AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE
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Chapter 4: Multiuser Considerations
As explained in the first chapter, Autodesk Civil 3D technology is different from Autodesk
Land Desktop technology in that Civil 3D users approach the project from a 3D model
point of view as opposed to a series of steps that they must complete. Project design and
drafting data are no longer stored externally from drawings, but instead are saved in the
drawings themselves. This capability allows true, real-time dynamic relationships among
objects and labels, and means that drawings exist without the need for a “project.” It also
enables users to open multiple drawings at the same time in a single Civil 3D session.
However, lacking the centralized, external project database of Land Desktop and with
object data stored in individual drawings, how do you share this data among drawings and
among users? This chapter addresses this topic as well as sharing data with team
members who don’t use Civil 3D.
It is likely that you and your users are making the transition to Civil 3D from Land Desktop
and are therefore quite familiar with the Land Desktop concept of projects. Land Desktop
projects are a disparate collection file folders, databases, text files, and proprietary files
that keep track of project data. Each drawing created using Land Desktop must be
assigned to a project and can therefore access this external project data. However, since
this data is external to the drawings themselves, there is limited real-time connection
between changes in the drawing, the project databases, and other project drawings
accessing (or “consuming”) the project data.
Managing Data with Civil 3D
There are two methods for sharing drawings and data in a multiuser environment. The first
method uses the drawing as data stores. The second uses an external file management
system called Autodesk
®
Vault.
Drawing Data Stores: Data Shortcuts and Data References
The first method uses the drawing files as data stores and provides sharing of certain data
via data shortcuts and data references. Read, write, and modify access to the drawings
and the data in the drawings is controlled by access to the drawings themselves. This
access control is exercised via Microsoft Windows Explorer folder permissions and via the
file-locking mechanisms built into AutoCAD software and, by extension, Civil 3D. The
concepts behind this method are as follows:
1. A drawing containing project data, such as surfaces and alignments, is attached
to a Civil 3D project.
2. You share data by creating a data shortcut to the objects you want to share with
others and then notify them (via email, phone, and so forth) of the drawing name
and location where it was saved.
3. Another user creates a drawing and attaches it to the same Civil 3D project as
your drawing.
4. The other user consumes data by creating data references to shortcut objects
you created in the first step.
5. An object referenced by the consuming drawings can be used as if the object
existed in the drawing itself, with the exception that it cannot be edited. However,
the object styles and label styles for the object can be changed.
