Overview

Beyond creating streets and sewers, cul-de-sacs, and inlets, much of what happens to the ground as a site is being designed must still be determined. Describing the final plan for the earthwork of a site is a crucial part of bringing the project together. In this chapter, we'll look at feature lines and grading groups, which are the two primary tools of site design. These two functions work in tandem to provide the site designer with tools for completely modeling the land. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Convert existing linework into feature lines

• Model a simple linear grading with a feature line

• Create custom grading criteria

• Model planar site features with grading groups

Working with Feature Lines

Most work on a site can be broken down into a series of lines that connect important points. In Land Desktop (LDT) and other software, this is often done with the use of native 3D polylines. In Civil 3D, the creation of the feature line object adds a level of control and complexity not available to 3D polylines. In this section, we'll look at the Feature Lines toolbar, various methods of creating feature lines, some simple elevation edits, planar editing functionality, and labeling of the newly created feature lines.