Using the AutoCAD DIVIDE Command with Civil 3D Alignments

I love using Civil 3D alignment labels to mark all kind of things- not just station values. It is such a timesaver to use an alignment instead of a polyline when you want that real-time measurement.

\We tend to think of alignments for roads, but think of anything you draw that you are constantly measuring- some ideas might be TC paths, fencelines, buffers, wetlands delineations and more. Add your comments below with other ideas.

Today I was working on an airport runway layout. Christopher was kind enough to send me some guidelines (UFC 3-260-01 Airfield and Heliport Planning and Design, with Changes 1-2; replaced by UFC 3-260-01 dated 11/17/08) last night. It looked like for my 6000’ runways I needed four taxiway turnoffs from the runway equally spaced.

First I reached for my alignment labels, but realized I didn’t know a way to get it to divide the alignment into equal pieces and then place the label. (There might be something creative you could do with expressions- let me know your ideas.)

I reached for an old favorite tool- AutoCAD DIVIDE.

1. Type DIVIDE in the command line, then choose the BLOCK option*.
2. Type the name of the block you want placed at the divide locations- AeccTickCircle is a good one that lives in the standard templates.
3. Enter the number of segments- I used 4.

 

Sometimes, its the simple old favorites that give you what you need. Now I have markers where I need to make taxiway alignments.

* note that the other option does not work with Civil 3D alignments.

Comments

[Kati in CT]

I find that I use MEASURE more often than DIVIDE. I use MEASURE for placing posts (as a block) along a guiderail length. I also use MEASURE to put a marker at the 100' mark for measuring out the first section (sheet flow) of time of concentration paths. I have used DIVIDE to help with roughing out grading when I did it by hand in LDD, especially when I was trying to grade out intersections. I love the new C3D intersection grading wizard!

[Dana Probert]

In the case of measure, I'd just use an alignment label and place it every so often in most cases.