CAD Standard

Background

CAD Standard is a working method formulated by the American Standards Institute, which establishes a unified standard for the names of layers used in various infrastructure designs.

The standard sets abbreviations, akin to code names, for common concepts in the planning world. For example, the word "Topography" is abbreviated as "TOPO," and "Elevation" is represented as "ELEV," and so forth.

Starting from version CivilCAD 10.3, the standard abbreviations were implemented according to the American standard. Default layers were built into the AutoCAD layer list and correspond to different planning components. For example, when loading topography points, the layer containing the elevation points is named C-TOPO-SPOT-ELEV, where "Civil" refers to CivilCAD, "Topography" indicates the planning aspect, "Spot" represents a specific feature, and "Elevation" denotes the characteristic being measured. Additionally, a brief explanation of each layer's meaning appears in the Description column. Furthermore, each layer is assigned a default color. For example, for the layer containing sewer lines, named CU-SSWR (Civil Utilities→Sewer), the color red was chosen, following the convention in many large planning companies.

CAD Standard Mechanism

Throughout the usage of CivilCAD, there is a symbiosis between CivilCAD and AutoCAD. Both programs share a layer control center, where users can define the layers used by the software.

In CivilCAD, various layers are designated to accommodate different planning items. There's a layer for height points entered during planning, a layer for height lines, road lines, pipes, and so on, for each planning item. These layers are listed on the left side of the CivilCAD layer control window and are "hard-coded," meaning they cannot be altered.

On the right side, the names of AutoCAD layers are displayed so that when creating a design element, the software "looks for" the AutoCAD layer corresponding to the rigid CivilCAD layer (e.g., the CU-SSWR layer), within which it builds the design item. To avoid creating an additional layer, the new name must match an existing layer name in the AutoCAD layer control.

By default, both programs display a set of layers matching the American standard (CADStandard).

Layer Changes

As mentioned, in the CivilCAD layer control window (File→Layers control), two columns are present. The left column displays the "hard" layer, which cannot be changed and is used by the software during planning. The right column shows the layer name as it appears in the AutoCAD layer control and to the user (ACAD).

Users can manually change the existing names in the CivilCAD layer control for each project. Accordingly, when creating a design item, a new AutoCAD layer will be created, bearing the appropriate name, and containing the design item. To prevent the creation of an additional layer, the new name should match an existing layer name in the AutoCAD layer control.

Note: It's essential to provide identical names in both the CivilCAD and AutoCAD layer controls to avoid duplicating layers.

Template Creation

Certain offices may have a layer and color standard different from the default standard embedded in the software. To apply the local working method and avoid creating unnecessary layers, users can create a template and embed it in the software instead of the existing default template.

To do this, navigate to the Documents\CivilCAD\Codes folder and modify the existing Main.dwt file to reflect the desired layer names and colors (it's advisable to create a backup copy of the file before making changes).

Next, open the Layers control window (File→Layers control), and save the layer definition file.

Within the layer definition file, in .txt format, existing layer names are found in the "hard" CivilCAD layer and the corresponding ACAD layer names, separated by a delimiter.

Only the names in the ACAD layer should be manually changed to the desired names and then save the file.

Then, open the Prototype.prj project (File→Open prototype) and load the .txt file in the Layers control window using the load button at the bottom of the window. Save the changes and restart the software.

Now, there is an absolute match between the layer definitions in both platforms, and each time a new project is opened, the planning will be adapted to the user's template.