Hi. I'm Rami Tamimi.
Today I'm going to explain the different type of lines that you can use in AutoCad Civil 3D.
Now, there are four different types of lines that you can use.
There are just lines.
There are polylines.
There are 3D polylines, and there are feature lines.
Let's take a look at how to use all four of these.
To begin, we're gonna start by drawing a line.
To do this, you're gonna press the L key on your keyboard to select line.
You can also go up to the ribbon under the home tab.
Come over to draw and select Create Line.
And I'm gonna go ahead and draw in a bunch of lines.
It's important to note that lines are drawn in at individual segments.
Therefore, they're not connected together.
Each one of them is its own feature.
Lines are pretty limited in terms of what kind of attributes they have.
The only thing you can really control is the location of the two vertices of the line.
This does include elevation.
I'm gonna draw one line and when I look at my properties, I have a Start Z which is the
starting elevation of the first vertice.
Let's make this 10.
I also have an End Z, which is the elevation at the second vertice.
Let's make this 20.
If we take a look at the view from the front, we can see that along the X and Z axis, the
line is going up.
Now if I were to change the elevation of Z to zero, now the line is going down.
So you're able to control the elevation of both of the vertices on the line.
The next type of line that we're gonna look at is a polyline.
To draw a polyline, type in PL on your computer or you can select this icon in the Draw menu.
And we do the same thing.
Draw a bunch of lines.
The main difference between a polyline and a line is that all of the lines are connected.
They are all one feature and moving one vertice affects multiple lines.
In the properties menu, you can choose to close this polyline to create a polygon.
At every single vertice, you have the option of adding an additional vertice to change
the geometry of your polyline.
You can also remove this vertice or you can just choose to stretch it and move it.
In the middle between the vertices, you have the option of stretching the line inside of
the polyline.
You can also add a new vertice if you wanted.
If you want to convert the line into an arc, you can convert this line and create an arc-like
shape within the polyline.
This is really useful when you're trying to trace some kind of image.
If you have a sidewalk that you wanted to show the lines to, you can create arcs within
your polyline.
The limitations of the polyline is that the entire line is under one elevation.
You can't have multiple elevations at multiple widths.
This is because it's considered a 2D line.
It doesn't have any kind of depth to it.
You can raise it and lower it as a uniform line, but you can't assign each individual
vertice an elevation.
That's because in order to do that, you need to use a 3D polyline.
To
draw a 3D polyline, type in 3D and then you're able to just draw in your 3D polyline.
Now the main difference between the 3D polyline and a regular polyline is the fact that you
can add elevations to your vertices.
By selecting the line, you can come over to the geometry section and select the vertice
that you want.
So we're on vertice one.
Let's make the elevation 10.
If we move to the second vertice, we can make this elevation 20.
The third vertice, let's make it 25.
And the fourth vertice, let's make it 15.
Now if we change over to the front view, we can see along the X and Z axis, the line goes
up a little.
Goes up a little bit more.
And then it starts to drop down, just like we indicated in our properties.
Now, the last type of line that you can use is a feature line.
A feature line is only exclusive to Civil 3D so you can't use it on traditional AutoCad.
The main difference between feature lines and 3D polylines is that feature lines give
you the ability to design with the line.
This is great if you're trying to create a profile or if you're doing some kind of pipe
networking.
The feature line has more sophisticated functions that allow you to edit the line in order to
fit your design.
Let me show you what I'm talking about.
I find the easiest way to draw a feature line is to start with a polyline.
So we're gonna start with a polyline and gonna draw it in.
Under the create design section, we're gonna click on feature line.
Create feature lines from objects.
Select your polyline and it enter.
Hit OK.
Now we have a feature line.
You see this new feature line tab opens up and you have all these functions that you
can use your feature line with.
The one that I'm gonna show you today in this video is the elevation editor.
With the feature line, you're gonna be given your stationing at every vertice.
You can then manually input the elevations, the length of every segment, and that will
calculate the back grade and front grade.
So let's make the elevations here 10, 20, 25, 15, and you can see we're grading 10.93
feet to go up to the next station.
To go back, you have to go 10.93, then up another five -- and then to go back down,
it looks like negative 9.58; you see the design then comes in for our featured line.
I click OK and the same thing here when I go down, you can see the elevation spiking
up right away, then gradually going up and gradually coming down, then spiking back down.
So these are the different types of lines that we use.
As you can see, it's kind of like a class system.
A normal line is at the lowest end, you know, where it's very basic.
And you don't have a lot of flexibility with it.
A polyline allows you to have more flexibility by having multiple segments.
A 3D polyline allows you to add elevations to your vertices and a feature line gives
you a wider range of design features that you didn't have with 3D polyline.
You can upgrade your line to different classes or downgrade your line.
Let me show you how to do that.
Let's say I have
a bunch of lines drawn in.
Now, each one of these lines is its own separate feature.
If I wanted all these lines to be a polyline, I can click J on my keyboard, and that will
use the join command.
Now I have a polyline.
If I wanted this polyline to become a 3D polyline I could go into the modify tab in the ribbon,
under the design section, convert 2D to 3D polylines.
And now my polyline is a 3D polyline.
You could just type in this command, although I feel like it's a bit cumbersome.
That's why I'd rather just click on it.
And I showed you guys how to create a feature line -- feature line, create from objects
-- OK.
And now you have a feature line.
Now let me show you how to downgrade your lines.
With this feature line, if I wanted to downgrade it to a 3D polyline, I'm going to use the
command Explode by pressing X on my keyboard.
Now, I have a 3D polyline.
And if I wanted to explode my 3D polyline, into a bunch of lines, I would just repeat
the command, explode.
Now I have a bunch of lines.
And that's how you can upgrade and downgrade your lines.
All right.
Now let's use these lines to create line work for a real project that we're working on.
I'm gonna go ahead and start by using the 3D polyline command, because I have 3D points.
Okay.
I'm gonna repeat the same thing, connect to these lines.
And these are all my concrete shots.
So I'm using the concrete layer.
Okay.
Perfect.
And I know that this right here is an arc so I'm actually going to convert these to
an arc.
And it doesn't have to be perfect.
I'm gonna create an arc here as well.
Looks like this can be converted to an arc as well.
Actually, I don't like this line over here, so I'm going to remove the vertice because
I don't think it should be there.
Does look like this needs to come here, C3, C3.
And it's as simple as that.
I'm just gonna go ahead and connect up everything and here's the final picture right here.
If you did, be sure to like the video.
I really appreciate it.
Also subscribe, if you're looking for more videos like this.
And with that, I will see you guys next time.
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