Design To Visualization

           There’s obviously many ways to export your Civil 3D components and bring them into your InfraWorks model. As a personal preference, I like to extract my site components individually. Although a little more time is spent up front exporting these components, it can, and will, save you time down the road as you further develop your design. This process keeps it simple, making it much easier to manage and update specific components, as needed, at a later date.

Here’s a view of the Civil 3D Model

Export to Autodesk SDF

           Land Coverage Areas are best to be exported from Civil 3D as Autodesk SDF files. Note that all areas will need to be closed polylines to ensure that they’re represented accurately in the InfraWorks Model. In Civil 3D, export these site features to Autodesk SDF files using the MapExport command. During the export process, make sure you manually select the features in the Selection tab and Check the ‘Treat closed polylines as polygons’ box under the Options tab.

MapExport Dialog Box

MapExport Dialog Box

Export to LandXML

           Surfaces and Gravity Pipe Networks are best to be exported from Civil 3D as LandXML files. If the site has multiple surfaces and gravity pipe networks within the design, it would be best to export each surface and/or network individually, rather than all at once such that all components reside in 1 LandXML file. A quick tip here is to combine your existing and proposed surfaces into 1 complete surface model and then export this new combined surface to LandXML. If any excavation is required for buildings/structures on your site, be sure to account for this as well. The last thing you want to see in your InfraWorks models are surfaces running through your buildings.

Civil 3D Combined Surface

Export to Civil 3D

           Pressure Pipe Networks are not supported in InfraWorks at this time. To bring these components into InfraWorks, best practice is to WBlock these networks out to a separate file. Once exported, open up the file, select all objects within, and explode them to the point that they are 3D Solids.

Civil 3D Pressure Pipe Network