Twelve Days of CADD Care | Day One: Creating stakeout points based on distance apart along a corridor

Back by popular demand, our Twelve Days of CADD Care blog series returns this year! It just wouldn’t be the holiday season without our team working together to provide a daily gift of helpful tips, tricks, and tidbits to make your life easier. We wanted this year to keep on giving, so we'll have Fourteen(!) Days of CADD Care Blogs this year. We'll be kicking off our annual series with Civil 3D! Keep an eye out over the next couple weeks for daily blog posts!

On the first day of CADD Care, the CADD Team gave to me…  A Civil 3D Tip

Civil 3D Corridors are often used to model proposed roadways, trails, and other linear designs. Once completed, these models can be used to output Stakeout points with the “Create COGO Points from Corridor” command.

The command allows you to create COGO Points based on different Point Codes such as Edge of Pavement or Back of Curb that are defined in the Corridor’s Assembly. The only drawback to this command is that the number of locations along the Corridor is based on the Frequencies established in the Corridor Region(s). This can lead to the creation of a larger number of Points that desired that are much closer together than necessary.

To get around this, some people will extract the desired Feature Lines from the Corridor and use the “Measure Object” command. Unfortunately, because these Feature Lines are often different lengths, the Points created along offset lines will usually not line up with the Point locations along the centerline. So what should we do?

Well, that “Create COGO Points from Corridor” command can still help. The trick is to get the Corridor to have the desired Frequency. If you can get ahold of drawing that has an editable version of the Corridor in it, save the file with a different name so that you don’t mess with the original. Once you’ve done that, you can manipulate the Frequency of the Corridor Region(s) to be place exactly where you want the Stakeout Points to be.

Once you’ve done that, use the “Create COGO Points from Corridor” command, choose the desired Point codes and Station Range and Voila! Now you’ve got the Stakeout Points you want!

Check back on Monday to see what other tips and tricks the CADD team has in store for the remaining Twelve Fourteen Days of CADD Care.