AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE
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• Check In: When you want to add your drawings and later your drawing changes
to the project, you check the drawing in from the Prospector tab and Civil 3D
takes care of adding the changes and the data to the Vault behind the scenes.
• Open (Read Only): It is likely that at some time you will need to view a file that is
either in use (checked out) or that you have not checked out yourself. (You might
not want to check out the drawing so that others still have the ability to check it
out while you are viewing it.) In these situations, you can open the file in read-
only mode. This can be done from the Prospector tab on Toolspace by right-
clicking the drawing file and choosing Open (read-only).
• Creating References: To work with the data that is added to the project, you
need to create a reference of the object from the project. This provides a read-
only copy of the object in the current drawing, but allows you to use the object to
create design elements, as well as display it as needed.
Configuring Civil 3D
When working with projects in Civil 3D, be aware of configuration settings. Of particular
importance are the working folder, the active project, and the display of projects.
Working Folders: The working folder contains local copies of project drawings and
points. Drawings that you check out of the database are copied to the working folder.
From the working folder you can troubleshoot any problems with drawings and their
versions. By default the working folder is set during installation.
Active Project: The active project setting enables you to pick a current project and make
all project-related functions refer to that project without having to select it every time.
Display of Projects: You can also set a list of projects to display in Prospector. This
helps in situations where many projects exist and where users can make a subset of the
projects that they work with most often. When an active project has been set, the name of
the active project does not display in the list.
Sharing Civil 3D Data with AutoCAD and Land
Desktop Users
As you move to Civil 3D you may still need to exchange files with outside consultants and
users in your organization who are still using other design applications. Fortunately, Civil
3D provides several tools for doing this.
Sharing Data with Land Desktop Users
Sharing data with Land Desktop is important when implementing Civil 3D. There are
several methods for doing so, including reading and writing directly to a Land Desktop
project database, transferring data between Land Desktop and Civil 3D via LandXML, and
using Vault plug-ins. Also, you can share Civil 3D drawings with Land Desktop using the
Civil 3D object enabler.
Land Desktop Database: Civil 3D has two commands you can use to transfer data
directly to and from a Land Desktop database: ImportLdtData and ExportLdtData. As the
names imply, these commands import data from Land Desktop into Civil 3D and export
data from Civil 3D to Land Desktop, respectively.
