipse is determined by its major (long) axis and its minor (short) axis.
After you create the ellipse, you can move the cursor along one or both
axes to adjust its size.
Curved Lines
To draw irregularly shaped curves, you can draw a spline. A spline is a smooth
curve passing though or near a given set of points in a drawing.
You can create a spline by specifying points. You can close the spline so that
the start and endpoints are coincident and tangent.
1 From the Draw menu, choose Spline. You are prompted Draw Splines
to select a polyline object or specify a point.
3 Press ENTER, and you are prompted for the start tangent
and end tangent. These points determine how the spline
is displayed.
4 Return the cursor to the start point of the spline to locate Modify Splines
the start tangent point, and then do the same for the end
tangent point.
You may have to experiment with the placement of the start and end tangent
points. After you draw a spline curve, you can edit it with grips.
Hatch Patterns
In a complex drawing, you can use hatch patterns to distinguish different
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components or areas in the drawing.
Overview of Hatch
Patterns and Solid Fills
Create Unbounded
Hatches
To hatch an area
1 From the Draw menu, choose Hatch to display the Boundary Hatch Dialog Box
Boundary Hatch dialog box.
2 In the Boundary Hatch dialog box, click the pattern that is Use Predefined Hatch
displayed in the Swatch box. Patterns
The Hatch Pattern Palette dialog box is displayed.
Key Concepts
■ Symbol palettes and symbol blocks based on APWA (American Public
Works Association) symbol standards have been added to Autodesk Land
Desktop.
■ Symbols are organized into three levels in the Symbol Manager: sets,
categories, and palettes.
■ Before you add symbols to a drawing, you can preview them in the
Symbol Manager.
■ You can add symbols and create new symbol sets. You can create new
symbols by editing existing symbols or by creating your own symbols.
2 In the Symbol Manager, locate a symbol to insert by Using the Symbol Category
selecting a Symbol Set, Category, and Palette. and Palette Dialog Box
To select the current text style, use the Text Style dialog box, which you can
access by selecting Text Style from the Format menu. As you select different
After you have selected a text style, create text in the drawing by selecting
either the Single Line Text or Multiline Text command from the Draw ➤ Text
menu.
Key Concepts
■ You can adjust the text height and width (compressed or expanded). You
can also specify display effects, such as upside down, backwards, or
vertical, for the text.
■ Some text styles, such as Standard, are zero-height styles, which means they
do not have a predefined text height. For these styles, specify a text height
in the Height box.
■ The text can be rotated at an angle to align with angled lines in the
drawing.
■ You can adjust the slant of the text by specifying the oblique settings for
the text. For example, you can place text on a line drawn at a 30-degree
angle by entering 30 for the oblique value of the text.
■ To insert short, simple text entries, use single-line text (TEXT command).
■ For longer text entries, use a multiline text (MTEXT) command. You are
then prompted to define a rectangular area to indicate the text’s position
in the drawing. To enter the text, and to customize how the text is
Key Concepts
■ Select the CText grip and rotate the label around the curve. CText always
remains legible. The text is flipped automatically, as necessary, so that you
can read it in plan view.
■ To explode the CText to individual text objects, use EXPLODE.
■ If you change the position of the curve or circle on which you have placed
the text, the text adjusts its position accordingly.
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Curve Text ➤ Draw Curve Drawing Text on a Curve
Text, or type ctext at the command line.
4 In the Text Above box, type the text you want placed
above the curve.
5 In the Text Below box, type the text you want placed
below the curve.
9 Change the position of the label using grips, if Grip Editing Label Text
necessary. If you change the position of the curve
that you have placed the text on, the text adjusts its
position accordingly.
Key Concepts
■ You can add detailed information to a selected AutoCAD object by
selecting the Text Notes tab in the Notes dialog box.
■ You can attach an external file (document, spreadsheet, image, or photo)
to any AutoCAD object by selecting the Reference Documents tab in the
Notes dialog box.
4 Under Text Notes, type the text you want to attach to the
object.
Key Concepts
■ You can define attributes of a leader by changing the Leader Settings.
■ You can use a leader with predefined styles.
■ You can insert a leader with text, describing the properties of an object.
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Leaders ➤ Leader Settings Changing the Leader
to make changes to the default leader attributes. Settings
2 From the Utilities menu, choose Leaders ➤ Text Leader, Inserting a Leader with Text
and then select the type of leader you want to insert.
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Leaders ➤ Predefined Inserting Leaders with
Leaders to display the Leaders dialog box. Variable Pointers
2 Select the leader that you want to insert and click OK.
Digitizing Methods
You can choose from the following digitizing methods and procedures.
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■ You can digitize by using polylines, lines, and arcs.
Digitizing Contours
■ To digitize contours, you can use the Digitize Contours command, which
Digitizing Tablets
draws straight line segments only. You can assign an elevation to the con-
tour as you digitize it, and you can make this elevation relative to other
contours you draw.
■ You can specify to use a tablet to digitize when you set up Autodesk Land
Desktop.
Key Concepts
■ You can rubber-sheet vectors by using the Map ➤ Tools ➤ Rubber Sheet
command if their source (raster image or paper drawing) is distorted. For
example, you can match points on the new vectors you created to control
points in a drawing. You can also match points on an image frame
(a vector object) to points in the drawing. For more information, see
“Rubber Sheeting Two Maps” in the online Help.
■ When you convert raster objects to vector objects, the drawing can be
easily modified. Vector objects can also reduce a project’s total file size.
Whether you choose the editing command first or later, you must distin-
guish objects that you want to edit from others by creating a selection set.
A selection set contains one or more objects that a command can act upon
at the same time.
Key Concepts
■ You can group objects in a selection set according to properties such as
color, linetype, lineweight, or layer.
■ You can apply more than one editing command to the same selection set.
■ You can name and save a selection set of objects, known as a group.
■ When you select one member of a group, all members are selected.
■ To use the noun–verb selection method to select objects and then select
the editing command, the PICKFIRST variable must be set to 1.
Key Concepts
■ You can specify the object properties that you want to include in the filter
by name.
■ You can select objects in the current drawing with the object properties
that you want to include in the filter.
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Build Selection Set to Filtering Objects by
display the Build Selection Set dialog box. Selection
4 Click OK.
NOTE To make sure that grips display, choose Options from the Tools menu,
and then click the Selection tab. Under Grips, select Enable Grips. To help you
distinguish between unselected and selected grips, specify different colors for
Unselected grips and Selected grips.
The following illustration shows the grip points on objects and text.
1 To display grips, press ESC twice to clear any commands. Use Grips to Edit Objects
2 Click the object that you want to edit, and then click a
specific grip.
3 Right-click and choose an editing command from the grip Use Grip Modes
editing shortcut menu.
NOTE Some commands prompt you to enter further
options on the command line.
undo Edit ➤ Undo, or type u on Reverses the most recent action in the
the command line. current drawing session. You can move
back through as many actions as you want
by entering a number on the command
line. However, a more accurate way is to
step back incrementally by entering 1 at
the prompt.
redo Edit ➤ Redo, or type redo Reverses the UNDO command to reverse
on the command line. the most recent undo action.
Moving Objects
To move an object, select the object and specify a start point (base point) and
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an endpoint (point of displacement).
Move Objects
Align Objects Key Concepts
Use Precision Tools
■ The MOVE command is similar to the basic COPY command, but it does
not leave the original object in place.
■ You can use various methods, such as snaps, coordinate values, and object
snaps, to move objects with precision in a drawing.
■ You can move objects without changing their size or orientation.
■ You can rotate objects using the ROTATE command after you specify a
start point (base point around which the object rotates), and a relative or
absolute rotation angle. You can use the pointing device to position the
object, or you can enter an exact angle value at the command line.
■ Use the pointing device to select the object at the first break point, and
then select the second break point.
■ Select the whole object, enter f to select the first point, and then select the
second point.
In arcs and circles, the BREAK command always removes the specified part in
a counterclockwise direction.
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Edit ➤ Rescale Blocks/ Rescaling Blocks and Text
Text.
2 Type the scale factor or reference that you want the block
or text to display, and then press ENTER.
1 From the Utilities menu, choose Edit ➤ Flatten Z Values. Setting the Z Coordinate of
an Object to Zero
Key Concepts
■ Use BLOCK to define blocks to exist in the current drawing only. Use
WBLOCK to define blocks as .dwg files that are independent of the current
drawing.
■ You can create a library of blocks in which each block is a frequently used
combination of objects.
■ You can create custom blocks and save them as external files to use as
symbols.
■ If you change the original block definition, then all references to the block
definition are updated automatically. However, if you import a block
definition from another file and that file is not attached as an external
reference (xref), any changes you make to the block definition are not
updated in the current file.
■ After you insert a block, you can scale, rotate, or explode it. When you
explode a block, it is broken down into its component objects. You can
then modify the objects or redefine the block.
You can use AutoCAD block creation and definition tools as shown in the
following tasks.
1 From the Draw menu, choose Block ➤ Make to display the Overview of Blocks
Block Definition dialog box.
4 Select Convert to Block to convert the original objects to Create Blocks Within
a block definition. You can also select Retain to keep the a Drawing
original objects in the drawing, or select Delete to remove
the objects from the drawing.
3 Specify the insertion point, scale, and rotation, and then Use Precision Tools
press ENTER to insert the block. (Reference tab)
TIP To view the insertion point for the block, type
blipmode at the command line.
Key Concepts
■ You can either attach or overlay an xref drawing.
■ During a drawing session, you can keep the current drawing updated
while changes are being made to an attached xref drawing by periodically
reloading the xref.
■ You can completely remove, or detach, an xref drawing from the
current drawing.
■ To save memory and increase speed, you can unload an xref drawing that
you are not using. The pointer to the xref drawing remains and you can
reload it when you need it.
■ You can make an xref drawing a permanent part of the current drawing by
binding it. Binding converts an xref to a block that is no longer updated
when the original drawing changes.
1 From the Insert menu, choose External Reference to Attach External References
display the Select Reference File dialog box.
2 Select the drawing file, and then click Open to display the
External Reference dialog box.
4 Click OK to select the insertion point in the drawing. Clip External References
NOTE If you do not use all the xref drawing in the and Blocks
current drawing, then type xclip (clipping boundary) to
remove a portion of an xref drawing from the display.
161
Introduction
After you have entered data into a project, you can create a surface model
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from that data. A surface model is a three-dimensional geometric representa-
Creating Surface Models tion of the surface of an area of land. Surface models in Autodesk Land
Building a Surface Desktop are made up of triangles, which are created when Autodesk Land
Adding TIN Lines to Desktop connects the points that make up the surface data.
a Surface
The triangles form a triangulated irregular network (TIN) surface. A TIN line is
one of the lines that makes up the surface triangulation, as shown in the
following illustration.
To create TIN lines, Autodesk Land Desktop connects the surface points that
are closest together. These TIN lines interpolate surface elevations, filling in
the gaps where no survey data or contour data is known, to create an approx-
imation of the surface.
Surface Accuracy
When you gather data for the surface model, you must be thorough so that
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you create an accurate model.
Editing Surfaces
At the beginning of a project, you can make a quick surface model by
Contour Data and
Surface Triangulations
digitizing a contour map of the existing site, or by using a DEM file. If the
project is more advanced, and you already have survey data, then you can
use the point data from that survey to create a more accurate surface model.
If you do not have enough surface data, then the surface elevations may not
be interpolated correctly. By being thorough, you can ensure that the surface
output—such as contours, volumes, watershed models, profiles, and cross
sections—is as accurate as possible.
Introduction | 163
Working with the Terrain Model Explorer
The Terrain Model Explorer consolidates all the surface creation and manage-
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ment features in one place. You can use the Terrain Model Explorer to create,
Using the Terrain open, build, and view surfaces.
Model Explorer
Creating Surface Models
The left pane of the Terrain Model Explorer contains a Terrain and a Volume
Managing Surfaces
folder. To create a new surface, right-click the Terrain folder and choose
Create New Surface from the shortcut menu. After you create a surface, a
surface folder with icon is created below the Terrain folder. Click the surface
icon to display the surface data icons. You can access commands by
right-clicking the icons to display a shortcut menu.
Use the shortcut menus to add the surface data to the surface folder, and then
build the surface.
The Volume folder in the left pane of the Terrain Model Explorer contains
information about grid and composite volume surfaces that are created from
the volume calculations commands on the Terrain menu. Use the Terrain
Model Explorer to view properties about the volume surfaces, as well as open,
close, and view volume surfaces.
You can keep the Terrain Model Explorer open while you use other com-
mands. Use the buttons in the upper-right corner of the dialog box to
minimize, maximize, and close the Terrain Model Explorer.
When you add the surface data into the Terrain Model Explorer, you are
determining the objects to include in the surface. These objects can be point
groups, point files, points, DEM files, breaklines, contours, and boundaries.
Key Concepts
■ When you import a point file into the Terrain Model Explorer, the point
data is not added to the point database. The data is used exclusively for
building the surface.
■ To add contour data to a surface, you must have contour objects or
polylines in the drawing.
■ To add breaklines, you must use the commands on the Breaklines shortcut
menu in the Terrain Model Explorer.
When the Create as Contour Data check box is selected, the contours are
treated as breakline data, so no triangulation occurs across contours. When
the Create as Contour Data check box is cleared, the contour vertices are
treated as point data for the purposes of triangulation.
Building Surfaces
After you choose the information to include in a surface, you can build the
surface. When you build a surface, all the surface data is processed and the
program calculates the surface triangulation. The triangulation is calculated
by combining the breakline, contour, DEM file data, and boundary data with
the surface point data and interpolating the results.
Everything that you add to a surface folder in the Terrain Model Explorer can
be used in the surface, but you can exclude certain data from build to build
to examine different results.
To build a surface
1 From the Terrain menu, choose Terrain Model Explorer Using the Terrain Model
to display the Terrain Model Explorer dialog box. Explorer
2 Right-click the Terrain folder and choose Create Creating a New Surface
New Surface from the shortcut menu.
4 Add the data to be included in the surface. This data can Creating Surface Data and
be points, DEM files, contours, boundaries, or breaklines. Adding It to the Surface
To add a point group to the surface, right-click the Point Folders
Groups icon and select the point group.
To add contour data to the surface, Right-click the
Contours icon and generate the contour data.
5 After you add all the surface data, Right-click the surface Building a Surface
name and choose Build Surface from the shortcut menu
to display the Build Surface dialog box.
Watershed subareas can have different types of drain targets. Drain targets of
some subareas can be based on a boundary point, the point where water
would drain off the surface. Drain targets of other subareas can be depression
areas where the water flows.
1 From the Terrain menu, choose Terrain Model Explorer to Building a Surface
display the Terrain Model Explorer dialog box.
Create and build a surface model, if one does not exist.
2 Click the plus sign (+) next to the surface name to display
the surface data icons.
6 Right-click the Watershed icon and choose Import Importing the Watershed
Watershed Boundaries from the shortcut menu to display Boundaries into the
the Watershed Display Settings dialog box. Drawing
7 Select the options in the upper part of the dialog box to Watershed Display Settings
control the appearance of the watershed boundaries that Dialog Box
are imported.
Select the Fill With Solids check box to import solid fill
areas, or clear the check box to import polyline
boundaries.
When you import polyline boundaries, you can also select
the Display ID Numbers check box to insert the
watershed ID numbers within the polyline boundaries.
9 To show how a drop of water would flow across the Drawing Water Drop Paths
surface, you can trace that path in the drawing by on the Current Surface
choosing Water Drop from the Terrain ➤ Surface Utilities
menu.
Select a point on the surface, and the Water Drop
command draws a polyline that represents the path that
water would take as it flows from that point toward the
drain target.
When you are ready to create the surface based on this grading data, you
must add the surface data to the surface folder in Terrain Model Explorer. The
following table shows how to process each type of grading data.
For example, you can add a TIN line, which forces the other TIN lines that it
crosses to retriangulate. You can add points to a surface, which also forces the
surface to retriangulate. You can also trim out surface TIN lines that are
drawn across a building pad or pond. The following illustration is an example
of flipping TIN faces.
To combine two or more surfaces into one surface, paste them together. For
example, you can create a surface that represents only part of a site, such as
a surface that contains the grading data for a building pad. After you build
this surface, you can paste it into the existing ground surface to create a fin-
ished ground surface that represents the entire site.
The surface TIN lines must be in the drawing in order for you to use the Edit
Surface commands. Use the Import 3D Lines command from the Edit
Surface menu to import surface lines you can edit. Be sure to set the surface
you are working with as current. Only the data for the current surface is
used when editing.
The Edit History folder stores all the edits that you make to a surface so you
can automatically repeat them when you rebuild the surface later.
You can open the Edit History folder to view the edits you have made to a
surface, as shown in the following illustration.
When you select the Apply Edit History check box as you rebuild the surface,
all previous edits are repeated in the order that you made them. You can also
change the edit history list. To not repeat a step in the edit history, delete the
item from the list.
■ Label slopes.
■ Generate contours for the surface.
■ View cross sections and profiles of the surface.
■ Output volumes.
■ Create a 3D rendering of the surface for presentation.
■ Create a slope-defined model that shows areas color-coded by slope range,
indicating unbuildable land because of excessive slope.
■ Create a model showing elevational banding of flood plain lines.
In the Surface Data section of the statistics, each data type displays the num-
ber of points added to the surface. For example, in the previous illustration,
1701 points were added to the surface from a point group, and 431 points
were added from contours.
1 From the Terrain menu, choose Set Current Surface to Making a Surface Current
make the surface model current.
3 As you move the pointing device to a point, the elevation Tracking Northing and
at that point on the surface is displayed on the status bar. Easting Coordinates
Key Concepts
■ If you grip edit the object from which you created the section view, the
quick section views are dynamically updated. If you edit the surface,
then you can update the section views using the Update Section Views
command from the Terrain ➤ Sections menu.
■ You can display more than one quick section at a time. Each section view
is initially displayed at the same location on screen. You can move the
windows to see multiple sections at once.
■ You can copy quick sections to the clipboard or save them as Windows
metafiles and then paste or insert them into the drawing.
■ You can also use a separate group of commands on the Terrain ➤ Sections
menu to plot straight-line sections in a drawing. These commands are
Define Sections, Process Sections, and Import Sections.
3 Select the object, right-click, and choose View Quick Creating Quick Surface
Section. Sections
NOTE You can also choose Sections ➤ View Quick
Section from the Terrain menu to access this command.
4 To modify the view in the section window, you can grip Grip Editing Quick Section
edit or move the object in the drawing. The section in the Lines
window is updated automatically.
You can use Autodesk Land Desktop to create existing ground or finished
ground contours. To create contours, you can
NOTE You can use contours to represent features other than elevations.
For example, contours can represent rainfall intensity, soil contamination lines,
and so on.
NOTE To edit AEC contour objects in another AutoCAD program (other than
Autodesk Land Desktop), you must explode the contour objects because they
are custom objects. Or, you can install the Object Enabler, which is available on
the Autodesk Land Desktop CD-ROM.
When you create contours from a surface, you base the contours on a
contour style. Use the Contour Style Manager to define and modify
contour styles.
Key Concepts
■ Contour styles store groups of settings in the drawing so you can use them
again without having to respecify the settings you want to use.
■ Choose a contour style when you run the Create Contours command
from the Terrain menu.
■ You can use the Manage Styles tab to save contour styles to an external file
and also to add contour styles from an external file. This is helpful when
you use the same contour styles in more than one drawing or in different
projects.
■ You can click inside the Preview window on the Contour Style Manager
and adjust the view angle of the previewed contours by moving the
pointing device.
1 From the Terrain menu, choose Create Contours to Creating Contours from a
display the Create Contours dialog box. Surface
7 To create contour objects, under Properties, click Style Managing Contour Styles
Manager to display the Contour Style Manager dialog
box. Using the Contour Styles
Manager
10 You can label the contours using the commands in the Labeling Contours
Terrain ➤ Contour Labels menu.
Key Concepts
■ No elevational information for the surface is available while an area is
hidden by a boundary.
■ Depending on how well the surface follows the boundary polygon, you
may want to make the surface boundary act as a non-destructive
breakline.
2 If the pond that you define as a boundary is not outlined Pline Command
by a polyline, then use the PLINE command to draw the
boundary.
3 From the Terrain menu, choose Edit Surface ➤ Surface Defining Surface Boundaries
Boundaries. After Building a Surface
10 Use the Create Contours command from the Terrain Creating Contours From a
menu to create contours from the surface. As the contours Surface
are generated, you can see that they are not drafted
within the polygonal boundary.
■ Grid method: Creates a volume surface that is based on a grid that com-
pares elevational information between the first and second surface.
■ Composite method: Creates a volume surface that includes all the surface
points from the first and second surface. The Z values in the new surface
are the elevational difference between the first and second surface.
■ Section method: Calculates volumes based on sampled cross sections.
You can also calculate parcel volumes, which are based on parcels that exist
within the larger site.
In all cases, you need two surface models. From the two surfaces, you must
define a stratum, which specifies the two surfaces used in volume
calculations. Before you can calculate volumes, you must define a site that
represents the stratum area for which you want to calculate volumes.
Key Concepts
■ The volume results are only as good as the surface definitions. The more
complete the surface data, the better the volume calculations.
■ The grid method offers a quick volume result. Because it is a grid, however,
you can potentially miss surface irregularities, such as a curb or
depressions, which would affect the volume results. This method creates
a volume surface that you can view and manage from the Terrain Model
Explorer.
■ The composite method uses all the data from the first and second surfaces.
This method creates a volume surface, and the results are the exact surface
difference total. This method creates a volume surface that you can view
and manage from the Terrain Model Explorer.
■ The section method interpolates cross sections from the two surfaces of
the current stratum, and generates volumes using one of two
methods: Prismoidal or Average End Area. This gives you sections that
you can plot to verify areas and submittals. This method does not create a
volume surface.
1 Define at least two surfaces, such as existing ground and Building a Surface
proposed ground.
2 From the Terrain menu, choose Select Current Stratum to Defining a Stratum
create a stratum that defines the two surfaces that you
compare.
3 From the Terrain menu choose Site Definition ➤ Define Defining a Site for Volume
Site to define the site area. Calculations
A site is essentially a rectangular area in which all volume
calculations are performed. It also defines the grid size
that is used when creating a grid surface.
4 To calculate volumes using the section method, select Sampling Section Data for
Terrain ➤ Section Volumes ➤ Sample Sections to generate Volume Calculations
the cross section data.
5 Calculate cut/fill volumes for the site. Volumes are Calculating Total Site
calculated based on the method that you choose. Volumes Using the Grid
Method
■ To use the grid method, select Terrain ➤ Grid
Volumes ➤ Calculate Total Site Volume.
Calculating Total Site
■ To use the composite method, select
Volumes Using the
Terrain ➤ Composite Volumes ➤ Calculate Total
Composite Method
Site Volume.
■ To use the section method, select Terrain ➤ Section
Calculating Total Site
Volumes ➤ Calculate Volume Total.
Volumes Using the Section
Method
6 You can create volume reports, print the results, or include Creating a Total Volume
them in a table in the drawing by using commands from Table for a Site
the Terrain ➤ Volume Reports menu, as shown in the
following illustration.
7 If you used the section volume calculation methods, then Plotting a Single Volume
you can plot the cross sections in the drawing by selecting Section
Terrain ➤ Section Volumes ➤ Plot Single.
1 Select the volume surface as the current surface. Making a Surface Current
2 From the Terrain menu, choose Create Contours to create Creating Contours from a
cut/fill contours. Surface
3 If you used the grid method to calculate volumes, then Creating a Grid of Ticks
select Terrain ➤ Grid Volumes ➤ Grid Volume Ticks to That Show Cut and Fill
draw grid ticks that display the elevation difference Areas on Volume Surfaces
between existing and proposed ground.
Key Concepts
■ You can draw the range view as 2D solids or 3D faces, and you can view
the faces in plan or 3D perspective.
■ You can use banding methods, which automatically splits surface triangles
to properly match the range that you define. In other words, if you
3 Generate the range view by selecting an elevational range Creating 2D Solids Using
view command. From the Terrain menu, choose Surface the Banding Method
Display ➤ Average - 3D Faces or Banding - 3D Faces.
Creating 3D Faces Using
the Banding Method
4 To manage the layers on which you created the range Managing the Range Layers
views, select Terrain ➤ Terrain Layers ➤ Range Layers.
Key Concepts
■ You can project lines, curves, and polylines onto the grid.
■ The objects are drawn on a separate layer.
■ For a smoother site, set the number of “facets” per grid face to a higher
number.
■ If the site contains details such as walls or curbs, you should use the
3D Faces command on the Terrain ➤ Surface Display menu. This option
imports all the surface triangles as 3D faces. All surface details show up on
the imported faces.
2 Make sure you are working in plan view. Change to a View of the XY
Plane
3 From the Terrain menu, choose Surface Display ➤ Grid of Creating a Surface Grid of
3D Faces to create a grid of 3D faces. You have complete 3D Faces
control over grid location, size, vertical exaggeration, and
facets per grid face.
5 To view the site in 3D, you can use either the DVIEW or Using the Object Viewer
VPOINT command, or you can use the Object Viewer
from the Utilities menu.
191
Introduction
You can draft horizontal alignments and parcels at any time during the
project process. You can begin by drawing objects, such as lines, curves,
spirals, or polylines, to represent the geometry of an alignment or parcel.
Then, you can define an alignment or parcel to a database. All data is stored
in an external database and all drawings in a project can access that data.
Because of the external database, you do not need to draft alignments or
parcels in a drawing to reference them. After you define objects, you can
delete them from the drawing. Then, if you must visually reference
alignments or parcels, you can import them into the drawing.
You can edit the data in the alignment database by using the Alignment
Editor. Any changes that you make to an alignment in the Alignment Editor
are updated in the drawing. The Alignment Editor can also generate reports.
Key Concepts
■ If you use the Lines/Curves menu commands instead of PLINE or LINE,
then the lines, curves, and spirals are drawn tangent to their adjacent
object.
■ You can define more than one alignment from the same alignment
geometry.
1 Create a layer on which the alignment centerline is to be Create and Name Layers
drawn. Use a name such as “CL” for Centerline.
2 Use one of the line drawing options from the Drawing Lines
Lines/Curves menu.
3 To add curves, use the curve commands from the Drawing Curves
Lines/Curves menu.
You can add a curve between two tangents, from the
end of a tangent, and more. These options ensure that
the curve is drawn tangent to the selected lines.
4 To draw a spiral, use one of the spiral commands from Drawing Spirals
the Lines/Curves menu.
To define an alignment
Key Concepts
■ When you make an alignment current, a lock file is created for the align-
ment so no one else can obtain write access to that alignment.
■ You can view the alignment locks by using the Project Manager command
from the Projects menu. Click File Locks to view the project locks.
■ To release a lock on the current alignment, you can either make a different
alignment current or you can use the Close Database command from the
Alignments ➤ Alignment Commands menu to close the database and
release the lock.
Key Concepts
■ The Horizontal Alignment Editor is linked dynamically to the drawing.
Changes that you make in the Editor update the alignment automatically
in the drawing.
■ You can use the Horizontal Alignment Editor to modify PIs (Points of
Intersection) and alignment curves and spirals.
■ The editor is similar to a spreadsheet. You must select inside the cell that
you want to modify.
■ To change the alignment properties, such as the alignment layer, color,
linetype, or description, use the Modify Properties command from the
Alignments ➤ Alignment Commands menu.
2 From the Alignments menu, choose Edit to display the Editing Horizontal
Horizontal Alignment Editor dialog box. Alignments
3 To edit a curve, place the cursor in a cell at a curve point Editing a Horizontal
of intersection (PI), and then click Edit Curve. Alignment Curve
4 To edit a spiral, place the cursor in a cell at a spiral point Editing a Horizontal
of intersection, and then click Edit Spiral. Alignment Spiral
Erasing the alignment does not remove the alignment database definition.
To redisplay the alignment in the drawing, import the alignment.
You can use the Delete command to delete the alignment from only the
drawing (similar to the ERASE command) or to delete the alignment from
both the drawing and database. Select that data to delete on the command
line. If you delete the alignment from only the drawing, then you can use
the Import command from the Alignments menu to re-import it into the
drawing.
If you delete the alignment from the database, then you can redefine the
alignment from the drawing objects, if necessary. If you delete the alignment
from both the drawing and the database, then you cannot restore the
alignment.
Use the Import command to bring a defined alignment into a drawing; for
example, when you want to bring project alignments into a new drawing in
a project. You can also use the Import command to bring alignments into the
drawing after you have merged alignments from another project into the
current project’s alignment database.
To delete or import multiple alignments at a time, then use the Multiple
Selections command from the Alignments ➤ Alignment Commands menu.
3 Select one or more Delete Options. You can delete the Deleting Multiple
alignment from the screen, the database, or both. Horizontal Alignments
You can also delete any vertical files that are associated
with the alignment. These are the alignment profile and
cross section files that are created with Autodesk Civil
Design.
Key Concepts
■ All annotation is based on the current alignment in the database.
■ To station or create offsets for an alignment, it must be defined to the
database.
2 From the Alignments menu, choose Create Offsets to Creating Offsets for an
display the Alignments Offset Settings dialog box. Alignment
3 Select the offsets that you want to create, and then enter
names for them.
6 From the Alignments menu, choose Station Display Changing the Station
Format. Display Format
8 From the Alignments menu, choose Station Label Changing the Alignment
Settings to change the station label settings. Station Label Settings
9 From the Alignments menu, choose Create Station Creating Station Labels
Labels to create station labels. The labels are displayed on an Alignment
as shown in the following illustration.
NOTE Do not use spirals in parcel boundaries. Spirals cause incorrect areas to
be reported.
You can also use Autodesk® Survey to draw parcel boundaries as Autodesk
Survey Figures. You can use the Autodesk Survey Command Language to
input the data in a data collector, or you can input the data using the
Autodesk Survey command line.
NOTE Be sure to draw the parcels as closed regions. If any of the joining lines
has a break, then you cannot calculate areas.
Depending on the parcel settings, these commands can define the parcel to
the parcel database, and they can also label the parcel that is calculated.
You cannot use the Parcel Sizing commands to modify a parcel that is already
defined to the parcel database. To change a parcel definition, you must delete
the existing parcel definition and redefine the parcel. For more information
about deleting parcels, see “Managing Parcels” on page 207.
2 From the Parcels menu, choose Parcel Settings to display Changing the Parcel
the Parcel Settings dialog box. Settings
7 Click OK.
8 From the Parcels menu, choose Define from Polylines. Defining a Parcel from a
Polyline
Managing Parcels
You can use the Parcel Manager to
Search Help for…
■ Import, delete, and rename parcels.
Importing Parcel Lines
and Labels ■ Report area, inverse, and map check information.
Deleting Parcels
Removing Parcels
To access the Parcel Manager, shown in the following illustration, choose
Parcel Manager from the Parcels menu.
4 Click Output Settings and select the report options, such Changing the Output
as the report name and destination. Settings - concept
Click OK to close the Output Settings dialog box.
you can create dynamic and static labels, and you can
209
Introduction
To check object characteristics, you can perform an inquiry on a drawing
object. An inquiry shows you information about the selected object on the
command line, the status bar, or in a tracking window.
If you want a more permanent solution for identifying drawing objects—
especially when you are ready to plot the drawing—you can label the draw-
ing objects at any time during the drawing process. Autodesk Land Desktop
can create dynamic labels, which update whenever you edit the drawing
objects. If you do not want labels to update automatically, then you can
create static labels.
To annotate a drawing manually, then you can create text (TEXT), multi-line
text (MTEXT), or text on a curve (CTEXT). Both text and multi-line text do
not move or update when a drawing changes; however, as a curve is modi-
fied, the curve text moves with it. For more information about creating text,
see “Working with Text” on page 143.
Inquiry commands
Command Function
Command Function
■ List the raster images that are inserted into a drawing and locate the source
files by using the Manage command from the Map ➤ Image menu.
■ List the alignments that are defined in the project by using the List
Defined command from the Alignments ➤ Alignment Commands menu.
■ List the breaklines that are defined in the project by using the List
Breaklines command from the Breaklines shortcut menu in the Terrain
Model Explorer.
■ Show statistics for a surface model in the Terrain Model Explorer.
■ Create alignment, stakeout, volume, and parcel reports.
To list the station and offset of a location in relation to the current alignment
2 From the Inquiry menu, choose Station/Offset Alignment. Listing the Station and
Offset of a Location in
Relation to the Current
Alignment
All methods require you to select a label style, and then label the object.
Label Styles
To control the display of labels, and to specify the type of information that
is labeled, you can set up label styles. For example, you can set up a label style
which labels the distance and direction of a line and displays on top of the
line. Whenever you modify a style that was used to create dynamic labels, the
labels are updated to reflect the edited style.
Point label styles control the use of description keys for points, and they can
also be formatted to label points with information that is located in external
Microsoft Access databases.
For more information about label styles see “Editing Label Styles” on
page 219.
TIP To move the dialog bar into either the menu or the command line areas,
but to not dock it, hold down CTRL as you move the dialog bar.
Key Concepts
■ You can label objects individually or as a group, and you can label any
combination of lines, curves, spirals, and polylines simultaneously.
■ Polylines use the current line label style for straight segments, and the
current curve style for curved segments. Only lightweight polylines can be
labeled.
■ You can control label details, such as arrows, spacing, alternate units, and
angle units, when you set up the label styles.
■ To label alignments, contours, and parcels, use the labeling commands
from the Alignments, Terrain, and Parcels menus.
1 Draw some lines by using the LINE or PLINE command. Draw Lines
2 From the Labels menu, choose Show Dialog Bar to display Using the Style Properties
the Style Properties dialog bar. Dialog Bar
3 Verify that the icon is displayed. When this icon is Selecting the Current Label
displayed, the Current Label Style list shows only regular Style from the Style
label styles. Properties Dialog Bar
8 Verify that the Update Labels When Style Changes and the Specifying How Labels Are
Update Labels When Objects Change check boxes are Updated
selected.
These check boxes control whether the labels are updated
when you edit an object or label style.
The Update Labels When Objects Change check box must
be selected if you want to create dynamic labels.
11 Right-click, and then choose Add Dynamic Label from the Creating Dynamic Labels
shortcut menu.
Labels are added, as shown in the following illustration.
1 Draw some lines by using the LINE or PLINE command. Draw Lines
2 From the Labels menu, choose Show Dialog Bar to display Using the Style Properties
the Style Properties dialog bar. Dialog Bar
3 Verify that the icon is displayed. When this icon is Selecting the Current Label
displayed, the Current Label Style list shows only tag label Style from the Style
styles. Properties Dialog Bar
If the icon is displayed, then the list of styles shows
only regular label styles. You can click the label icon to
display the tag icon.
8 From the Labels menu, choose Add Tables ➤ Line Table to Creating a Line Table
display the Line Table Definition dialog box.
By default, the Column Definitions are set up to place line Changing the Column
number, line length, and bearing in the table. Definitions of a Line Table
1 From the Labels menu, choose Edit Label Styles to display Label Styles
the Edit Label Styles dialog box.
2 Click the Line Label Styles tab. Editing Line Label Styles
3 From the Name list, choose the name of the Label Style
that you want to edit.
4 When you select a style, the Text Above and Text Below
sections of the dialog box display the selected data
elements. The Preview area on the right shows you a
preview image of this label.
If you want to modify any elements of the selected style,
then you can type modifications in the Text Above and
Text Below text boxes, or delete existing text in these
boxes. You can also select different data elements to place
in the label.
8 Click OK.
221
Using the LandXML Import and Export
Commands
LandXML is a data exchange standard for managing data, such as points,
alignment geometry, and other information. It is based on the Extensible
Markup Language (XML), a global standard for exchanging data via the
Internet.
You can use the Import LandXML and Export LandXML commands to export
and import point, surface, alignment, and parcel data in LandXML format.
By transforming project data to LandXML format, you can do the following:
■ Exchange data. For example, you can import LandXML data into other
software applications that support imported XML. The data can then be
modified and delivered to customers and agencies in the required formats.
■ Transfer and archive data. For example, you can transfer data to another
Autodesk Land Desktop project, or archive project data in a
non-proprietary format.
■ Create custom reports. For example, you can transform the data into
custom reports by applying XSL style sheets. See the www.landxml.org
website for examples.
■ Convert units. For example, you can export data from an imperial project,
and then import it into a metric project to scale and convert values.
■ Translate and rotate coordinates. For example, you can use the Import
LandXML and Export LandXML commands to globally adjust the eleva-
tions of project data.
■ Identify project data that has changed. For example, if you change a
project after exporting it, you can use the LandXML Import command
(without actually importing data) to compare the current project to the
exported LandXML file. Any differences between the project data are
listed in the LandXML Import Comparison Results dialog box.
The Import LandXML and Export LandXML commands are based on the
LandXML schema. For more information about the LandXML schema, go to
www.landxml.org.
■ COGO points
■ Point groups
■ Description keys
■ Surfaces
■ Parcels
■ Alignments
■ Profiles
■ Cross sections
The following illustration shows the LandXML Export dialog box, which you
can access by choosing Export LandXML from the Projects menu. Use the
options in this dialog box to select the data to export and to specify Export
Options and Point Reference settings.
Key Concepts
■ When you select the points to export, you can also choose to export the
point groups and description key definitions.
■ When you select the surfaces to export, you can also choose to export the
watershed definitions.
■ When you select the alignments to export, you can also choose to export
profiles and cross sections if Autodesk Civil Design is installed.
TIP If you want to use the data for a report, you can apply a style sheet to the
data. To do this, select the Apply XSL Stylesheet check box in the LandXML
Export File Options dialog box and specify a style sheet to use.
NOTE You must export the COGO points that are used as point references in
order to export the point reference data.
When you choose to export point references, the LandXML Export com-
mand creates COGO point references, where possible, for the parcel and
alignment geometry. This means that if the geometry of parcels and align-
ments in the project match COGO point coordinates within a specified
tolerance, the parcel and alignment coordinates are output in the LandXML
file as references to those COGO points.
1 From the Projects menu, choose Export LandXML to Exporting LandXML Data
display the LandXML Export dialog box. from Autodesk Land
Desktop
2 Select the data to export by using the Points, Surfaces, Selecting the Point Data to
Parcels, and Alignments buttons. Export
NOTE To export the specified data, the check boxes next
to the Points, Surfaces, Parcels, and Alignments buttons Selecting the Surface Data
must be selected. to Export
3 To export point references for parcel and alignment Changing the Point
geometry, select the Parcels and Alignments check boxes Reference Options
under Point References, and then click Advanced to set
the tolerance value.
4 To set the data precision and foot type (for imperial Changing the LandXML
projects only), click Data under Export Options. Export Data Options
5 To specify the location and detail of the exported file, the Changing LandXML Export
default schema location, and to select an XSL style sheet File Options
to apply to the data, click File under Export Options.
NOTE The \Land Desktop 3\Data\LandXML Stylesheets
folder contains four basic XSL stylesheets which you can
use as a basis for creating your own XSL stylesheets.
■ COGO points
■ Point groups
■ Description keys
■ Surfaces
■ Parcels
■ Alignments
■ Profiles
NOTE The LandXML Import command does not support cross sections.
■ First, select the file to import and select options that prepare the data to
be imported.
■ After the data is processed, you can select the specific items in the file
to import.
Some of the options in this dialog box affect whether other dialog boxes are
displayed during the data import process after you click OK.
Use this dialog box to specify a base point and translated point as well as a
rotation angle for the data.
If you select the Select Region Boundary check box, then LandXML Import
Region Selection dialog box is displayed, as shown in the following
illustration.
Use this dialog box to specify a region type and selection method. When you
click OK, you are prompted to select the region from the drawing. The import
of data into the project is then limited to the coordinates of this region.
Use the options in this dialog box to select the points, point groups, descrip-
tion keys, surfaces, parcels, and alignments to import, and then click Import
to import the data into the current project.
Key Concepts
■ You can specify the data to import in two phases.
■ First, in the LandXML Import dialog box, specify the general data types
to import, such as points.
■ Then, in the LandXML Import Selection dialog box, use the options to
specify exactly the points (or other data) to import.
■ By using the LandXML Import Region Selection dialog box, you can limit
the import of data to a specified region in the project. Use a polyline or a
window selection to specify coordinates in the current drawing.
■ To import profiles, Autodesk Civil Design must be installed on your
system.
1 From the Projects menu, choose Import LandXML to Importing LandXML Data
display the LandXML Import Select File dialog box. into Autodesk Land Desktop
3 Under File Contents, select the check boxes for the data
types you want to import.
If the file does not contain a data type, then that check
box is unavailable for selection.
5 Under Options, click Data to specify the data to be Changing the LandXML
imported into the drawing, and how surface and profile Data Options
data are imported.
7 Depending on the options you selected and depending Converting Units When
on the file units, the following dialog boxes may be Importing LandXML Data
displayed:
Translating and Rotating
■ LandXML Import Unit Conversion
LandXML Data
■ LandXML Import Translate/Rotate
■ LandXML Import Region Selection
Importing LandXML Data
Within a Region
9 In the LandXML Import Selection dialog box, specify the Selecting LandXML Data to
points, point groups, description keys, surfaces, parcels, Import
and alignments to import, and then click Import to import
the data.
233
The two major angular references that are used in Autodesk Land Desktop are the
azimuth and bearing.
An azimuth angle is referenced from North, and is always measured clockwise. South
of the equator, however, azimuth angles are not referenced to due north, but to due
south.
A bearing angle is measured from either due north or south, with an east or west
reference angle. For example, the notation N45°45'58'' E means that this angle was ref-
erenced from due north and was turned 45 degrees, 45 minutes, and 58 seconds
toward the east. Bearing angles can never exceed 90 degrees (PI/2 radians or 100 grads).
In addition, bearings are usually referenced by quadrant number. A quadrant is any of
the sections resulting from dividing a circle into four equal parts. Quadrant one is con-
sidered to be the NE corner, and quadrants 2, 3, and 4 proceed clockwise.
Also, in AutoCAD, all lines have an angle in the X,Y plane, with 0 degrees typically to
the right, or 3:00 on the dial, and all angles measured counter-clockwise.
arc A part of a mathematically defined circular curve.
area The quantity of plane space in a horizontal plane enclosed by the boundary of
any polygonal figure.
assumed coordinates A set of coordinates assigned to a point that are not the actual
point coordinates. All points are set relative to these coordinates. For example, the
coordinates N5000, E5000 can be assigned to the beginning point of a traverse. Later,
if the actual coordinates were found to be N4578.99, E20987.66, you can adjust the
points relative to the actual coordinates.
assumed elevation An elevation assigned to a base point that is not the actual point
elevation. All other points are set relative to this elevation. For example, an elevation
of 200 may be assigned to the beginning point of a traverse. Later, if the actual eleva-
tion was found to be 405.67, you can re-assign elevations relative to the actual, not the
assumed, elevation.
AutoCAD login name When you install Autodesk Land Desktop, an AutoCAD login
name is generated for you. This login name is based on your Windows login name, and
is used by the program to manage the lock files for a project.
average end area A type of Section volume. The most common method of calculat-
ing volumes. The average of adjacent cross section areas is multiplied by the distance
between them. For drawings that use feet as units, the volume is reported in cubic
yards; for drawings that use meters as units, the volume is reported in cubic meters.
The following formula is used when you select the average end area volume
calculation method:
h
S= ( A 1+ A 2 )
2
234 | Glossary
Variable Value
S volume
h distance between
sections
A1 area of section 1
A2 area of section 2
average method (Surface Display) You can use the Average method to create
surface views that show the elevation or slope ranges of a surface. The average method
uses a centroid-averaging calculation to determine which surface triangles belong in
which range. This may result in ranges that appear ″saw-toothed.″ See also banding
method (Surface Display).
azimuth A clockwise angle measured from a reference meridian. Also known as
north azimuth. It can range from 0 to 360 degrees. A negative azimuth is converted to
a clockwise value. See also south azimuth.
banding method (Surface Display) You can use the Banding method to create
surface views that show the elevation or slope ranges of a surface. The Banding method
splits surface triangles based on elevation ranges to create smooth bands. See also
average method (Surface Display)
base elevation A reference plane for 3D skirts and the vertical factor for a surface.
3D skirts use the base elevation to determine the elevation at the bottom of the
3D skirts. If you apply a vertical factor for scaling a 3D view of a surface, then the
surface is scaled vertically from the base elevation.
base point The point of coordinate control for the Autodesk Land Desktop coordi-
nate system. This is the point on the Northing/Easting grid that is assigned to a point
on the AutoCAD World Coordinate System X,Y grid. The base point setting is specific
to each individual drawing, and typically starts with North = 0, East = 0, set on
AutoCAD’s X = 0, Y = 0.
You can use the base point setting to assign any northing/easting coordinate to any
X,Y coordinate, effectively moving (but not rotating) the northing/easting grid over
the X,Y grid. The northing/easting coordinates of the points in the database are
unchanged by a base point manipulation. This feature is sometimes used when work-
ing with a dataset with high coordinates to move the area of the northing/easting grid
closer to AutoCAD’s 0,0.
bearing An angle measured from North or South, whichever is nearest, with the
added designation of East or West. The angle is always less than 90 degrees
(PI/2 radians or 100 grads) and is usually referenced by quadrant number. For example,
the notation N45°45'58'' E means this angle was referenced from due North and was
turned 45 degrees, 45 minutes, and 58 seconds toward the East (in the first quadrant).
boundary (surface) A closed 2D or 3D polyline that limits the triangulation of the
digital terrain model by not allowing TIN lines to cross it. Most common are outer
surface boundaries constructed just outside the extremities of the dataset, eliminating
unwanted interpolations across empty space where the surface has a concave shape.
You can also use two types of internal surface boundaries: hide boundaries, to punch
Glossary | 235
holes in a surface, (for example, a building footprint), or show boundaries, to create
smaller surfaces by eliminating areas that fall outside the boundary.
breakline A breakline is used to connect the data representing a distinct surface
feature, like a ridge line, edge of pavement, toe of a slope, centerline of a road, or flow-
line of a ditch or stream. When a breakline is defined, the surface triangulation must
follow the breaklines first, by placing triangle edges coincident with the breakline seg-
ments. This ensures the feature in the model is accurately depicted. The rest of the
interpolation is then performed based on proximity. Breaklines are typically critical to
creating an accurate surface model, because it is the interpolation of the data, not just
the data itself, that determines the shape of the model.
breakline points A breakline point is a point of surface data included in the defined
breakline’s list of vertices.
bulge For contours that contain curves, the bulge value is a maximum mid-ordinate
distance along a polyline curve. If the mid-ordinate distance is longer than specified,
then points are added to better define the shape of the curve.
Polyline curves are not actually curves; they are small, straight segments that mimic
the appearance of a curve. The bulge factor can add more vertices to a polyline curve,
making it appear more curve-like. The smaller the value, the more vertices are added.
Used when creating contour data for a surface; not for creating contours.
catchment area The area tributary to a lake, stream, or drainage system.
centerline (CL) The center line of an alignment. Road lanes are created by offsetting
the centerline a specified distance. When designing roadway templates, the centerline
is usually the finished ground reference point.
chord A straight line connecting two points on a curve: the Point of Curvature (PC)
and Point of Tangency (PT). The curve joins with a line or another curve at these
points.
COGO Short for Coordinate Geometry.
COGO point object The point objects that you create using the Points menu
commands (and other Autodesk Land Desktop commands that create points) can have
several pieces of information associated with them. The point object has a point node
and a point number, northing and easting values, elevation, description, and optional
name. The point data is stored in an external point database, and all elements of a
point object are inserted on the same drawing layer unless description keys are used.
composite surface volumes The composite volume method creates a surface that
represents the depth of cut and fill over the site. You can use any of the Terrain com-
mands that generates information based on a surface with the composite surface. For
example, you can create contours or points based on depth of cut and fill.
When you calculate the volumes using this method, the surface is re-triangulated
based on points from both surfaces. This method uses the points from both surfaces,
as well as any location where the triangle edges between the two surfaces cross. It then
calculates the new composite surface elevations based on the difference between the
elevations of the two surfaces.
compound curve A curve consisting of two or more arcs of different radii curving in
the same direction, which have a common tangent or transition curve at their point
of junction.
236 | Glossary
compound spiral A spiral that provides a transition between two circular
curves of different radii.
contour An imaginary line that connects points of the same elevation or value rela-
tive to a specified reference datum.
contour data Contours are one of the major categories of data (others are points,
breaklines, boundaries, and DEM files), that you can use to build a surface. Contour
data is unique inasmuch as it is the only data type that weeding and supplementing
factors are applied to. The Create As Contour Data check box in the Contour Weeding
dialog box actually determines whether the contours are defined as point data
(unchecked), or breakline data (checked).
coordinate transformation Also known as geodetic transformation. A coordinate
transformation converts values established in one coordinate system and translates
them to another.
coordinates By its mathematical definition, a point is a geometric entity with no
length. To specify exactly where that point is in space, you must specify its location in
three different coordinate planes: X, Y, and Z; or Northing, Easting, and Elevation.
cross section Section views taken at a 90-degree angle to the alignment.
curve correction In volume calculations, the length between the end areas on
horizontal curves is taken from the length along the centerline curve. With curve
correction, the length is taken from the path of the area’s average centroid for a more
accurate result.
curve to spiral (CS) A point where a curve meets a spiral is labeled as a CS.
datum A reference value. All elevations or coordinates are set relative to this value.
In surveying, two datums (horizontal and vertical) are generally used.
For global coordinate systems, a datum refers to the ellipsoid information and the
techniques used to determine positions on the Earth’s surface. An ellipsoid is part of a
datum definition.
decimal degree One of the five choices for degree units, decimal degrees express the
minutes and seconds of an angle as its decimal equivalent. For example, 3°30'36''
equals 3.51 decimal degrees.
In contrast, when using the DD.MMSS convention, in which the numbers after the
decimal are read as minutes and seconds, not decimal degrees, 3°30'36'' is entered as
3.3036, not 3.51. Care must given not to confuse the two methods, as they clearly yield
very different results. See also degrees, minutes, seconds.
deflection angle A horizontal angle measured from an extension of the preceding
line, right or left.
degrees, minutes, seconds A representation of an angle in degrees, minutes, and
seconds in which a full circle contains 360 degrees, each degree 60 minutes, and each
minute 60 seconds. A typical bearing in DMS measurement looks like: N45°45'58''E.
Using this format, 3°30'36'' is entered as 3.3036.
DEM Digital Elevation Model (DEM) consists of an array of elevations taken on a reg-
ularly spaced horizontal grid. You can get USGS (United States Geological Survey)
topographic data in this form.
Glossary | 237
description keys When new point data is created in the point database, regardless of
the method you use, the descriptions that you enter can be checked against a
user-defined list of description keys. These consist of case-sensitive, literal character
strings, with or without wildcards. Depending on how you set up the description keys,
if a match is found, then:
■ The current description can be replaced with an alternate description.
■ The COGO point in the drawing that represents the record in the point database
can be assigned to a specific layer.
■ A symbol can be placed at the node of the point.
■ The symbol can be assigned to a specific layer.
Using description keys to translate descriptions can help standardize point data if a
variety of data sources are used. For example, descriptions of EROAD, EPAVE, ERD, and
EDGEROAD can all be changed to EOP. The other layer and symbol options can greatly
enhance automatic base plan generation and the overall organization of the drawing
file.
digitize To digitize a paper drawing is to convert it into AutoCAD vector objects.
Digitizing has traditionally been done by taping a paper drawing onto a digitizing tab-
let and tracing over it using AutoCAD commands.
Alternately, you can trace bitmap files that are inserted in the drawing. Tracing bitmaps
onscreen with AutoCAD commands is referred to as heads-up digitizing.
Whatever the method used, the end result is AutoCAD objects that you can place on
layers, edit, and use as a data source for design work.
distance A length between two points. It can be expressed as either feet or meters,
and can be a horizontal or slope distance. In some functions, a negative distance
reverses direction.
drawing settings Drawing settings control many different command parameters in
Autodesk Land Desktop. Each drawing in a project can have its own drawing settings.
Drawing settings are broken down by feature. For example, there are drawing settings
for points, terrain, and so on.
drawing template A drawing file with pre-established settings for new drawings and
has the extension .dwt. Templates store layers, text styles, line types, dimension styles,
and AutoCAD variables like Aperture. They can also store blocks, such as a border or a
company logo.
A template also stores drawing setup values. For example, if you use the Drawing Setup
Wizard or the Drawing Setup command to set up a drawing, and then save that draw-
ing as a .dwt file, then the next time you create a new drawing based on the drawing
template, all of the drawing setup values will be loaded.
dynamic labels Dynamic labels are labels that can change position, content, or style
after you create them. Dynamic labels have the ability to auto-update whenever you
edit the object the label is associated with, or whenever you edit the style of the label.
You can turn off auto-updating options, and use commands to update the labels if
desired. Or, you can convert the dynamic labels to static labels if you never want them
to be updated. See also static labels.
E value (superelevation) The maximum allowable superelevation rate in either ft/ft
or m/m. An E value of 0.10 equals a 10 percent grade.
238 | Glossary
easting A linear distance eastwards from the North-South line which passes through
the origin of a grid. Equivalent to the X coordinate in an X, Y, Z coordinate system.
edit history When you edit a surface, your edits are recorded in an edit history which
you can play back when you rebuild the surface. When the surface is rebuilt, the same
edits are made in the order you made them.
elevation The vertical distance from a datum to a point or object on the Earth’s
surface. The datum is generally considered to be at sea level.
elevation banding The process of dividing a surface into user-defined elevation
ranges and creating 2D solids or 3D faces on separate layers to represent the part of the
surface that falls within each range.
end conditions Refers to the symbol at the end of lines or other objects. End condi-
tion symbols can be arrows, crows feet, and so on.
entity Synonymous with object. Any vector object that appears in the drawing.
equations (stationing) Station equations are used to define points on an alignment
where stationing is discontinuous.
existing ground An undeveloped terrain as it currently exists.
face A three-dimensional surface triangle. A face is represented by either a 3D face
object or 3D line objects.
facet The planar face of a grid cell. Each grid cell has one, two, or four facets.
finished ground A digital terrain model of a proposed final design, and the represen-
tation of that surface as linework on a profile or section. The proposed or actual terrain
model of a developed terrain.
foot Unit of linear measurement. An international foot is based on the conversion
1 in. = 2.54 cm. while a US survey foot is based on 39.37 in. = 1 meter.
full description The description of a point after any point description key substitu-
tion has occurred. See also raw description.
geodesic On a surface, the shortest line between two points. The line or curve from
one point along an ellipsoid to another.
geodesy The science that determines the Earth’s size and shape and the exact posi-
tions of points on its surface.
geodetic Signifies a basic relationship to the Earth that takes into account the
curvature of the Earth’s sea level surface. For example, a geodetic distance is a distance
or angle in which the Earth’s curvature is taken into account, versus a distance or angle
measured on a flat paper map.
geodetic transformation Also known as coordinate transformation. Converts values
established in one coordinate system and translates them to a different coordinate
system.
global coordinate system Describes how the Earth’s sphere is projected onto a sheet
of paper and converted to the Cartesian coordinate system. A global coordinate system
can differ based on the projection type, datum, and units that are used. For example,
a global coordinate system can be based on the Lambert Conformal Conic projection,
the North American Datum of 1983, and metric units.
Glossary | 239
grade The slope of a surface, with the vertical rise or fall expressed as a percentage of
the horizontal distance.
grads A system of measure in which one grad equals 1/100 of a 90° angle, or
360° = 400 grads.
grid A system of lines parallel to a given set of axes at a specific spacing. Grids are
used in Autodesk Land Desktop to visualize surfaces and calculate volumes. A grid is
also used for geodetic purposes.
grid azimuth At the point of observation, the angle in the projection's plane mea-
sured between the central meridian of the plane coordinate projection system and a
line containing the object sighted.
grid distance The distance between two points based on a coordinate zone, not on
local northing and easting coordinates.
grid easting The easting coordinate based on a selected coordinate zone, versus the
local easting, which is based on the surveyor's base point.
grid m size The dimension of the grid cell in the M direction (equivalent to the
drawing's X-axis if grid rotation angle is 0).
grid n size The dimension of the grid cell in the N direction (equivalent to the
drawing's Y-axis (if the grid rotation angle is 0).
grid northing The northing coordinate based on a selected coordinate zone, versus
the local northing, which is based on the surveyor's base point.
grid surface volumes The grid method of volume calculation measures the differ-
ence in elevation between two surfaces at each intersection in a user-defined grid. If
only one surface exists at a grid intersection, then that point is not used in the volume
calculation. Surface 2 in the defined stratum is always compared to surface 1. If
surface 2 is lower than surface 1, then it is a cut condition, and if surface 2 is higher
than surface 1, then it is a fill condition.
The difference in elevation between the surfaces at all the usable grid intersections is
then used as the Z value for a new grid surface data point. For example, a grid point
with a fill condition of 2.39 generates a surface data point with an elevation of 2.3, a
grid point with a cut condition of 1.79 generates a surface data point with an elevation
of -1.7. Autodesk Land Desktop then builds a grid volume surface, and compares it to
a flat plane surface at elevation 0 to determine the cut and fill volumes.
grid tick A mark made at each sampled location in a volume grid. The ticks are
placed on two different layers, depending on if they represent a cut condition or a fill
condition, and are typically accompanied by labels showing the amount of cut or fill,
similarly placed on separate layers. You can then use the ticks and labels to generate a
color-coded graphic depicting the areas and amounts of cut and fill earthwork.
hectare A measure of area, generally relating to land, of 10,000 square meters or
approximately 2.47 acres.
horizontal alignment A series of 2D coordinates (northings and eastings), con-
nected by lines, circular curves, and/or spiral curves, that Autodesk Land Desktop
stores as an external data file. This defined alignment, in conjunction with a surface,
can produce the station, offset, and elevation data needed to generate profiles and/or
cross-sections. You can station the horizontal alignment and create parallel offsets to
represent features such as edges of pavement, sidewalks, or rights-of-way.
240 | Glossary
horizontal scale In the drawing setup, the horizontal scale controls the size of anno-
tation placed in the drawing, including text, scaled blocks, and special lines. It does
not affect the line lengths or point coordinates because they are always defined in real
world coordinates, not to any scale. Neither does it affect the design data in the draw-
ing or project files.
If you change the horizontal scale in the middle of a drawing session, then any anno-
tation added subsequently is scaled accordingly.
interpolate The process of calculating the elevation of any point on an infinite imag-
inary line that passes through two known horizontal and vertical control points.
intersection The point where two or more lines, arcs, figures, or objects join or cross
in two- or three-dimensional space.
least squares A method of balancing a traverse in which the squares of the differ-
ences between the unadjusted and adjusted measurements (angles and distances) are
summed and reduced to a minimum. This method uses the error specifications in the
current equipment settings to determine the expected source of errors, and weights the
individual measurements accordingly.
lightweight polyline Optimized polyline first introduced in AutoCAD 14. These
polylines list as “LWPOLYLINE” when you use the LIST command.
local easting The easting coordinate based on the surveyor's assumed horizontal
base point, versus the grid easting, which is based on the global coordinate zone.
local elevation The elevation coordinate based on the surveyor's assumed vertical
base point, or benchmark, versus a real world elevation value.
local northing The northing coordinate based on the surveyor's assumed horizontal
base point, versus the grid northing, which is based on the global coordinate zone.
m direction The M and N directions are used for defining grids in Autodesk Land
Desktop, due to the fact that a grid rotation angle can cause the grid axes to be different
from either the X-Y axes or the Northing/Easting axes in the current drawing. The m
direction is roughly equivalent to the X direction.
meter The basic metric measurement of length. In comparison to the international
foot 1 in. = 2.54 cm.
middle ordinate On a circular arc, the distance from the midpoint of the chord to
the midpoint of the subtended arc.
minimize flat faces Minimizing the flat faces of contours helps to ensure that trian-
gulation does not occur from one point on a contour to another point on the same
contour, creating flat ridges. A typical example is on a site that includes finger-like con-
tours such as you might find along a stream. Minimizing flat contours prevents the
surface model from triangulating between a contour on one side of the stream and a
contour on the other side of the stream.
n direction The M and N directions are used for defining grids in Autodesk Land
Desktop, due to the fact that a grid rotation angle can cause the grid axes to be different
from either the X-Y axes or the Northing/Easting axes in the current drawing. The
N direction is roughly equivalent to the Y direction.
NAD 27 zone North American Datum of 1927. A datum acts as a reference point,
line, or surface for mapping. In general, NAD 27 uses feet as its unit of measurement.
Glossary | 241
NAD 83 zone North American Datum of 1983. A datum acts as a reference point,
line, or surface for mapping. In general, NAD 83 uses meters as its unit of
measurement.
non-destructive breakline Triangulation lines in a TIN do not cross a
non-destructive breakline. Instead, new vertices are added to the breakline at the inter-
section of each TIN line and the breakline. The new points create additional surface
triangles. This is useful when you do not want the elevation of a surface to be interpo-
lated inside an area that you know to be a constant elevation.
north rotation Means of specifying a north rotation or direction in AutoCAD
drawing files. Bearings and azimuths are referenced from the drawing’s north rotation.
object Any 2D or 3D vector figure that is displayed graphically in the drawing. This
includes contours, points, lines, arcs, polylines, and so on.
offset distance A perpendicular distance from an object or point to a reference line
or arc.
offset A distance measured, usually at a right angle from an established line, that is
used to locate a new position. A positive number indicates a right offset, a negative
number indicates a left offset.
offsets Can represent such things as edges of pavement, sidewalk lines, and shoulder
lines for a road. You create these as either symmetric or asymmetric offsets from the
alignment.
parcel A discrete piece of land. For example, a subdivision is comprised of numerous
parcels. Synonymous with lot.
point database Autodesk Land Desktop uses a project point database to store the
point information for a project. This file is named points.mdb and is stored in the
project’s \cogo folder (for example, c:\Land Projects 3\<project name>\cogo). Autodesk
Land Desktop prompts you to set up this point database whenever you start a new
project.
point filters Key combinations that you can use to select COGO point objects in
specific ways.
■ Type .g (dot g) to select a point by clicking on it.
■ Type .p (dot p) to select a point by typing the point number.
■ Type .n (dot n) to select a point by typing its northing and easting coordinates.
A point filter remains active until you turn it off by entering either the point filter
again or another point filter.
point group Point groups are used to group the points in the project into smaller,
more manageable units. You can use point groups for selecting points you want to edit,
or for specifying which points to use in a surface. For example, you can create a point
group that contains all of the points in a project or only those points that represent
existing ground elevations.
Point groups are a collection of point numbers. When you use a point group, the point
data is pulled from the point database for each point number in the group.
The point group definitions are stored in c:\Land Projects 3\<project
name>\cogo\<groups.mdb>.
242 | Glossary
point marker A point marker is a point location marker (like a dot or X) and text that
usually indicates the point number, point description, and point elevation. When you
create COGO points, point markers are created to represent the points on the
AutoCAD graphics screen.
point node You can place point nodes in a drawing by using the AutoCAD POINT
command. Point nodes are useful as reference points that you can snap to. You can
specify a full three-dimensional location for a point. You can change the appearance
or size of a point nodes using PDMODE or PDSIZE.
A point node is made up of only a point symbol and X,Y,Z data and is placed on the
current layer. It does not have any associated northing, easting, or elevational data
associated with it. It does not store point information in an external database. See also
COGO point object.
point of curvature (PC) The point where an arc is drawn from a tangent.
point of intersection (PI) The point where two tangents meet on a horizontal align-
ment. Curves and spirals also have points of intersection, which are based on where
the tangents would meet if they were extended outward.
point of tangency (PT) The point where a curve meets a tangent.
point of vertical intersection (PVI) The point where two tangents meet on a vertical
alignment.
polyface A 3-dimensional (polygon) mesh object. Each face is capable of having
numerous vertices.
precision The number of decimals to the right of the decimal point. For example,
49.96 has a precision of two. Precision settings will round numbers. For example, if the
precision is 2, a value of 4.926 is rounded up to 4.93. A value of 4.923 is rounded down
to 4.92.
prime meridian The meridian at 0 degrees longitude. The prime meridian runs
through the original site of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, and is also
known as the Greenwich meridian.
prismoidal volumes A type of Section volume. When using this method, a regular
grid is overlaid on the two surfaces. The elevations on both surfaces are calculated at
each grid intersection. The resulting face is then broken into two triangular prisms.
This method is most accurate when both surfaces have some amount of variation
within them.
The following formula is used when you select the prismoidal volume calculation
method:
L
V = ( A1 + A1 * A 2 + A 2 )
3
Glossary | 243
Variable Value
V volume
L distance between
sections
A1 area of section 1
A2 area of section 2
244 | Glossary
control points (known points in the X,Y,Z coordinate system). You can also match
vector-to-vector.
section volumes A method of calculating volumes. The section method calculates
cross sections from two surfaces and generates volumes using either of two methods:
Prismoidal or Average End Area.
setup profile (drawing) A saved group of drawing setup settings.
shortcut menu A menu that is displayed when you select an object and then click
the right button of your mouse. Shortcut menus are context-sensitive so that only
commands that are relative to the object that you selected are displayed.
site To calculate volumes, you must define the area that will be used in the volume
calculations. This area is called a site, which you can define using grid cells. The site is
limited to rectangular shapes. The site definition is used by the Grid, Composite, and
Section volume methods, and is stored in the control file, {project}.gcf. This file also
holds any site definitions for the project, and all the volume calculations.
sliver triangles Triangles that have comparably little area, resulting from the trian-
gulation of three points in which one point is only slightly offset from the edge that
is created from the other two points.
slope The incline or decline of a surface, expressed as a ratio of either horizontal
distance to vertical distance or run to rise. For example, the ratio for a 2-to-1 slope is
expressed as 2:1 (2’ of run to 1’ of rise).
south azimuth Azimuths south of the equator are referenced to due South clockwise.
speed table Common references that are found in various publications on highway
design. A speed table for a horizontal alignment includes a design speed with a list of
the following: degree of curve, radius, superelevation rate (e), spiral length or A factor
for two-lane designs, and spiral length or A factor for four-lane designs.
spiral A curve comprised of short segments that does not have a consistent rate of
curvature or radius.
In modern transportation design, vehicle dynamics, as well as safety and comfort con-
siderations, dictate the need to avoid abrupt changes in horizontal curvature. Such
changes, which are encountered either where a tangent meets a circular curve or at
points of compound curvature, can be avoided by using spiral (or transition) curves. A
spiral also provides the logical location for the introduction of superelevation, so that
it is matched to the local curvature of the alignment at every point.
spiral to curve (SC) The point where a spiral meets a curve.
spiral to tangent (ST) The point where a spiral meets a tangent.
spot elevation Refers to the elevation of a single point in the drawing. Use spot
elevations to define areas that are sparse in contour data when generating a TIN using
the contour information. Areas that may also need spot elevations are the top of hills,
valleys, and bottom of swales.
stakeout The process of placing stakes in the ground at control points on a site that
is being developed. For example, after you place points in your drawing, or after you
design an alignment, you can create stakeout reports that list the coordinates of each
stake. Someone else can then use these stakeout reports to place (or adjust) the stakes
at the site.
Glossary | 245
standard breakline A breakline defined from selecting consecutive points or point
numbers, or selected 3D polyline or 3D line objects.
state plane The plane-rectangular coordinate systems for use in defining geodetic
stations. A grid is imposed upon a map projection of a specified zone or area. Northing
and easting coordinates in a state plane system are called Grid Northing and Grid
Easting.
static labels Static labels are labels that never change position, content, or style after
you create them. Static labels cannot be updated unless you change their update
properties. See also dynamic labels.
stationing (chainage) Horizontal alignments are generally labeled to provide a ref-
erence when talking about a specific point along the reference baseline. This labeling
is called stationing and is marked out every 100 feet along the alignment (U.S.
method). When referring to any point along the alignment, the station is given in
hundreds of feet. For example, for information for a point that sits 1776.85 feet into a
project, the station is 17+76.85. In the metric system, it is displayed in thousands of
meters. For example, information for a point that sits 1776.85 meters into a project, is
at station 1+776.85.
stratum The difference between two surfaces that exist in a drawing, usually the
existing ground surface and a finished ground surface, and is used for calculating
volumes.
superelevation Used on curves to compensate for the centrifugal force on a vehicle.
In order to maintain safe, continuous operation of a vehicle, the traveling lanes are
superelevated, or banked, around the curve.
supplementing distance The supplementing distance is the maximum distance
between contour vertices. If the distance between vertices on a contour is greater than
specified, then points will be added along the contour in equal increments that are less
than or equal to the supplementing distance. Used when creating contour data for a
surface; not for creating contours.
surface A triangular irregular network (TIN) of elevational data. The points of a
surface are connected into triangles, which are then used to interpolate contours, and
to generate profiles and cross-sections. A surface represents the ground condition at a
particular time or event. For example, the existing ground surface defines a ground
before it was modified, and a proposed or finished ground surface is based on a site
design of proposed earthwork.
surface area The 3-dimensional (3D) area of a triangle face computed from the
northing, easting, and elevation of each triangle point. The total surface area is the
sum of the 3D triangle face areas within the surface boundary(s).
surface border The limits of a surface based on the 2-dimensional extents (minimum
and maximum northing and eastings) of the triangulated surface data.
surface boundary The active area(s) of a surface defined from a closed polyline.
tag label Tag labels are shortened labels used to mark a line, curve, or spiral. By
default, a line is tagged with L, a curve with C, and a spiral with S. Each line, curve,
and spiral is also given a tag number. For example, your lines would be tagged with L1,
L2, and so on.
246 | Glossary
After you label your objects with tags, you can create tables which display the tag num-
ber and then list detailed information about the object. When you use a table, you can
usually display more information about an object than you could if you were labeling
the object itself.
tangent A straight line that touches a given curve at only one point, and does not
intersect it (line slope equals curve slope at the point).
terrain A terrain model represents the surface of the Earth, either as it currently exists
(existing ground or as-built), or at a future time (finished ground).
TIN Triangular Irregular Network. Created when you build a surface. A TIN is the
most common method of interpolating elevational data. The points are connected
into triangles which are used to interpolate for contours, and to generate profiles and
cross-sections. The lines that make up the surface triangulation are called TIN lines.
triangle area The 2-dimensional (2D) area of a triangle face computed from the
northing and easting of each triangle point. The total triangle area is the sum of all
2D triangle areas with the surface boundary(s).
trim (surface) The process of removing unwanted TIN lines from a surface, thereby
removing triangles.
vector Vector data is a group of mathematical equations that generates lines, arcs,
and so on. This type of data is produced when you draw objects in your drawing.
vertical factor A real number, other than 1.0, used to exaggerate the vertical repre-
sentation of a surface. To determine the elevations of the surface, apply the vertical
factor to the difference between the real elevation and the base elevation, then add the
result to the base elevation.
vertical scale The vertical scale is compared against the horizontal scale to calculate
the vertical exaggeration in profiles and cross sections. It does not actually change the
scale that is used when the drawing is plotted.
volume surface A volume surface is created when you calculate volumes using the
grid or composite methods. The surface is created from the two surfaces that make up
the stratum. The elevational values of a volume surface are actually the difference
between the two surfaces. For example, at point 1000,1000, the bottom surface has an
elevation of 100, and the top surface has an elevation of 150. The elevation of point
1000,1000 on the volume surface is the difference between the two surfaces, which
is 50.
In terms of cut and fill situations, if a point is in a fill situation, then the elevation of
the volume surface at that point is a positive number. If a point is in a cut condition,
then the elevation of the volume surface at that point is a negative number.
Because surfaces are generated from the grid and composite volume calculations, you
can create cut and fill contours from a volume surface to show the depths of cut and
fill, and you can use any of the surface display commands to view the surface.
wall breakline Represents terrain features such as retaining walls, curbs, bridge
abutments, and so on. You can define these breaklines by selecting an existing
polyline. The command extends this polyline by creating new polyline segments and
vertices that are parallel to the original polyline, but offset at a very small incremented
distance.
Glossary | 247
water drop trail A polyline representing the trail of a water drop as it follows the
3D triangle faces of the surface. The path of the water drop trail continues until it
reaches an outflow area.
watershed The catchment area for rainfall that is delineated as the drainage area pro-
ducing runoff. Base flow in a stream also usually comes from the same area.
weeding factors You can use the weeding factor settings to reduce redundant points
along the contours by ignoring contour vertices that are close together or along a
straight line. A larger distance and deflection angle will weed a greater number of
points. Distance is an absolute measure and the angle is measured in degrees. The
larger the distance value, the greater the number of weeded points. The weeding
factors must be less than the supplementing factors.
A point on the contour is weeded by calculating its location in relation to the vertices
before and after it. If the length between these three points is less than the weeding
length value, and the deflection angle is less than the weeding angle value, then the
middle point will not be added to the contour data file.
Used when creating contour data for a surface; not for creating contours.
weeding The removal of points along a selected polyline representing a contour. The
weeding factors determine the amount of points removed. You can use weeding to
reduce the amount of point information taken from the contours that may not be nec-
essary to generate an accurate surface. See also weeding factors.
XDRef An XDRef is a pointer to a column of data in an external database. The data-
base must be keyed by point number. Then when an XDRef is used to get a value for
some attribute of a point, the point number is looked up in the database, and the value
from the specified column is used, in place of the point’s original attribute value.
z value Elevational value in an X,Y,Z coordinate system.
zero height text style An AutoCAD text style that has a height of zero assigned to it.
For example, by default, the AutoCAD STANDARD text style is a zero-height style.
A zero-height text style requires you to specify the height each time you use the text
style. In contrast, a fixed-height text style does not require you to specify the text
height each time that you use it.
zone Synonymous with Global Coordinate System. The global coordinate system
describes how the sphere of the Earth is projected onto a sheet of paper and converted
to the Cartesian coordinate system. A global coordinate system can differ based on the
projection type, datum, and units that are used.
248 | Glossary
Index
Index | 249
circles, 138 data, exporting in LandXML, 223
clothoid spirals, 135 database, points, 90
COGO points, 86 DEM files, 163, 168
creating, 88 in surfaces, 162
exporting as LandXML data, 223 description keys, 114
from CAD points, 89 example, 117
importing as LandXML data, 227 exporting as LandXML data, 223
point creation settings, 93 importing as LandXML data, 227
See also points point markers and point labels, 115
color display, changing, 56 point settings, 116
command history, viewing, 49 description parameters (points), 116
commands, accessing, 39 dialog bar, label style properties, 215
on command line, 48 Digital Elevation Models. See DEM files
pre-defined menu palettes, 41 digitizing
pull-down menus, 40 images, 148
shortcut menus, 47 methods, 148
status bar, 46 Direct3D Heidi 3D display driver, 22
text window, 49 directories, choosing during installation, 26
toolbars, 43 display options, 56
transparent commands, 48 displaying toolbars, 43
Compact installation, 25 donuts, 138
components, adding to stand-alone drawing aids, 77
installations, 30 hatch patterns, 139
contours (surfaces), 167 reference points, 79
creating, 180 snap points, 79
creating from surfaces, 180 drawing environment, setting up, 38
digitizing, 148 drawing objects, 136
grading methods, 174 block definition, 156
hiding in ponds and buildings, 183 curved objects, 138
converting units with LandXML, 222 polylines, 137
coordinate geometry. See COGO points text, 143
coordinate zone transformations, importing drawing settings, 9, 52
points, 102 points, 93
copying objects, 151, 153 prototypes, 59
multiple copies, 153 drawing sheets, laying out for plotting, 133
cosinusoidal spirals, 135 drawing tools
cross sections special lines, 136
exporting as LandXML data, 223 spiral curves, 134
quick views, 178 text, 143
Ctext, 145 drawings
curved adding external drawings, 158
lines, 133, 139 associating with projects, 6
objects, 138 correcting mistakes, 152
text, 145 creating, 62
Custom installation, components, 25 modifying settings, 52
custom objects and proxy graphics, 68 opening, 67
customized files and settings organizing layers, 73
using from previous versions, 28 paper space, 133
customizing regenerating and redrawing, 73
menu bar, 42 scaling the view, 71
menu palettes, 42 setup, 8, 64
cut and fill areas, highlighting, 187 sharing with other AutoCAD programs, 67
using named views, 72
viewpoints, 69
D dynamic labels, 213
damaged or missing files, repairing, 30 dynamic view, 70
data files, settings, 54
250 | Index
E Help
editing label styles, 219 accessing, 13
editing points, 104 how to use, 14, 16
selecting, 105 history of commands, viewing, 49
editing surfaces, 175
edit history, 176 I
editing tools, 149 importing
correcting mistakes, 152 alignments, 199, 227
creating selection sets, 150 LandXML data, 227
using grips, 151 parcels, 227
utilities commands, 155 points, 97, 227
ellipses, 138 profiles, 227
erasing objects, 152 surfaces, 227
errors, correcting, 152 inquiry commands, 210–211
exiting the programs, 84 installation types
exporting LandXML data, 223 Compact, 25
alignments, 223 Full, 25
cross sections, 223 Typical, 24
parcels, 223 Installation wizard for stand-alone
points, 223 computers, 23
profiles, 223 installing Autodesk Land Desktop, 19
surfaces, 223 3D graphics system requirements, 22
exporting point references, 225 adding components, 30
external data references (xdrefs), 119 authorizing, 29
external drawings (xref), attaching, 158 choosing directories, 26
on stand-alone computers, 22
F repairing damaged or missing files, 30
fence lines (special lines), 136 system requirements, 20
file paths, setting, 50 uninstalling, 32
files from previous versions, 28 using files from previous versions, 28
filters installing on stand-alone computers
for layer groups, 76 Autodesk Land Desktop, 24, 27
in selections sets, 150 installation types, 24
points, 102 Volo View Express, 27
finished ground data (surfaces), 174 write permissions required, 22
floating viewports. See layout viewports
folders for prototypes, 61 L
font styles, in text, 143 labels, 213, 215
Full installation, 25 accessing label commands, 214
editing, 219
G label styles, 213
Geodetic Calculator, 123 point labels, 88
calculating state plane coordinates, 124 style properties dialog bar, 215
geodetic transformation (points), 123 LandXML schema, 222
grips, editing objects, 151 LandXML, using, 222
exporting data, 223
import comparison results report, 230
H importing data, 227
hard disk requirements layers, 75
for stand-alone computers, 21 changing properties, 74
hardware requirements creating groups, 75
for stand-alone computers, 20 Layer Manager, 75
hatch patterns, creating, 139 saving in snapshots, 75
Heidi 3D display drivers, 22 using in drawings, 73
Index | 251
layout mode, 130 objects (continued)
layout viewports, 132 modifying, 152
displaying objects, 133 proxy objects, 67
drawing scale, 71 querying, 211
leaders, annotation, 147 online Help, accessing, 13
lines Oops command, 152
curved, 139 Open GL Heidi 3D display driver, system
drawing, 133 requirements, 22
polylines, 137 operating system requirements
special lines, 136 for stand-alone computers, 20
linetypes, special lines, 136 options
listing object data, 210 drawing environment, 55
window display, 56
Oracle8i Spatial requirements
M for stand-alone computers, 21
macros, loading menu palettes, 42 overriding point data in point groups, 113
Map project workspace external data references, 119
drawing environment, 38
menu palettes
customizing, 42 P
loading with a macro, 42 palettes. See menu palettes
selecting, 10, 41 panning an image, 70
using, 9 paper space, 130, 132–133
MENULOAD command, 10, 42 See also layout viewports
menus parcels, 204
custom menu bar, 42 calculating volumes, 185
loading, 41 exporting as LandXML data, 223
pull-down, 40 geometry, 204–205
mistakes, correcting in drawings, 152 importing as LandXML data, 227
model space, 130 managing, 207
switching to layout mode, 130 persistent properties in point groups, 109
modifying objects, 152 perspective views, 69
copying, 153 plotting drawings, configuring, 130
inserting breaks, 154 point database, 90
moving, 151, 153, 158 matching drawing points, 108
resizing, 154 multi-users, 93
using grips, 151 setting up, 92
multiline text (MTEXT), 144 point groups, 109
multi-user alignment database, 193 checking status, 112
exporting as LandXML data, 223
importing as LandXML data, 227
N new features in Land Desktop, 109
notes, attaching text to objects, 146 overriding point data, 113
persistent properties, 109
O saving to prototype, 110
object data, listing, 210 updating, 112
Object Enabler, 67 point labels, 88
object snaps, 79 point markers, 87
Object Viewer, 69 changing settings, 95
objects description keys, 115
and proxy graphics, 68 point references, exporting, 225
changing properties, 74 points
custom, 68 COGO point objects, 88
defining as road alignment, 194 creating, 96
editing, 149 creating point groups, 109
labeling, 213, 215 creation settings, 93
methods of selection, 149 description keys, 114
252 | Index
points (continued) raster images
description parameters, 116 digitizing, 148
editing, 104–105 listing, 211
geodetic transformation, 123 raw descriptions
importing, 97 point selection, 109
marker settings, 95 Readme file, 27
new features, 89 realtime zoom, 70
point database, 90, 92 rectangular array, creating, 153
point filters, 102 Redo command, 152
point labels, 88 redraw and regenerate drawings, 73
point markers, 87 reference points, 79
settings, 93 tracking, 82
synchronizing, 108 registering Autodesk Land Desktop, 29
text settings, 95 reinstalling Autodesk Land Desktop on
polar array, creating, 153 stand-alone computers, 30
polylines, 137 repairing
preference settings, 50 Autodesk Land Desktop on stand-alone
AutoCAD overrides, 50 computers, 30
data files, 54 damaged or missing files during
drawing setup, 51 installation, 30
drawings, 52 reporting data with LandXML, 222
file paths, 50 reports, from queries, 211
prototype, 53 reports, LandXML import
processor requirements comparison results, 230
for stand-alone computers, 20 resizing objects, 151, 154
profiles roadway alignments, 192
exporting as LandXML data, 223 defining objects, 194
importing as LandXML data, 227 deleting and importing, 199
project point databases, 90 editing, 197
matching points to, 108 offsetting, 201
setting up, 92 stationing, 201
projects, 5, 58 rotate objects with grips, 151
associating drawings, 6 rubber-sheeting vectors, 149
drawing setup, 64 running object snaps, 79
file locks, 60
managing, 60
prototypes, 53
S
renaming, 60 scale factor, zooming, 70
properties, object and layers, 74 scale, in layout viewports, 71
prototypes, 7 scaling blocks, 155
default folder, 61 schema, LandXML, 222
introduction, 59 sections, quick views of surface, 178
managing, 61 selecting points, 105, 107
saving point groups to, 110 methods, 110
settings, 53 selection methods (objects), 149
proxy graphics, 67 selection sets, using filters, 150
settings, 49
data files, 54
Q drawing setup, 51
quadratic spirals, 135 file paths, 50
querying drawing objects, 211 modifying in drawing, 52
overriding AutoCAD commands, 50
point creation, 93
R point marker, 95
RAM requirements point text, 95
for stand-alone computers, 20 points, 93
Index | 253
settings (continued) surfaces, creating (continued)
prototypes, 53, 59 triangulated irregular networks. See TIN
using customized from using various data, 162
previous versions, 28 symbols
window display, 56 accessing, 142
setup profiles, 8 associating with points, 114
sheets, laying out for plotting, 133 in special lines, 136
shortcut menus, 47 using for description keys, 114
single-line text, 144 system folder
sinusoidal spirals, 135 write permission requirements, 22
snaps, 79 system registry
software requirements write permission requirements, 22
for stand-alone computers, 20 system requirements
special lines (linetypes), 136 for stand-alone computers, 20
spiral curves, 134
splines, 139
stand-alone computers
T
hard disk requirements, 21 tabs, model and layout, 130
Installation Wizard, 23 tag labels, 213
installing Autodesk Land Desktop 3, 22 templates, 8
reinstalling Autodesk Land Desktop, 30 Terrain Model Explorer, 164, 177
system requirements, 20 edit history (surfaces), 176
types of installations, 24 text
starting Autodesk Land Desktop, 36 attaching to objects, 146
display options, 56 curved, 145
static labels, 213 inserting, 143
stretching objects with grips, 151 multiline, 144
subdivisions single line, 144
parcels, 204 text window, 49
summary, LandXML import results, 230 tiled viewports (model space), 130
surface grid, projecting 2D objects onto, 189 TIN (triangular irregular networks), 162
surface models, 162 Today window, using, 36–37
hiding contour lines, 183 toolbars, displaying in Land Desktop, 43
showing statistics, 211 tracking, 82
using Terrain Model Explorer, 164 transferring and archiving data with
surfaces, 168 LandXML, 222
breaklines, 165 transformations, geodetic, 123
calculating volumes, 185 translating and rotating coordinates with
creating contours, 180 LandXML, 222
cutting cross sections of, 178 transparent commands, 48
data, 165, 174 tree lines (special lines), 136
displaying, 189 Trimble Link
editing, 175 installing, 27
exporting as LandXML data, 223 uninstalling, 32
finished ground data, 174 tutorial, Autodesk Land Desktop, 12, 16
hiding regions, 183 Typical installation, 24
importing as LandXML data, 227
viewing in 3D, 188 U
viewing information about, 177 Undo command, 152
vizualizing, 177 uninstalling
watershed models, 171 Autodesk Land Desktop, 32
surfaces, creating, 162 Trimble Link, 32
boundaries, 167 Volo View Express, 33
breaklines, 163 updating
contours, 167 point groups, 112
surface data, 165 points, 108
Terrain Model Explorer, 164
254 | Index
upgrading to Autodesk Land Desktop 3, 24 W
user preferences, 9 waterdrop paths, 171
watershed models
V catchment areas, 171
vector objects, 148 channel network, 171
from raster objects, 149 creating, 171
vectors, rubber-sheeting, 149 drain targets, 171
viewports watersheds, 171
displaying objects, 133 window
laying out a drawing sheet, 133 display options, 56
layout, 132 Object Viewer, 69
tiled (model space), 130 Windows 98
views uninstalling Autodesk Land Desktop on, 33
Object Viewer, 69 Windows Millennium Edition (ME), 3
quick access from toolbar, 69 uninstalling Autodesk Land Desktop on, 33
saving, 75 Windows NT
scaling, 71 uninstalling Autodesk Land Desktop on, 33
using named views, 72 write permission requirements
viewpoints, 69 for stand-alone installations, 22
zoom and pan, 70
Volo View Express, 27 X
uninstalling, 33 xdrefs. See external data references
volumes xrefs. See external drawings
calculating cut and fill, 185
calculating methods, 185
cut and fill tick marks, 187 Z
zoom options, 70
naming and saving views, 72
Index | 255
256 | Index